8 Game-changing Scenarios Of Apple’s U1 Ultra-Wideband (UWB) chip
First introduced in iPhone 11, and recently at Apple watch 6 and the new iPhone 12, the UWB positioning technology implemented in Apple’s hardware, will change ranging and location in everyday life
Wireless technologies always excited me. We usually refer to them as Bandwidth Boosters ( i.e 5G, WiFi 6 ), yet one of the promises that they hold, is a way more sophisticated positioning capabilities that will make everyday’s life completely different
How UWB Works
UWB works by sending short lightwave pulses across a very wide band. It is not a new technology, it’s been around for at least 15 years but did not catch up as a consumer technology until nowadays with companies such as Apple adopting it for spatial awareness.
UWB is used in a more industrial form as a location sensor to track devices, carts, cars, even animals. It consumes very little power and can last for months
WI-Fi RTT
Google has also been playing with Radio positioning technologies in the form of Wi-Fi RTT (round trip time) https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/wifi-rtt for a while, which actually makes it easier to range and locate access point s and peer devices using a very accurate round trip time of the wi-fi signal (think “Ping“), the challenge here is the precision that is needed since radio moves at a mere 300,000 km a second, it takes lots of calculations and your chips need to be capable, a small mistake and the ranging can change dramatically
Apple’s U1 UWB technology works in a similar way, it checks the time it takes for a radio signal to reach another capable device (Time of Flight). Knowing Radio Speed and Time, it is simple math to calculate distance.
Currently, UWB offers Far Greater accuracy than Other positioning techniques,( up to 50 cm), that will also lead to rich analytics, with behavioural analysis of users.
Since UWB offers Spatial Awareness to your devices, indoor and outdoor, we arranged a list of 8 possible scenarios, that we might see, soon.
1. Airdrop
Probably the most basic feature of the new UWB technology, your iPhone or your Apple Watch will be able to detect the nearest device/user with it’s sharing options.
2. Locating other Apple hardware
What happens today, but it will be much more precise, once you will have UWB in your Airpods, Apple Watch and iPhone.
Using more than 2 devices will also make it easier to use your iPhone as an anchor for triangulation operations and find the exact location of devices and not just the range.
3. Home Automation
Classic automation scenarios, as getting home, and your UWB lightbulb will be illuminated immediately, your home front door unlocked… possibilities are endless.
4. Apple tags
That will make your ordinary devices, UWB location-aware. Just attach the apple tag to your key fob, and they will be found immediately.
5. Indoor navigation
Just add up UWB chips to any building (malls, shopping centres, etc.), and create an indoor navigation app that will help you to navigate inside spaces. UWB will actually potentially replace Bluetooth BLE Beacons as an easy and cheap way to track users and send them related marketing content.
6. Smart Car keys
Your Apple Watch will be much more precise in locating your car and replacing your physical keys. You will not need to point your Apple Watch towards your car, it will do the job for you.
UWB comes along with Apple hardware security chips, as Apple understands that the vast majority of new use cases will also trigger potential attacks.
7. Future UWB capable Apple TV — continuous watch
That could lead to interesting use cases, where you start watching TV series at your living room, and without pausing it, it will stop immediately as you walk by into another room where it will keep playing it from the moment it was paused.
8. Smart speaker capabilities
Just think of your apple smart speaker playing relevant Content based on who is in the room and probably their range, relative location and the number of people in the room.
