Lightship VPS (Visual Positioning System) is a cloud service that enables applications to localize a user’s device at real-world locations, letting users interact with persistent AR content and powering new immersive experiences. VPS determines the device’s position and orientation (pose) by referencing Niantic Map data that exists in Niantic’s cloud.

Niantic Map is our third-generation, 3D map that enables machines to determine their precise position and orientation in the world. It consists of many petabytes of geospatial data that are used by Lightship VPS to precisely orient (localize) users in their physical space. VPS uses computer vision algorithms to compare the scene in front of the user’s camera to location data stored in Niantic Map. This is the glue that binds the physical world to the digital world, making highly immersive location-based AR possible.

When a device makes a call to the VPS service, the service receives a query image from the user’s device along with their rough location (from GPS) as inputs and attempts to localize them using the map(s) that exist at that location on Niantic Map. If localization is successful, then the service returns the device’s position and orientation (pose) corresponding with the timestamp of the image that was transmitted. Because there is a time delay between when a VPS query image is captured and when a response is received from the VPS service, the device needs to have a motion tracking system in order to stay accurately localized while moving. When the VPS service returns a pose estimate to the device, the difference in pose from the device’s tracking system is added to the localization response so that VPS can “keep up” with how the device moved while waiting for the server’s response to the VPS query.

AR scans from players, developers, and surveyors are the fundamental ingredient that Niantic uses to build Niantic Map. AR scans are recorded and uploaded using Niantic’s AR scanning framework, which is a module used inside Pokemon GO, Ingress, and the Wayfarer App (available for developers on Android and iOS). Each AR scan consists of a series of video frames with supporting data from accelerometers and GPS sensors that construct a 3D model of the world from multiple 2D images. AR scans are used by Niantic to build the maps and meshes of real-world locations that make up Niantic Map.

Lightship VPS is available at over 170,00 VPS-activated locations on Niantic Map, with robust coverage in six key cities: San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Tokyo. We continue to add new locations to Niantic Map, and developers can scan their own locations using the Niantic Wayfarer app (available on Android and iOS).

To see the latest list of Lightship VPS-activated locations, view the VPS Coverage Map in the developer portal.

Once a location has enough scans uploaded to meet the VPS activation requirements (at least 10 total scans with at least a 5-hour time difference between the oldest and newest scans), developers can request VPS activation by selecting the location in the Niantic Wayfarer app or Geospatial Browser and pressing the “activate” button. This will add the location to the activation queue. Typically, an activation request is completed within 2 hours. Developers also have the option to request reactivation of an existing location once 5 additional scans are uploaded.

Today, you can use Lightship VPS through Niantic Lightship ARDK to create new or enhance existing Unity apps, and through Niantic 8th Wall to create VPS-enabled experiences that work directly within the browser.

In the future, we may make VPS available through other tools.

Lightship VPS is a powerful way to make a user’s experience of their environment more magical or to deepen their understanding of a place. Some popular use cases include:

• Social real-world games. VPS lets players interact with the same persistent content in augmented reality, opening up new possibilities for location-based play as well as enhancing classic experiences like geocaching. When combined with Shared AR, developers can create AR games for up to 10 users to play together in real time.

• Scavenger hunts. Developers can turn entire cities into gameboards by challenging players to locate places or items and rewarding them when VPS validates they’ve found them.

• Tours. Tourism boards and community organizations can reveal the histories and secrets of their towns by using VPS to display content about a location as a user points their device at it. 

• Storefront activations. Retailers can transform storefronts without needing to make physical changes by overlaying augmented reality content over them, triggered for potential customers by VPS.

• AR Installations. Venues and artists can decorate spaces with highly immersive creations that blend perfectly with their surroundings using VPS. 

• Verified location. VPS enables powerful anti-spoofing functionality that uses visual information in addition to GPS to prove that a user is at a particular location.

Lightship VPS runs on multiple mobile OSs and devices, and has the same device requirements as those needed for contextual awareness in Lightship ARDK. See specific guidance in our documentation.

Lightship VPS works best in locations that:

• Have a clear focal point
• Have features that are distinct and consistent in appearance
• Have minimal features that are reflective or transparent

Create your Lightship account and check out our learning guides and quick-start templates to begin building with VPS.