Could a Harry Potter-style “Marauder’s Map” help give Apple a leg up on rival mapping services by offering indoor directions as well as outside ones?
That’s the working theory behind a new U.S. patent published today, which describes a “Visual-Based Inertial Navigation” system, explaining how accurate indoor directions could given on a smartphone or VR headset down to an accuracy of centimeters.
Photo: Apple
The technology of inertial navigation is great for helping people find their way around indoor locations, where GPS doesn’t work. It uses sensors like the accelerometer and gyroscope which are built into your iPhone to calculate a user’s position inside a building — even showing which floor of a building they are on.
It could be used, perhaps in association with tools like iBeacon, to guide users to particular shelves in a supermarket, or illustrating how they can find an exit/bathroom etc. — by overlaying indoor mapping data.
The technology was originally investigated by Flyby Media, Inc., a company which Apple acquired earlier this year, which also filed the original patent application.
This isn’t the first time Apple has investigated indoor mapping tech, capable of seamlessly transitioning from outdoor to indoor views. Previously Apple filed a patent that would direct users back to their car by pointing them toward a specific parking spot. Other rival companies like Google have also explored the subject of indoor maps and mapping.
Source: USPTO
Via: Patently Apple
