A 3D Routing Service for Indoor Environments

Large and complex buildings with substantial numbers of visitors require fast and effective navigation support to help first-time and infrequent guests to easily find their destination and avoid stressful situations. Most existing solutions are based on in-situ localization and routing, therefore requiring expensive indoor positioning infrastructure. In contrast, the objective of this research is the development of a cheap and easily deployable indoor routing service that visitors can use to plan the route to their destination before their visit. It visualizes both the interior space of a building and its users’ individual routing paths in a virtual 3D environment. The proposed solution is entirely based on open source tools and has no installation requirements for the user. Its functionality is demonstrated in a building at the Aalborg University Copenhagen campus. This kind of ex-situ 3D digital navigation promises to help users gain a better understanding of the explored environment, and to improve people’s cognitive spatial maps when combined with animated stimuli and landmarks.