The Bloomberg Mayors Challenge has announced that Warsaw, the capital of Poland, will be the location for a new a project worth over $1.25 million (around €1 million), run by a local startup Ifinity. The startup’s innovative project was chosen from around 155 other proposals submitted by European cities participating in the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge.
In this new exciting new project, Ifinity, a Polish company offering tailormade i-beacon micro-location services, will lead what’s called the ‘Virtual Warsaw project’ – the world’s first navigation system for the citizens of Warsaw, including those with vision impairment. It will be implemented at public offices, public transportation, within cultural locations and sites visited by tourists.
The beacons will allow users to find a micro-locations like a particular doctor’s surgery, a window at a public office, pick up a number in a queue, get information about the current location of a given bus or tram, and gain access to comprehensive information about any national heritage location or cultural event in the city.
Ifinity took responsibility for drafting the project outlines, and is testing implementation at the Capital City Center for the Disabled, with regards to beacons in public transportation.
Adam Jesionkiewicz, CEO of Ifinity said: “Virtual Warsaw is a technological breakthrough in access to city services for the citizens of Warsaw, including those with disabilities. The Ifinity micro-location technology allows us to facilitate the process of resolving issues with public offices, provides a basis for navigation through mazes of corridors, sets route depending on the issue that we need to deal with and allows us to pick up a queue number. The system also includes informative content, which depends on location and is fully adapted to the requirements of citizens with vision impairment.”
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Mayor of the Capital City of Warsaw, says: “I am very glad, that the innovativeness of our idea, which helps people with vision impairment to move about the City, was appreciated. I hope, that Virtual Warsaw will in the future become a guide through our Capital City for all of its citizens and visitors, and that the system will also be implemented in other cities.”
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