This looks really cool. Can you also handle multi floor plans? I think that indoor multi floor plans is the most difficult challenge in this area…
How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
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Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I find exceptionally annoying when I don't know if I need to look for my preferred moisturizer in "skincare" or "premium skincare" or some other section I've not seen yet (yes this is a common issue for me). If I could just load up their (horribly slow and memory heavy) website, go to the store locator and actually see where it is in the shop instead of "yeah we have it in stock, somewhere", that would be very useful
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#33Shinjuku Station has called they need this.
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#34Honestly, 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?
Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, and Wal-Mart are examples off the top of my head that have this product locator functionality on their websites.
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#35If indoor is so inaccurate, how does Apple find AirTags then?
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#36This is a very cool project / startup! I'm curious, how do you get the ground truth data? Is that just you marking down where you are as you walk through the store?
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#37If indoor is so inaccurate, how does Apple find AirTags then?
Apple use UWB[0] for nearby location sensing.
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#38Love reading about these types of R&D efforts, especially when they are successful. I started in robotics in 01 and was present at some of the first commercial vSLAM efforts and materially contributed to a hardware solution utilizing IR beacons on the ceiling. We also looked at RF radio mapping at the time, but the computational power wasn't there. Great to see how far it has come and LOVE that it doesn't require infrastructure!
I am curious how deeply you have had to study the impact of how busy the store is with your signal error? Considering that humans are bags of water which is quite detrimental to RF signals, my guess is that your error increases along with the density of people.
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#39Honestly, 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?
Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, and Wal-Mart are examples off the top of my head that have this product locator functionality on their websites.
I used this at Menards two days ago. The product location told me where the item was. Turned out that aisle g94 wasn’t aisle 94 but a kiosk at the end of aisle 27 on the other side of the store (these numbers are made up I don’t recall the specifics). I still had to ask a human where it was. So yeah not there yet and this type of service could really help.
Re: How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS
#40> 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…
If you had read the article you would see:
1/ they need to collect ground truth data for their algorithm to work, it doesn't magically work everywhere.
2/ the ground truth data was collected mostly by their clients, it is not their data to give away for free
Yes, they mention promotions, but again the promotions would be opt-in – if I use their app to find a product I'm looking for, they might suggest other products along the way that I might also find useful, or they might take me in a route that passes right by them. This is no different to the way retailers stock up their shelves already, placing products next to others you might want, and moving necessity items around when they want to direct you to another part of the store.
I don't know, I think it's a bit harsh to criticise this when the technology has so many applications outside of retail. I would love this in a museum or library, and even in retail I absolutely hate those interactive map displays that modern shopping malls have, where only one person can use them at a time and you have to navigate through 200 store names for the one you actually want to visit