Indoor wayfnding app for all

Abstract

Some indoor navigation and wayfinding apps already exist, such as Google Indoor. Still, there are only a limited number of buildings in this system because the building owner must submit the floor plans to Google to be incorporated into Google Maps. In this work, we present the design of a new indoor navigation application for smartphones. In the design of the app, it has been prioritized that it can be used in any building and that it can be used by people with vision and hearing problems, as well as people with reduced mobility. This new approach describes the route instead of marking it on a map as GPS systems do. The objective of this app is to show either the shortest path or the different paths that connect two different rooms in the same building. With this objective the requirements of the app are: 1) simplicity, 2) it does not require many memory resources or advanced technology and, 3) that it can be used without an internet connection. To create this app with these requirements, two stages of work are needed. The first stage deals with the labeling of the entrances to the building and its rooms, and the second stage consists of looking for the possible paths between two rooms. The first stage only needs to be done once per building. In the second stage, after each search, each path found can be detailed using the different sensors incorporated in almost all smartphones. As a result, a new app will be developed following this design.