Technology Transfer

The i2CAT Foundation, as a research and innovation institution, aims to transfer research project results to private companies in order to create social and economic impact via the out-licensing of intellectual property and the creation of spin-offs.

i2Track

UWB-RFID is an indoor tracking and location system based on Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and RFID tagging technologies. UWB allows to locate items with a precision of about 20 cm and overcomes most of the limitations of alternative solutions such as the ones based on WiFi or Bluetooth in industrial or logistic environments.

Thanks to a new UWB module and its reduced size, weight and power, the design, pilot and implementation phases can be accelerated, delivering a new approach to UWB positioning projects allowing a vast range of industrial applications.

i2Track is particularly interesting for the logistics and manufacturing sectors where real-time locating of fast moving products, assets and parts is key for improving the performance of any supply chain.

Symphony

Symphony is an open and secure platform for data sharing that allows the integration of datasets and its preparation. The platform is mainly addressed to public entities for the secure sharing of data in an open environment by leveraging the existing knowledge in data ingestion, data pre-processing and data processing.

Visible Light Positioning

The i2CAT VLP is a high precision indoor positioning solution based on visible light communications (VLC). A modulated LED light source is used to transmit codes that contain information on the position of the light fixture to a camera.

Symphony

In a secure and unified way, Symphony allows data sharing among different actors using a technique named Data Slicing. Data Slicing allows the creation of virtual data sets specifics for each user.

Existing open data portals give access to public data published by different institutions, agencies or other bodies. However, these portals do not allow the integration of new heterogeneous data sets provided by users in order to augment the available public data.

Between 2016 and 2020, the market size is expected to increase by 36.9%, to a value of 75.7 bn EUR in 2020, including inflation corrections. For the period 2016-2020, the cumulative direct market size is estimated at 325 bn EUR.

i2Track

Visible Light Positioning

By means of a receiver with a CMOS camera or Image Sensor (IS) (smartphone or embedded system), an application library (SDK) is able to read the position codes and use this information to calculate a 3D position and the orientation of the receiver.

Current commercial indoor positioning systems use other technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth and UWB but with an accuracy in the range of meters that for many use cases is not suitable. VLP is able to obtain real-time 3D positioning with an accuracy of less than 10cm. Moreover, the usage of visible light allows to deploy the technology in radiation sensitive environments.

Our VLP technology can provide Location Based Services (LBS) in a wide range of sectors such as retail, museums, healthcare, transportation, augmented/virtual reality, targeted advertisement, asset tracking or indoor navigation of autonomous vehicles.

According to Markets&Markets, the global indoor location services market size is expected to grow from USD 7.11 Billion in 2017 to USD 40.99 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 42.0% with the industrial application being the most relevant. Regarding VLC, the market in visible light communications is USD 100 Billion according to forecasts by Grand View Research, specifically applications and transport vehicles is expected to grow at an 80% CAGR from 2016 to 2024.

Currently, our VLP solution has TRL 6. A prototype has been developed and demonstrated in numerous relevant environments, showcasing the applicability of accurate 3D positioning using LED lighting for retail, digital signage, and AGV navigation. Specifically, for the AGV industry, we have collaborated with SEAT and performed a pilot for locating an AGV in a warehouse, guiding it through a pre-stablished route using 12 LED luminaires. We also have a permanent demonstrator installed in our premises using the actual LED luminaires infrastructure installed on the ceiling showcasing a real navigation scenario.

I2CAT’s VLP technology has been disclosed under the international patent application PCT/EP2017/069232.

I2CAT is looking for partnerships to industrialise the VLP technology and license it for different sectors and applications.

VLP has been prototyped and demonstrated in several relevant events and exhibitions such as MWC16, MWC17 and CES2018 and a Proof of Concept has been realised in collaboration with SEAT.

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i2CAT works to boost collaborations with the companies and the innovation ecosystem players through strategic alliances to create innovative market-oriented technologies and solutions.

The center also coordinates the design and implementation of technology trials for use case validation with tech companies and end-users, among which are public administrations, industry partners and citizens. i2CAT also creates mixed innovation teams to cooperate in the development of IPR and prototypes (pre-commercial products), with the commitment of transforming promising scientific research into unique ingredients for a profitable tech company.

Co-development

Fostering strategic alliances to create innovative market-oriented technologies and solutions addressed to different industries.

Technology orientation

Gathering direct feedback of a societal challenge from the main stakeholders to improve and orient technologies that will meet real requirements and have a better market and society uptake.

Knowledge and Technology transfer

Setting up exploitation agreements on IPR and collaboration in go-to-market strategy with state-of-the-art methodologies that improve the success probability of deep-tech opportunities.