Stimulant's HoloLens App Helps Navigate Inside Buildings


We've got Google Maps to help us out when we need to navigate outdoors, but Google can only map out so many indoor locations without getting creepy. And that's where Stimulant comes in. This "innovation studio" built a HoloLens app that lets you map out an area, define locations, and use the headset to get instant directions to any defined location.

Stimulant's wayfinding app allows holographic cartographers, so to speak, to place diamond markers on any location and define them by name. A user can then ask for directions to a specific place in the building and a path of animated particles will lead them there.

While this experiment has somewhat limited usefulness at the moment, it's a great method of wayfinding. When headsets get cheaper and widely available, or similar methods are developed for augmented/mixed reality smartphones, we may have a more precise method of getting to our destination both indoors and out.

Just imagine going to a museum, hospital, or other complex public structure and knowing exactly where to go without asking anybody anything. Eventually, it could be like that.