Augmented reality helping you find your way around Gatwick
Gatwick’s two terminals have been installed with around 2000 beacons to provide an indoor navigation system that is claimed to be more reliable than GPS for passengers needing help navigating the airport.
The lack of satellite signals makes road-based navigation systems – such as Google or Apple maps – unreliable indoors. Gatwick says its beacon based positioning system enables reliable ‘blue dot’ on indoor maps, and in time could be used within a range of mobile airport, airline or third party apps.
No personal data will be collected by Gatwick although generic information on ‘people densities’ in different beacon zones may help to improve airport operations including queue measurement, streamlining passenger flows and reducing congestion.
Airlines could go further and - with the consent of their passengers - may send reminders on their airline app to late running passengers, for example, or find out where they are and make an informed decision on whether to wait or offload their luggage so the aircraft can take off on time.
See the full story here: http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/design-engineering-news/augmented-reality-helping-you-find-your-way-around-gatwick/155693/