Tag: mobile wayfinder maps

We have made a mobile-friendly web application for large corn maze. Application helps to navigate in the maze, but at same time it will not disappear the fun of finding the right path in maze. Continue reading to see, how that’s possible.

Our customer Port Farms is operating large corn maze in Pennsylvania, not far from Cleveland and Pittsburgh. The maze labyrinth will be updated every year and it is more than 500 feet in length and 300 feet wide.

We have created a web-based mobile application for Port Farms, with a map of the maze. When starting, the map tiles are not visible. At the entry point of each section, there is QR-code and by scanning the code a part of the maze map will open.

It is similar to strategic computer games, where you cannot see the whole map, but just the part you have discovered. By using 3D Wayfinder geolocation API, the actual location is shown by a red dot.

You may ask, why do you need to provide the map in maze or labyrinth at all? One thing is to wonder around the maze and finally get your way out. Another thing is to explore (and in some way we may even say to “conquer”) the maze and discover it. Without needing paper and pen, you just scan the QR codes and open up the map. But it doesn’t mean that you will see the right way through. You still have to try and guess.

3D Wayfinder with similar tiled maps can be used in any other maze, labyrinth or theme park. By scanning the code or following the link, you can add information layers to the map and get the needed info at the right location.

The development of our new 3D Wayfinder mobile applications for Android and IOS is in the final stages. It will be available in a short time. You will be able to create 3D Wayfinder applications for your venues and enable the download for people that will make it easy to find the way.

The app is based on the popular Ionic framework (Web based). Ionic is a very easy to setup and customizable mobile app framework. It uses AngularJS and Cordova. We will OpenSource the application source code so you can make Your own version.
We will also add Geolocation and iBeacon based positioning support in the near future.

We have updated path finding functionality and path calculation. Now it is possible to change the weights of navigation nodes in 3D Wayfinder floor plan editor.

Path-finding application calculates automatically the shortest route from the starting node to the required location. In mobile applications, the Kiosk node can be your position inside the building. With 3D Wayfinder, the shortest route is calculated in a 3 dimensional room. It means the shortest path through all the floors.

Now it is possible to change the weights of the connection nodes. With this wayfinding application calculates optimal route, which doesn’t have to be the shortest. For example when you would like to guide your visitors to use the path inside the building instead of going around the building. Then you can set the weight for outdoor nodes higher. The weight is basically virtual length that will be added to the route, when passing the navigation node with a weight.

To use the weights you have to select the navigation node in 3D Wayfinder floor plan editor and change the node weight from the text box. By default all the weights are 0.

For example lets, say that waiting for the elevator takes usually 3 minutes. Lets assume, that visitors are moving with a speed of 3 km per hour, which is 50 meters per minute. So with waiting the elevator, visitor can pass 150 meters (3*50). If we would like to take account this in path calculation. Then we can add weight of 150 to the navigation node, that is marked as elevator.

Pathfinding functionality comes bundled in an add-on you can order from 3D Wayfinder Administration panel. It is also included in the Pro plan.

Read more about 3D Wayfinder’s path-finding capabilities.