Location Based Archives - Serious Startups

Scottish Startup: sensewhere, Perfecting Positioning Without GPS

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.

Atlanta Startup: NearbyThis Launched Last Week At Virginia Highland Summerfest

NearbyThis is exactly what you think it would be, a new “discovery” mobile app for iPhone. Ray Abram CEO of NearbyThis and lead developer Glenn Martin, say that their app is different though because it drills down and geo targets advertising.

“NearbyThis helps consumers see what’s going on around them in real time and save money with daily deals by leveraging social media,” Abram said. “For retailers, NearbyThis offers the power to have two-way conversations with mobile customers. Advertisers, meanwhile, can take advantage of innovative geo-targeted technology by placing ads on users’ phones when they’re nearby places that sell their products.”

“Imagine going to a mall and having all coupons for nearby stores on hand, having the ability to receive realtime communications from the stores, as well as promotions from advertisers selling goods in those stores,” Martin said to the Examiner. “Other advertising models target users by behavior. We do it by proximity, which is more efficient and cost-effective.”

They recently launched NearbyThis at the popular Virginia Highland Summerfest in Atlanta last weekend. It was a great opportunity for them to launch the app in front of tens of thousands of people in an outdoor environment with plenty around to find and discover using NearbyThis.

NearbyThis also aggregates daily deals. We all know about Groupon and Living Social. We also know about the countless emails you can get for daily deals. NearbyThis pulls all that info into their app as well.

We’ve solved the problem with daily deal spam,” Abram said. “You get these emails every day, but you don’t want to unsubscribe because occasionally you find ones you like. We put all deals for nearby places on one page so you can just scroll through the list to see what you like.”

Another key advantage to NearbyThis is that Martin is no stranger to technology, mobile apps and big data. He holds the patents that power the widely popular Kayak.com travel site.

NearbyThis is combining the power of daily deals apps,social networking apps and geo-location or LBS (location based services apps) into one easy to use app and interface.

Linkage:

Find out more about NearbyThis at their website here

Here’s the iTunes page for NearbyThis

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” check out these stories from “everywhere else”

Des Moines Start Up Answers The Question: What Are You Doing Later With ShareWhere

Dylan Hamilton, a Des Moines Iowa entrepreneur has been pondering a question that has yet to be answered. Six years ago Twitter answered the question “What are you doing”. Hamilton, with his start up called ShareWhere, hopes to answer the question “What are you doing later”.

ShareWhere’s purpose is to help the user easily create plans big or small and hopefully replace the hodge podge of texts and emails that traditionally go hand in hand with planning events on the go. Once the plan is hashed ShareWhere than matches those people in your plan with merchants that can help out with the plan.

Sure everyone has a deals program that will help you locate proximity based deals, but that’s not what ShareWhere is all about. The deals ShareWhere users enjoy pertain to the actual plan. For example if you and a group of 10 friends were going bowling, the bowling alley could give you a party room, a personalized discount on pitchers of beer and free shoes. Most deals sites would give you a discount on wings at the place across the street from the bowling alley.

More after the break
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