The University of Twente is the first university in the Netherlands where Indoor Google Maps is available. This indoor variant of Google's online map service helps users to find their way in publically accessible buildings. The company announced this further extension of Google Maps in the Netherlands on Thursday. Following the rollout through Google apps on Android phones, the indoor maps are now also available on PCs, tablets and iPhone devices.
People spend 95% of their time indoors. Google seizes upon this fact with Indoor Google Maps. Within the Google Maps system, 10,000 indoor maps are now available worldwide. The Netherlands is the eigtheenth country in which the new service is available. Indoor Google Maps has already been available for some time in countries like the US, Russia, Japan, Australia and Germany.
Student mapped out UT sites
Service desks, toilets, canteens, meeting rooms, lecture rooms and theatres and numerous other locations on the UT campus that are accessible to students, staff and visitors have been mapped out. This only concerns the buildings that are accessible without a badge or key. The most extensive task at the UT, mapping the locations and uploading the data to Google Maps, was commissioned by the Directorate for Marketing and Communication and performed by student Annemarie Tibbe.
Apart from the campus of the University of Twente, Indoor Google Maps is now also available at, for example, fourteen major railway stations, the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum, the football stadia Amsterdam ArenA, Philips Stadium and De Kuip, Eindhoven Airport, branches of department store De Bijenkorf and supermarket chain Albert Heijn and several large shopping centres.
Interface
Indoor Google Maps is automatically available in the latest version of Google Maps. It suffices to zoom in on a building for which there is an indoor map available. The familiar ‘blue dot’ icon
indicates your location and the interface also automatically detects the floor you are on when you are in a building with several floors. Here you can read more about Indoor Google Maps, see a list of available locations or upload a floor plan.
