NAVER LABS and HERE to collaborate on autonomous indoor mapping technology

NAVER LABS, the ambient intelligence arm of Korea’s leading internet company NAVER Corporation, and HERE Technologies, a global leader in mapping and location services, today announced that they have signed a preliminary agreement to collaborate on autonomous indoor mapping technology.

The collaboration aims to combine NAVER LABS’ Scalable & Semantic Indoor Mapping (SSIM) technology, autonomous robots, and AI-based image recognition capabilities with the HERE Open Location Platform to create, maintain and publish 3D maps of indoor environments such as airports and train stations. Such maps are useful in various ways, from helping people find their way at complex transit interchanges to supporting last mile guidance and more efficient logistics.

The companies are planning initial testing work in Korea, with a view to deploying the technology globally to support the rapid creation of indoor maps.

At the heart of the collaboration will be two kinds of autonomous robot. M1, NAVER LABS’ 3D indoor mapping robot, will be tasked with capturing high-precision data for the maps. M1 is equipped with laser scanners and high-performance cameras, enabling it to build an accurate picture of its environment. The maps will then be kept updated using the information gathered by AROUND, NAVER LABS’ indoor service robot. Additionally,

NAVER LABS’ AI-based image recognition technology will recognize venues and detect changes automatically for semantic mapping.

HERE will provide access to its existing indoor map data, which can be enhanced and updated by SSIM technology, as well as utilize the HERE Open Location Platform for making the maps available to customers.

Chang Song, CEO of NAVER LABS, said: “Together with HERE Technologies, NAVER LABS looks forward to bringing the capabilities of our scalable and semantic indoor mapping technology (SSIM) to the global market.”

Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies, said: “Our collaboration with NAVER LABS supports HERE Technologies’ strategy to provide world-class mapping and location services both indoors and outdoors. We’re excited to leverage advanced robotics technology in the development of indoor maps, and look forward to exploring further collaboration opportunities with NAVER in the future.”

About HERE Technologies
HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes – from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com and www.here.com

About NAVER LABS
NAVER LABS is a location & mobility ambient intelligence company that develops future technologies including autonomous driving, robotics and artificial intelligence. Since its establishment as NAVER’s R&D division in 2013, it has led NAVER’s innovation in technology through products such as ‘Papago’, AI-based translation app, Whale, the omni-tasking web browser, and M1, the 3D indoor mapping robot.

About NAVER
NAVER Corporation is Korea’s leading internet company servicing Korea’s number one search portal NAVER with annual revenue of more than 4.6 trillion Korean won in 2017. It has seen consistent growth and high net-profit rates every year since the company was founded in 1999. With accumulated know-how from decades of providing search engine services, NAVER also showcases innovative mobile services in the global market such as the mobile messenger LINE, video messenger SNOW. NAVER and NAVER group companies intend to strengthen their global capabilities and market presence by collaborating with IT startups and through the development of new technologies in NAVER Labs.