#estimote

[estimote]

Why Apple's 2nd Gen UWB Chip is Exciting?

With over 10 years of experience in spatial and location technologies, including Bluetooth, Ultra Wideband, and Cellular IoT, we at Estimote are thrilled about the newly announced iPhone 15 and its upgraded second-generation Ultra Wideband chip.

In this blog post, we'll explain why we're excited, we will try to forecast the potential use-cases of this second-gen chip, and highlight the opportunities for developers to create groundbreaking context and location-aware apps.

SPATIAL AWARENESS

Many people aren't aware, but every iPhone from the iPhone 11 onwards has a hidden super-power. It can measure the distance and orientation to nearby phones or other compatible devices. Think of it as an invisible string connecting your phone to objects with AirTags attached, a HomePod, or even your car.

This super-power is made possible by the first generation Ultra Wideband chip (U1 chip). This chip is a small radio transmitter that sends, receives, and processes tiny radio signals. These signals are so low-power that they're almost indistinguishable from the background noise in a broad range of frequencies (5-9 GHz). That's why it's called Ultra Wideband, or UWB for short.

Whenever a nearby device communicates with an iPhone using UWB, the phone calculates the duration of this interaction. The greater the distance, the more time it takes for the radio signal to make the round trip. The U1 chip then multiplies this travel time by the speed of light to determine the inch-level distance to nearby phones or tags.

iPhones equipped with the UWB chip use this distance data to create magical user experiences. For instance, when you AirDrop files to friends close by or search for your misplaced keys, your iPhone directs you to the corresponding AirTag. And when you walk into your living room your music can seamlessly start playing on your HomePod. These are just a few examples of what the U1 chip offers, and there's so much more on the horizon.

LOWER POWER UWB CHIP

The new iPhone 15 as well as new Apple Watch Series 9 feature a second-generation UWB chip. Reports indicate that a primary difference with that model is the shift in the chip manufacturing process from 16nm to 7nm. This simply means that the transistors have become smaller. As a result, they use less energy and switch more quickly, leading to enhanced performance, greater range, and new possibilities.

Why is power consumption so crucial? Reduced power usage can result in a superior user experience and introduce entirely new use-cases and applications. For instance, with the new UWB chip, new AirTags when upgraded could last up to 2-3 years on a single coin battery, as opposed to the current 1-year lifespan with the U1 chip.

Having more transistors also means stronger computing power, better signal processing, and more effective noise filtering. This is why Apple also announced a 3x improvement in UWB range and unveiled a new precision finding feature for the Find My app to locate friends around.

UNTRACKED INDOOR LOCATION

Another potential future application of the lower power UWB chip might involve a technique named Downlink TDoA. This stands for "time difference of arrival," a new standard championed by the FiRa organization. It lets UWB-enabled phones passively receive signals from UWB beacons or anchors.

Imagine your car in a tunnel where GPS is unavailable. UWB beacons in the tunnel transmit radio signals to your phone. Your phone captures these signals, and using the time difference of their arrival, it can calculate the exact position of the car inside the tunnel. With Downlink TDoA, beacons don't collect any data from to the phone. The precise location is determined solely by the UWB chip on the phone. This approach is seen as safer and more privacy-centric than traditional real-time location systems (RTLS). As a result, it's often referred to as Untracked Indoor Positioning.

This innovative, privacy-centric way of determining indoor positioning could also be applied in airports, malls, museums, and more. It could effectively deliver what the iBeacon promised years ago, but with inch-perfect accuracy and superior security.

To make such experiences possible, a low-power UWB processor like the second-gen chip is essential. The phone would need to constantly detect UWB signals from nearby beacons, and it's crucial that this happens efficiently.

SPATIAL COMPUTING AND VISION PRO

There's also speculation that the UWB chip may eventually interact with Apple's new smart glasses. This makes a lot of sense. Currently, Vision Pro determines its spatial orientation in a room using computer vision and image processing. Using the UWB chip and radio signals for this purpose would use order of magnitude less power. Preserving power could allow Apple to design more compact and lighter smart glasses in the future.

FUTURE APPLICATIONS OF UWB

Ultra Wideband technology has many more uses than just distance positioning. It was originally developed for military use in radars. Essentially, UWB signals sent from the phone could reflect off nearby objects and return to the UWB chip. By examining these reflections phone can identify the shape, orientation, or movement of objects.

