Join ByteLight in the City of Brotherly Lights at LIGHTFAIR 2013! (We may run the stairs)

Next week the ByteLight crew will be hitting the road and heading south for LIGHTFAIR International (LFI) 2013 at the Philadelphia Convention Center. LFI is the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting show and conference.

At the show we’ll be joining Pathway, one of our certified lighting partners, for an exhibit of our indoor location – with light – technology at their hospitality event. Pathway, the Lighting Source, manufactures a complete line of lighting products for commercial, institutional, and residential applications.

Join us for a night, or two, of relaxation, innovation and entertainment on April 23^rd or 24^th in the Independence Ball Room at the Philadelphia Marriott, conveniently located just across the bridge from the convention center.

Within the Independence Ball Room we’ll be showing attendees how ByteLight-enabled lamps from Pathway serve as lights and positioning beacons, transmitting proprietary signals that can be picked up by camera equipped mobile devices carried by customers, visitors and workers within venues.

Once signals are detected, each mobile device can calculate its position without the need for an active network connection. Venue owners are then capable of delivering hyper-local content, interactive maps and indoor navigation features to users based on their precise location inside the venue.

If you can’t make it over to the Marriott, we’ll also be joining Pathway at their booth (4601F) on the show floor with a smaller demonstration of our LED-based solution for indoor location.

Hope to see you at LFI 2013!

Join ByteLight at the Pathway Hospitality Event:

When:

April 23^rd & April 24^th

5 p.m. – 10 p.m. ET

Where:

Independence Ball Room at the Philadelphia Marriott

1201 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19107

RSVP:

            To jenniferl AT pathwaylighting.com OR kyle AT bytelight.com

Don Dodge: Why Indoor Location Will Be Bigger Than GPS and Mapping →

The Inaugural ByteLight Hackathon

For a long time, one of our biggest goals has been to get ByteLight into the hands of developers. From the start, the response we received on potential applications has been incredibly wide. Everyone seems to have different ideas of what they could do using ByteLight.

So what could a room full of talented developers come up with in just a few hours? There was only one way to find out.

On February 26^th, we opened our office doors to some of the most talented developers in the Boston area for our very own hackathon. Motivated by the promise of free pizza, beer, a few ByteLights, and a top-secret prize – they came.

We set them up with everything they needed, gave them a brief run through of how the plugin editor worked and we started the clock.

The developers took to our web-based editor quickly, and within an hour we were seeing some major progress. We were seeing developers using our technology for everything from scavenger hunts to food ordering applications. The office was buzzing.

Dan Adams worked unbelievably fast to create an application for classroom settings that allowed students to ask questions without having to raise their hand or interrupt the class. His plugin included an upvoting system for the most common questions to be brought to the top of the pile. The professor could check off questions and remove them from the list as they were answered.

In the span of 4 hours, we saw 12 plugins get developed, with a couple more still in the works. When time was called we had each developer show off their creations. The ByteLight team got together and voted on what the favorite apps were.  

After a couple of minutes of going over all the great apps that were made, we came to a unanimous decision. The winner of the ByteLight Hackathon and proud new owner of 5 ByteLights was Ben Jones. Ben developed a location based scavenger hunt that turned the ByteLight office into a zombie hunt! The game had you search the office for tools and clues to eventually take down the zombiefied Bytie.

The top-secret prize? That went to runner up Ryan who made a location based version of the classic game King of the Hill. What was this top-secret prize? It was none other than the golden ByteLight.

We couldn’t have been happier with the turnout and results of the inaugural ByteLight Hackathon. Our plugin editor was a hit and it was great hearing what everyone thought of it. A huge thanks goes out to everyone who came out to code or to hang out and give moral support to the developers. We’re incredibly lucky to have such a great team, and even luckier to have such amazing fans and supporters!

- The ByteLight Team 

Join ByteLight on February 26th for Our Indoor Location Hackathon

Think you’ve got what it takes to build the best app using indoor location? On February 26th from 5:30 p.m. ET onward we’re opening our doors at 183 State Street to developers far and wide to see what they can do using the ByteLight technology as a platform.

We’re inviting developers, hobbystis, and tinkerers to the ByteLight office for a night of hacking on our indoor location platform.  

Use our simple, web based editor for creating ByteLight widgets.  No SDK download is required.  Write all of your code in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Hit deploy, and see your creation running live in the ByteLight community app.

