Have The World at your Feet with Google Maps and Easyjet

Google Maps ability to guide us and help us discover unique places in cities we visit has changed the experience of many tourists for the better. It helps us to get rid of cumbersome paper maps, cultural leaflets and restaurant guides. But knowing the immense potential of this technology, it’s sometimes difficult to perceive in which ways it can help us further.

The problem: dependence on the smartphone

We depend on our smartphone for everything. From guiding us to taking pictures or finding places to eat. But it is also a burden for our hands and a distraction for our sight. And if we put it into our pocket we can soon discover that instead of heading to the cathedral we’re going to the local industrial area.

With great attention to details, EasyJet, the low cost British airline, has developed a product that will delight serious travellers and casual tourists alike.

Sneakeairs debut showcase for the press in Barcelona

The Barcelona Street Project was developed by D6, an advertising agency, and Easyjet. This project combines both hardware (the Senakeairs) and software in the form of an app that relies on Google Maps and the Google Maps Directions API. Each unit will vibrate whenever you have to turn either left or right, and if we have reached our destination both shoes will vibrate 3 times.

This wearable is a perfect example of the potential of Google Maps and the Google Maps APIs to provide creative solutions to everyday problems. The Google Maps Directions API included in Google Maps for Work SaaS package turns these sneakers into a compass that always points to our destination. Google Maps has turned upside down so many things in our life sometimes it's difficult to imagine more ways it can help us, but they're out there waiting to be discovered.

This spiritual successor of Get Smart’s shoe phone is just one of the examples in which the potential of Google Maps APIs and the underlying infrastructure help developers find ways to improve people’s lives while Google works in the background to make it all just work.

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