Could Pokemon Go save you in a disaster?

We have disasters in the real world, extreme weather events, accidents, emergencies and terrorism. Could AR games and the platforms they run on have an emergency or survivor assist mode.

Say there is a tornado headed your way and you're playing an AR game or using an AR app, you are probably not paying full attention to the real world. And the app could with an emergency or threat detection mode alert you to problems and even provide you with directions on how best to avoid them.

In a way it would be like adding a gridlock avoidance feature to a car's satnav system.

This is of course is above and beyond what the AR game/app developers could produce themselves but the platform providers like Google, Microsoft and Amazon could provide these features to their AR platforms.

So should AR platforms help save people when disaster strikes?

 

You'd have to be really focused not to hear a tornado coming...

If that somehow managed to go unnoticed you'd have the sirens too...

 

Why depend on a AR platform. The gov will reach more people, by sending them a sms or a WhatsApp message.

 

That's one example, and tornados can turn up anywhere and there may not be a dedicated or working siren.

A text can have limited information but link to more pertinent information, that the user then has to process and act upon.

An AR app could provide information and relevant information, e.g. directions to nearby shelters, directions away from the path of the tornado.

 

Ah, yes. The familiar and somewhat terrifying sound of a Tornado Siren. XD

 

If somebody misses a real life catastrophe because of being focused on a mobile game, well, they deserve the "Darwin Award".

If you want to have the mobile send notifications about catastrophe, why not build an App for it that just overrules the game and gets the players attention?

 

At least in the US, these alerts are already being sent to phones.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/wireless-emergency-alerts-wea

 

Some disasters or events are very large, have a warning time window but cannot be outrun e.g. Tsunami, Volcanic Eruptions Pyroclastic Flow, Storm Surge, Floods Waters coming down a river to name a few.

Where an early warning can give people time to move out of the way.

 

Which disasters are developers responsible for? If I release a game that is region locked to Afghanistan, and as such, don't include tsunami warnings, am I responsible if someone in Japan uses a VPN / downloads the APK, dies because they were not given warning for a tsunami?

A better question is why is it the developer's responsibility at all?

 

If anything it should be supported by the phone operating system and available for official authorities. OS knows location if gps is enabled and/or something uses it. OS can also have private api for emergency notifications which can be limited to certain areas. For example iOS has had these for ages, example: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202346

Anyone doing pokemon hunt most likely has a phone which already has these or one that could support them in theory.

Not a problem of app/game devs.

 

So Pokemon GO should step in and save the day? To make up for the many morons likely going to die over its lifetime because they were to much focused on their mobile game?

Really, the game should do what it was designed for... bringing people entertainment. Leave the rest to other specialized apps that have been designed for that. Like weather warning apps and such.

Pokemon GO already does more than that by giving players warnings during loading screens that maybe they should't play the game while walking. Of course, probably the game should cease to function as long as the gyroscope and gps notice that the player is moving, so the player has to stop walking/driving to play the game.
To me, that is all already more than should be expected. Its a damn game! No game dev is responsible for people dying because they lack common sense.

 

That siren... goes off every month here on a Tuesday as a test. And of course goes off every time a funnel cloud is sighted. Which is fairly often during spring and early summer here in Tornado Alley MO. Alerts are sometimes sent to cells but oddly I don't recall ever receiving one for a tornado (despite them passing through only a few miles away and the siren blaring). Only for flooding and Amber alerts (someone kidnapped a child seems to come in almost monthly).

It actually wouldn't be a bad thing to take advantage of the games to deliver critical real world weather emergency alerts.

 

If the warning time window can't be outrun, your phone just play some pleasant music, or anything by Eric Idle.

It's unnecessary and redundant to add it to a game. Weather and alerts already sound regardless of the app you are in.

 

What happens though if an alert is received but isn't handled properly and there are losses? Do you press charges against the game developer because they are having to take up a role that should have been handled in a more official way? Or do you press them against the manufacturer or OS developer? Or even the government for allowing it in the first place?

 

They'd have to make it as an "added measure not guaranteed". Something that is totally a "might happen" thing. Make it clear not to rely on these things because they cannot guarantee delivery due to things beyond their control. Last thing we need is yet another thing people are creating lawsuits over.

Still in the 80% (or whatever) cases the message was successfully delivered and the 1 to 2% that saved a life. That seems worthwhile.

 

Umm no i don't think so, why not just send an emergency broadcast through sms/popular text service. I mean not everyone plays pokemon go nor would be interested in playing it so you gotta reach them via an alternative means.

 

These games may save the human race by enabling a higher rate of natural selection.

 

I'm not sure that's enough, we might need a version of Tinder that matches people based on eugenics...

 

Let the culling begin! ... oh wait, it has already started, people are falling down cliffs and crashing their cars already because of DarwinMon Go.

If that sounds cynical, I tell you this: if you want my sympathy, don't be on your phone playing some stupid mobile game when the accident happens... or watch harry potter instead of watching the road when you let your car drive itself.

And because you can track their stupidity level by their behaviour when handling their phone (uses the phone more than 8 hours per day? Uses the phone while walking/driving? Gets into accidents while using the phone?), you could automatically classify the users, no additional data needed, I like that.

On the other hand, I don't want to help them get offsprings, quite the opposite

 

Well look at us, only 1 week on a more gamified forum, and we're already talking about eugenics and how we can "keep stupid people from procreating"...

 

Well I think I missed the gameification features... we are talking about the "forum whose name shall not be spoken, hopefully to be forgotten by history"?

Given we did a timeleap back to a week earlier, with all posts reverted... <creepy music>What Gameification?!?</creepy music>

 

This is by far the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time. And the forums get some really dumb ideas.

Some points

• Pokemon Go is far to buggy to be any use for emergency communication
• Pokemon Go kills battery so fast that it will be useless in any emergency

In fact, that second point means that people who have emergencies are more likely to die, as Pokemon Go means more people are carrying flat cell phones.

 

But the title, man. That's some industrial strength clickbait right there.

 

Sound like a great way to sell more batterypacks to pokemon go players, no?

Did Nintendo buy some phone accessory company stocks lately?


Then again, they most probably invested heavely in medical aid equipment producers.... but I will stop my sarcasm now

 

http://www.pokemongo.com/en-us/pokemon-go-plus/

 

That's just stupid. They first need to make the PokePhone, then add wearables.

 

You guys just don't get it. Haven't you noticed the number of pokestops located in cemeteries? It's obvious that the ultimate goal is to slowly drive pokemon players into the cemeteries where they can get eaten by zombies and drive the zombie apocalypse. Or maybe its Vampires?

 

Actually...now that I think about it, Pokemon Go COULD help you in a natural disaster

So like, if you're running from a big angry animal like a lion or that dog from The Sandlot, or a stampede, or like a giant mob of angry people or zombies or whatever, and you see someone ahead of you who is playing Pokemon Go who is oblivious to the world, you just toss them down behind you to slow down the herd!

So basically Pokemon Go itself won't save you per se, it's the oblivious players/meatshields who give us non players a leg up in an emergency/survival situation! THIS is how it will drive Natural Selection along!

 

If Arowx made games that were as good as his titles are clickbaity he'd be a billionaire by now.

 

Yet you'd think we'd know better by now given most of his past threads.

 

He's so good at drawing you in though. I often pass by his threads without clicking, then later almost click on it.... then later still accidentally find myself somehow in his thread, sucked in, typing...

 

These will probably hold the title for the scariest single sound on Earth.

If you've never heard these during a real tornado, then mark yourself yucky. Nothing as hopeless as laying in a closet and hoping its gonna save your ass all while listening to these blasted sirens.