ESRI International User Conference 2010 Route Finder For The iPhone

Last week I posted information about an updated route finder which was made available as the ESRI International User Conference 2010 is set to kick of in San Diego. With the size of the venue and the amount of sessions, its useful to have an electronic route finder. Information on this can be found here: http://geo.geek.nz/events/…

But what if you are not carrying a laptop? Well there is now a route finder available for those using an iPhone or Andriod device.

Based on your location and without GPS, you can list the sessions in a nearby room, and if you desire, the application will show you the path to another rooms or another sessions

This works without GPS by using QR codes. QR codes have been printed on sheets of paper and have been taped to doors within the San Diego Convention Centre, Marriott Hotel and Hilton Hotel.

The codes look something like this:

It’s pretty simple to use.

If you have installed a QR code reader application on your smartphone, you can scan this QR code using your smartphone camera, and the reader will recognize the pattern, decode it to obtain a URL, and instruct the local browser to load that URL. Once the page associated with that URL is loaded, all the sessions that are scheduled to take place in that room on that day will be listed. And if you tap on a session, the full description of that session will be displayed.

A 3D isometric projection has been provided so you can see all the floors and buildings and the path within the floors as well as the ability to access wheelchair friendly routes.

Here are some screenshots of this running on my iPhone:

After decoding a pattern, I automatically get taken to the web browser where a URL loads.

Settings allow me to change the route type as well as my Twitter client.

 

I can get information about a particular session or room.

 

From my current position, I can select a room I want to goto and the application will create a route for me. This route is in 3D. You can interact with it by holding and dragging on the map. This rotates the view in 3D.

Time and distance for my route is available as well.

 

Creating a route to a session is available as well.

Very neat tool to easily find your way around the ESRI International User Conference 2010. Mansour has posted full information about this service along with some links to iPhone applications that you can download and install to decode QR codes. All of this can be found here: http://ucpathfinder.esri.com/