Pokémon Go has been a hit in several countries and if you have not heard of the game, it is based on the classic Pokémon characters who have been given the Augmented Reality (AR) treatment in a location based game. It has led people to walk around their surroundings to collect these characters virtually and coupling that with collecting Pokémon cards back in the day has made it incredibly popular.
Since we are living in an age where people share basically everything on social media, we have seen photos being shared of people trying to catch these virtual creatures. Since the game uses AR to position the creatures where your camera points, it gives this sense of realism that has made it quite popular.
However, there has been an interesting trend which brings up a conspiracy question of whether animals can “see” these virtual creatures. It was a hit trend in Japan where several people shared screenshots of their pets (assuming they are) where they seem to be looking at these virtual Pokémon creatures.
いけー！そこだ！戦えー！ pic.twitter.com/3TLr0BCixr
— とおるᗦ↞◃ (@plmn_1226) July 22, 2016
そのうち狩るんじゃ…… pic.twitter.com/nqxetjjg5C
— 久米夏生 (@tabasa_uran) July 23, 2016
https://twitter.com/masaiai6/status/757008917381513217
https://twitter.com/shiba_momota/status/756666069536821248
https://twitter.com/F0506K/status/756342582897102849
ポケモンおった。こいつには見えてるらしいな。 pic.twitter.com/Cj5p3D8ZNK
— 橋本 智広 (@hashimotosan84) July 22, 2016
見ないで。怖い pic.twitter.com/Z0LgbPgqaM
— 久米夏生 (@tabasa_uran) July 23, 2016
ねえ、まさかとは思うけど、
君たち見えてないよね？
ね？ pic.twitter.com/rOaXpvpBOu— 倉持キョーリュー (@kyoryu_kuramo) July 22, 2016
@Singeki_no_M
うちの犬はなぜかポケモンから逃げます pic.twitter.com/Oq7nrSUIDX— せつらく (@mikiodesuga1) July 22, 2016
ポケモンGOが見えてるかのよう！！可愛い〜 pic.twitter.com/BHF6IehBgq
— はっち (@haruo0414) July 23, 2016
This led to other people from around the world posting screenshots of the “weird phenomena”
I tried to get him to battle the Pidgey, but he gave me this look like, "Just throw the damn ball, dad." #PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/nrr67HWxuG
— Frozen Flame Interactive (@FrozenFlameInt) July 7, 2016
As a bonus, check out this video of a cat which seems to see the new butterflies Snapchat Lens filter.
https://twitter.com/SicilianInHeels/status/757776409330941952
Can animals see the Augmented Reality generated by our smartphones? This could be a theory that could be tabled forward but also it could be a well orchestrated trick made by people to make us believe that animals can see this virtual objects.
