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I like Pokemon Go and play almost every day. I did this scan one time and then stopped. The rewards are not worth the hassle. I don't think many players are doi

I like Pokemon Go and play almost every day. I did this scan one time and then stopped. The rewards are not worth the hassle. I don't think many players are doing it. It's just very weird to stand somewhere and scan an object. I also wouldn't say 'unknowingly trained', it's pretty obvious what it does, and I think the game even tells you that they want to understands how the POI looks like in 3D.

organsnyder 7mo ago
My son showed me how he does these quests: he points the phone at the floor and just wiggles it back and forth.
- abroszka33 7mo ago
  Haha :D Good tip, I will try that too.
- FrustratedMonky 7mo ago
  exactly. that is why i doubt they will get actual navigable information out of it.
  - pohl 7mo ago
    To maintain that take, wouldn't you need to offer a plausible way that Niantic managed to train their Visual Positioning System using that data if the data was all bad?
    - FrustratedMonky 7mo ago
      I guess we don't know the terms of the deal, as far as how much they paid? So maybe they didn't pay much, so whatever data they could extract was ok for the cost. The other point from article. I took this as experimental, so maybe we'll find out later that they really couldn't get much usable data.
- deadbabe 7mo ago
  Your son is a bad data point.
  - Supermancho 7mo ago
    Bad for some goals, good for others.
  - organsnyder 7mo ago
    Aww... shucks. I'm such a proud father.
- snapetom 7mo ago
  My friend did this. He always took pictures of his feet. He was banned from submitting scans and Wayfarer for a few years. He just got access back. We joke that maybe PoGo didn't get any benefit from his data, but someone did.
ohyoutravel 7mo ago
Same, I do it once in a great while. Give me a rare candy or rare candy XL per scan and you’ll find me jumping all over the neighborhood!
mikae1 7mo ago
> I don't think many players are doing it. Do we have to think? Apparently they amassed 30B images. :)
- momoschili 7mo ago
  30B images isn't that much in the context of Pokemon Go playerbase of ~50 million (conservative estimate based on users today). That's about 600 images per person, in a game that has been out since 2016... that's pretty low adoption as the previous user said. I don't think the quest has been out since 2016, but considering a large fraction of users are basically daily users, it's still quite a small number of images.
  - skeledrew 7mo ago
    That 30B could just be the useful set after cleanup.
  - jurgenburgen 7mo ago
    600 images per person is a huge amount, especially considering some amount of people are like the GP and don’t do it. The active picture takers would be taking _more_ than 600 images.
    - abroszka33 7mo ago
      But this is images. I submitted it one time and I'm pretty sure that was hundreds of images. You basically walk around the POI and it takes a LOT of images of the POI. 600 scans / player would be insane.
    - momoschili 7mo ago
      30B images over the course of 6 years by a few million players. In a game that runs daily quests like this and weekly quests can easily be accounted for by a small fraction of users. I don't know how much you played Pokemon Go, but when the AR scanning tasks were introduced, most players didn't really want to do them, which resulted in the tasks be segregated from Field Research (since they were taking up a valuable spot) This was GP's original point - it doesn't take the majority of people playing Pokemon Go to do it in order for them to get 30B images, especially since each scan was like multiple images - you look like a dork doing the scan
Larrikin 7mo ago
I used to just record the ground and even leave out my feet, but apparently they detect and ban people who do this too often now. The data was always going somewhere shady, but after the sale it is even worse so I just stopped completely. At best you get a poffin or rare candy and that absolutely is not worth it.
snapetom 7mo ago
I'd imagine it's not just the research quests, but it's submissions for new stops, too.
DennisP 7mo ago
> obvious what it does, and I think the game even tells you that they want to understands how the POI looks like in 3D. But most people probably assumed the purpose was to improve the game, not to train delivery robots. Or whatever else they end up doing with the data. If, as the article suggests, this ends up adding to the surveillance state by making geolocation of photos more accurate, then I really don't think that's what the players had in mind.
- abroszka33 7mo ago
  I'm pretty sure that by now almost everybody know that anything you put online is monetised. I'm also 100% sure they sell my location data as well. I just don't care. Not my responsibility to stop it.

