UWB People Positioning Offers Targeted Home Audio

BY CLAIRE SWEDBERG, RFID Journal, Jan 30 2023

Sagemcom has demonstrated technology developed by NOVELDA to identify individuals’ locations in a room, and to adjust the sound experience as they move.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) sensing technology company NOVELDA is developing a solution that pinpoints the locations of people using UWB radar sensors. The system is intended to bring intelligence to smart-home devices and a variety of applications, so that systems or devices can direct and manage experiences based on where people are located. One initial use case for the UWB real-time people-positioning system, intended for commercial release next year, is home audio sets in which a sound system’s speakers use the detected location of individuals to optimize the audio experience.

This year, NOVELDA is selling UWB radar sensor development kits to businesses and partners looking to develop solutions around this functionality. Audio and video solutions company Sagemcom demonstrated the technology in its speakers at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show, recently held in Las Vegas. The system operates similarly to standard radar, but with greater location accuracy and reliability.

UWB transmission systems have traditionally been used to identify specific objects based on tags transmitting to a reader or receiver, but Novelda says it is using a different approach. The technology consists of a transmitter and receiver that detects an object without a tag. Thus, it does not identify a person or thing, but strictly its presence and location, according to Jan-Bjørnar Lund, NOVELDA’s CEO. It accomplishes this by measuring time-of-flight response to its 6 to 9 GHz transmissions as the waves bounce off an object or person.

NOVELDA’s ultra-wideband radar sensor solution has been detecting the presence of people in targeted areas, such as in front of a laptop computer, for several years (see UWB Radar Pulse Detects Presence for LCD Screens, Vending Machines), and computer company Lenovo has been building the technology into its laptops since 2021. “We’ve had a commercial breakthrough in laptops,” Lund says, for enabling both security and power saving.

Detecting Presence for Hospitality Room-level Settings

Typically, users would log into their device with their usual password or biometrics. The UWB technology would detect when they were within range and when they stepped away from the laptop, at which time it could enter sleep mode, thereby saving power and preventing others from accessing the device.

Lighting and HVAC controls company Steinel, for example, employs the technology to provide a solution to hotels for the management of lighting and environmental conditions, such as heating and air conditioning. By detecting whether someone is in a hotel room, the system can enable building applications such as automated ventilation and heating, while allowing lighting control based on the detection of people’s presence. Unlike other systems, Lund says, the technology is sensitive enough to identify the presence of a breathing person even when motionless, such as when they are sleeping.

The technology is in use across several hotels in Europe, which have reported that the solution has led to saving of 15 percent on energy consumption, on average. As soon as the system detects a person has left the room, the lighting and temperatures can be adjusted. That’s an alternative to standard occupancy sensor systems, which either shut off too readily when a person is still, requiring them to wave their arms to set the lighting back on, or else delay lighting and temperature changes by as much as two hours, to be certain everyone has left the room.

More Advanced Feature Positions People in a Room

Following such detection systems, Novelda is now promoting its latest functionality to not only identify whether someone is in a room, but also to allow their location to be tracked in real time. The first use case is expected to be centered around smart-home entertainment solutions. Sagemcom built the technology into its speakers as a demonstration, still in prototype, to illustrate how it works.

NOVELDA’s UWB sensors in the speakers transmit signals and measure responses in real time, calculating whether someone has moved into the space around them, as well as where they are located. The speakers then leverage that data to adjust the direction of sound waves. The direction of those waves alters the experience for room occupants. If sound is directed at particular individuals, or at the area surrounding them, they are likely to have a better listening experience.

“Regardless of where you’re sitting in the living room,” Lund explains, “you will get the specifically high-quality audio that’s the best overall sound for your position.” If someone were to walk to a different side of the room, the sound waves could be adjusted accordingly. And by detecting a person’s smallest movements, such as the rise and fall of their breath, the system confirms that individuals are still present, even if they are sitting still. In the future, the technology is anticipated to differentiate between a person and a pet, such as a family dog, based on the type of movement.

This location-detection system can enable a variety of personalization settings, such as directing an entertainment system to turn on a user’s favorite show when they return home from work. Beyond home entertainment, Lund notes, there are many other applications being discussed as well. For instance, the technology could enable companies to create heat maps in an office building, allowing users to view and analyze where people sit within a work area, enabling them to better manage desk usage.

Building Solutions for Sound Systems and More

In stores, the technology could track shopper behaviors by capturing when and in which aisles individuals stop, then linking that information to the products displayed at those locations. In an office setting, by knowing worker behaviors and the locations of staff members, a facility could be set to more strategically control the air conditioning and air flow into places such as meeting rooms, based on where people sit.

“There’s both a comfort and health benefit enabled that way,” Lund says. Companies are also considering using the technology to identify whether people are inside a facility during an emergency event, for mustering purposes. For instance, the solution could determine that everyone has left the building, or that an individual still remains in a specific room, so that emergency responders could know exactly where to go to save that person.

While Sagemcom is the first partner to build a potential solution, Novelda expects to see other companies building prototypes within the next five to six months. The technology provides a lower-cost, more anonymous solution than cameras can offer, Lund explains. In some locations, such as inside buildings, people do not like to see cameras in operation around them. With Novelda’s technology, he says, there are no privacy issues since individuals cannot be identified. “It’s really about seeing if someone is there,” he states.

In addition, the technology provides ranging functionality — users or developers can indicate the specific range boundary at which they want the system to operate, such as 4 meters (13 feet). If an object is located beyond that area, the software would not respond. Other ideas companies have suggested range from a snow-based motion-detection system to technology for identifying potential avalanches, as well as a baby monitor able to detect an infant’s breathing in real time.. In the meantime, Lund says, “We are working with partners to solve more advanced applications that will have significant impact on energy savings and people’s well-being.”

Key Takeaways:

• UWB radar enables companies to build solutions that can detect when an individual is located within a specific area, without identifying them, and without requiring a tag.
• The latest version, designed for real-time people positioning and tracking, enables the system to understand where someone is located, and offers such features as targeted sound experience based on location.