Lightricity

Using battery-free IoT products to develop digital wayfinding solutions

Lightricity specialises in wireless, battery-free, sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) products and wearables. The business has a strong environmental focus and wants to eliminate battery proliferation in IoT applications.

Currently, the potential of IoT to support more inclusive living is at risk of being diminished by its sustainability problem, which threatens to add billions of batteries in environmental waste. Lightricity founder Matthias Kauer hopes to prove that inclusive technology can be developed without the need to use battery-powered devices.

Matthias’s long-term goal for Lightricity is to improve the quality of life for all, by offering solutions that will help people easily navigate complex buildings like hospitals and airports.

With the Innovate UK Inclusive Innovation Award, Lightricity is taking a step closer to its goal. The team plan to develop a light-powered wayfinding beacon, which will make the inclusion of visually and mobility-impaired people in indoor navigation systems both practically possible and economically viable.

“This project makes beacon-based digital wayfinding solutions significantly more scalable, sustainable and information-rich. It will enable more to be rolled out with increased density of beacon placement and added functionality, allowing use-cases that are far more inclusive than is currently the case,” Matthias says.