Carnival Corporation's OceanCompass™

Company: Carnival Corporation & plc, Miami, FL
Company Description: Carnival Corporation & plc is the world’s largest leisure travel company and among the most profitable and financially strong in the cruise and vacation industries, with a portfolio of 10 dynamic brands that include nine of the world’s leading cruise lines. Together, the corporation’s cruise lines operate 103 ships with 234,000 lower berths visiting over 700 ports around the world.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories - Business Technology
Nomination Sub Category: Social Business Solution

Nomination Title: Carnival Corporation's OceanCompass™

Finding your way around a gigantic cruise ship or members of your travel party onboard can be a challenge. GPS is not an option on a 110,000-ton steel vessel that has 17 individual decks and is always on the move. The purpose of the OceanCompass is to eliminate this guest experience barrier by creating an intelligent navigation assistant to maximize guests’ valuable vacation time. The OceanCompass technology is the equivalent of Waze on a ship, enabling guests to seamlessly navigate to points of interest, as well as locate friends and family using technology found in a wearable device called the OceanMedallion that connects to wireless sensing network installed throughout the ship.

OceanCompass is a MedallionClass digital experience found onboard Princess Cruise Line ships. OceanCompass provides guests with turn-by-turn directions to points of interest around the vessel. It also helps guests locate members of their travel party while on board using a “find-friends” type feature called ShipMates. OceanCompass is available on large screen public Portals located throughout the ship and on Guest smart devices (iOS and Android).

OceanCompass leverages a wearable device called the OceanMedallion which is carried by all guests and used to automatically identify and authenticate the guests throughout the ship. The Medallion connects with a proprietary xIOT™ experience Internet of Things network that provides seamless engagement with guests through the use of wireless sensing technologies. The technology uses intelligent navigation assistance, similar to a car or phone GPS app and links to the guest experience network. The OceanMedallion gathers a guest’s information regarding their party and, using OceanCompass, guests can either receive instructions on how to get to their desired location or use the ShipMates feature to see the location of their family and friends.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 150 words):

• OceanCompass features:
-Unity3D Game Engine for client applications distributed to mobile device and on-ship clients
-High end 4K Digital Touch Screens w/ custom industrialized Linux PC.
-Custom web services for routing algorithms, maps, and content management running on Ocean Guest Experience Platform
-Proprietary BLE sensor hardware for recognition, authentication, and locating