“You want to get to Ernie’s desk? Okay, go through the double doors to my right, take that hallway until it ends in a T, turn right, make your fourth left after the water cooler, then turn right at the potted ficus tree and he’s in the fifth cubicle on your left.”
Ugh.
In an age when we can find just about anything via advanced, satellite-based mapping software like Google Maps, it’s kind of amazing that we’re still giving — and receiving — directions like the set above to navigate interior spaces.
MappedIn could make it easier to find your way around office spaces. From K2 Space.
Hongwei Liu thought it was high time interior spaces caught up with the outside world. The 24-year-old Kitchener, Ontario resident created MappedIn, a company that builds “digital wayfinding maps” intended for use inside buildings.
The possibilities for this software are endless. In addition to helping you find Ernie’s cubicle without navigating via ficus, MappedIn could help you find your way around a mall, a department store, a skyway system, or a multi-tenant office building. It could even help you find the restroom without having to loudly announce your need to everyone within earshot.
Seriously — take a moment to think about how often we need assistance navigating an interior space. We probably don’t dwell on it much because it’s such an ingrained part of our lives, but Liu’s technology could save a whole lot of security guards from having to direct people to the shoe department.
Sure, most malls and many complex office buildings have a drawn map somewhere, but you still have to remember and interpret that map as you go, and the map also has to be redrawn any time a tenant changes.
As if that’s not enough reason to get excited about Liu’s technology, there’s a whole lot more to it than simple navigation. While he initially intended it to be about helping people find their way, Liu began to realize that he could tackle an issue much larger:
“Once we started working with our customers, we realized that the biggest problem we were solving was helping businesses manage their indoor special data,” Liu said, as reported by Ivor Tossel in an article for Toronto’s The Globe and Mail.
Liu found that companies often juggled multiple types of maps for different purposes. For instance: a CAD map showing layout; a facilities map detailing the HVAC and plumbing patterns; maps for sales and marketing to entice potential tenants, etc.
Liu found a way to integrate all of this information into “a central portal.” MappedIn “attaches database information to every location on the map,” so you can pull up anything, from which key opens a certain door to the hours of the Starbucks at that location. People from every department can use it in the way that best meets their needs.
And, of course, you can still find Ernie’s desk.
Liu currently employs 22 people and hopes to, as Tossel reports, “become the leader in geographic information system (GIS)-like systems for indoor facilities.”