Qualcomm announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, is working closely with Acuity Brands in the commercial deployment of LED lighting fixtures/services (marketed by Acuity Brands as Bytelight™ Services) that use Qualcomm® Lumicast™ technology to bring indoor positioning capabilities and services to retailers. Unlike RF-based technologies, Lumicast uses visible-light signals transmitted from LED fixtures to deliver indoor positioning. A regular smartphone, using apps enabled by Lumicast software, receives the light signals through the front camera to determine its position and orientation with exceptional precision and speed.

Lumicast has been already deployed in more than 100 store locations by two of North America’s top 25 retailers. The technology is designed to deliver precise indoor location services within tens of centimeters of accuracy – a capability that can revolutionize use cases for navigation, advertising and promotions, and customer service, as well as improve operational efficiencies in environments such as retail stores, malls, museums, airports, factories, warehouses, educational and healthcare institutions, and enterprises.

“Indoor positioning technology can change the way we shop, move and work,” said Cormac Conroy, vice president of engineering and product management, Qualcomm Technologies. “With Lumicast, consumers will now be able to download applications that truly deliver a precise indoor location experience.”

Lumicast technology includes a transmitter specification and mobile software that lighting original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can license from Qualcomm Atheros. With the transmitter specification, OEMs can enable Lumicast functionality in their LED driver electronics for LED light fixtures. The mobile software integrates into smartphone applications to provide OEMs and venues with the opportunity to develop and offer indoor location services that consumers will find beneficial from a time, efficiency and cost saving perspective and venues from data and operational efficiencies. The Lumicast mobile software is now available and can be integrated with both Android and iOS applications. 

“We are very excited about the opportunities that Lumicast technology provides and the enthusiastic response from the retail community in North America and Europe” said Steve Lydecker, senior vice president, IoT business unit, Acuity Brands Lighting. “Precise indoor location, enabled by our Bytelight Services in over 12 million square feet of retail space, has made it simpler and easier to get around. And real-time and historic analytics allow the business owner to understand building traffic better than ever before.” 

Lumicast technology supports Qualcomm’s efforts to create an Internet of Things in which tens of billions of devices and machines intelligently connect to the cloud and each other. Any venue using LED lighting enabled with Lumicast has the opportunity to deliver precise information which makes navigating, locating things, or being offered items of extreme value to consumers possible.  Future applications of Lumicast could include advanced use cases such as robotics for operational efficiencies in both automation and inventory management.