Indoor AR Navigation that Finds Routes in Indoor Spaces Where GPS Can Not
It is easy to get lost inside large-scale indoors spaces, like shopping malls. However, GPS does not work inside buildings, so smartphones are useless in these cases. Even if you have a map in hand, there is the problem of knowing your current location. For indoor navigation, we need to construct a precise map of the indoor space, and also develop a technology that will accurately show our current location, without using GPS.
In the field test demonstration of indoor AR navigation, conducted at the COEX Mall in Seoul, NAVER LABS utilized a visual localization technology along with data from various sensors to solve the issue finding the current location. It is a technology that analyzes images using smartphone camera to identify the current location. The precise indoor map and location data constructed by the mapping robot M1 were used as the key data points for location and navigation. In addition, for an even more intuitive user experience, we applied a technology that delivers TBT (turn-by-turn) direction information through the AR.
Our precision mapping technology and the visual and sensor-fusion localization technology, which utilize robots, have been developed for the purpose of providing directions and information services in indoor spaces while accurately identifying current location without having to construct a separate hardware infrastructure.