The street leg ended in the middle of the building: iseeido

Until build 11, a journey to a spot on an upper floor ended its street leg in an odd place: wherever the scan of that floor had happened to start. That point was usually somewhere in the middle of the building. Then the app asked you to mark a door there, on a floor that has no door to the street.

Every floor is its own map

iseeido’s indoor engine comes from ICIDO. There, a building is a group of places, one or more for each floor, listed from the bottom up. Each floor is its own map, with its own starting point and its own sense of direction. So, taken on its own, each floor needed its own placement on Earth and its own door, exactly like a separate place.

That is fine for the floor you walk in on. It doesn’t work for the others. Without a door, street directions aim at the map’s origin, which is wherever the scan started. On an upper floor, that is a point above the middle of the building.

The trouble didn’t stop at the door. The arrival screen never mentioned stairs. And the indoor map can only recognise its own floor. Opened at the entrance, the map of Floor 2 searched for a floor you weren’t on yet, and waited on “Finding where you are…” until you happened to climb up.

One way in for the whole building

Since build 11, a journey to any floor of a building goes in by the building’s door. The app gathers the doors marked on every floor and puts the one nearest the destination’s floor first, since a door on the floor itself needs no stairs. Street directions then go to that door, using the placement of the floor it’s marked on.

Street directions now end at the building’s door. The stairs are yours; guidance starts on the right floor.

Then the journey adds a step it didn’t have. Near the door, the approach screen shows the floor you go in on, with its door, and says which floor the destination is on. Its button reads Continue to Floor 2 instead of Start indoor navigation.

Tap it and a new screen, headed Go up to Floor 2, lists the building’s floors from the top down, like a lift panel, with the floor you go in on and your destination marked. It tells you to take the stairs or the lift, and, with spoken directions on, says aloud to tap I’m on Floor 2 once you are. Only then does the map of Floor 2 open and start looking for where you are. Start looking too early, and the way out of that screen offers I’m not on Floor 2 yet, which takes you back to the floor directions.

Street directions to the door. Directions from Google Maps take you to the building’s door, on whichever floor it’s marked.
The approach screen. It shows the floor you go in on and says which floor the destination is on.
Go up to Floor 2. Take the stairs or the lift, then tap I’m on Floor 2.
Guided on the right floor. Hold the phone up while it recognises the floor from what the camera sees, then follow the route to the spot.

The stairs themselves are yours. iseeido has no route from one floor’s map to another’s, so between the door and the right floor it tells you where to go, not how to get there.

Place one floor, not all of them

The change also means less work. Only the floor you go in by needs placing on Earth and a door marked. The indoor leg needs each floor’s map, never its placement. On the Maps tab, an upper floor now reads Ready · goes in on Floor 1, instead of asking for either.

It removes a quiet way to go wrong, too. Floors placed one by one could disagree, because a rectangular roof fits a plan turned half a turn just as well as one the right way round. A floor lined up backwards sent people to the wrong side of the building. Now, when you line up a floor, the app draws a floor of the same building that is already placed underneath it, in periwinkle, so a floor turned the wrong way round is plain to see.

Lining up Floor 2 over Floor 1, which is already placed. The outline alone can’t tell you which way round it goes; the walls underneath can.

How the door is chosen

Every floor of the building is checked, nearest the destination’s floor first, the lower floor first when two are equally near.
On each floor, the destination’s own map comes before any other map on that floor.
If no floor has a door yet, street directions aim at a placed floor’s origin, and the app says which floor to go to without saying up or down, since the way in isn’t known.
A property’s areas, which sit side by side rather than stacked, each keep their own placement and their own way in.

What it means with the phone in your hand

Street directions end at a door you can walk through. Before the camera is asked to recognise anything, the app tells you which floor to go to, and which way, so it isn’t searching a floor you aren’t on. And one marked door serves the whole building.