Developing a simulator of a mobile indoor navigation application as a tool for cartographic research

Abstract

Solutions designed for indoor navigation are extremely rare compared to outdoor navigation; however, the potential for development is, therefore, very high. Several pilot projects exist in airports, universities, hospitals, and shopping centres. The difficulties in development are currently mainly due to the continuing low quality of indoor positioning and lack of widespread access to high-quality building models. A strong methodological basis for how the interior and exterior of buildings can be cartographically represented in navigation applications has also not yet been developed. Therefore, an attempt was made to design a virtual environment dedicated to supporting the design of indoor navigation applications. Authors present the results of a study aimed at creating a concept of a simulation environment accompanied by the assessment and preliminary validation of its technological feasibility in terms of the method and technology used – although it does not yet constitute a target study. The result was a fully functional prototype of a virtual test environment, which was successfully used in a pilot study on the effectiveness of different types of navigation guidance. The participants’ behaviour within the desktop virtual environment was investigated and their opinions were collected through a questionnaire. This research proved the technological feasibility of the proposed concept and demonstrated the usefulness of the Unreal Engine game engine in building new tools to support the work of cartographers. The created environment will be further developed and used in indoor mapping research.

Keywords

• indoor cartography
• indoor navigation
• map design
• unreal engine
• virtual reality