Netcetera guides Travelers through Lucerne Station

Bahnhof Luzern App for Indoor Navigation

In cooperation with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, the SBB and the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation, Netcetera has developed an iPhone app that shows travelers the way in Lucerne Station. It is available for download from the App Store for free. The “Pilot Bahnhof Luzern” app is based on the landmark approach, since smartphones are unable to find the exact location - or sometimes any location at all - inside buildings. Navigation with visual landmarks makes use of easily recognizable visual features as points in a route network. This allows everyone to find their way to their destination easily.

Finding your way in a train station, airport or shopping center is not always easy. Indoors, but also for pedestrians, a navigation as seen in cars often is unable to find the exact location or any location at all, as e.g. a clear road network with lanes is missing or "left" and "right" cannot reliably be detected.

In cooperation with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences (HSLU) as a research partner, the SBB as an industrial partner and the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation, Netcetera has developed an app for the iPhone that works using landmarks. Research at HSLU showed that a navigation system based on visual reference points provides a better basis for orientation inside buildings than a map. In the same way as verbal directions, navigation using landmarks makes use of easily recognizable visual features as points in a route network, so that travelers inside the station are guided from their starting point to their destination.

The Lucerne Station app is based on an editable route network accurate to within a meter and can be dynamically adapted according to current knowledge. This makes it possible to temporarily recommend a different route if necessary, for example if a special event is taking place. The database is consulted when you select "Show the way" in the app, and it visually shows the way from A to B.

First you see an overview of all landmarks, including moving from one floor to another, inside the station. Details can be accessed from every point in this overview. A split screen shows an enlarged view of the next landmark, along with a map with the two current waypoints on the station floor plan. As with verbal directions, the next visual reference point is also shown on a map section.

This innovative approach to indoor navigation is currently being tested at Lucerne Station. For this purpose, the “Pilot Bahnhof Luzern” app is available for all in the App Store for free.

 

How do I get to the Travel Office?

 

How travelers are guided from their starting point to their destination

The "Pilot Bahnhof Luzern" app knows and shows the way

 

Editable route network accurate to within a meter can be dynamically adapted The Lucerne Station app is based on an editable route network accurate to within a meter and can be dynamically adapted according to current knowledge. This makes it possible to temporarily recommend a different route, for example if a special event is taking place.

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