We’ll provide the food, drinks, and all the tools you need to get up and running quickly.

Our goals are to 1) explore new ideas for indoor location, and 2) showcase how quickly you can build a ByteLight powered app.  

Prizes

At the end of the night, we’ll have a demo day to show off everyone’s creations.  We’ll have a vote on the favorite app - with the winner receiving 5 free ByteLights to take home with them.  And of course, a top secret prize.

We’ll also be handing out ByteLight swag.

Register: http://bytelighthackathon-zvents.eventbrite.com

What: ByteLight Hackathon, Hacking apps for Indoor Location
When: 5:30 - 10:30ish p.m. ET, Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Where: ByteLight HQ, 183 State Street, FL 7, Boston, MA 02109

Passing 25% Join the indoor location with light movement to help us reach our goal!

With your support the ByteLight team has surpassed 25% of our $100K selfstarter goal in the first seven days of our campaign!

During that time we’ve put a stake in the ground for the selfstarter model, illuminated the Museum of Science in a whole new way and had Fast Company do a deep-dive on why this all matters.

We’ve been blown away by your excitement to get ByteLight in your hands to develop indoor location apps on our newly open platform. ByteLight orders have come in from around the world, including those from Istanbul and New Delhi.

However, in order to move ever closer to the dream of illuminating indoor location to the masses, we still need your help. Here’s how you can contribute:

- There are still a limited number of discounted “Super Early Access” 2-pack ByteLight packs available now for $69 on ByteLight.com. Need more than two lights? No problem, we’re still offering packages with up to 200 light bulbs.

- Continue to help spread the word by sharing with your fellow developers, colleagues and extended network online and offline. Remember to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for updates and everything ByteLight. 

- We want to hear your best app ideas  or the ByteLight platform. Tweet them at us via Twitter or share on our Facebook wall, and we’ll pick our favorite app idea and we’ll build it for you at our upcoming ByteLight Hardware Hackathon.

In order to bring ByteLight to the masses at an affordable price, we need to hit our $100K goal and order at least 1250 sets of bulbs in bulk. We’ll be continuing to offer discounted pricing to the first 1,250 supporters who want early access to ByteLight. We can’t thank you enough for your continued support.

Please feel free to contact us at any time.

- The ByteLight Team

The Problem With Kickstarter

Kickstarter helped pioneer crowdfunding for creative projects. It has been enormously successful. The Kickstarter model is to set a fundraising goal. If the project meets its goal, the money is transferred to the creators to fund the development of the project. Kickstarter collects a 5 percent fee, the creator gets funding, and the backers get the satisfaction of sponsoring a new idea.

For creative projects this model works well. As long as the creator is genuine, you can expect that they’ll deliver something. An aspiring director is probably going to make a film. Sure, it might be bad. But that’s the only risk you take.

Hardware projects are different. Hardware is hard. Things blow up. You get sued for patent infringement. Going from prototype to mass production is an enormous challenge. You need the help of experienced industrial designers, engineers, and manufacturing experts to make everything work. Inventory costs and cashflow management become an issue. For the types of companies that go on Kickstarter, they often don’t have the expertise required to successfully deliver on their promises. Delays are inevitable.

Continue to Xconomy to read the full article.

View high resolution

“Indoor location alone will be bigger than the existing gps-based location based services,” Google’s Don Dodge.

Google’s Developer Advocate Don Dodge, who recently joined ByteLight as an advisor, was kind enough to share his thoughts on indoor location with us over a Twitter Q&A today. The full Twitter Q&A exchange can be found on Twitter here under the the hashtag #bltqa. Don has become a luminary on indoor location, investing and advising many companies that are looking to offer solutions in the nascent space. In fact, here are some of the thoughts on indoor location that Don gave TechCrunch last year - when he called it the NEXT BIG THING. 

Today, Don expanded on those thoughts and we’ve highlighted some of his enlightening answers to our questions above.

Connect Your Physical and Digital worlds with ByteLight

Since flipping the switch and emerging from stealth mode a few months ago, we’ve been blown away by the outpouring we’ve received by those interested in ByteLight.  From people wanting to use ByteLight to deliver location based media in museums, provide navigation for the visually impaired, or help firefighters find their way in a smoke filled environment, the diversity of applications is enormous. We think indoor location is going to be bigger than GPS.  And we want you to join us in bringing it to the masses. 

Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve heard your call.  Following in the path blazed by app.net, Lockitron, and Lumawake, we’re launching a selfstarter.us campaign for pre-ordering ByteLight. For the first time, we’ll be offering up ByteLight enabled bulbs in a smaller, PAR-30 form factor that fits into any standard light socket.  Hobbyists, hackers, and households can leverage our technology to connect the physical and digital worlds. 

Create a digital graffiti wall that only people in your living room can draw on.  Leave digital messages in physical locations for others to find.  Or build your own plugin and let your imagination run wild.  The possibilities are endless.

We’ve been hard at work for over a year perfecting the technology.  During this time, we’ve built a talented team of designers and engineers, moved from initial prototypes to low-volume production, and deployed solutions at pilot locations. We’ve signed our inaugural lighting partner, who has an incredible line of products and one of the highest quality LED bulbs on the market today. 

But this is just the beginning. 

In order to move ever closer to our dream of putting a ByteLight in every bulb, we need your help. In order to bring ByteLight to the masses at an affordable price, we need to order at least 1250 sets of bulbs in bulk. We’ll be offering discounted pricing to the first 1,250 supporters who want early access to ByteLight. And you won’t be charged until your ByteLights are ready to ship.

Our team has never been more excited about the possibilities. 

Join us. We can’t thank you enough for your continued support.    

Please feel free to contact us at any time. 

Spread the word!  And win free stuff.

We understand that some fans of ByteLight may not be able to purchase bulbs at this time. However, you can still help us by spreading the word about ByteLight. And we’ll reward you for it with prizes! Starting with a Twitter raffle this week, where anyone that re-tweets the message below this post will be entered into a random drawing by week’s end for a 10-pack of ByteLights ($490 value!).   __________________________________________________

Follow us on Twitter and re-tweet this tweet to enter the raffle:

Join the movement to connect your physical and digital worlds. A @ByteLight in every home! http://bit.ly/bytelightselfstarter

We’ll announce the winner on 1/22 at 10AM EST. 

Thanks for your support and we look forward to getting ByteLights into your hands!

ByteLight Illuminates the Museum of Science

Happy New Year! The team here at ByteLight has been cranking our way through the holidays and today we’re happy to announce our first public pilot! Starting today at the Museum of Science visitors can navigate and explore the 2,000-square-foot Cahners ComputerPlace using our LED lighting-based indoor positioning system.

That’s right, we’ve installed over 20 of our uniquely programmed LED light bulbs, produced by Solais Lighting, so that visitors can navigate and learn about exhibits there using iPads provided  by the museum. Museum-goers can check their position, search for different interactive spots, get directions or take a self-guided tour enhanced with information that is based on their precise real-time position. Guests can head to the Computer Build Bench and learn how to assemble a computer, to the Robot Park to program a robot or to the Mars Yard to operate a Personal Exploration Rover (pictured above).

We can’t wait for you all to try it out and look forward to getting more ByteLights installed across the museum. As one of the world’s most renowned science centers, and a place that inspired our own founders to pursue their passions for science and technology, we couldn’t think of a better spot than the Museum of Science for our first public pilot. The full release is below:

BOSTON January 8, 2013 - ByteLight, a developer of market-leading indoor positioning solutions, today launches its first pilot at the Museum of Science, Boston: an innovative indoor positioning system that uses LED lighting. ByteLight-enabled LED (light-emitting diodes) lights are now empowering visitors to navigate and explore in real time a 2,000-square-foot discovery zone called Cahners ComputerPlace, which encourages Museum visitors to explore digital technology and how it affects their lives.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Museum of Science in launching our inaugural public indoor location pilot,” said Aaron Ganick, CEO and co-founder of ByteLight. “Growing up in the Boston area, I was introduced and encouraged to pursue my passion for both science and technology through childhood visits to this world-renowned science museum. I hope our installation within the Cahners ComputerPlace exhibit enhances and enriches the experience for visitors in a truly new way, while also encouraging them to pursue their own passion for digital technology.”

Visitors Navigate with iPad and Interactive Map

ByteLight installed over 20 of their uniquely programmed LED light bulbs, produced by Solais Lighting, in Cahners ComputerPlace so that visitors can now navigate and learn about several hands-on exhibits there, using one of a limited number of iPads provided by the Museum. Touching a map on the iPad, Museum-goers can check their position, search for different interactive spots, get directions in Cahners ComputerPlace or take a self-guided tour enhanced with engaging information at each stop, based on their precise, real-time position. For example, guests can head for the Computer Build Bench and learn to assemble a computer, to Robot Park to program a robot or to the Mars Yard to operate a Personal Exploration Rover.

