Alright, let me walk you through this little project I cooked up recently. It started pretty randomly, just watching some cartoons with my kid, and I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if one of those Pokemon could actually, you know, watch your back? Like a real bodyguard.
Getting Started
So, the idea stuck in my head. First thing, I had to pick the right Pokemon for the job. Needed something sturdy, something that looked like it could handle trouble. My mind immediately went to Machamp. Four arms, muscular build, seemed like a solid choice. Yeah, Machamp was the one.
Next step, how to bring this ‘bodyguard’ idea to life? Obviously, couldn’t get a real one. So, I figured I’d try making something with Augmented Reality. You know, AR, where stuff shows up on your phone screen like it’s in the real world. Seemed like the most straightforward way to get Machamp standing next to me.
The Messy Middle Part
I decided to use Unity, since I’d messed with it a bit before. Found an AR toolkit, downloaded a Machamp 3D model from somewhere online. Getting it all set up was the first hurdle. Took me a good afternoon just to get the basic AR working – pointing my phone and seeing the camera feed.
Then I tried putting Machamp into the scene. Oh boy. Getting that model to just stand on the floor and not float off into space or sink into the ground was a real pain. Fiddled with settings for ages. Lots of trial and error. Mostly error, if I’m being honest.
Making it act like a ‘bodyguard’ was the next challenge. I had this idea: maybe if the camera detected sudden movement, Machamp could do a little “ready” pose or a tough-guy stance. Simple, right? Nope. Coding that detection was flaky. Sometimes it reacted to my cat walking by, sometimes it ignored me waving my hand right in front of the phone. And getting the animation to trigger smoothly? More headaches.
- Spent hours tweaking detection sensitivity.
- Tried different animations, most looked goofy.
- The connection between the detection and the animation kept breaking.
Testing and Reality Check
Okay, so I finally got a version that kinda worked. Sort of. Time to test it out properly. I walked around my house, phone pointed out like I was scanning for ghosts. Machamp popped up next to me on the screen. Looked cool for about five seconds.
Then the problems really showed up. The tracking wasn’t perfect. Walk too fast, turn too quickly, and Machamp would lag behind or jump around like crazy. Sometimes he’d end up half inside a wall. Not very intimidating. Definitely not bodyguard material. Looked more like a confused digital ghost.
And the battery drain! My phone got super hot, and the battery percentage just plummeted. Could maybe have my AR bodyguard for like, 20 minutes before needing a charge.
So, What’s the Point?
In the end, what I built was… well, it was a thing. A glitchy AR Machamp that stands around and occasionally twitches. It doesn’t really guard anything. It looks pretty silly most of the time.
Was it a waste of time? Nah, I don’t think so. It was fun to tinker. Forced me to learn a bit more about AR stuff, even if the result wasn’t exactly practical. Sometimes you just need to mess around with a dumb idea to keep the brain working, you know? Just build something for the heck of it. And hey, I got a story out of it.
