Kyle
A startup in Edinburgh Scotland, called Sensewhere has become a leader in providing positioning and location based information without the use of GPS. The technology is ideal for rural areas and indoor locations where there is either bad satellite coverage or none at all.
Sensewhere automatically crowd-sources and cross-references RF access point data via users’ own devices, cheaply and dynamically creating an almost limitless proprietary global RF location database that self-corrects with use. sensewhere will allow social networks, device manufacturers and app developers to finally capitalize fully on the enormous potential of highly-accurate indoor location.
Like other existing indoor location systems sensewhere uses whatever hybrid RF location reference information the end-device can receive to fix a location; whether Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWB, NFC, RFID, GPS, etc. The system checks signals against its own database of fixed-location reference points, then uses industry-leading proprietary low power algorithms to provide an accurate and reliable indoor location.
The team behind Sensewhere is hoping that their technology will work as effortlessly as GPS does (in most situations), where the end user won’t even have to think about it. One of the biggest misconceptions in this space is that GPS can penetrate buildings and work underground. Anyone who has tried to navigate out of parking garage knows this isn’t true.
Sensewhere is currently available for iOS devices and Android phones. The Sensewhere team is hoping that the technology will be available on every mobile device.
One of the big advantages to Sensewhere is that as the user base grows, the accuracy grows with it. Ultimately it will be more accurate both indoors and outdoors when trying to navigate to other people or businesses in a close environment like an outdoor festival or a shopping mall.
Another down side to typical GPS, is that, even though accuracy has improved once you get to a location like an outdoor shopping mall, you’re stuck finding things on your own.
Google Maps has recently deployed indoor navigation for some major airports and even some Ikea stores. This technology relies heavily on wifi and other rf identifiters as well.
We got a chance to talk with the year old startup. Check out our interview below.
What is sensewhere?
sensewhere Ltd. is a world leader in hyper-local and indoor positioning solutions providing unparalleled technology and applications for mobile devices.
In layman’s terms, how does it work?
sensewhere’sTM technology enables precise location information in areas where there is no or inaccurate GPS satellite data such as indoors or in tight urban areas.
It is a purely software driven solution that makes use of electromagnetic signals making it unnecessary to send people around to calibrate the mapping.
sensewhere’s hybrid approach uses GPS, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cell ID and other sensors to location reference unknown RF signal sources. It dynamically creates an almost limitless proprietary global RF location database that self-corrects with use; the RF signals are checked against sensewhere’s own database of fixed location reference points and then industry-leading proprietary low power algorithms are used to provide an accurate and reliable indoor location.
Proprietary sensewhere algorithms process the data and enhance it for immediate use by other users and/or systems. The end-device can then receive a location fix as these signal sources are mapped.
sensewhere works by employing automatic crowd sourcing and cross-referencing creating a dynamic WAP database deep indoors. Therefore, as the WAP database grows, user positioning improves. More users will provide faster WAP database generation which in turn will offer fast accurate positioning and continue improving.
sensewhere works with indoor map providers globally and covers popular shopping centres, concert halls festival venues and airports in which the user can navigate in real time.
sensewhere is available as a software enhancement for several applications and markets such as Device OEMs and end user applications for mobile devices.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Rob Palfreyman – CEO co-founded sensewhere Ltd with Tughrul Arslan – CTO and Zankar Sevak – VP Engineering in March 2009. Rob has provided the commercial direction for the company’s technology since then. After securing both public and private investment Rob launched sensewhere’s patented indoor positioning solution to the market, which has resulted in winning new customers around the world.
He brings over 19 years of experience in the wireless, component and location markets. His previous management positions include Nemerix, Cambridge Positioning and IDT (Integrated Device Technology). His successes have included achieving a $25m supply agreement with Motorola.
Tughrul Arslan is the inventor of the sensewhere technology, and part of the core management team responsible for business plan, business strategy, and directly reporting to investors and strategic partners. His academic career has focussed on innovative low power wireless sensor, Microsystems and low energy protocols for applications such as imaging, wireless telecommunications and navigation.
Zankar is the principle inventor of sensewhere proprietary Assisted GNSS technology and has worked at sensewhere for three years. He is responsible for designing and developing the main GNSS application and support software for GNSS devices.
Where are you based?
sensewhere Ltd. is based in Edinburgh, Scotland but also operates from Cambridge and recently opened an office in Mountain View, in California’s Silicon Valley.
What’s the start-up scene/culture like where you’re based?
Edinburgh has a great start up community, with 3 major world class universities and first class government support it is a breeding ground for great ideas from technology to renewable energy.
How did you come up with the idea for sensewhere?
The idea for the business came together when research carried out at Edinburgh University met commercial experience in trying to solve the problem that GPS works poorly indoors and in enclosed areas. Combining commercial vision and deep technical understanding of this problem resulted in a new low cost software solution being developed that solves this problem ans enables seamless, more accurate positioning of people and items.
How did you come up with the name?
We tried to come up with a name that reflects how the sensewhere technology works. sensewhere exploits whatever resources that may exist on a mobile device to sense where users are! sensewhere does this cost effectively and without impacting battery life.
What problem does sensewhere solve?
Delivering accurate (GPS like) positioning inside buildings at negligible cost:
Cell-ID positioning is not very accurate – typically 300 metres to several km.
GPS/A-GPS works poorly indoors and in most cases not at all.
Wi-Fi positioning from “war-driving” is only accurate to ~80 metres at street level – but not deep indoors.
Wi-Fi positioning from “fingerprinting” is expensive and labour intensive.
Sensor based positioning can impact power consumption, accuracy degrades over time, cost.
These problems are addressed and overcome with sensewhere’s automatic crowd sourcing technology, including RF signal – WAP mapping, cross referencing of all available signals and the use of its dynamic WAP database.
What’s your secret sauce?
We have a clever team who work together and enjoy what we do in terms of solving problems and communicating to our customers the benefits of our solution. Our team delivers technology and applications that solve today’s indoor and hyper local location problems. The company motto “Together Everyone Achieves More”
What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the start-up process?
Fundraising is always challenging, that said reaching the big players who could directly benefit from our solution such as Google and Facebook.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the start-up process?
The development of applications that demonstrate the benefit of our solution. Examples are applications such as snapp! and adwhere that demonstrate the benefit of more precise positioning in social networking as well as targeted advertising.
Who are some of your mentors and business role models?
Founders of Google and Facebook who transformed simple ideas into big businesses.
What’s next for sensewhere?
Putting our technology into every mobile device for it to be used by every Facebook and Google user for best user experience in location!
Linkage:
Find out more about sensewhere here
