But as I look again at my name and the Ubisense logo side-by-side on the same business card, it’s clear that I have made the right decision. Imagine my surprise, for example, to discover that Ubisense products actually work! Who knew? I’m also very relieved to find out that the company is staffed by capable, dedicated, fun people, and not the evildoers that I had pictured at all. I haven’t found a single altar dedicated to arcane ritual, but I’m still looking. I know it’s here somewhere.
During the process of moving over, more than a few people asked me if I hadn’t had enough of UWB – after so long working to make it successful wasn’t I ready to move on to something else? Not at all! I’m a physicist at heart, and after asking yourself which RF technology is best for locating objects with high precision, it’s a simple thing to start from the physics of RF and end up with UWB as the answer. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that.
For a while there it seemed like the only people who knew this were those developing UWB RTLS products. But a lot has changed in the last decade: location based services have not only become the norm, but the expectation; location technologies have multiplied, spread, and settled in their niches; users have integrated location into their core operations; and UWB has moved to the forefront as the only choice for precise, real-time process control and optimization.
What better example than the Ubisense Users Conference that just wrapped up here in Cambridge? Several people have asked me what I thought of the conference, and my answer is about what you’d expect: fascinating and successful: two days of packed agenda with users talking about how UWB has transformed businesses ranging from aerospace to cattle, from Madame Butterfly to rehabilitating injured soldiers. But the real question is not “how do you think the conference went?” but “what do you think of the fact that there is such a conference?”
Two years ago this wouldn’t have been possible: UWB RTLS hadn’t transformed anything. A lot has happened since then: hardware has matured into proven, mission-ready systems, generic software platforms have matured into robust value-added solutions, and UWB has taken hold. For me this conference meant two important things: Ubisense is a company that is really making UWB RTLS happen, and the industry has matured significantly from sporadic pilot programs to real operational deployment.
Am I done with UWB? Far from it – it’s just starting to get interesting.
