Contagt Combines Near Field Communication (NFC) And Bluetooth-beacons For Indoor Navigation
Startup from Mannheim, Germany develops "smart indoor guides" with hybrid-technology.
- (1888PressRelease) September 18, 2014 - With the launch of the Apple iPhone 6, NFC technology is now supported by all leading mobile operating systems. This technology not only allows users to handle payments over their smartphone but also initiates a variety of different use cases. contagt GmbH is specialized in indoor-navigation using NFC technology: visitors in a building can simply tap a NFC tag with their smartphones and are instantly guided by the contagt app to their destinations within the building. The navigation technology is based on QR/NFC markers and WiFi/Bluetooth trilateration, supplemented by smartphone sensor fusion. This combination allows an extremely high positioning accuracy of 1-2 meters even without relying on GPS.
As noted by industry experts, NFC technology has crucial advantages. First, NFC is extremely intuitive. Users can decide whether to pair their phone with a service by simply tapping a tag. Forbes Magazine describes this process to be so simple, that it appears to be "magic." Second, NFC is very cost-effective. Tags are not dependent on a power supply and can be attached to existing door plates or product labels (MobilePaymentsToday.com). This solution is far more economical than, for example, the installation of active WiFi hardware. Linking the advantages of NFC and Bluetooth, contagt GmbH uses both tags and newly developed QR/NFC/Bluetooth hybrid-beacons (hardware partner: BEACONinside GmbH).
"The combination of NFC and Bluetooth makes a lot of sense. By using tags and hybrid-beacons, the system becomes more visible inside buildings. Visitors can actively start the navigation offering - completely without annoying push-notification to their mobile phone. Our Android app is already fully NFC compatible. As soon as Apple provides developer access to the NFC controller, we will also integrate NFC functionality in the iOS app", explains CEO Johannes Britsch. CTO Stephan Brandt adds: "We are convinced that NFC will establish itself as short-range information exchange protocol. This technology will fundamentally change the in-building experience for visitors."
contagt Gmbh was founded in 2013. It consists of an interdisciplinary team of students and graduates of different universities (University of Mannheim, DHBW, TU Darmstadt, University of Münster). Together, the team works on a solution for "smart indoor guidance", an app-based visitor navigation system. With the app, users are able to orient themselves better within buildings and can be reliably guided to their destination. contagt GmbH has received many awards and prizes for their navigation technology, e.g. the EXIST-scholarship, the Prinz-von-Hohenzollern Innovation Award, and the Innovation Prize of the MRN foundation. The solution is currently deployed primarily in office buildings such as SAP Partner-Port (Walldorf) or MAFINEX Technology Center (Mannheim). Other target groups include parking garages, universities as well as congress and shopping centers.
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