Zappar

Last year, 8.1 million NHS outpatient appointments were missed in England. At University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust hospitals alone, rebooking them costs more than £1 million a month. Then there are the staff. At the same trust, 80% of help desk questions are about how to get somewhere. Every one of those is a nurse, porter or receptionist stopping what they’re doing to give directions, often while they’re trying to track down a piece of equipment themselves. Next week we’re at Healthcare Estates on the GS1 UK stand, showing a better way to get around. Max Dawes and Connell Gauld will have Zapworks Spaces, our app-free indoor navigation solution, set up and running, so you can try it yourself. With Spaces, patients and visitors scan a QR code or tap on an appointment link, search for their ward, clinic or department, and get turn-by-turn directions from wherever they’re standing. Staff can find equipment and services the same way. Nobody downloads an app, and you don’t need beacons or dedicated Wi-Fi. Come and walk a route with us, and bring your toughest wayfinding problem. See you at the GS1 UK stand: A4. #HealthcareEstates #IHEEM #Wayfinding #NHSEstates #Accessibility Sources: NHS Digital – 'University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust - Digital Patient Wayfinding' & 'Hospital Outpatient Activity 2024-2'

People often ask me how I coped with losing my sight around 2 years ago. Quite frankly: a sense of humour, thick skin, and shins of steel. Today is #worldsightday, and this week its #worldmentalhealthday. Loss of any kind takes a massive toll on your mind, but for me, embracing the comedy is the single best mental health strategy. To all those who have joined me along the way, and anyone I will meet in the future, here are some of the highlights: Brushing my teeth with Savlon thinking it was Colgate...its not f***ing minty. Coming downstairs one morning to 15 newborn kittens because I was convinced all my cats were boys. Someone telling me in the pub I've got one boot on and a trainer. My son beating me at Monopoly because he knows I cant check if he's nicked £500 out of the bank. Arriving at a party with a head full of leaves, after walking through an untrimmed hedge on the way over. #trimyourbush Taking a seat on someone's lap on the tube. Having a conversation about the U.S bond crisis with myself because the guy across the table hadn't told me he'd gone to the toilet. Thinking that people are wondering if I've got a little person in my backpack because my computer is talking to me. Asking for my prescription in the dry cleaners because its next door to the pharmacy. Delivering a speech at an IBM conference, having split my lip the night before, and still rocking it (the other guy was actually a door) Camilla Young: trying to explain that when, in Europe, you have to turn left when you get on a coach, not right like the UK. Did that dinner in Vienna have waiters on Segways? Being complimented me on my Christmas socks...in the middle of June. In a nightclub everyone clearing the floor because I'm dancing like no-one can see me. John Cotton Sitting on the floor in a restaurant because I felt the frame of the chair but forgot to check which side the seat was on. Being asked by a stranger at the pub why I'm wearing glasses and holding a cane and saying it's just so that I could use the disabled toilet. On a work trip, waking up being told that the hotel may be a bit dodgy, but not realising, because I couldn't see the peeling wallpaper. Connell Gauld Sitting down at a table in a pub and starting a conversation while my mates watch and laugh from the table next door. Saying lets all tackle at blind football, to find us all kicking each other with the ball 5m away. Thinking you're cooking pasta shells, but cooking pistachios - I still have most of my teeth. Drinking everyone else's pints around the table, except my own. Cheers! Relearning how to navigate the world isn't about being perfect, its about learning to laugh when life serves you Savlon instead of toothpaste. To anyone who is adapting to sight loss, or any disability, its tough, and the impact on mental health is real. So, just give yourself permission to laugh because it makes the weight a whole lot lighter, I promise.

You already know your building is hard to find your way around. If staff keep walking visitors to meetings rooms or contractors need an escort to reach a plant room, you've felt it. What you might not know is where to start. Which technology? Which vendors? What should you measure? How long does it take? We wrote a guide that answers all those questions and more. It covers: • The trade-offs between BLE, Wi-Fi, UWB, QR codes and visual positioning • What to look for in accessible, app-free navigation • Practical advice on choosing vendors and planning a deployment • How to build a business case and measure results Read the full guide: https://bit.ly/4doAJeC Got questions on an indoor navigation project? Drop them below 👇 #IndoorNavigation #Wayfinding #Accessibility

Looking for our booth at Augmented Enterprise Summit next week? Let Zapworks Spaces take you there. We’re bringing app-free indoor navigation to the whole exhibition hall in Atlanta. Find a booth, the toilets or your next coffee, all from your phone. No app to download. No hardware on the walls. Just scan and go. It’s the same technology teams use to navigate large, complex sites. Try it on the show floor, then find us at booth 142 to talk about yours. And put these two talks in your calendar for Tuesday, 13 October: Matt Tomlinson, Extended Reality & Metaverse Lead (R&D) at Mondelēz International will be talking about how his team built 'Quick Pack' in Mattercraft, so packaging teams can resize and restyle a pack in AR before anything physical gets made. 2:50 pm, Atrium Ballroom B. Danny Allen, Associate Director of Digital Products - XR at AstraZeneca will be showing how AZ scaled AR wayfinding with Spaces to guide technicians to more than 7,000 assets. 5:30 pm, Main Stage. Chris Holton will be at the booth all show. Bring your questions, your trickiest building, or the "could AR actually do this?" idea you haven't had time to test. See you there. #AES2026 #AugmentedReality #IndoorNavigation

What if shoppers could discover their favourite chocolate before opening the box? Godiva Chocolatier's new AR-enabled packaging, powered by Zappar, is now live across 50 airports in APAC and EMEA, letting travellers explore the Gold Collection’s chocolates, fillings and tasting notes in AR. It gives shoppers more to go on at the moment of purchase, helping them choose a gift with confidence and giving them a reason to stop, explore and engage. #AR #ConnectedPackaging #TravelRetail

Getting lost in a building is nobody's idea of a good time. Zapworks Spaces just made it a lot less likely. New 360° panoramas, richer landmarks, sharper accessibility (step-free routing, Accessible QR scanning), and a setup flow that's even faster. Join Chris and Connell on 10th September at 4 pm BST for the full walkthrough plus a sneak peek at what's next: live data in landmark cards, Gaussian splats and kiosk mode. 👉 Sign up: https://lnkd.in/e3BnHBKX #wayfinding #navigation #accessibility #AR

We've just shipped one of the biggest updates to Zapworks Spaces yet, and accessibility sits right at the heart of it. We rebuilt the interface to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidelines throughout: colour contrast, keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and visible focus states, applied consistently across both the editor and the end-user experience. We've also added Accessible QR scanning, a new way for blind and low-vision users to identify and navigate to specific items, not just rooms. Alongside that: ✅ A new onboarding flow that sets accessibility preferences and shares safety guidance from someone's very first visit ✅ Landmarks that can now carry photos, video, and audio, with ready-made templates for faster setup ✅ Smarter routing that factors in real effort, not just distance, with step-free, direct, and stairs-first options ✅ Loading that's up to 10x faster in places, and Android WebXR is back for app-free navigation in the browser This is just the start. There's plenty more coming as we keep working toward one goal: making indoor spaces navigable for everyone. Find out more: https://bit.ly/4wG3nPX