Apple Gets Ready to Release Indoor Positioning Service
Over the weekend Apple apparently pushed out an indoor positioning app ‘Indoor Survey’ into the iOS App Store.
“By dropping ‘points’ on a map within the Survey App, you indicate your position within the venue as you walk through,” reads the app description. “As you do so, the indoor Survey App measures the radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone’s sensor data. The end result is indoor positioning without the need to install special hardware.”
Interesting in the sense it appears to be an app that stores can use to map their interiors with iOS devices. It’s not a crowd sourced indoor mapping application. This dovetails nicely with the other announcement this morning about their new Maps Indoor service.
For now, Apple is focusing its efforts on a handful of venues that meet specific criteria. These requirements include:
- The venue must be accessible to the general public
- Only locations that draw more than a million visitors per year
- Apple requires “complete, accurate, and scaled reference maps” for consideration
- The venue must have Wi-Fi throughout, and an official app available on the App Store
The groundwork is set for Apple to start mapping interiors of these large open venues. But with an app and an iPhone, clearly Apple is planning to scale this out to just about every indoor location. I suspect we’ll see stadiums, amusement parks and other entertainment venues appear first over the next year.
November 2, 2015 apple apple maps indoor positioning Thoughts
Ask Me Anything - Next Week
So I was invited on the Spatial Community to give an AMA next week. It will be Tuesday November 3rd at 11am PST. You can literally ask me anything (duh) and I’ll try and respond to everything.
Ask Me Anything - Next Week
So I was invited on the Spatial Community to give an AMA next week. It will be Tuesday November 3rd at 11am PST. You can literally ask me anything (duh) and I’ll try and respond to everything.
What’s Next? Matrix New World Engineering
So you may have seen last week that I resigned from AECOM.
https://twitter.com/jamesmfee/status/655034058028679168
Well I’ve ended up at Matrix New World Engineering as the National Practice Leader for GIS and Geospatial Services. I’m going to miss the guys at AECOM and working as Project Manager on the BLM Navigator1 data sharing portal but the opportunity with Matrix is something I could not pass up. In a twist, I will be working more closely with Esri technology. That means you’ll see me blogging more about Esri again. That said the first program I bought at Matrix was Safe FME Desktop so you can see my overall goals aren’t changing.
Tied in with this is ArcGIS for Server on Azure. I’m jumping in with two feet it appears. But don’t worry, you won’t be seeing any ArcObjects or Dojo posts from me. It’s interesting to try to get back on where Esri server software has gone over the past 5 years I’ve ignored it. Google searches of course make me laugh a bit.
https://twitter.com/jamesmfee/status/657581736881029120
The bottom goals don’t change though. Sharing data and liberating data from silos. Making smart choices with open source technology and embracing Python and JavaScript over Java and .NET. My Esri account is locked out of ArcGIS Online (who even knows how to get that fixed) so step one is cleaning out the garage2 in my mind.
Now I had promised Hangouts with James Fee starting back mid-October. Well given my job change it was difficult to get that started back up. It’s being pushed back to November and my first guest will be the always interesting Ian White. Stay tuned for the schedule.
What’s Next? Matrix New World Engineering
So you may have seen last week that I resigned from AECOM.
https://twitter.com/jamesmfee/status/655034058028679168
Well I’ve ended up at Matrix New World Engineering as the National Practice Leader for GIS and Geospatial Services. I’m going to miss the guys at AECOM and working as Project Manager on the BLM Navigator1 data sharing portal but the opportunity with Matrix is something I could not pass up. In a twist, I will be working more closely with Esri technology. That means you’ll see me blogging more about Esri again. That said the first program I bought at Matrix was Safe FME Desktop so you can see my overall goals aren’t changing.
Tied in with this is ArcGIS for Server on Azure. I’m jumping in with two feet it appears. But don’t worry, you won’t be seeing any ArcObjects or Dojo posts from me. It’s interesting to try to get back on where Esri server software has gone over the past 5 years I’ve ignored it. Google searches of course make me laugh a bit.
https://twitter.com/jamesmfee/status/657581736881029120
The bottom goals don’t change though. Sharing data and liberating data from silos. Making smart choices with open source technology and embracing Python and JavaScript over Java and .NET. My Esri account is locked out of ArcGIS Online (who even knows how to get that fixed) so step one is cleaning out the garage2 in my mind.
Now I had promised Hangouts with James Fee starting back mid-October. Well given my job change it was difficult to get that started back up. It’s being pushed back to November and my first guest will be the always interesting Ian White. Stay tuned for the schedule.
Hangouts with James Fee: Special Guest Steve Pousty
Hangouts with James Fee Season 4 starts soon. We’re going to continue as a podcast so make sure you stay tuned for the guests. I figure it is fitting that the last video hangout I had with Steve be posted as the “first” podcast. Enjoy and I’ll see you all after my honeymoon.