organsnyder 7mo ago

My son showed me how he does these quests: he points the phone at the floor and just wiggles it back and forth.

abroszka33 7mo ago
Haha :D Good tip, I will try that too.
FrustratedMonky 7mo ago
exactly. that is why i doubt they will get actual navigable information out of it.
- pohl 7mo ago
  To maintain that take, wouldn't you need to offer a plausible way that Niantic managed to train their Visual Positioning System using that data if the data was all bad?
  - FrustratedMonky 7mo ago
    I guess we don't know the terms of the deal, as far as how much they paid? So maybe they didn't pay much, so whatever data they could extract was ok for the cost. The other point from article. I took this as experimental, so maybe we'll find out later that they really couldn't get much usable data.
deadbabe 7mo ago
Your son is a bad data point.
- Supermancho 7mo ago
  Bad for some goals, good for others.
- organsnyder 7mo ago
  Aww... shucks. I'm such a proud father.
snapetom 7mo ago
My friend did this. He always took pictures of his feet. He was banned from submitting scans and Wayfarer for a few years. He just got access back. We joke that maybe PoGo didn't get any benefit from his data, but someone did.

ohyoutravel 7mo ago

Same, I do it once in a great while. Give me a rare candy or rare candy XL per scan and you’ll find me jumping all over the neighborhood!

mikae1 7mo ago

> I don't think many players are doing it. Do we have to think? Apparently they amassed 30B images. :)

momoschili 7mo ago
30B images isn't that much in the context of Pokemon Go playerbase of ~50 million (conservative estimate based on users today). That's about 600 images per person, in a game that has been out since 2016... that's pretty low adoption as the previous user said. I don't think the quest has been out since 2016, but considering a large fraction of users are basically daily users, it's still quite a small number of images.
- skeledrew 7mo ago
  That 30B could just be the useful set after cleanup.
- jurgenburgen 7mo ago
  600 images per person is a huge amount, especially considering some amount of people are like the GP and don’t do it. The active picture takers would be taking _more_ than 600 images.
  - abroszka33 7mo ago
    But this is images. I submitted it one time and I'm pretty sure that was hundreds of images. You basically walk around the POI and it takes a LOT of images of the POI. 600 scans / player would be insane.
  - momoschili 7mo ago
    30B images over the course of 6 years by a few million players. In a game that runs daily quests like this and weekly quests can easily be accounted for by a small fraction of users. I don't know how much you played Pokemon Go, but when the AR scanning tasks were introduced, most players didn't really want to do them, which resulted in the tasks be segregated from Field Research (since they were taking up a valuable spot) This was GP's original point - it doesn't take the majority of people playing Pokemon Go to do it in order for them to get 30B images, especially since each scan was like multiple images - you look like a dork doing the scan

Larrikin 7mo ago

I used to just record the ground and even leave out my feet, but apparently they detect and ban people who do this too often now. The data was always going somewhere shady, but after the sale it is even worse so I just stopped completely. At best you get a poffin or rare candy and that absolutely is not worth it.

snapetom 7mo ago

I'd imagine it's not just the research quests, but it's submissions for new stops, too.

DennisP 7mo ago

> obvious what it does, and I think the game even tells you that they want to understands how the POI looks like in 3D. But most people probably assumed the purpose was to improve the game, not to train delivery robots. Or whatever else they end up doing with the data. If, as the article suggests, this ends up adding to the surveillance state by making geolocation of photos more accurate, then I really don't think that's what the players had in mind.

abroszka33 7mo ago
I'm pretty sure that by now almost everybody know that anything you put online is monetised. I'm also 100% sure they sell my location data as well. I just don't care. Not my responsibility to stop it.