You won't be able to travel or spend a lot of time in malls for now, but Google Maps is preparing to return to places like this in the not too distant future. A new feature is introduced that uses augmented reality to help you find your way around shopping malls, airports, and train stations.
Google unveiled a feature called Indoor Live View on Tuesday, which displays graphics such as arrows, pointers and symbols on the smartphone screen over the camera view of the surrounding world. Find a store in the mall or a bathroom at the airport.
The feature is more interactive than existing feature maps in Google Maps and extends to a similar city navigation feature introduced in 2019 and available on Android. and iOS users in select malls in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Island, Seattle, and Newark, NJ.
Google said it will be available for a limited number of airports, shopping malls and public transportation in Tokyo and Zurich in the coming months. This is one of the many changes Google has made to Maps in the past few years as Google continues to position its popular app to go way beyond just providing detailed maps and directions. said Russell Dicker, Google Maps product manager.
When checking into reporters on Mondays, the AR feature helps users find a number of items inside, such as a baggage claim or a platform at a transit station or in a shopping center, directions to a store on a certain floor. Typically, a smartphone uses built-in GPS and a compass to determine your location and the direction you're looking in a map app. However, in crowded city centers, these technologies may not be as effective (e.g. GPS relies on a line of sight to transmit radio signals from distant satellites to the phone).
Instead, Live View relies on the vast inventory of AI and Google Street View. As the company has stated in the past, the user holds the phone in their hand so that the app can match important details with the pictures that the app has already taken. Maps use machine learning to determine which details are likely to be the same and which are best to ignore.
According to Google, the internal version of Live View also takes into account the size of the user and the position of objects in the building. An idea of where you are. You can overlay virtual images to help you find your way to your destination.
Other features that will appear on Google Maps on Tuesday and will be available in the months ahead include the ability to check the weather or air quality while planning your trip. By the end of the year, the app will show users the greenest driving route by default when the route uses less fuel (which is determined taking into account factors such as the following: It is estimated that the slope of the road and the volume of traffic is roughly this As fast as any other road.
The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has been greener and more uncompromising in this regard, "said Dicker, who is running a pilot integration program with Kroger Fred Meyer Supermarket When Picking Up Groceries on the Sidewalk Using Google Maps, For example, the app can continuously update the store with the estimated time of arrival and allow you to check-in via the app upon arrival.
A pilot program will begin this summer in select stores in Portland, Oregon. These features follow many other features introduced earlier this month and are designed to convince users to post more personal content on the mapping app. This included making it easier to share photos of the places visited.
