The digital era has revolutionized the way we interact with our surrounding environment. While outdoor mapping (GPS) has become standard for outdoor navigation, indoor mapping is emerging as a crucial technology for complex indoor environments. In this blog post, we explore what indoor mapping is and its applications among different industries. 

Indoor Mapping: what are we talking about?

Indoor mapping, also known as indoor positioning or indoor navigation, is the process of creating detailed digital maps of indoor spaces, such as offices, shopping malls, airports, hospitals, and universities. This technology allows for precise navigation within buildings where traditional GPS signals are often weak or unavailable. Unlike outdoor navigation, which relies on satellite signals to pinpoint locations, indoor mapping employs a greater variety of technologies. These technologies work together to determine a user's location within an indoor environment, providing accurate and real-time indoor positioning data.

The origins of indoor mapping can be traced back to the limitations of GPS technology. Its inability to encompass indoor environments created a strong demand for alternative solutions. Early attempts at indoor mapping included basic floor plans and static maps. However, advancements in technology in the early 2000s - such as wireless communication, sensor technologies, and computing power - have significantly fostered innovation and subsequently enhanced the accuracy and functionality of indoor mapping systems for wayfinding.

Nowadays, indoor mapping has become a sophisticated field with numerous applications and use cases across different industries. This can be also explained by the fact that indoor mapping is not only about providing navigation assistance, but also about providing advanced functionalities such as asset tracking, space utilization analysis, and customized location-based services to go further in understanding the indoor environment.

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Indoor mapping and its main industry applications and use cases

Indoor mapping has a wide range of applications across different business sectors, such as smart offices, shopping malls, airports, hospitals and universities. Here’s a quick overview of the most common use cases where such maps have an important role to play:

Smart Offices indoor mapping

• Space Occupancy Management: companies can identify over-/under- occupied areas and optimize the use of office space by tracking rooms occupancy and people’s flows via the map.
  
  
• Employees Comfort: employees can more easily find meeting rooms, colleagues, and any other resource they may need within large office buildings thanks to a better and real-time visualization of the indoor environment.
  
  
• Safety and Security Management: people can better identify emergency exits and routes on smart maps, including those adapted for people with disabilities, which ensures fast and safe evacuations in case of emergencies.

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Retail and Shopping Malls indoor mapping

• Enhanced Customer Experience: shoppers can use indoor maps to locate stores, restrooms, exits, and any other service quickly.
  
  
• Targeted Advertising: retailers can push customized and real-time promotions to customers based on their location inside the mall.
  
  
• Optimize Space Leasing: the potential of shopping mall's spaces is maximized and back rooms leasing process becomes more effective thanks to a data-driven approach and visualization through the indoor mapping system.

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Airports and Transportation Hubs indoor mapping

• Navigation Assistance: passengers can find their way to gates, lounges, baggage claim areas, and other facilities, reducing stress and enhancing the travel experience.
  
  
• Operational Efficiency: airport staff can easily track and manage assets, such as luggage carts and wheelchairs, more effectively. In real time, on the map.
  
  
• Reinforced Safety and Security Management: indoor mapping provides security personnel the access to accurate and up-to-date information about the indoor venue. This contributes to promptly dealing with incidents, preventing them from escalating, hence minimizing the risk for passengers.

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Hospitals and Healthcare infrastructures indoor mapping

• Patients and visitors Navigation Experience: patients and visitors can easily navigate through large hospital complexes to find clinics, departments, and specific rooms.
  
  
• Asset Management & Tracking: hospitals can keep track of medical equipment through the interactive indoor map and ensure its availability when needed.
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• Reinforced Safety and Security Management: indoor mapping helps enhance safety protocols and assist people to reach the nearest safe place. Also, the tracking capability integration contributes to prevent and respond to potential threats in real-time, maintaining a secured environment within hospitals.

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Event Management indoor mapping

• Event Navigation: on one side, attendees can easily locate and navigate to sessions, booths, restrooms, and other points of interest (POIs) in convention centers and large event venues thanks to smart indoor mapping.
  
  
• Crowd Management: on the other side, organizers can monitor crowd movement and manage traffic flow to prevent congestion, and finally improve safety levels.
  

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The most popular technologies behind Indoor Mapping

Indoor mapping relies on a wide range of technologies to provide accurate and reliable positioning within indoor venues. Here are some of the most popular ones in the field:

• Wi-Fi Positioning: existing Wi-Fi networks are used to determine a device's location. By measuring the signal strength and proximity to multiple Wi-Fi access points, algorithms can triangulate the position. This method is widely adopted due to the presence of Wi-Fi in most indoor environments.
  
  
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons: they are small, battery-powered devices that emit Bluetooth signals at regular intervals. Devices like smartphones can detect these signals and calculate their position based on the strength and proximity of the beacons. BLE beacons are popular in retail environments for proximity marketing and indoor navigation.
  
  
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): it uses radio waves to identify and track tags attached to objects. RFID systems consist of tags, readers, and antennas. While not typically used for continuous tracking of individuals, RFID is effective for asset tracking and inventory management within indoor spaces.
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• Ultra-Wideband (UWB): is a short-range wireless communication protocol that uses a wide frequency spectrum. It offers high precision in locating objects (and people when allowed), with accuracy up to a few centimeters. UWB is particularly useful in environments where precise location tracking is critical, such as in healthcare and industrial applications.

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Leveraging Smart Indoor Mapping thanks to the Visioglobe technology

Visioglobe is the industry pioneer. Its smart indoor mapping applications are setting new standards in the way we navigate complex indoor environments. As we have seen, indoor mapping has become essential in modern infrastructure, providing crucial solutions for efficiently guiding people through large and often confusing spaces like shopping malls, airports, hospitals, and corporate buildings. Visioglobe stands out in this field, offering advanced and highly detailed maps that are both beautifully designed and user-friendly.

In fact, the maps to create and maintain with Visioglobe are not just static images but dynamic solutions that allow user interactions, offering people precise directions and points of interest (POIs) along their route. Route that is actually compliant with industry standards, ensuring 100% accessibility to all potential uses no matter their physical abilities. One of the Visioglobe's smart indoor mapping strengths is its adaptability and flexibility to suit specific and different users' needs. Also, another solution capability that stands out, is the easy integration with various third-party tools and data sources to provide up-to-the-minute information. This means users can receive updates about their surroundings in real time; which significantly enhances user experience, making navigation more intuitive and less stressful. And all this information can be displayed on multiple platforms such as kiosks, web app and mobile app (Android & iOS), to broaden the experience to its fullest potential.

Whether it’s a sprawling shopping mall, a bustling airport, or a complex hospital, Visioglobe’s smart indoor mapping is the key to transforming any indoor space into a smart, user-friendly environment. Embrace the future of indoor mapping with Visioglobe and make navigating large indoor spaces a breeze.

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➡️​ Explore the Visioglobe map solution

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In the end…

Indoor mapping is transforming how we navigate and interact with indoor environments. From enhancing customer experiences in retail settings to improving operational efficiency in airports and hospitals, its applications are vast and varied. As technology continues to advance, indoor mapping will likely become an integral part of our everyday lives, offering new levels of comfort, user-friendliness and efficiency in finding information and navigating complex indoor venues.