Latest news with #wayfinding
CTV News
2 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
LHSC set to roll out new navigation app and cancer support program for young patients
In an ongoing effort to enhance the hospital experience for both patients and staff, London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is introducing a cutting-edge wayfinding solution designed to make navigating its sprawling facilities easier than ever. Finding your way through LHSC can be a challenge. That's why the hospital is rolling out MazeMap, a global navigation app that offers an interactive digital map to help users reach their destinations more efficiently. 'We have almost four-million in square feet across all our sites, so navigating hospitals is not always easy,' said Nick Vlacholias, vice president of Facilities and Support Services at LHSC. The app, which is expected to launch in the coming weeks, functions similarly to common navigation tools, but is optimized for indoor hospital settings. 'We leverage parts of our network infrastructure within the hospital to do that blue dot location,' explained Andrew Mes, LHSC's Chief Information Officer. 'That's how, as patients navigate through the system, they'll know where they are on the map.' LHSC A map of London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). (Source: LHSC) Alongside its digital innovation, LHSC also unveiled a new Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Program aimed at providing specialized cancer care for patients aged 15 to 39. 'Our hope is that this will allow access to specialized supportive care services, tailored to their psychosocial needs, sexual health, and fertility needs,' said Dr. Andrew Arifin, radiation oncologist at LHSC. The program seeks to bridge a care gap by offering tailored services that address the unique challenges faced by young people undergoing cancer treatment. When asked about his ongoing role at LHSC during Wednesday's media briefing, David Musyj indicated that there would be no immediate changes. 'The answer is pretty much status quo,' he said. The update marked the final public briefing before LHSC takes a break for the summer. Regular monthly updates are scheduled to resume in September.
BBC News
09-06-2025
- BBC News
Permission sought for 20 new signs in Barnstaple
Permission is being sought to install new signs across a town in Devon. Barnstaple Town Council has put forward proposals for 20 wayfinding signs to be installed which will list locations, cultural points of interest and transport directions. They would be partly funded by £3.6m from Flourishing Barnstaple, a North Devon Council initiative. The town council has earmarked a number of areas across the town for the two-metre (6ft) high signs. Flourishing Barnstaple aims to establish Barnstaple as a cultural centre of northern and public art in one part of the project, along with a creative industries' hub in Boutport Street and a performing arts and learning hub at Bridge for the signs is needed from North Devon Council's planning department. Barnstaple Town Council hopes the signs will be installed for footpaths in Boutport Street, Bear Street, the Square, Barnstaple Bus Station, Rock Park at Taw Vale, Mermaid Walk, the intersection of North Walk and Tuly areas include the entrance to Castle Green, entrance to Green Lanes, Cattle market car park in Tuly street, the entrance to Queen's well as, The Strand, outside the museum, intersection of Queen's Street and Mallets Lane, Silver Street entrance to the bus station, Fair View car park, intersection of High street and Mermaid Walk, Tarka Leisure Centre, Long Bridge and Barnstaple Railway Station.
Hospitality Net
02-06-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Lost Guests Are Hurting Revenue: Fix Your Navigation Challenge Before Summer Break
Guests arrive, download your app, and are ready to explore. But instead of discovering everything your resort offers, they get stuck. They ask for directions. They miss out on experiences they would have enjoyed, or head off-site because they didn't realise what was nearby. All because you can't guide them there. This quiet friction frustrates guests, shortens dwell time, and leaves revenue untapped. Many resorts still rely on outdated PDFs or static maps to help guests find their rooms and facilities, creating dead ends in what should be a seamless guest experience. "When guests get lost, they don't just get frustrated. They skip in-house dining, retail, and the premium activities you crafted to enhance their stay," explains Peter O'Dare, VP of Product at "This is more than a guest experience issue. It's costing operators money." Wayfinding isn't just about getting from A to B. It's a strategic tool that can influence where guests go, how long they stay, and how much they spend. To help operators address their navigation challenges before the summer surge, is hosting a short 30-minute webinar on June 12th: "The Resort Operator's Guide to Wayfinding." The session, led by Peter and Sales Manager René Ronk, will start at 10 am. ET and show resort and guest experience leaders how real-time, GPS-enabled navigation—delivered through their existing mobile app—can unlock immediate wins. Used by resorts like Haven, Baha Mar, and Six Flags, MapLayr integrates seamlessly into guest apps to provide branded, intuitive blue-dot wayfinding that eliminates confusion and highlights key locations. Attendees will learn how to: Remove guest friction with real-time navigation Increase traffic to high-value zones like dining, retail, and premium activities Launch fast using their current app with no rebuild required Used by hundreds of venues worldwide, MapLayr is already helping operators make mapping guests' most-loved app feature, and a key revenue lever. Click here to register for the live webinar. And get the recording delivered directly to your inbox if you can't make it on the day. Ellen Kasinopoulou Head of Marketing 01889 560218
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Wayfinding Week activities aim to connect Pacific Islanders with their seafaring roots
