Finding your way through buildings and campuses through the power of augmented reality
navigatAR is an iOS app that shows you where to go in an accessible, user-friendly way. No more asking for directions or searching for a map, you can use a simple app instead. navigatAR leverages the power of augmented reality to provide indoor directions to areas, rooms, and even events, displayed by arrows that show you where to go in real-time.
WARNING: This was the result of a 6-week hackathon. This is not polished nor fully functional but rather just a demo—use at your discretion.
We created an native Swift iOS app that used ARKit for augmented reality and Indoor Atlas for indoor positioning. Throughout the development process we used Slack for communication and GitHub projects to keep track of what features were in progress.
First, install Xcode, navigate to the /navigatAR directory in the root of the project, then run:
$ pod install
navigatAR uses Indoor Atlas for navigation. Create a free account and API credentials here. Configure the app to use these credentials by copying /navigatAR/navigatAR/config.example.plist into another file config.plist in the same directory. This should be in the .gitignore, so credentials won't be committed.
This should be your /navigatAR/navigatAR/config.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>IAAPIKeyId</key>
<string>YOUR_INDOOR_ATLAS_API_KEY</string>
<key>IAAPIKeySecret</key>
<string>YOUR_INDOOR_ATLAS_API_KEY</string>
</dict>
</plist>After putting Indoor Atlas API credentials into the config, you must map out your building(s) in the Indoor Atlas web interface. Upload floor plans, then use your Android device to walk around and map out Wi-Fi signals and electromagnetic waves. Once uploaded online, these changes should give more accurate location readings to navigatAR.
Navigate to the "User" page, register/login, then click "New Building." Enter the venue's name and how many floors it has.
Click the newly created building to bring up management options specific to the selected venue. "Manage Nodes" will show a list of "Nodes" associated with the building. A node is simply a point of interest that will show on the map. This can be a room, bathroom, etc. Add a "Pathway" node to map out hallway corners, path intersections, etc. that mark navigable pathways for the user that don't represent a point of interest.
After mapping the locations of points of interest and pathways, connect them via the "Manage Nodes graphic interface" button. This brings up a map of the current building populates with the nodes. Tap one node then another to create a connection signified by a line. Tap existing lines to delete that node connection.
The next option for each building is managing "tags." A tag is a customizable property that can be set for nodes. Examples include "Room Number" or "Teacher Name" for school classrooms.
When there is a temporary event taking place at the venue, admins can create an event via the "New Event" button. This is a temporary connection to nodes for a predefined duration. An event will be searchable just like any other node, but will show a list of nodes the user can navigate to.
Demo of Search and Pathfinding
The MICDS team won third place out of 20 schools winning $2,500 for our school!
navigatAR was made with the hard work of:
- Jack Cai (2019)
- Tanay Chandak (2020)
- Nick Clifford (2020)
- Alexander Donovan (2018)
- Michael Gira (2019)
- Alex Migala (2020)
- Jack Petersen (2020)
- Sophia Puertas (2019)
- Andrew Zhao (2019)
Special thanks for the guidance of our faculty sponsors Mrs. Purdy and Mr. Borja!
Last but certainly not least, many thanks to our WWT mentors Satya Gudivada and Lisa Rains!