RADAR AND HEALTH MONITORING

There are many research papers where UWB radar is used to count people in a room or even detect human heartbeats. Given Apple's focus on health & fitness, it's entirely possible for future iPhones equipped with UWB on your nightstand to monitor heart rate or breathing. Non-contact monitoring could be useful for elderly individuals living alone or young children. It could identify falls or irregular heartbeats and notify caregivers or family members. This might not be implemented on the second-gen processors, but could be expected from the future UWB revisions and the new software.

HANDS-FREE PAYMENTS

Another potential use for an improved UWB chip could be in payments. While NFC has been popular for close-range payments, UWB could transform the entire experience. Imagine approaching a payment terminal, and without needing to pull out your phone or move it near the terminal, the payment is processed securely. This technology might lead to genuinely hands-free shopping. Customers could just grab items and leave the store. With devices powered by the UWB chip communicating with other UWB-enabled tags and payment terminals, the items someone has would be detected, and the cost automatically taken from the associated account, all while ensuring security through spatial authentication.

Beyond shopping, UWB could also make peer-to-peer payments easier. Instead of sifting through apps, just being nearby could prompt a payment screen on your iPhone, asking if you want to split the bill, recognizing your friend's device by its spatial position.

ACCESS CONTROL AND HANDS-FREE AUTHENTICATION

Finally, Apple's new second-gen UWB chip, can revolutionise the way we access and interact with spaces. Imagine arriving at a hotel. As you approach your room, the door recognises your smartphone and automatically unlocks without you having to fumble for a keycard or even touch the door.

Workplaces, especially those that involve machinery or secure data access, can benefit from hands-free authentication. Consider a research laboratory with multiple machines and computers. Instead of using passwords, keycards, or fingerprint scans, devices equipped with UWB sensors could detect the presence of an authorised UWB chip-carrying employee and unlock automatically.

The incorporation of the second generation UWB chip into a broader range of devices could dramatically transform the way we interact with the world, making our experiences smoother, more intuitive, and more secure. From hotels to workplaces, the possibilities for hands-free access and seamless interactions are vast and exciting. If you are interested to learn more about UWB and differences between BLE and UWB see our other blog-post about our UWB Beacons and try Nearby Interactions API and our SDK building next-gen mobile apps.

[tech-reasearch-blog]

Proximity Market Analysis, Trends, Share, Development Policies, and Future Growth 2031

The Insight Partners recently announced the release of the market research titled Proximity Market Outlook to 2031 | Share, Size, and Growth. The report is a stop solution for companies operating in the Proximity market. The report involves details on key segments, market players, precise market revenue statistics, and a roadmap that assists companies in advancing their offerings and preparing for the upcoming decade. Listing out the opportunities in the market, this report intends to prepare businesses for the market dynamics in an estimated period.

Is Investing in the Market Research Worth It?

Some businesses are just lucky to manage their performance without opting for market research, but these incidences are rare. Having information on longer sample sizes helps companies to eliminate bias and assumptions. As a result, entrepreneurs can make better decisions from the outset. Proximity Market report allows business to reduce their risks by offering a closer picture of consumer behavior, competition landscape, leading tactics, and risk management.

A trusted market researcher can guide you to not only avoid pitfalls but also help you devise production, marketing, and distribution tactics. With the right research methodologies, The Insight Partners is helping brands unlock revenue opportunities in the Proximity market.

If your business falls under any of these categories – Manufacturer, Supplier, Retailer, or Distributor, this syndicated Proximity market research has all that you need.

What are Key Offerings Under this Proximity Market Research?

Global Proximity market summary, current and future Proximity market size

Market Competition in Terms of Key Market Players, their Revenue, and their Share

Economic Impact on the Industry

Production, Revenue (value), Price Trend

Cost Investigation and Consumer Insights

Industrial Chain, Raw Material Sourcing Strategy, and Downstream Buyers

Production, Revenue (Value) by Geographical Segmentation

Marketing Strategy Comprehension, Distributors and Traders

Global Proximity Market Forecast

Study on Market Research Factors

Who are the Major Market Players in the Proximity Market?

Proximity market is all set to accommodate more companies and is foreseen to intensify market competition in coming years. Companies focus on consistent new launches and regional expansion can be outlined as dominant tactics. Proximity market giants have widespread reach which has favored them with a wide consumer base and subsequently increased their Proximity market share.

