IMDF targets indoor mapping and provides a mobile-friendly, compact, and human-readable data model for any indoor space, providing a basis for orientation, navigation, and discovery.

19 October 2020: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is seeking public comment on the draft Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) before seeking adoption as a Community Standard. This draft standard was originally developed and submitted to OGC by Apple. Comments are due by November 18, 2020.

OGC Members Apple, Autodesk, Esri, Google, New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT), Ordnance Survey Limited, and Safe Software support the submission.

Apple developed IMDF to deliver indoor maps for venues all around the world, making it possible for users of the Apple Maps app to find their way indoors and discover attractions, services, shopping, and dining. IMDF provides a mobile-friendly, compact, human-readable, and highly extensible data model for any indoor space, providing a basis for orientation, navigation, and discovery.

Developers around the world have already created apps and services that offer indoor positioning with automatic floor level switching, seamless outside to indoor navigation, and location based experiences using IMDF tools developed by Apple. These tools include the online IMDF Sandbox, Indoor Survey app, and Apple MapKit and MapKit JS for cross platform rendering of IMDF.

Adoption of IMDF by OGC and the wider mapping community would make it possible to create apps and services using the same highly accurate and detailed map data on any app, website, or operating system. 

Examples include government agencies using an electronic standard of indoor maps data for efficient response to events, hospitals providing mapping guidance to patients, doctors, and visitors, and airports creating a single map that can be easily styled by partners without altering the accuracy of the underlying data.

An OGC Community Standard is an official standard of OGC that was already available as a widely used, mature specification, but was developed outside of OGC’s standards development and approval process. The originator of the standard brings to OGC a “snapshot” of their work that is then endorsed by OGC membership so that it can become part of the OGC Standards Baseline. 

The candidate Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) Community Standard is available for review and comment on the OGC Portal. Comments are due by November 18, 2020, and should be submitted via the method outlined on the Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) Community Standard’s public comment request page.

About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities driven to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

OGC’s member-driven consensus process creates royalty free, publicly available geospatial standards. Existing at the cutting edge, OGC actively analyzes and anticipates emerging tech trends, and runs an agile, collaborative Research and Development (R&D) lab that builds and tests innovative prototype solutions to members' use cases.

OGC members together form a global forum of experts and communities that use location to connect people with technology and improve decision-making at all levels. OGC is committed to creating a sustainable future for us, our children, and future generations.

Visit ogc.org for more info on our work.