“ByteLight’s technology offers much greater accuracy, flexibility, and scalability than any other location-awareness technology we have explored,” said Marc Check, the Museum’s director of information and interactive technology. “With a mission to transform the nation’s relationship with science and technology, we are excited to be the first museum to introduce our visitors to a cutting-edge technology which will enrich both their learning and wayfinding experience.”

 How ByteLight LEDs Work

Each ByteLight-enabled bulb transmits a proprietary signal that is picked up by the camera-equipped iPad. Once the iPad detects the signals, it calculates its position and ByteLight’s platform delivers information related to that exact position. ByteLight also offers the Museum functions and tools that make it simple to provide and update visitors with real-time maps and location-based information. In addition, ByteLight administration features enable Museum staff to analyze visitor traffic patterns and measure exhibit engagement. 

“With our patented technology, large public venues like the Museum of Science can build on a lighting infrastructure already in place to enhance the experience of their indoor spaces and turn their visitors’ mobile devices into tour guides,” said Dan Ryan, CTO and co-founder of ByteLight. “We’re transforming their LED bulbs into beacons of information that connect venue experiences with hyper-local, mobile content that is delivered within a meter of a visitor’s position.”

The Museum’s goal is to expand this pilot to engage more visitors in larger spaces with more stops. With 1.5 million visitors annually, the Museum offers a powerful location to investigate people’s interactions with technology.

Museum visitors wishing to experience ByteLight-illuminated tours must request one of a limited number of iPads from Cahners ComputerPlace staff. Tours and Museum staff are available Saturday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. ET or on Fridays from 10 a.m. – 7:30p.m. ET. Entry to Cahners ComputerPlace is included with regular Exhibit Halls admission: $22 for adults, $20 for seniors (60+), and $19 for children (3-11). For more information, the public can call 617/723-2500, (TTY) 617/589-0417, or visit mos.org.

We wanted to share with you some exciting company news that we’re announcing today. We’re happy to say we’ve signed our inaugural licensed lighting partner in Solais Lighting of Stamford, CT. Solais is a leader in producing innovative, high-performance LED lamps that are perfect for track and recessed fixtures, which are widely used by our prospective customers in the commercial, retail and public sectors. This makes them an ideal partner as we move aggressively into these markets with a ByteLight in every bulb. The full release is below.

BOSTON and Stamford, CT December 19, 2012 - ByteLight, a developer of market-leading indoor positioning solutions, today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Solais Lighting, the leading manufacturer of specification-grade LED lamps and fixtures, as its inaugural licensed lighting partner. Solais Lighting is now licensed to manufacture and sell ByteLight-enabled LED lamps as both lighting and indoor positioning solutions to commercial and enterprise building owners, retail outlets and public spaces such as museums, convention centers and airports.

“We’re excited to partner with Solais Lighting and look forward to working closely together in providing our joint-customers a high-value, first of its kind solution that satisfies both their lighting and location-based needs within their venues,” said Aaron Ganick, CEO and Co-founder of ByteLight. “Solais produces innovative, high-performance LED lamps that are perfect for track and recessed fixtures, which are widely used by our prospective customers in the commercial, retail and public sectors. This makes them an ideal partner as we move aggressively into these markets with a ByteLight in every bulb.”

 ByteLight-enabled lamps from Solais Lighting serve as lights and positioning beacons, transmitting proprietary signals that can be picked up by camera equipped mobile devices carried by customers, visitors and workers within venues. Once signals are detected, each mobile device can calculate its position without the need for an active network connection. Venue owners are then capable of delivering hyper-local content, interactive maps and indoor navigation features to users based on their precise location inside the venue.

“We’re happy to be entering into a partnership with an innovative technology company like ByteLight as we continue to manufacture LED lamps and fixtures that are at the technological forefront of the industry,” said James Leahy, President of Solais Lighting. “The value proposition for LED lighting has traditionally been focused on greater energy efficiency, and rightfully so. However, ByteLight is enhancing the commercial value of these energy-efficient light sources in a whole new way, by turning them into more than just sources of illumination.” We believe this exciting new functionality will accelerate demand and adoption of our LED lamps in the commercial market.”