Tourism elevated to the next level



The new patent would allow lost visitors to be guided indoors to the place they want.

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto has filled an US patent application for a concept that describes a way to direct lost tourists by beaming position information through an overhead grid of infrared transmitters to a mobile device (DS Lite).

The handheld then communicates to a server that lights up floor displays with maps and directions for the tourist to reach its destination inside the building they are visiting.

Here is the patent's abstract:

POSITION DETECTING SYSTEM AND POSITION DETECTING PROGRAM

A plurality of positional information transmitters 100, each of which transmits positional information to which a plurality of unit spaces are each uniquely assigned, are disposed on a ceiling. A mobile terminal 10 receives the positional information transmitted from each of the positional information transmitters 100 and changes a terminal-side image in accordance with the received positional information. Furthermore, the mobile terminal 10 transmits to a server 300 current positional information and operation information indicating an instruction inputted by a user. The server 300 changes, in accordance with the current positional information and the operation information received by the mobile terminal 10, a floor image displayed on a plurality of floor displays 200 disposed on a floor. Thus, it becomes possible to provide a highly interesting and novel position detecting system.
NEWS SOURCE: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...AN/Nintendo%29

Our thanks to 'Kaos2K' for digging up this neat patent!