Transport apps have already transformed the way we get from A to B and are now at the forefront of mobility solutions that create seamless itineraries that use our smartphones to optimise journeys for convenience. Solutions like ticketless travel, on-demand taxis, ride-sharing and door-to-door journey planning have eradicated much of the inconvenience of using public transport. However, once a passenger boards a train, they are currently let down by apps that fail to provide reliable access to real-time data, including timetables, platform information, and status updates. All too often, passengers rely on digital signs and tannoy announcements to receive updates on their journeys. The problem is a failure to detect the train a smartphone user is on once they board. Signalbox's geolocation technology for rail solves this problem. It allows apps to quickly identify the rail service a passenger is travelling on, providing access to personalised real-time information. Regardless of where customers have purchased their tickets, and without the need for a connection to onboard WiFi, Signalbox-enabled apps let passengers leverage the power of their smartphones to access location data and real-time updates. Personalised tracking can be shared with family and friends, making it possible for rail passengers to coordinate station pickups and onward travel in a visual and engaging way. The technology can also be used to carry out in-journey route planning, mitigating the impact of disruptions. For people who find it more difficult to travel, such as those who are blind and partially sighted, Signalbox enables timely in-journey notifications to assist with wayfinding, making the railway more accessible for all. This project seeks to pave the way for global roll out of Signalbox. The focus will be on accessing data, developing partnerships, and forging relationships with organisations across the rail data ecosystem. We'll focus on scoping the market and understanding the technical and commercial challenges to creating an optimum product for this new market. Our broader objective is to take an initial step towards diversifying and adapting Signalbox's innovative technology for internationalisation.

Signalbox will build and demonstrate technology that allows real-time geospatial visualisation of train movements across the entire rail network of Great Britain. The project will create and deploy an API and SDK that will allow partners to embed real-time geospatial train maps, enabling passengers to view and track live train movements across the network, making it easier to plan and manage their journey. The new suite of tools developed for this project will enable a smartphone to pinpoint the train that a passenger is on and create journey visualisation, unique to them, that can be shared with friends and family. We will research and develop a sophisticated data pipeline to stream this data in real-time and allow it to scale to the large number of connected client devices and systems that are necessary for it to operate effectively in a live railway environment. The technology will support a range of use cases, including mobile apps that offer real-time mapping of a passenger's train journey, digital signage in stations that display engaging visual content for service updates, and tools for TOC websites to enhance the customer experience.

Inspired by web cookies, which allow smoother web browsing, our vision is simple: through big data and precise positioning, we will make it possible for IoT objects and mobile devices to interact seamlessly with the environment. Each time you visit a geographic site, a unique geoCookie is generated and stored by an app on your device. The next time you visit that area, your device checks to see if it has a geoCookie that is relevant and sends the information contained in that cookie back to the app to improve interaction. GeoCookies enable a vast range of applications. For transportation apps, they will be used to automatically provide contextual notifications at bus stops, train stations and on underground metro systems. For shopping apps, notifications may be used to generate coupons matched to shopping preferences. For security, geoCookies may be used to provide location-based authentication – for example when completing a mobile payment transaction. geoCookies can capture analytics such as dwell time and browsing habits to enable bricks and mortar intelligence to rival the online world. Our project will evaluate geoCookie feasibility, exploring strengths and weaknesses, required to take this product to market.

Location underpins the operation of a vast range of smart city applications. Examples include real-time transport apps and mapping applications, guidance systems for people with sight loss, satnav systems for vehicles, high-value asset tracking systems, emergency response systems, and parking apps. Currently these applications rely on satellite systems such as GPS to determine their position. Yet in many urban areas satellite signals are disrupted, leading to a poor location accuracy, or no position at all. Therefore, there is a need for alternative technologies that can supplement GPS to allow location everywhere all the time – so called ‘ubiquitous positioning’. Signalbox Urban API is a product that provides ubiquitous positioning across entire urban areas - delivering pinpoint city-wide positioning and location-based triggering for IoT objects and nomadic devices. For this study, we will analyse the systems performance in Singapore, and foster partnerships with third-party product manufacturers to help us address the Asian market.

