Hi all,
I’m looking for an app that will allow a user to navigate indoors and create their own roots. I am thinking of something like the CLEW app but for the watch. Does anything exist yet? Thanks all for your help with this.
By Mike, 20 April, 2025
Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps
Comments
This is not possible
Since the Apple Watch does not have a camera it is not possible to create roots. Gps would not work either because it is such a small area.
I use the Clew app on my phone but it is not possible to do these kinds of things with a watch.
Even Glidance
I posed this during the last Glidance virtual demo. If I were attending a weekend conference, for example, would I be able to work with someone sighted to create routes and mark waypoints around the conference center, then use Glide to navigate independently afterward? I understand dead reckoning is inherently inaccurate, but dead reckoning augmented by an AI with a camera has the potential to be an excellent indoor navigation solution. Or so I would have thought.
Sadly, the designers didn't respond positively. They indicated that, perhaps, if enough Glide users had visited the same spot, Glide might be able to learn its location, or something along those lines that sounded very much like crowd sourcing. They went on to say that my best bet would be to use Glide to read the signs posted on meeting room doors, which seems unworkable unless I have access to some kind of tactile map telling me where one room is relative to another.
I just don't understand why this problem is so challenging. An AI ought to be able to download a floor plan and understand where it is from marked waypoints and saved routes, and even make good guesses about how to get to places I haven't visited yet. But even with Glide, indoor navigation seems to be this completely intractable problem for which an in-depth laser scan of the environment is the only solution.