The new Orange county convention center is quite large built like an "H", the North and South sides contain the meeting rooms. The two sides are connected via a huge expo center. Finding the quickest way to get from point a to point b is a challenge.
The Windows Mobile team along with a research project at Graz University of Technology came up with a solution, an application called Signpost. This application runs on the Windows Mobile platform with any camera enabled device.
The application has a map of the facility along with the schedule and location of sessions. There is an update function which will refresh the schedule in real time. They have located signposts around the convention like the one below, you point the camera to it, the application recognizes the symbol and shows you your location in reference to where you want to go.
This picture was taken with the T-Mobile Wing (linked to original), I am finding that the image quality from the camera is very good, however memory constraints have forced me into too many reboots. I am now working on organizing my applications to see which one fails to unload its dll (more on that later).
This is very handy and simple concept. I am sure it was not that simple to implement, the application is large (it does not work well on my SD card) and seems to take over the graphics engine, much like a full screen game which made it impossible for to easily take screen prints. However the Signpost website gives an excellent overview of how things work. I think this application would work very well in a large shopping malls or maybe the concept could be integrated in Mobile Live Search, what about a city with these markers on street corners, no need to carry a GPS receiver to find your way walking around New York City, that would be neat...
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