Pokémon Go and Rural Safety

By: Bryan Weichelt

What does Pokémon Go mean for Farm safety? Not much? Well, at first you may not think so, since the app really doesn’t contain any content in rural settings¹. If rural gamers want to see Pokémon, they have to travel to urban areas. Pokémon, Poké Stops and Pokémon Gyms just don’t exist in remote and rural areas. Rural kids getting outside for activity might be lured by other GPS-driven apps or wearable tech, but Pokémon hasn’t yet pulled this population into the same frenzy, at least not around the farm.

So, where is the danger? It’s on the road. The lack of game elements on the farm and in rural areas pushes those users to get in the car and head to town. Once there, why get out and walk when you can easily drive around and capture items? There’s the danger – inattentive driving. Rural gamers may be more likely to face dangerous situations in their cars, putting themselves and others in danger.

While it is nearly impossible to play the game out in the sticks, most cities and towns appear to be populated with plenty of spawns, spots, and gyms. For a comparative view, see the screenshot of Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL and a rural home surrounded by woods and farmland near Stratford, WI (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 – Pokemon Go Screenshots – Magic Kingdom (left) and rural Stratford, WI (right)

Trying to understand what all the excitement is about, I played the game myself (not while driving, of course). My primary reason for playing was to explore how I might be able to leverage the app to attract more customers to the Stratford Farmers Market. My wife and I have organized the market for the last five years and are always looking at new ways to attract more consumers. I played Pokémon off and on in late summer, testing out some different features and explore some of the area Poké Stops and Gyms.  Placing lures near Poké Stops does typically help in luring gamers as well as Pokémon Go, thus many businesses get involved, including other Farmers Markets around the U.S.

While the app doesn’t pull me in with the competitively addictive appeal that it has with millions of users, it did inspire me to think of new applications of this technology with farm safety. Augmented reality (AR), along with virtual reality, has tremendous potential to reach into almost every industry, from education to medicine. And I think it will have a place in agricultural safety in the very near future. Pokémon Go has inspired me to apply for funding to expand NFMC’s Farm MAPPER application, and build an augmented reality prototype. Similar to Pokémon Go, the new MAPPER would leverage users’ smartphone cameras and AR to superimpose hazards and other items of interest on their screen. This would display a real-world view of the farm with digital items (floating icons) overlaid. We anticipate this will assist firefighters/EMS in identifying and locating hazards and items of interest more quickly, improving response time, efficiency, and the safety of responders and farm residents/workers.

1- http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/07/12/pokemon_go_is_much_more_difficult_outside_of_cities.html

2 – http://www.cartelpress.com/pokemon-go-major-highway-accident-man-stops-middle-highway-catch-pikachu/

3 – https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/10/pokemon-go-armed-robbers-dead-body

4 – http://miami.cbslocal.com/2016/07/11/safety-concerns-raised-over-trendy-pokemon-go/

5 – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caleb-kinchlow/pokemon-go-safety-tips_b_11061882.html