Report Attributes

Details

Segmental Coverage

Component

Hardware

Software

Services

Location

Indoor

Outdoor

Technology

Wi-Fi

Near Field Communication (NFC)

Others

Application

Retail

Healthcare

Transportation and Logistics

Hospitality

Others

Regional and Country Coverage

North America (US, Canada, Mexico)

Europe (UK, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Rest of Europe)

Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, Australia, Rest of APAC)

South / South & Central America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South/South & Central America)

Middle East & Africa (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Rest of MEA)

Market Leaders and Key Company Profiles

Apple Inc.

Google LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Qualcomm Inc.

Zebra Technologies Corporation

Bluvision Inc.

Estimote Inc.

ROXIMITY

Unacast

Proxama PLC

Other key companies 

What are Perks for Buyers?

The research will guide you in decisions and technology trends to adopt in the projected period.

Take effective Proximity market growth decisions and stay ahead of competitors

Improve product/services and marketing strategies.

Unlock suitable market entry tactics and ways to sustain in the market

Knowing market players can help you in planning future mergers and acquisitions

Visual representation of data by our team makes it easier to interpret and present the data further to investors, and your other stakeholders.

Do We Offer Customized Insights? Yes, We Do!

The The Insight Partners offer customized insights based on the client’s requirements. The following are some customizations our clients frequently ask for:

The Proximity market report can be customized based on specific regions/countries as per the intention of the business

The report production was facilitated as per the need and following the expected time frame

Insights and chapters tailored as per your requirements.

Depending on the preferences we may also accommodate changes in the current scope.

Author’s Bio:

Anna Green

Research Associate at The Insight Partners

[ict-reports]

Beacon Market Size 2023, Latest Trends, COVID-19 Impact and Global Competition

The global “Beacon Market Size” is expected to rise with an impressive CAGR and generate the highest revenue by 2030. Fortune Business Insights™ in its latest report published this information. The report is titled "Beacon Market Size, Share & Revenue Forecast, 2023-2030". The report discusses research objectives, research scope, methodology, timeline and challenges during the entire forecast period.

Report Highlights:

A comprehensive overview of the Beacon Market

Significant factors boosting, restricting, challenging and providing an opportunity to the market

Key insights and major industry developments

Significant players functioning in the Beacon Market

Major strategies adopted by players such as the launch of new products for better revenue generation, company collaborations, and others

Other market trends

An Overview of the Impact of COVID-19 on this Market:

The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this too shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic.

We are making continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreaks across industries to help you prepare for the future.

For More Information, Visit - https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/beacon-market-100142

List of Top Key Manufacturers for Beacon Market:

Accent Advanced Systems, SLU.

Aruba Networks, Inc.

Blue Sense Networks

BlueCats

Estimote, Inc.

Gelo, Inc.

Glimworm Beacon

Kontakt.io

Sensorberg GmbH

Some of the Key Questions Answered in this Report:

Detailed Overview of Beacon Market will help deliver clients and businesses making strategies.

Influencing factors that are thriving demand and latest trends running in the market.

Beacon Market forecast for global market split into segments like region, product, applications, end-user, technology, etc.

What trends, challenges and barriers will impact the development and sizing of the Global Beacon Market?

SWOT Analysis of each defined key player along with its profile and Porter’s five forces analysis to complement the same.

What is the Beacon Market growth momentum or market carries during the forecast period?

Which region may tap the highest market share in the coming era?

Which application/end-user category or Product Type may seek incremental growth prospects?

What focused approach and constraints are holding the Beacon Market demand?

Regional Analysis for Beacon Market:

North America (the USA and Canada)

Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia and Rest of Europe)

Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, Southeast Asia and Rest of Asia Pacific)

Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America)

The Beacon Market research report offers a complete assessment of the industry. The projections included in the report have been determined utilizing demonstrated research philosophies and presumptions.

