gbcAR
AR Wayfinding for George Brown College
Point your phone at any floor-map pillar at George Brown. Pick where you're going. AR arrows walk you there — no app download, just a link.
GBC's buildings are a lot to figure out when you're new.
30,000 students across a bunch of connected buildings — and most of the wayfinding is just a pillar with a printed map and some room numbers on the wall. That technically works, but trying to read a 2D floor plan when you're already running late doesn't really.
The part nobody really talks about: you memorize the map, walk thirty seconds down the hall, and realize you've already lost your orientation. So you run back to check again. It's genuinely stressful when you're new.
Two years of figuring this out.
- Sept 2024
Effect House filter — testing the feel
Started with a TikTok AR filter as a quick proof-of-concept. Floating arrows over hallway video. No real tracking, but it helped me figure out what the experience should actually feel like.
- Feb 2025
Pitch deck + user flow
Formalized it for an immersive media course — wrote a proposal, mapped the full user flow from QR scan to arrival screen, and pitched it to faculty. Got good feedback, which made the next part hurt more.
- Apr 2025
Unity build — hit a wall
Spent weeks setting up Unity AR Foundation and Google's Geospatial API. Got it running on an iPhone. Then found out VPS is outdoor-only — there's no indoor coverage at GBC at all. Project stalled.
- May 2026
Starting over — WebAR this time
New approach: use the campus pillar maps themselves as AR tracking targets. MindAR in the browser, no app install. Simpler stack, less stuff that can go wrong, and honestly a better story.
What went wrong — and how the new version fixes it.
Demo's almost ready.
Reach out if you want to see it when it's live, or just want to talk about the project.
Last updated June 2026. Live demo in progress.