Meijer Debuts Mobile App That Implements Indoor Positioning Systems
Have you ever been in a supermarket trying to find the Morton Salt when you just give up and spend five minutes finding an employee who then shows you that you overlooked the salt the last three times you walked down that aisle? If you shop at Meijer and have a mobile phone, those searches, thanks to indoor positioning systems may soon be a thing of the past.
The service is the brain-child of Point Inside, a startup that looks to use WiFi access point and Assisted-GPS to reliably pinpoint a users coordinates, while sending them to where they want to be.
The system is currently being beta tested in four Michigan locations and can direct customers to the location of more than 100,000 items, while also pointing out the stores bathroom and customer service locations.
To properly work, each location has 26 WiFi nodes which are used to triangulate the users location with reasonable precision, while providing walking directions around the store and their various aisles.
The trial app, called ‘Meijer find-it’ is free and can be downloaded for iPhone and Android devices.
What do you think? Would this be a useful app for you? If it includes a shopping list function, I’m on-board.