[inventivaindia]

Estimote launches wearables for workplace-level contact tracing for COVID-19

Bluetooth location beacon startup Estimote has adapted its technological expertise to develop a new product designed specifically at curbing the spread of COVID-19. The company created a new range of wearable devices that co-founder Steve Cheney believes can enhance workplace safety for those who have to be colocated at a physical workplace even while social distancing and physical isolation…

[cdrforea]

Estimote launches wearables for workplace-level contact tracing for COVID-19 – smarthometec

New Post has been published on https://bestedevices.com/estimote-launches-wearables-for-workplace-level-contact-tracing-for-covid-19-smarthometec.html

Estimote launches wearables for workplace-level contact tracing for COVID-19 – smarthometec

The Bluetooth Location Beacon Estimote startup has adapted its technological know-how to develop a new product specifically designed to curb the proliferation of COVID-19. The company has developed a new range of portable devices that co-founder Steve Cheney believes can improve workplace safety for those who need to be placed in a physical place of work, even when social distance and isolation measures are in place.

The devices, simply referred to as "proof of health" wearables, aim to enable contact tracking – in other words, monitoring the potential spread of the coronavirus from person to person – at the level of a local workplace facility. The aim is to give employers the opportunity to hopefully give impulses for a possible transfer between their employees and to give them the opportunity to hopefully curb local distribution before it becomes an excessive risk.

The hardware contains passive GPS Location tracking and proximity sensors with Bluetooth and ultra-broadband radio connection, a rechargeable battery and integrated LTE. It also includes manual controls to change a wearer's health status and to record conditions such as certified health, symptomatic and verified infections. When a user updates their status to indicate a potential or verified infection, other users they have had contact with are updated based on the proximity and history of the location data. This information is also stored in an integrity dashboard that provides detailed logs of potential contacts for central administration. This is designed for internal use within an organization, but Cheney tells me that he is now working to see if there is a way to work with WHO or other outside health organizations to potentially use the information for company tracing and to use population groups.

These are said to exist in various form factors: The existing pebble-like version that can be attached to a lanyard for carrying and displaying around a person's neck. a wrist-worn version with an integrated adjustable strap; and a card format that is more compact to carry and can work with conventional security badges that are often used for access control of facilities. The pebble-like design is already in production and 2,000 are now being used. In the near future, production with the company's manufacturing resources located in Poland is to be increased by up to 10,000 more.

Estimote has been building programmable business sensor technology for nearly a decade and has worked with major global companies like Apple and Amazon . Cheney told me that he quickly realized the need to apply this technology to the pandemic's unique problems, but Estimote had been 18 months in development for other applications, including the hotel industry for employee safety / panic button use.

"This batch has been in full production for 18 months," he said in a message. “We can program all wearables remotely (they are LTE connected). Suppose a factory provides this – we are writing an app for the wearable remotely. This is programmable IoT.

"Anyone who knew the virus would require proof of health over site diagnostic technology," he added.

Many have proposed technology-based contact tracking solutions, including using existing data collected from smartphones and consumer applications to map the transmission. However, these efforts also have a significant impact on data protection and require the use of a smartphone – something that Cheney says is not really useful for closely tracking the workplace in high-traffic environments. According to Cheney, Estimote can help employers by creating a special wearable to avoid doing something “invasive” with their workforce, since it is instead tied to a convenient device whose data is shared only with their employers, all in one Form factor that they can remove and have some control over. Mobile devices cannot do nearly as fine-grained tracking indoors as dedicated hardware, he says.

And contact tracking at this hyperlocal level doesn't necessarily give employers early warning signs to stop spreading earlier and more thoroughly than usual. In fact, greater contact tracking powered by sensor data could reveal new and improved strategies for the COVID-19 response.

"Typically, contact tracking is based on people's memories or some general assumptions (for example, the shift someone has worked on," "said Brianna Vechhio-Pagán of the Applied Physics Lab at John Hopkins University in a statement. “New technologies can now track interactions within a transmittable area or a range of ~ 6 feet, reducing the error caused by other methods. By combining very dense contact tracking data from Bluetooth and UWB signals with information about the infection status and symptoms, we can discover new and improved ways to ensure the safety of patients and staff. "

Given the final duration of measures such as physical distance essentially in the air and some predictions suggesting that they will continue for many months, even if they differ in severity, solutions like Estimote's could be more essential to maintaining Services and solutions are critical companies that are doing their utmost to protect the health and safety of workers who take these risks. More extensive measures may also be needed, including general, publicly available contact tracking programs, and efforts such as these should help influence the design and development of these programs.

[lindortech]

Y Combinator Summer 2013 Demo Day, Batch 2: Meet Meta, Lob, Amulyte, Weilos And More

Y Combinator Summer 2013 Demo Day, Batch 2: Meet Meta, Lob, Amulyte, Weilos And More

Just as the wheels of moment continue to turn, the 49 brand-new startups out of Y Combinator continue to churn.

