The world’s first Beacon-based urban navigation system of Polish origin will be worth a lot
Virtual Warsaw is the world’s first navigation system for citizens of Warsaw to be implemented at public offices, public transportation, within cultural locations and sites visited by tourists. The project is run by The Polish Capital City of Warsaw, in cooperation with Ifinity – a Polish beacon manufacturer. Its primary aim is to help visually impaired and people who are not familiar with the city to get around in the public spaces.
Soon the beacons will enable you to quickly find a particular doctor’s surgery or a window at a post office, pick up a number in a queue, obtain information about current location of a given bus or tram, public transportation timetable or gain access to comprehensive information about any national heritage location or cultural event in the city.
Virtual Warsaw is a technological breakthrough in access to city services for the citizens of Warsaw, including those with disabilities – explains Adam Jesionkiewicz, CEO of Ifinity. The Ifinity micro-location technology allows us to facilitate the process of resolving issues with public offices, provides a basis for navigation through mazes of corridors, sets route depending on the issue that we need to deal with and allows us to pick up a queue number. The system also includes informative content, which depends on location and is fully adapted to the requirements of citizens with vision impairment.
The majority of funding comes from the European Union, but $1.25 million has been acquired from Bloomberg Mayors Challenge, a contest funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Foundation, where Virtual Warsaw placed second. The jury appreciated the idea to create the system that is innovative and universal.
Related article: Virtual Warsaw wins Golden Antenna
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