vanillaNAV - Indoor Navigation that just works

INGOLSTADT, Germany - Sept. 14, 2015 - PRLog -- Ingolstadt – September 14, 2015. VanillaWorks launches the vanillaNAV indoor navigation system and installs it right away at the international exhibition INTERGEO 2015 to help visitors find their way.

In contrast to existing solutions vanillaNAV uses optical navigation markers for positioning. Thereby it can be integrated in any building easily and in a very cost efficient way. Even further it´s very precise and reliable due to the new positioning technology. Navigation destinations and routes inside a building can be defined via the web-based vanillaNAV Manager. The building visitors are guided on their selected route by the vanillaNAV App available free of charge for Android and iOS. The vanillaNAV App provides intuitive turn-by-turn navigation through an Augmented Reality navigation arrow. The vanillaNAV indoor navigation system is suitable for exhibition halls, supermarkets & malls, public buildings like airports, train stations, hospitals, as well as the museums.

„These days we are all used to outdoor navigation in cars and via smartphones and we don´t want to miss that comfort any more. But GPS doesn´t work inside buildings and existing concepts for indoor positioning such as Beacons, WiFi or similar technologies are inaccurate and unreliable as well as expensive and complicated to install and maintain” says Mihai Dumitrescu Managing Partner of VanillaWorks UG.

Indoor positioning via novel optical marker technology

VanillaWorks has developed a positioning technology via optical navigation markers. This allows installing indoor navigation in any building in a quick, easy and cost effective way providing precise and reliable indoor navigation. The vanillaNAV navigation markers are small QR codes that can be attached to the floor or on the building walls. The vanillaNAV App scans QR markers and provides route guidance via an Augmented Reality navigation arrow that is superimposed on the forward facing camera image of the smartphone.

Installation of the vanillaNAV indoor navigation system in a building

vanillaNAV is installed in three easy steps. Thereby the building operator can install vanillNAV either independently or with assistance from VanillaWorks team. The first step is to define navigation destinations and routes inside the building via the web-based vanillaNAV Manager. The customer uploads the floor plan of the building in any image format in the vanillaNAV Manager. Using drag & drop, he defines the available destinations and possibly adds additional information about these destinations such as an exhibitor details at a trade show or a product on the shelf. The navigation markers are placed on the floor plan map using drag & drop as well. Finally the routes on each floor of the building and the connections between the floors (e.g. elevator, stairs or escalator) must be defined. The second step is to print the navigation markers either as film markers (for solid ground) or as hard plastic markers (for carpeting) or directly on carpets. The third step is to place the navigation markers in the building. Therefore they are simply attached at locations previously defined in the vanillaNAV Manager.

Indoor Navigation with the vanillaNAV App

The vanillaNAV App for Android and iOS guides the building visitors to their desired destination. vanillaNAV detects automatically the building in which vanillaNAV indoor navigation service is installed and shows the user a list of available destinations. For selecting the navigation destination the user can scroll the list or use the integrated search function. By clicking on the navigation destination the end user can get additional information about it or start the navigation. After starting the route guidance the user will simply follow the Augmented Reality navigation arrows.

Pricing and availability

The vanillaNAV indoor navigation system is now available worldwide. Interested parties can either request an online product demonstration or simply try out vanillaNAV free of charge with up to 10 navigation destination. The customer simply has to sign up on the vanillaNAV website (www.vanillanav.com) in order to get an account. The vanillaNAV App is available free of charge in the Android Play Store and Apple App Store. As a building operator you can obtain the vanillaNAV indoor navigation either on a monthly or annual subscription basis. The price depends on the number “vanillaNAV points” needed for a building. “vanillaNAV points” can either be used for “navigation destinations” or “additional information about destinations”. Each “navigation destination” as well as each “additional information about a navigation destination” costs one vanillaNAV point. One vanillaNAV point costs from 99ct/month.

For more information about vanillaNAV please visit www.vanillanav.com