Map Indoors - WebMapSocial Meetup February 16, 2010

February's Meetup will feature two presentations on technology used to map indoors:

1) Micello, Inc., Mobile Application for Indoor Maps
Prakash Narayan, CTO

Using best-in-class mapping technologies, Micello has figured out a way to map the indoor world with the same level of accuracy and precision as outdoor maps. This means that you get:

- Accurate maps that tell you where you are within a location.
- The ability to search and find what’s in your surroundings.
- The information you need at exactly the right time.
- Maps available for airports, shopping malls and Stores.
- The Maps get cached for offline usage
- Intuitive interface for multi-floor places

2) Open Floor Display for Firefighter Tracking
Pei Zhang, Assistant Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley

Emergency situations, such as a fire, require the quick and effective response of emergency workers to minimize loss of property and human life. Accurate information, such as location and building layout, are needed in order for the incident commander to improve effectiveness of the emergency responders. Several proprietary approaches are available for representing such information. However the proprietary approaches are often difficult for quick implementation in emergency situations.

This talk will aim to give an overview of the current disaster response research at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and open floor plan display project pioneered by the Golden Gate Safety network. In particular the talk will focus on an overview of the in-door firefighter-tracking project. This project uses inexpensive mobile devices attached to firefighters to provide location information for the incident commander. Information from each device is combined with the building map, which allows the system to operate with minimal infrastructure. Results will be presented from mobility enhanced localization in harsh environments, as well as ways to automatically generate such information automatically using multiple mini-helicopters (SensorFly).