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Comment by sandoze | Hacker News Reader

I used it as a proof of concept to test the service. Mapped an office space in QGIS. The IMDF format is actually quite nice and portable. It’s really just GEOJSON with some extra properties and can be migrated to any map/service that uses the format.

The actual blue dot generated after mapping is pretty spot on. A slight delay while it catches up to you when walking but honestly some of the best in class when it comes to performance.

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Catch is, would it still work next week. Humidity changes, or the wireless situation changes, like someone turns their hotspot on. More people walking around. The carpet is vacuumed.

I can't find anyone using it IRL. I don't think the hardware supports it in an usable fashion.

The one reason you might look at all this now is for Covid-19 they have turned on some Bluetooth features, but I think they are still not available for non Covid-19 apps anyway.

The indoor maps feature was released a year ago, and is by now in active use at many transit stations (like New York metro, London Underground), airports (like LAX), shopping malls (like Westfield in San Francisco)... you can see a list of dozens of airports already mapped here, actually: https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#maps-indoor-...

I don’t think any of the indoor mapping relies on Bluetooth, why do you think that?

Great question. If I ever go back into the office it would be interesting to retest again.

The mapping is fairly straightforward and many of these technologies require periodic remapping. We’ve yet to test (or find) any tech that does a self healing as things change.

So, if one person activates the hotspot feature on their phone, does it render this inoperable?

Definitely no.

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