One of the most used apps of all-time is Google Maps; evidence enough of the demand for accurate and reliable location data. Smartphone apps such as CityMapper (the third most popular app in the iTunes store in 2014) provide real time transport information, allowing users to adaptively plan their journey based on their preferences, their location, and up to date transport information. Yet these apps fail to deliver in urban metro and underground systems, despite the fact that they are sorely needed to help the user negotiate complex infrastructure and to mitigate the effect of delays. The problem is that railway infrastructure and underground tunnels upset the ambient signal environment, meaning it is typically no longer possible for the smartphones to derive the user’s location using GPS satellites or gain an adequate data connection from cell towers or Wi-Fi. This means the app can no longer respond with relevant or timely information. To overcome these deficiencies, we want to investigate the viability of creating a Metro API. This is a small piece of software incorporated into apps by their developers, allowing them to perform on urban metro systems. This technology would not only derive the smartphone’s location without any satellites, but also provide other relevant information, such as what train the user is on. This will enable the apps to drastically improve their performance and enhance the user’s experience. Subject to proof of market, we propose a system that would initially be developed to work on the London Underground network, and then rolled out to other major cities such Paris and New York. Our project will provide commercial validation and create a commercial and scientific roadmap for taking the product to market.

Location underpins the operation of almost all smartphone apps that connect users with their local environment. These “context-aware” apps are transforming the way we experience places, from how we navigate and travel to how we shop, access services, do business and socialise. They not only allow retailers to connect with their customers on a hyper-local level but also bring far-reaching benefits to other types of businesses and amenities in town and city centres. This raises the overall effectiveness and usability of town and city centres as business and social hubs, a vital way to attract users back to the high street. However, urban areas currently suffer from very poor positioning accuracy due to the disruption of satellite signals by buildings. Incorrect positioning damages the usability of all smartphone apps that rely on positioning, meaning they deliver irrelevant, inaccurate or misleading information or suffer from impaired functionality. This problem is exacerbated on many high streets and urban centres because they have grown organically over time and so suffer from inherent usability issues. To provide a solution to this problem, SuperLocal is developing technology that greatly improves smartphone positioning accuracy in town and city centres. Our innovative positioning system uses a “sensor-fusion” algorithm that combines data from a range of sensors on smartphones, including those not currently used for positioning. It has no local infrastructure requirements and so could be speedily rolled out across all town and city centres to help attract users back to high streets across the UK. In initial proof-of-concept trials, smartphones operating our system were almost always accurate to less than 15 metres, compared to over 30 metres for phones that used current positioning systems. Our system not only improves accuracy, but almost without fail locates the user to the correct side of the street and correct street corner – information that can dramatically improve users’ experience of the high street. For re-invigorating the high street, we believe that the strength of our offering is in its ubiquity. It isn’t a specific solution for just one high street or kind of urban area, but can instead be speedily and cost effectively deployed on every single urban area in the whole of the UK. Going further, it doesn’t just improve the movement of people in the high street, but also enhances the operation of all context aware apps. The solution is also timely, as the importance of context-aware, location-driven apps has been recognised by out-of-town shopping malls and supermarkets. As a result, these places will be rolling out bespoke positioning systems in the next few years (these types of positioning systems have already been deployed in the United States). However, these systems are not capable of providing improved position across urban areas. Therefore, without action, this will be yet another area where the high street is left behind.

Super Local is a start-up that has produced an innovative technology that enhances the performance of smartphone mapping apps. The technology leverages open source data to allow users to perform more precise location searches and orientate themselves to the environment more quickly. Using the Technology Strategy Board’s innovation vouchers, Super Local will strengthen its intellectual property position.