Pacific Islanders of yore developed elaborate navigational techniques centered on nature, and a week of activities aims to tap into that tradition to connect Pacific Islanders now in Utah with their seafaring roots. Wayfinding Week, the first event of its type in Utah, launched Friday with a presentation on an oral history project focused on Utah's Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. It continues with several events through May 30 that tap into the navigational traditions of Pacific Islander communities and apply the knowledge to modern-day life. Living 'so far inland, we often feel separated from the ocean where our ancestors, language, culture and identities came from,' said Jake Fitisemanu, now living in West Valley City but born in New Zealand and raised in Hawaii. 'A lot of this knowledge is ancient but also so relevant and practical in our modern, urban lives today.' The Samoana Integrated Learning Initiative, founded by Fitisemanu — also a member of the Utah House of Representatives — is the main organizer of Wayfinding Week. It's also sponsored by the University of Utah's Center for Pasifika Indigenous Knowledges, the Utah Pacific Islander Health Coalition and other organizations. Next week, varied speakers will offer historical, metaphorical and personal presentations centered on the seafaring traditions of Pacific Islanders, though speakers will also touch on ecological matters. 'Wayfinding is a central core of Pacific Islander cultures reflected today in our languages, proverbs, customs and practices, and even how our families and community organizations are structured,' said Laneta Fitisemanu, Jacob Fitisemanu's sister and another event organizer. The ocean 'connects all of us across the Pacific, and even for those of us born and living in the diaspora, that connection still holds us together and ties us to where we come from.' Pacific Island navigational techniques 'are rooted in stars, winds, ocean currents and ancestral knowledge,' according to a press release for the event, and presenters from Hawaii, Samoa and New Zealand will offer lessons about the traditions. The keynote speaker at a presentation on Tuesday, May 27, 'Voyaging by Land and Sea: Utah Roots and Oceanic Roots,' will be Fani Bruun, captain of Gaualofa, a traditional Samoan ocean voyaging canoe. 'Drawing from her experiences voyaging across Pasifika and beyond, she explores how wayfinding teaches us to live in balance with the ocean and land, reminding us that caring for the earth is inseparable from honoring who we are,' reads a synopsis of the event. Celeste Manuia Haʻo, an educator from Hilo, Hawaii, will offer a talk on Wednesday, May 28, blending 'wayfinding, cultural revitalization and the sacred responsibilities of a taupou living in diaspora into a powerful story of return, resilience and renewal.' A taupou is a type of ceremonial hostess in Samoan culture. An event Thursday, May 29, at Clark Planetarium will feature the Samoan 'star compass' while a storytelling event is set for Friday, May 30. Traditional wayfinding went through a period of decline with the advent of western navigational technology, said Laneta Fitisemanu. But it's now going through a period of revival, in part as a means of asserting the Pacific Islander identity and reconnecting Pacific Islanders living outside the region with traditional culture. Events like Wayfinding Week 'remind them that our people were scientists, mathematicians and engineers and that they, too, can pursue these fields where we still need more representation,' she said. Organizers 'want more islander families in Utah to have similar experiences of reconnecting with the oceanic core of who we are.'
ABC News
23-05-2025
- ABC News
Pacific voyagers' remarkable environmental knowledge allowed for long-distance navigation without western technology
Wet and shivering, I rose from the outrigger of a Polynesian voyaging canoe. We'd been at sea all afternoon and most of the night. I'd hoped to get a little rest, but rain, wind and an absence of flat space made sleep impossible. My companions didn't even try. It was May 1972, and I was three months into doctoral research on one of the world's most remote islands. Anuta is the easternmost populated outpost in the Solomon Islands. It is a half-mile in diameter, 120 kilometres from its nearest inhabited neighbour, and remains one of the few communities where inter-island travel in outrigger canoes is regularly practised. My hosts organised a bird-hunting expedition to Patutaka, an uninhabited monolith 30 miles away, and invited me to join the team. We spent 20 hours en route to our destination, followed by two days there, and sailed back with a 20-knot tailwind. That adventure led to decades of anthropological research on how Pacific Islanders traverse the open sea aboard small craft, without "modern" instruments, and safely arrive at their intended destinations. Wayfinding techniques vary, depending upon geographic and environmental conditions. Many, however, are widespread. They include mental mapping of the islands in the sailors' navigational universe and the location of potential destinations in relation to the movement of stars, ocean currents, winds and waves. Western interest in Pacific voyaging Disney's two Moana movies have shined a recent spotlight on Polynesian voyaging. European admiration for Pacific mariners, however, dates back centuries. In 1768, the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville named Sāmoa the "Navigators' Islands". The famed British sea captain James Cook reported that Indigenous canoes were as fast and agile as his ships. He welcomed Tupaia, a navigational expert from Ra'iātea, onto his ship and documented Tupaia's immense geographic knowledge. European explorers were impressed by the navigational skills of the people they encountered in the Pacific islands. In 1938, Māori scholar Te Rangi Hīroa (aka Sir Peter Buck) authored "Vikings of the Sunrise", outlining Pacific exploration as portrayed