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How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

andrewhart.me

21–30 of 75 posts

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#21

Honestly, I've wanted a system for a while where shops can provide a map, and I can search for an item and it will show me where in the shop that item is. I don't think I've ever been in a shop big enough where I'd need satnav to tell me how to get there though, is that an American thing?

Tesco in the UK literally has this but only for staff. If you work for Tesco you can access any shop, view a map, view where stock is on a shelf, check stock numbers and expected delivery and all that stuff.

Things that would absolutely be an amazing QOL improvement for any shopper. But they won't let you have it because they WANT you to bumble your way around a shop. They don't want you to know where things are. That's why they move shelves around seemingly at random.

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#22

Why do you need a human to do the initial mapping ? why can't you use a Roomba or a smaller hardware for this task

It's been said in one of the comments that the initial mapping by a human takes like 2-3 hours. Knowing the speed of a Roomba, I guess that it would take much more time to do it. And 'humans' are COTS devices available on any department store (sorry ;P).

Also the wifi signal might be different at Roomba-height.

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#24

Honestly, I've wanted a system for a while where shops can provide a map, and I can search for an item and it will show me where in the shop that item is. I don't think I've ever been in a shop big enough where I'd need satnav to tell me how to get there though, is that an American thing?

Tesco in the UK literally has this but only for staff. If you work for Tesco you can access any shop, view a map, view where stock is on a shelf, check stock numbers and expected delivery and all that stuff. Things that would absolutely be an amazing QOL improvement for any shopper. But they won't let you have it because they WANT you to bumble your way around a shop. They don't want you to know where things are. Tha…

I actually find this feature of supermarkets quite useful. Online shopping is far less discoverable - the end result is I forget things from my online shop quite often.

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#25
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been said in one of the comments that the initial mapping by a human takes like 2-3 hours. Knowing the speed of a Roomba, I guess that it would take much more time to do it. And 'humans' are COTS devices available on any department store (sorry ;P).

Also the wifi signal might be different at Roomba-height.

A stick seems like a very low tech solution to this problem!

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#26

> They wanted to bring indoor maps and navigation to their retail stores... It turns out that this doesn’t just apply to retail. Every office, university campus, events venue, hotel, airport, warehouse, factory — basically everywhere indoors have some need to navigate people around, provide relevant information, and improve efficiency. You'd think they would add this information to openstreetmap then or at least put…

I was with them until they said that it's going to give me ads while I'm walking around

You might think shoppers finding their product in a store quickly would delight customers and pay for itself quickly.

But it seems instead of stores simply depending on the sale, they also now demand impulse purchases, which mean they want you wandering the store looking in multiple places for your quarry: the casino model. So if they delight a customer with direct route to the sale, they need to make up that windfall elsewhere?S

So they fall back on surveil, profile, and market plus selling your profile to others? Is this is why we can't have nice things?

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#27
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was with them until they said that it's going to give me ads while I'm walking around

You might think shoppers finding their product in a store quickly would delight customers and pay for itself quickly. But it seems instead of stores simply depending on the sale, they also now demand impulse purchases, which mean they want you wandering the store looking in multiple places for your quarry: the casino model. So if they delight a customer with direct route to the sale, they need to make up that windfal…

Finding a product quickly is actually the opposite of what a store owner would want, because it means you are spending less time on looking at the other products.

Yes I hate that attitude too.

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#28
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was with them until they said that it's going to give me ads while I'm walking around

You might think shoppers finding their product in a store quickly would delight customers and pay for itself quickly. But it seems instead of stores simply depending on the sale, they also now demand impulse purchases, which mean they want you wandering the store looking in multiple places for your quarry: the casino model. So if they delight a customer with direct route to the sale, they need to make up that windfal…

Major grocery shops routinely swap their profitable items with the popular items. They do this to stop the customer going into auto-pilot and instead forcing them into actually looking for what they want. So no, shoppers finding their product does not pay for itself.

Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS

#30
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was with them until they said that it's going to give me ads while I'm walking around

You might think shoppers finding their product in a store quickly would delight customers and pay for itself quickly. But it seems instead of stores simply depending on the sale, they also now demand impulse purchases, which mean they want you wandering the store looking in multiple places for your quarry: the casino model. So if they delight a customer with direct route to the sale, they need to make up that windfal…

This is exactly why we can't have nice things. There has been a lot of study in how to manipulate shoppers to get them to buy more things in your shops, from playing in-store music that is slower so they walk slower, to putting expensive stuff at eye-level, to putting common things at the back of the shop so you have to walk past everything else to get to them
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