Breadcrumb Data

Indoor navigation

GPS technology has revolutionised outdoor positioning. There are now a huge number of applications that are built around or enhanced by GPS. But GPS doesn’t work indoors - where people spend most of their time.

Over recent years a range of technologies have been developed to tackle indoor positioning. The most common are bluetooth beacons and wifi. These work for some use-cases, but they lack accuracy (2 - 5 meters at best) and are prone to interference (e.g. accuracy drops further in a crowded room).

While we’re happy to work with other technologies, Breadcrumb’s flagship real-time indoor positioning platform uses a radio technology called ultra wideband (UWB). With accuracy of 10 - 30cm we offer genuine blue dot indoor positioning - widening the range of possible applications.

Our platform at a glance

Our real-time indoor positioning system uses radio technology called ultra wideband or UWB. Our powerful and scalable platform offers everything you need to bring location awareness to your building.

The Breadcrumb UWB platform consists of three main components: Tags which transmit UWB pulses used to determine their location, ceiling mounted anchors which receive and evaluate the tag signals, and a cloud based location engine which aggregates and analyses all the positioning data and transfers that data to our API. With our API we make it super easy and fast to develop location aware applications on top of our platform.

Hardware

Anchor

A set of anchors creates the location infrastructure for tags to be located and tracked. Anchors gather signals from tags, and then send this timestamp to our cloud based location engine via wifi. Anchors are typically fixed to the ceiling, and are connected to standard mains power supply. Anchors can also be placed on tripods for temporary or outdoor use-cases.

Anchors are configured and managed via our RTLS web-based management system.

Software

Location Engine

Our location engine is where all the magic happens. Positioning data is transferred by anchors to our cloud based location engine via wifi. Our location engine can aggregate and calculate positioning data from 1000+ tags in real time. After crunching, data is transferred to our API.

API

The Breadcrumb solution comes with APIs for easy integration and data exchange. We’re passionate about making it super easy and fast for developers to create location aware applications on top of our platform.

Management System

Breadcrumb’s solution includes a RTLS web-based management system. Within this system we provide you with the tools you need to easily and quickly build, manage and analyse your location infrastructure.

As well as infrastructure management, our Management System also includes analytics tools (including real time tracking and data visualisations such as heatmaps). Our platform captures a huge amount of customer behaviour data, and it is all available for manipulation or download.

Benefits of the Breadcrumb UWB platform

Here are just some of the benefits that UWB has over other indoor positioning technology.

Accuracy

Genuine blue dot positioning with accuracy of 10 - 30cm. Compared to 2 - 5m for beacons and wifi.

Real time data

Monitor 1000+ tags in real time, with real time analysis and reporting.

No interference

Exclusive 6.35 to 6.75 GHz frequency range means no interference with other wireless communication devices.

Fast update rates

Position update rate of up to 20 Hz. Fast enough to track sport athletes.

Long battery life

Very low power consumption reduces maintenance hassle and cost.

Security

Data transfer via UWB is secure, because it can't be intercepted by a personal device.

Let's Talk

We'd love to talk about how we can work together.

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