6 common challenges with indoor maps

Pointr’s state-of-the-art digital indoor mapping software empowers you to create incredibly detailed and user-friendly interactive indoor maps for your venue, business, or campus. 

Naturally, we prefer to build mapping solutions using maps we generate ourselves to deliver the optimal indoor mapping experience. However, we’re flexible enough to incorporate 3rd-party maps into our mapping solutions when necessary. 

Our indoor mapping platform is built on technology that uniquely positions us to support 3rd-party maps as well as maps generated by us in-house. With that said, the use of maps not native to the Pointr platform is not without its challenges. 

In this article, we look at 6 challenges associated with using digital maps on the market nowadays and how we address these challenges to ensure a smooth indoor mapping experience for our users.

6 problems with 3rd-party raster maps

Generally, digital maps on the market are compiled in a raster format, for example, an image format such as a PNG. The issue here is that raster maps are not designed to map indoor environments (buildings), outdoor environments (car parks, train stations), and transitions between the two.

Before choosing a mapping solution for your building, you should consider the challenges you might encounter. We've listed one of the 6 most commonly seen problems associated with 3rd-party raster maps, including:

Loading speed

Raster maps become huge for large buildings which causes memory and download issues. File sizes are so large that loading time during panning and zooming on the map may be longer, depending on your network connection speed. Due to high CPU and memory consumption (raster tiles are images stitched together), they even have the potential to crash the server.

Georeferencing

Allows maps to treat every single map object individually, making it possible to update only one object at a time and have it reflect its true geo-coordinates on the world map; without having to update the entire map for tiny detail changes. Georeferencing involves assigning real-world coordinates to each pixel of the raster. This means it’s not possible (or extremely challenging) to integrate any outdoor functionality. For example, wayfinding Points of Interest (POIs) between multiple buildings on campus, integrating with food/car pickup, and driving directions to your parking spot.

Each building and map object reflects their true geo-coordinates on the world map, making it possible to integrate outdoor functionalities.

Poor user experience

These days, end-users expect vector-based maps like the ones delivered by Google, Apple, Waze, etc. In fact, raster maps are more widely used in geographical research for capturing, storing, and analyzing data such as water flow over the land’s surface, elevation, temperature, and soil pH. Raster maps are not good for capturing spatial data and don’t provide styling capabilities for end-users. They deliver a more pixelated result than vector-based maps and are more fixed and inflexible.

Source: Maptiler

Issues with multiple layers

Dealing with multiple layers and providing clarity at different zoom levels can be very challenging with 3rd-party raster maps. For example, “show me only meeting rooms and hide other objects” or highlight objects, say, “show me my desk” cause issues. When at a lower zoom, you might want to see department names and, as you zoom in, you might want to hide department names and just show desks or other objects. Again, very tricky to achieve with 3rd-party raster maps.

Incompatibility

Most indoor mapping companies that provide 3rd-party maps use a different geolocation system than the major outdoor map providers such as Google Maps and Microsoft Azure maps. This makes it difficult to achieve a smooth indoor-outdoor wayfinding experience for the user. Pointr’s maps easily integrate with maps from major mapping companies.

Two systems to maintain

Using 3rd-party maps means integrating two separate systems; if one system changes, the other may become out of sync, and the result may not work. Both systems need to align on "floor indexing/naming," for example. We've had cases where a mapping vendor changed their floor names without informing our system, resulting in the system not working. The same challenge applies to georeferencing, where both systems have to precisely match latitude and longitude coordinates to make the integration work. 

Clearly, your indoor mapping experience can be greatly enhanced by using a fully Pointr solution without introducing an additional layer of complexity in the form of 3rd-party maps.

Why Pointr Maps?

Here’s a table that summarizes some of the key benefits of using Pointr’s high-performance vector maps over 3rd party raster-based maps.

Why settle for less than accurate?

Cluttered map view Slow to load, poor performance Poor UX Design

Clean, simple map view 50% smaller in size, faster to load Interactive maps available in 2D/3D

For guaranteed results, best stick with Pointr!

As you can see, while we do support 3rd-party maps, it can make everyone's life more complicated than it needs to be. Functionality may become compromised (for which we continuously monitor and correct). However, a major system variation by the 3rd-party map supplier could potentially render the system inoperable. This eventuality is, of course, beyond our control.

At Pointr, we relish a challenge, and we have solved many indoor mapping puzzles that our competitors have shied away from. A 100% Pointr technology solution is the preferred route for total peace of mind and a robust wayfinding experience you can be confident of - with no hidden surprises!

You might be also interested in:

• 4 must-knows for successful indoor mapping - 4 mins read
• Can Google Maps work indoors, and what are the alternatives? - 7 mins read

	Marianne Slamich
	Eva Cheng