in Polynesian legend. In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer and amateur archaeologist, crossed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands aboard a balsa wood raft that he named Kon-Tiki, sparking further interest and inspiring a sequence of experimental voyages. Ten years later, Andrew Sharp, a New Zealand-based historian and prominent naysayer, argued that accurate navigation over thousands of miles without instruments is impossible. Others responded with ethnographic studies showing that such voyages were both historic fact and current practice. In 1970, Thomas Gladwin published his findings on the Micronesian island of Polowat in "East Is a Big Bird". Two years later, David Lewis's We, the Navigators documented wayfinding techniques across much of Oceania. Many anthropologists, along with Indigenous mariners, have built on Gladwin's and Lewis' work. A final strand has been experimental voyaging. Most celebrated is the work of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. They constructed a double-hull voyaging canoe named Hōkūle'a, built from modern materials but following a traditional design. In 1976, led by Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug, they sailed Hōkūle'a over 2,500 miles from Hawai'i to Tahiti without instruments. In 2017, Hōkūle'a completed a circumnavigation of the planet. In traversing Earth's largest ocean, one can travel thousands of miles and see nothing but sky and water in any direction. Absent a magnetic compass, much less GPS, how is it possible to navigate accurately to the intended destination? Looking to the stars Most Pacific voyagers rely on celestial navigation. Stars rise in the east, set in the west, and, near the equator, follow a set line of latitude. If a known star either rises or sets directly over the target island, the helmsman can align the vessel with that star. However, there are complications. Which stars are visible, as well as their rising and setting points, changes throughout the year. Therefore, navigation requires a detailed astronomical understanding. Also, stars are constantly in motion. One that is positioned directly over the target island will soon either rise too high to be useful or sink below the horizon. Thus, a navigator must seek other stars that follow a similar trajectory and track them as long as they are visible and low on the horizon. Such a sequence of guide stars is often called a "star path". Of course, stars may not align precisely with the desired target. In that case, instead of aiming directly toward the guide star, the navigator keeps it at an appropriate angle. A navigator must modify the vessel's alignment with the stars to compensate for currents and wind that may push the canoe sideways. This movement is called leeway. Therefore, celestial navigation requires knowledge of the currents' presence, speed, strength and direction, as well as being able to judge winds' strength, direction and effect on the canoe. During daylight, when stars are invisible, the Sun may serve a similar purpose. In early morning and late afternoon, when the sun is low in the sky, sailors use it to calculate their heading. Clouds, however, sometimes obscure both sun and stars, in which case voyagers rely on other cues. Navigating requires deep understanding of waves, in the form of both swells and seas. ( AP: Esteban Felix ) Waves, wind and other indicators A critical indicator is swells. These are waves produced by winds that blow steadily across thousands of miles of open sea. They maintain their direction regardless of temporary or local winds, which produce differently shaped waves called "seas." The helmsman, feeling swells beneath the vessel, gleans the proper heading, even in the dark. In some locations, as many as three or four distinct swell patterns may exist; voyagers distinguish them by size, shape, strength and direction in relation to prevailing winds. Once sailors near their target island, but before it is visible, they must determine its precise location. A common indicator is reflected waves: swells that hit the island and bounce back to sea. The navigator feels reflected waves and sails toward them. Pacific navigators who have spent their lives at sea appear quite confident in their reliance on reflected waves. I, by contrast, find them difficult to differentiate from waves produced directly by the wind. Certain birds that nest on land and fish at sea are also helpful. In early morning, one assumes they're flying from the island; in late afternoon, they're likely returning to their nesting spots. Navigators sometimes recognise a greenish tint to the sky above a not-yet-visible island. Clouds may gather over a volcanic peak. And sailors in the Solomon Islands' Vaeakau-Taumako region report underwater streaks of light known as te lapa, which they say point toward distant islands. One well-known researcher has expressed confidence in te lapa's existence and utility. Some scholars have suggested that it could be a bioluminescent or electromagnetic phenomenon. On the other hand, despite a year of concerted effort, I was unable to confirm its presence. Estimating one's position at sea is another challenge. Stars move along a given parallel and indicate one's latitude. To gauge longitude, by contrast, requires dead reckoning. Navigators calculate their position by keeping track of their starting point, direction, speed and time at sea. Some Micronesian navigators estimate their progress through a system known as etak. They visualise the angle between their canoe, pictured as stationary, and a reference island that is off to one side and represented as moving. Western researchers have speculated on how etak works, but there is no consensus yet. For millennia, Pacific voyagers have relied on techniques such as these to reach thousands of islands, strewn throughout our planet's largest ocean. They did so without Western instruments. Instead, they held sophisticated knowledge and shared understandings, passed by word of mouth, through countless generations.
