Ingress, an augmented reality game produced by Niantic Labs, a company within Google, has announced support for Android Wear will be released next month. Users with smartwatches running the Android Wear system will have access to quickly see the locations of friendly and enemy portals on their device’s screen. Players will also be able to take actions to either defend or capture those portals as appropriate using the smartwatch interface.
Ingress combines GPS data with gaming information provided by the platform to create a virtual reality that overlays the physical world. Where most people may see a statute or a fountain, using the Ingress gaming app players are able to determine that those locations are also portals in the game. The idea behind the Niantic Labs experiment was to get game players off their couches and out into the real world. This not only helps combat the sedentary nature of gaming, it has created a nice avenue for game players to socialize with fellow teammates face-to-face.
The down side is that the game requires users to have their smartphones out and their focus on the screen. This may not be as bad as someone walking down the street engrossed in their social media app, but it does take some focus away from users taking in the real world. By using the smartwatch as a point for interaction, Ingress may reduce the need to focus on a smartphone screen so heavily.
Both gaming companies and smartwatch manufacturers will be watching to see how Ingress is able to capitalize on the form factor. Thus far, gaming has not made much of an inroad onto the wearable platforms that are available. Part of that is because the market has not yet figured out how best to utilize the form factor.
source: CNET
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