Ubisense, a 'company to watch in 2006'
Unlisted high-tech Cambridge firm Ubisense makes a system that can locate people and objects in a building in real time to within 15 cm in 3D, and it is on a roll.
This week the company announced that University College Dublin (UCD) had deployed its technology in the largest ever real-time location system (RTLS) in Ireland in the Computer Science and Informatics building to support the university's research into pervasive computing and the efficiencies of wireless applications.
Last week Ubisense closed a $3m round of funding to increase investment in product development and marketing initiatives. And it reported that its customer base had grown by over 25% in the first quarter of this year. Last year it gathered 80 new customers and reported strong revenue growth helped by large orders placed by new customers as well as sales related to the expansion of existing projects
Two months ago it was the dominant partner in merger with Ten Sails, a location technology consulting firm, which more than doubled the Ubisense employee headcount to over 70 in offices in North America, Asia and Europe.
Says Struan McDougall, of private equity group the Cambridge Capital Group which is an investor in the firm: "It's a company to watch in 2006."
The company has a very good pedigree. It was founded by four guys who had worked together at the AT&T Cambridge Lab (which was shut down in April 2002 by head office bean counters): Peter Steggles, Andy Ward, Rupert Curwen and Paul Webster, with a guiding hand from Andy Hopper, former head of that renowned but ill-fated Lab, currently head of Cambridge University's Computer Lab and serial entrepreneur himself. He is now chairman of the board which is graced by several other big hitters.
CEO Richard Green used to be General Manager of the Telecommunications Division of GE Network Solutions before joining Ubisense
The technology
Ubisense's RTLS platform works through a network of sensors installed and connected into a building's existing network. The sensors use UWB (ultrawideband) radio technology to detect and react to the position of tags (pictured) attached to objects and people. (UWB is used because it combines high accuracy with low infrastructure cost).
The sensors send the tag location information to the Ubisense software, which creates a detailed, real-time view of the environment. This model can be used by any number of simultaneous programs that can respond immediately to changes in the smart space that is created.
Ubisense can be integrated into other corporate systems such as communications or scheduling systems to create a real-time operating system for space. It can also be used to identify sloppy processes, improve workflow and safety.
UCD Professor of Distributed Systems and head of the Systems Research Group, Paddy Nixon said: "We are relying on the Ubisense system to track staff and students so we can build a log of all the data, and identify patterns of movement and associations with their context. This data will help us realize existing issues and limitations associated with current and future wireless applications. For example, the data can be used to locate staff, patients and equipment in hospitals, or create physically interactive multiplayer games to help tackle childhood obesity."
Using the Ubisense platform, UCD is able to precisely monitor and record interactions between people, and between people and devices, such as cell phones or handheld devices. This level of detail will allow UCD to develop pervasive computing systems that can be customized to respond to the smallest changes in a user's movement or location.
"The cutting-edge research UCD is conducting will help evolve new applications in pervasive computing that will improve usability and efficiency of work and social environments," Mr Green said.
The Ubisense team can see uses in a variety of other applications ranging from distance learning, where remote users could minutely control a camera in a far away lecture, through improving marketing at conferences by tagging VIPs to make sure they get special treatment, to enhancing the shopping experience and management in large supermarkets. (see Cool Ideas on their website)
$3bn market by 2010
Ubisense believes the momentum for tracking capabilities is rapidly increasing as location technology evolves and new business applications are discovered. Gartner recently forecasted worldwide RFID spending will surpass $3bn by 2010. RFID and UWB are similar wireless technologies that provide different levels of tracking accuracy. The various business applications dictate the level of accuracy, and therefore, technology required.
“We have proven the need for this technology in a vast array of industries as well as in every region of the world,” Mr Green said recently. “We fully anticipate the explosive growth we have experienced in the past 12 months will continue and we will generate even greater customer and revenue growth in 2006.”
"Every day we find new ways our technology can provide value … The near-immediate return on investment several of our customers have reported has exceeded even our own expectations for how quickly our RTLS technology can generate financial gains," he said.
5th April 2006
