Imagine a GPS system precise enough to pinpoint exactly where you are inside of a particular building. It could know that you’re standing in front of a particular painting at an art museum, for instance. Or which panel you’re attending at a conference.
ByteLight, a Cambridge-based startup emerging from stealth today, can do just that, though not with GPS. The company uses patented technology to create an “indoor positioning system” using LED lighting. And it has already raised $1.25 million in seed capital, led by VantagePoint Capital Partners, to build its team and begin piloting its system.
“Accurate indoor positioning has been described as the ‘holy grail’ of location-based services,” said Aaron Ganick, co-founder and CEO of ByteLight, in a release. “We provide an enabling, breakthrough technology for the next generation of indoor-location applications. Our platform makes it easy for shoppers to navigate retail stores and find products, manages and optimizes enterprise employee operations, turns mobile devices into tour guides within a museum or public building, and helps people find colleagues and booths while attending trade shows or other events – the applications for this technology are truly endless.”
Here’s how the system works, in more detail, from the release:
“ByteLight-enabled” lights transmit proprietary signals which can be picked up by camera equipped mobile devices. Once signals are detected, the device then calculates its position without the need for an active network connection – ByteLight’s market-leading indoor positioning solution is accurate to less than one meter and takes less than a second compute.
The museum example is kind of a gimme, as it has obvious consumer benefits. But I’d imagine a lot of facilities would be interested in just better understanding the flow of foot traffic in their space. To that end, ByteLight also offers some analytics to assess traffic patterns and “engagement,” which I imagine refers to how users interact with messages, promotions, etc. sent to them via the network.
The advantage ByteLight has over GPS is obviously precision, but the holdup is the need for a facility to see the value. So the big question here will be what kind of facilities see it. Airports, conference centers, museums all make sense. Where else, though? Will this technology be available at the bar? At your office?
In any case, if this technology does take off, it offers a real platform – just like GPS – for others to utilize with new apps and businesses.
ByteLight is a BU spinout and a Summer@Highland graduate.
