Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 2

GPS (global positioning system) and mapping industry has been dominated in the recent years by tech giants such as Google. The combination of factors such as the adoption of 5G, advancements in GPS chips (duel frequency GPS chip), the completion of the Galileo constellation in EU and the Beidou constellation of satellites in China together with the underserved pedestrian consumer segment on navigation presents a unique opportunity for disruption in the navigation space. With the launch of these high-precision positioning technologies, it has become possible to create a customized navigation system dedicated to pedestrian markets only. To address this gap, iMerciv, a Toronto based company is building Mapinhood, a navigation system for pedestrians. Mapinhood is being designed as a crowd-sourced system and will offer highly customized path-finding based on user preferences, accessibility needs and actual ground conditions. In the proposed project, iMerciv and Centennial College are partnering to conduct research and development for the routing algorithm and a data collection mechanism. Successful completion of this project will help launch the platform in early 2020. Release of Mapinhood will create highly skilled jobs in Canada over the coming years.