Batch One is now behind us, and a brand-new group of startups are taking the level. As per usual, TechCrunch is here to bring you finish coverage of each of these companies, ranging from a “hearing aid 2.0” to a “Netflix for fashion” to “credit cards for old people.” [Update: For our…

[collapsedsquid]

Mr. Palmer is in this field: He is a venture capitalist in Washington, D.C., focused on education technology. On June 29, he tweeted that AltSchool was always a bad idea, and he was glad that his firm hadn’t invested in it.

That single jab at a failed company sent the investor elite into conniptions.

“This is likely the most expensive tweet you’ll ever post,” wrote Mark Rose, at the time a product manager at Google, now the vice president of product at a biotech start-up called Ontera. “That’s the $ lesson.”

Many said Mr. Palmer should be boxed out of future deals.

A start-up founder funded by Y Combinator, an influential start-up training program and investment firm, flagged Mr. Palmer’s firm to his funders: “We might want to warn future edtech founders (YC or not) about their best practices,” Alex Bouaziz wrote on Twitter.

It goes on.

“I wish I could short your portfolio,” Michael Karnjanaprakorn tweeted. He is the founder of Otis, which facilitates investments in art and sneakers.

And on.

“Dude, you realize you are literally the worst,” wrote Steve Cheney, a founder of Estimote, which makes sensors for tracking devices.

Michael Arrington, the pugnacious founder of TechCrunch, added a note of criticism. The co-founder of an e-sports collaboration tool described “putting startups on blast” in this manner as “toxic behavior.”

Parker Conrad, the former C.E.O. of Zenefits, a human resources start-up, who has since started a similar start-up, jumped in.

“So easy to say this from the cheap seats. No founder in edtech should ever pitch their company to you again,” Mr. Conrad wrote. “It’s so easy to predict something will fail. You’ll be right 9 times out of 10. You will never build anything meaningful.”

Inevitably, there was Mr. Palmer’s apology. It came in four self-effacing parts, beginning by thanking everyone for the feedback.

“Hi everyone — First of all, I really appreciate the feedback, both positive and negative I’ve received from this tweet all day. I believe in honest, tough conversations, and that’s what all of you have given me.”

Canceled by Silicon Valley

[startupmag]

Estimote launches wearables for workplace-level contact tracing for COVID-19 https://ift.tt/2Jv9wbL

[ajayuikey]

Estimote launches wearables for workplace-level contact tracing for COVID-19 – TechCrunch

Bluetooth location beacon startup Estimote has adapted its technological expertise to develop a new product designed specifically at curbing the spread of COVID-19. The company created a new range of wearable devicesthat co-founder Steve Cheney believes can enhance workplace safety for those who have to be colocated at a physical workplace even while social distancing and physical isolation…

[marketresearchreportsnews-blog]

Bluetooth Beacons Market Is Anticipated to Attain Around USD 58.7 Billion By 2025:Key Participant Estimote, Inc., Kontakt.io

Bluetooth Beacons Market Is Anticipated to Attain Around USD 58.7 Billion By 2025:Key Participant Estimote, Inc., Kontakt.io

San Francisco, 02 January 2019, Bluetooth Beacons Market Analysis By Technology (iBeacon, Eddystone), By End-use (Retail, Travel & Tourism, Healthcare, Financial Institutions), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 – 2025

The global bluetooth beacon market size is expected to reach USD 58.7 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The introduction of…

[estimote]

SpaceTimeOS - Operating System for the physical world

If you want to run a digital business the steps are simple:

you get a computer,

that computer obviously has an operating system,

you download the apps you need or even code your own apps if you know how,

and at the end, if you have traction, you scale your business, mostly using software to deliver the same experience to many users at once.

For years we wondered why we couldn't apply the same process for business rooted in the physical world. Real-world ventures create value by both "moving bits" and also "moving atoms", e.g. by producing or shipping physical goods or rendering services.

Here is how it should work in real life:

you get a physical space for your business,

you quickly install an Operating System for your physical world,

you immediately download or create your own real-world apps

finally, you run these apps in many locations delivering the same physical-digital experience

INTRODUCING SPACETIMEOS

That's exactly why we created and are proudly launching SpaceTimeOS - the world’s first and only operating system for the physical world.

