INapp phase 1- Indoor navigation application for public buildings

Purpose and goal

The project has developed and pilottested a indoor navigation application for android phones for hospital environments. Efficacy goal of the application is to achieve time gain for patients by making it easier to navigate within the health care facility. The study collected the patient´s experiences of indoor navigation in this environment. This knowledge will be applied to the next phase of application development. The project also contribute to an increased knowledge of navigation, which in a larger perspective effects on other ongoing positioning projects with in the county

Results and expected effects

A fairly easy but efficient indoor navigation application was developed. The overall experience is described as positive. Time measurement has been performed and we did not find any significant time gain for the patient. Meta-analysis of these results has been made. The respondents experiences of the application have been analyzed and the results will be applied to the next development phase. An interesting result regarding respondents overall rating is that the higher the age is of respondents the higher rating was given to the application.

Approach and implementation

Development of the application has been done iteratively Using maps of the hospital and a digital mapping of wireless network points in the body of the building create the basis for navigation. Navigation solution does not require access to the hospital wireless networks. Test subjects were divided into a control group and a test group. Surveys captured participants´ experience of navigating within the hospital, with and without application. Time data and route was collected from users´ applications and analyzed. A few patients were contacted after their visit for a short interview.