Introduction to GoodMaps

About Indoor Navigation

GoodMaps Features, Terms & Definitions

What is GoodMaps?

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Imagine being at an airport and not knowing how to get to your departure gate or shopping at the mall and not knowing what stores are around you. GoodMaps can help everyone – including people who are blind or visually impaired – navigate indoors safely and efficiently.

GoodMaps brings all the information users would get from an outdoor GPS app to the indoors. GoodMaps is an app that uses what’s called

camera-based positioning (CPS) to determine where you are in a room. Then, you can choose a place you want to travel to in the building, and the app will give you turn-by-turn directions for how to get there using your phone's camera as your guide. The GoodMaps team visited your school not long ago and made a scan of the whole building. Now, you can use GoodMaps to guide you independently from room to room. For example, if you want to use GoodMaps to get from your classroom to the gymnasium, you can open the app, scan the classroom to let the app know where you are, enter "gymnasium" in the Search field or look for "gymnasium" in the Directory, and go! The app will tell you how far to walk, when and where to turn, and when you have arrived. GoodMaps includes other cool features too:

Add frequently visited locations – like classrooms, the cafeteria, or restrooms – to your Favorites.

Find a route that avoids stairs if you are a wheelchair user or just want to find the nearest elevator.

Feel vibrations that alert you when you stray off the path you need to travel to get to your destination.

How does GoodMaps work?

GoodMaps uses your phone's camera to locate where you are inside a building and give you directions to where you want to go in that same building. After you have downloaded and launched the GoodMaps app on your phone, follow these steps to navigate from one indoor location to another inside our school:

STEP ONE: Search for a location in the building that you want to travel to from the home screen. You can do this either by:

typing your destination in the search field,

using voice dictation to tell the app where you want to go, or

searching for locations in the Directory in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.

STEP TWO: Find your position by holding your phone slightly away from your chest, with the camera pointed in the direction you are facing, while moving the phone back and forth in a panoramic scanning motion. This is how GoodMaps recognizes where you are in the building. Once the app figures out where you are, it will begin giving you turn-by-turn directions to the place you want to go.

STEP THREE: When you begin moving, hold your phone vertically with the screen against your chest. It's important that you hold the phone in this position while you are walking so that the turn-by-turn instructions are accurate.

STEP FOUR: Listen carefully, and follow the turn-by-turn directions the app gives you while you are walking. If you get off track, you will feel vibrations. When you are back to moving in the right direction, you will hear a tone indicating you are back on track, and the vibrations will stop.

STEP FIVE: The app will tell you when you arrive at your destination. You can also provide feedback about the route by telling the GoodMaps team whether you had any difficulties during the route.

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Download the GoodMaps app

You can download the GoodMaps app by tapping one of these links.

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iPhone Users click here⁠

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Android Users click here⁠

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