This new OS is extremely easy to install. Simply place our shiny new sensors in the corners of any room. They will talk to each other and within minutes they will build in the cloud a digital replica of your space with the exact dimensions and shape.

REAL-TIME LOCATION SYSTEM (RTLS)

All the assets that have UWB tags or compatible devices with built-in UWB will immediately appear on the map and their real-time and inch-precise position will be visible. Business owners are then able to browse and download many apps that can run on their spaces: way-finding, asset tracking, office occupancy, contact tracing and more.

PROGRAM YOUR WORLD IN JAVASCRIPT

Developers can use SpaceTimeOS to quickly build new apps in JavaScript. Apps designed for one location can easily run on multiple. After review by Estimote, developers can also publish their apps to the Marketplace, allowing any customer who has mapped out their spaces the ability to download them and benefit from their features.

HOW SPACETIMEOS WAS CREATED

When Estimote, Inc. was founded 10 years ago, both of our founders - Jakub and Lukasz - had a strong vision to create, what they call, an Operating System for the physical world. They envisioned a future where software apps could be run directly on physical spaces. Assets moving inside buildings or interactions between objects would produce digital events. These would be captured and turned into magical and contextual experiences.

After graduating from YCombinator in 2013, this vision began to materialize with Estimote’s first product: the iconic Bluetooth beacons that looked like colorful gems. The entire world was inspired by the possibilities that came with better indoor navigation and contextual messages from small wireless sensors.

In 2016, our company raised its Series A funding to transition into a mature software business. The goal was to create a true location intelligence platform. Since then, Estimote has been invested in developing indoor location algorithms, automapping with UWB, cellular connectivity, and cloud-based fleet management.

The direct result of these investments was a fully programmable LTE Beacon which allowed developers to program devices by writing micro-apps using JavaScript. These were compiled by the Estimote IoT Platform into low-level binaries run by beacons and sensors.

The true test of this powerful software platform came in 2020, when the COVID pandemic shocked the world. Using its technology stack, Estimote created a full contact tracing solution in just 2 weeks. It was remotely sent to their LTE/UWB wearables and helped tens of thousands of front-line workers keep a safe distance and reduced their risk of contracting the virus.

After almost 10 years of research and development, Estimote is proud to reveal the latest version of its IoT platform.

SpaceTimeOS is the final materialization of the original vision to create a digital layer on top of the physical world. It is a canvas that will allow innovators to create next-gen software apps that run on spaces and items.

SpaceTimeOS is a new paradigm in contextual computing and location software. It will accelerate the emerging development of intelligent buildings and smart cities.

And now, anyone can easily get started with this technology. We are offering a Trial Access pack to try out SpaceTimeOS. It includes professional tech support over Slack, developer documentation, enough devices to get started, as well as full access to the Marketplace with app samples. It is ideal for prototyping and running small pilots.

[imadeit-davidjanes]

Estimote has a new Beacon that adds LTE and GPS. It’s $130 for 2, and then $2 / month for each beacon. It has a temperature sensor, but oddly doesn’t have WiFi of which I could see some uses for.

[marcoteran]

my new toy: the Arduino 101 ... #Arduino #Intel #IntelCurie #BLE #Estimote #IndoorPositioning #Arduino101 #coding

[cuseum]

Success as a Service: exploring the collaboration between Estimote and Cuseum

We recently sat down with our friends over at Estimote for a chat about mobile engagement at museums. Read on for rest of the interview!

Certain companies have ran with the technology to build a solution for an entirely unique vertical. One of these companies in particular is Cuseum: a Boston based start-up that’s completely evangelized museums and tech, delivering everything a museum needs to usher their institution into the digital age, with supporting apps and contextual content. I sat down with Brendan Ciecko, Founder and CEO of Cuseum, to learn more about their platform, how they scale, what their challenges are, and when they know their work is complete.

JA: You’re an early supporter of Estimote, I know that we’re frequent partners and have collaborated in multiple scenarios! I suppose it’d be great to hear, in your own words, about Cuseum’s mission. What services are you providing for customers?

BC: Cuseum’s mission is to help museums, public attractions, and cultural nonprofits drive visitor and member engagement and success using mobile. We provide a suite of tools geared towards enhancing on-site experience, focusing on what we call the “digital docent” or companion guide. Our goal is to make it possible for museums to produce powerful mobile apps quickly, easily, and without breaking the bank. Over 100 organizations around the globe have used our platform to launch mobile apps, many of which use beacons from Estimote!

