Developers Create Pokemon Demo for Microsoft HoloLens

If only we had a Microsoft HoloLens, as it it would allow us to catch Pokemon just by targeting little creatures and pinching our fingers instead of flicking Pokeball after endless Pokeball at them in Niantic Labs's mobile game.

At least, that's how catching creatures in an augmented reality interface works so far. A group of developers recently created an iteration of Pokemon Go—mainly, the Pokemon catching part—that's fully useable inside Microsoft's HoloLens AR device. Strap the headset on, fire up the app, and you'll see various Pokemon standing around the real-world location where you're using the HoloLens.

"For now the Pokemon are randomly generated within a mapped environment. We are now focusing on how to use different gestures for specific interactions. For example, like opening your inventory or activating your map and zooming in and tilting your map. The thing is there is a huge amount of possibilities that are unexplored and which could work for games like these. A more challenging thing is how to access the Google Maps API and enabling it within a running app. But I'm sure that in the upcoming years when more and more people are developing for this hardware also more things will be standard to use in tools and apps," one of the demo's developers, David Robustelli, told UploadVR.

While we doubt you'll see a working version of Pokemon Go on the HoloLens anytime soon—since, you know, the HoloLens itself still has to drop to a price point that's manageable for an average person. It's certainly possible we'll get there as long as the HoloLens doesn't pull a Google Glass and go straight from expensive developer edition to nothing. And once Microsoft's augmented reality platform starts to take off, some kind of Pokemon experience could be a great fit (and a great way to encourage hardware adoption). But don't take our word for it. "This Pokemon interest, hopefully will translate into a lot of interest in HoloLens," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently told CNBC. "I think it's fantastic to see these augmented reality applications getting built, because the best thing that can happen when you're creating a new category is for applications that are these killer apps, whether it be a game or in the industrial scenario, to get invested in," he later added.