Setting Up Wayfinding Software for Refugee Camps

December 14, 2022

We have build many wayfinding solutions for hospitals. Hospitals have more options than refugee camps. Refugee camps are usually underfunded and over-crowded. This creates new set of challenges completely different to hospitals. Navigating refugee camps with 3D Wayfinder software is easy and avaible for everyone who have smartphone. Read more about wayfinding software for refugee camps.

First you can not set up self-service touch kiosks in refugee camp. Because it is expensive and easy to vandalize. Traditional maps can be confusing and difficult to position yourself there. Our team has discussed this a lot. Especially now, when we have crisis in Ukraine. More than 3 million people have escaped Ukraine mainly through Poland.

Luckily smartphone prices have gone down in last 5 years and are wildly used even rural conflict areas. It is not uncommon to see at least one refugee family member with smartphone. This one piece of technology is what we can use to refugee advantage in these large camps.

Navigating refugee camps with 3D Wayfinder software is easy and avaible for everyone who have smartphone.
The picture illustrates a large refugee camp

3D Wayfinder software is HTML-based so any smart device is more than enough to use it. We have developed easy to use QR code based solution to position your self inside the camps and our software guides you to needed destination. QR is cheap and if there is no need for investments on touch screens/self-servicing kiosks it will bring price down significantly for organizations that manage these refugee camps.

QR-code based wayfinding software for refugee camps

The idea itself is simple, organizations provide refugees on camps with Wifi or 4G through local telecom service providers. Tents are given code/name and provided with QR code stickers. Refugee scans it to open software and automatically positioning them self. Then selecting via search or from list the tents code/name and get live direction to their destination. Vital location are highlighted for quick selecting in software. If they still get lost they can scan near by tents QR code and get new direction from there. We can provide 2D maps of the area and tents through aerial photos. It reduces the human labor to map the camp on site. This solutions is still under development and all ideas to improve it are warmly welcome!

We have developed easy to use QR code based solution to position your self inside the refugee camps and our software guides you to needed destination. Navigating with 3D Wayfinder software in refugee camps is easy.
Syrian refugee camp.

Let us build better future for us in cities and for people who are forced to be refugees!

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Using QR-codes in Wayfinding Application

November 10, 2016

The easiest way for the visitor to get the wayfinding map into their mobile device is to add a QR-code to the kiosk application. By scanning the QR-code, the map of the building will open on the visitors mobile phone.

QR codes are getting more and more popular for sharing links for app downloads, promotions, additional information etc. QR-codes provide an easy way to share maps from wayfinding kiosks to mobile devices. Just scan the code and get the map to your device. No need for downloading any app or looking through the menus for your destination.

3D Wayfinder supports dynamic QR-codes for following cases: “You are here” location, path to selected location and location on the map.

Generating QR-code automatically

“You are here” in 3D Wayfinder is a node. That can be configured for each kiosks separately by simply using attribute in wayfinder URL. The QR code will be generated automatically using the same kiosk
parameters. There is no additional work with QR-codes. Even when using 20 or more wayfinding kiosks in a shopping mall, hospital or university campus.

Using QR-codes in wayfinding application

It is also possible to provide the entire path from current location to the selected location on the map. In this case the QR codes redirects to the 3D Wayfinder application with an attribute that shows the path immediately after it finishes loading. The Visitor can have the path visualized in their mobile phone. Without the need to search or select anything.

The third possibility is to show the specific location. Each location in 3D Wayfinder is a node. That can have its own view (including direction and zoom in 3D). By selecting any location on the kiosks, it is possible to show the QR code for this location. So the link behind the QR will open the map with the view to this location. By using positioning it is possible to capture the real location of the visitor and guide the visitor to the location that was scanned from the kiosk application.

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