We provide our museum partners with a full solution – not just content management software, native mobile apps, or mobile web apps. We bring guidance, advice, and years of expertise to every organization we work with to ensure their new digital tools launch successfully and continue to thrive.

And, hot off the presses, we recently launched a new product to help organizations save time and money while boosting convenience for members – by replacing physical, plastic cards with digital membership cards. Beacons play a role in this as well!

JA: Cool! Can you share the role beacons play here?

BC: Absolutely! Museums offer incredible benefits to their members, yet many of these valuable perks are often underutilized or unused. Imagine, as you walk by the museum’s cafe, store, or lecture hall, you’re reminded of your membership benefits and discounts. There’s untapped value and convenience for the member as well as a clear, turn-key, financial benefits for the museum. All of this is possible with our digital membership cards – no app download required!

JA: How much customization needs to be done for specific museums?

BC: The apps are completely white-labeled and styled to reflect each museum’s unique brand. We handle all of that heavy-lifting. Through the content management system, the museum also has the ability to configure most major aspects of the app. The overall interface is intended to be simple and “chromeless,” but we’re always happy to discuss additional customization if needed!

JA: What’s your beacon density like: how many beacons do you find needing for each museum? What’s the most amount of beacons you’ve ever installed in one museum, and can you tell us which museum it was?

BC: This varies greatly across the board! On one end, we have some museum partners who have as few as 1 beacon for a basic “welcome” and “thank you for visiting” notification. Generally, we recommend at-least 3 beacons to give each institution the opportunity to experiment in a low-risk, real-world environment. It’s always beneficial, and a great learning opportunity, to see things in action! We encourage an agile approach and have written up some suggestions on the topic.

On the other side of the spectrum, we’re working with a museum that will install 150 beacons! We’ll be sure to let you know when they launch, and will have much to share about that experience.

JA: Who are some of your clients? We’d love to be able to point our developers and users in that direction to test out the tech!

BC: Every month, we’re pleased to work with several new institutions, so the list keeps growing! Here’s a quick list of 5:

- Museum of Fine Arts Houston - North Carolina Museum of Art - MCA Denver - Asian Art Museum - Musée McCord

You can also find a list of a few more apps on our website!

JA: I love that what you’re offering isn’t just an app, it isn’t just a platform, it’s the whole solution from end to end. It’s quite unique! You approach a museum and say, “Hey, we have the tools, knowledge, even the hardware access to bring your institution into the year 2017. Want some help? We’ll make it happen for you.”

BC: Thanks! We’re here to help museums in any way we can.

JA: What kind of tools do you use to make all this magic happen? Do you utilize Estimote SDK, Cloud, fleet management, Indoor Location? Do you use other sources? Are you building your own?

BC: We’ve built our platform from the ground up and use an array of tools to ensure the highest quality, performance, and efficiency.

For aspects related to monitoring and performance, we use Fabric, Sentry, LogEntries, New Relic. For analytics, we use Mixpanel and Google Analytics. For testing, Rspec and Quick/Nimble. For design, we use Sketch and for prototyping, UXPin… the list goes on!

In the name of reliability and performance, we don’t use third-rate hybrid platforms. Cuseum-powered native iOS apps, are completely native.

Although our platform is beacon agnostic, we find ourselves frequently using Estimote beacons. In those cases, we leverage Estimote’s SDK and Cloud. Outside of that, we’ve developed a few methods (such as smoothing algorithms) to improve the accuracy of beacon-triggered notifications.

JA: What’s the biggest challenge to make your projects beacon enabled, and come to fruition?

BC: When you’re adding an extra layer to digital projects which involves additional attention to user experience as well as supporting and managing expectations related to hardware - it adds more complexity and time to the launch schedule. For some of our museum partners, we recommend that they first soft launch their mobile app without beacons, and then iterate forward to add them to the equation. You need to “crawl before you walk, walk before you run” as they say! Whether it’s with 1 beacon or 100, we provide resources and guidance for our museum partners to help them utilize beacons with as little friction as possible.

JA: Wise move! “Start by digging into the app, versus the physical location and Bluetooth pinging. Let that fall into place afterward.” Sounds about right, UX/UI informs the entire guest experience. I’m sure there’s a useful feedback loop there as well: when you start with the soft launch sans beacons, you can truly fine tune the details and collect data on the most exciting locations within the museum.

