Connected light
takes flight

At first glance, a game of old-fashioned tic-tac-toe seems like an unlikely starting point for a discussion of cutting-edge technology, but the players in this instance were somewhat unusual. On one side of the board were children at Dutch hospital Maxima Medisch Centrum in Eindhoven. On the other, was a drone, delivering its noughts and crosses to precise locations on the grid thanks to communication via an LED lighting system.
 

The project was a collaboration between Philips Lighting and Blue Jay – a multi-disciplinary team of top students from the University of Eindhoven, whose mission is to show the world just what indoor drones are capable of. According to Ties van Loon, the current Team Manager of Blue Jay, there are three key future applications in the field of healthcare.
 

“You can potentially use drones for logistics in hospitals,” he says. “They can help fetch equipment for a doctor during surgery, for example. The second use is for entertainment, which is reflected in this tic-tac-toe project. The third use might be in monitoring patients – perhaps ensuring that someone with dementia doesn’t wander out of the clinic.”

There’s already significant deployment of VLC within retail. Giant supermarket chains such as Carrefour, Edeka and Media Saturn have been experimenting by offering customers indoor navigation, finding them optimal routes for their shopping and even targeting them with relevant messages and promotions at key points on their journey.

Another great benefit is that the technology produces a series of useful analytics in areas such as customer flow, footfall and dwell time. What’s more, store staff can be guided through the store to effi­ciently pick online orders or to restock shelves. The applications, however, go a long way beyond stores.

What about office buildings, hospitals, warehouses and airports?

The managers of all these facilities can see the potential of connected light that provides location. If you’re running a large hospital, for instance, you want to make sure that patients make it to their appointments on time, helping to increase effi­ciency and reduce no-shows. At the same time, there’s the added benefit of reducing the stress levels of patients. O­ffice workers can benefit from navigation to empty workspaces and meeting rooms or finding colleagues in today’s smart office workspace.

They have four essential requirements for their drone. They expect it to be autonomous, safe, social and helpful. The autonomy is only really possible through the location-based technology facilitated by LED lights. That way, the vehicle can tell exactly where it is at any given point.

Start-ups and smaller businesses involved in digital mapping, location-based services and product catalogs play an important role in the VLC market too. If we are searching on a smartphone while in store, we need the interface to be natural and intuitive. And what about hand-held scanners? They can be connected via lighting in environments where people are less likely to be using tablets and smartphones.

Of course, there’s an important role for bigger companies too, such as retail IT and building automation companies, consultants and systems integrators.