Do you ever find yourself in the position where you need to iterate on the beacon placement? Or, do you find that your clients will rearrange exhibits or plan the next exhibit differently around the “hotspot” information obtained through your analytics?

BC: There are some instances when the beacons are moved (during a specific exhibition), but this rarely happens. And, although the idea of arranging exhibitions according to the data gathered sounds really compelling on paper, most museums and their curatorial and exhibition staff don’t operate in the same capacity as retail experience consultants where the goal is to optimize a space for increased revenue. But, the way museums imagine and enhance their spaces based on new spatial analytics is an idea that is starting to trickle in.

JA: I’m curious, what analytics do you collect? What sort of data are you looking to uncover, and how does it influence your decisions moving forward?

BC: The short answer: every single button, screen, and “action” in our apps is wired up for analytics. Different museum departments have different goals around using the data that is available to them. For education and interpretation, the focus is on which pieces of content are the visitors engaging in and for how long. For marketing and digital, on the other hand, it’s more geared towards overall downloads and impressions.

Leveraging data is certainly an important topic right now, and as Peter Drucker famously once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” American Alliance of Museums is starting to evangelize the value of gathering and understanding data and we’re big fans of this initiative.

On our end, we’re constantly watching user behavior, while also optimizing and simplifying the product as much as possible. If a feature or screen isn’t being engaged with as much as we or a given partner predicted, there is a good conversation to be had about removing that feature.

We’re firm believers that a visitor who has the best possible experience is more likely to become a member, like, or share over social media or even make a purchase or donation. We’ve kept a close eye on this concept and the relationship between user patterns and conversion rates. A new opportunity exists for museums to have educational tools that have a financial return on investment and we want to help our partners take advantage of this! This is a metric that is super important in this day and age; it helps the museum and also ensures long-term sustainability of the digital tool itself.

JA: Tell me about your ideal client. What sort of museums do you go for?

BC: We work with a wide array of museums, of every shape and size. It makes no difference if the museum welcomes over a million visitors per year, or is a small university gallery - we love them all, and have tools to help! All of the museums we work with put a high emphasis on visitor experience and education. They are looking for time and cost effective ways to have a high quality, high impact on their visitors and members – and that’s where we come in.

JA: Tell me what your process looks like when setting up a museum from beginning to “end”. Does it ever end?

BC: To ensure success for each museum launching a mobile guide, we have a time-tested launch strategy. Every engagement starts with a “Kick-Off” meeting to bring together all departments and staff who will be hand’s-on in driving this initiative to the finish line. We want to make sure every stakeholder is heard and that we fully understand and document the top 3-5 internal goals to make sure everyone’s eye is on the ball. We set various milestones, schedule training time, check-in sessions, and assign every museum a Cuseum concierge! We’re here for every museum we work with, every step of the way.

This process doesn’t end after the app has launched, though - we’re always checking to see how things are going, sharing best practices, and new features. We see this all as a partnership, not as just a “vendor” or a “software” provider – at Cuseum, we’re “Success-as-a-Service” for visitor and member engagement.

JA: And what’s next for Cuseum? You seem to have a great model in place and a lot on your plate. What are your goals for the next year, and what are you most looking forward to?

BC: We’re thrilled about our growth and the direction that things are going! We have many new launches, partnerships, and features in the works. With our core mobile engagement product, and our new digital membership card solution, it’s going to be an exciting year!

Be sure to keep an eye on Cuseum for future developments. And of course, follow Estimote’s blog for special spotlights on apps, features, and use cases utilizing our software and hardware solutions!

Interview by Jess Anderson, Content Creator + Community Manager @ Estimote

[looksmartteam]

Five to #five! #win #27.01.2017. https://www.instagram.com/p/BPw8HtghqTo/ #29.01.2017. Here is how we coped with the lack of energy! Do you like our low-cost solution? Small does not mean worse! You just need to exploit its potential! Fun with the Internet of Things guaranteed for the next 17 months or about 510 days! Are you curious what we use our beacons for? If so, stay tuned and follow our story! #estimote @estimote #bluetoothsmart #ble #morepossibilities #completely #new #unexplored #opportunities #individual #approach #customers #relationships #increase #engagement #sendnotifications #currentlocation #smart7team