Sevenhugs (Now Qorvo): Ensuring Success in UWB Technology

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Sevenhugs (Now Qorvo)

Simon Tchedikian, Founder and CEO, Sevenhugs (Now Qorvo)Simon Tchedikian, Founder and CEO
The advent of GPS-enabled smartphones has made geolocation an essential component of the mobile experience. And yet, as important as location is, its dependence on satellite-based positioning systems prevents GPS from playing a more practical role indoors, where we spend a significant amount of time. Indoor positioning technologies are dynamically changing this scenario by enabling users, venue owners, and app developers to determine a person’s position inside buildings. Ever since the inception of indoor positioning systems, tech-companies have been searching for an accurate and reliable indoor positioning system that can be applied to diverse indoor scenarios. Even though the number of technologies, techniques, and approaches in general used in IPS proposals is remarkable, the lack of a consumer-grade solution often creates roadblocks to rapid innovations in location-enabled applications. Upon realizing the shortcomings of existing IPS systems, Sevenhugs, a consumer electronics startup, responded by launching a consumer-grade and field-proven Ultra-Wideband (UWB) stack and software solution for smartphones, IoT devices, and automotive manufacturers. The solution supports applications ranging from device control, spatial awareness, location tracking, access, and security.

Qorvo, a leading RF solution provider, acquired Sevenhugs in November 2020. Through the acquisition, Qorvo aims to leverage Sevenhugs’ unique UWB software and expertise to strengthen its UWB product offering for smartphones and other devices. In an interview with CIO Applications magazine, Simon Tchedikian, who founded Sevenhugs and is now Senior Director of Software at Qorvo, sheds light on how their UWB stack improves consumer electronics products. He is an experienced executive with a strong business-oriented mindset and deep expertise in marketing consumer products.

With that, consumer electronics manufacturers can leverage Qorvo’s UWB complete solution, and expertise to provide innovative UWB-powered experiences to end-users.

What were the factors that led to the conception of Sevenhugs?

I have been working in the semiconductor industry for almost 20 years. After spending a remarkable amount of time developing complex high-tech technologies, including modem chip solutions for mobile phones, I understood that the industry lacked a highly efficient indoor positioning system.

“Back in 2013 we realized the tremendous potential of leveraging UWB technology in consumer products. We immediately shaped our vision around the fact that UWB would eventually be embedded everywhere, in our smartphones, smart home devices and our cars,” said Simon Tchedikian “Looking back, the diligence we showed developing and validating our technologies has elevated us as leaders in the field. Moving forward we look to help the entire industry grow, expediting the integration of UWB in ways that will truly transform our daily lives,” said Tchedikian.

The user experience associated with location-based services inside the home was basically still unexplored. Using smart home devices is a cumbersome task, as each device has its own app and control experience and does not communicate properly with each other. In a bid to transform the way smart devices contextually interact with each other in the home, I founded Sevenhugs in 2014. After years of R&D, we successfully released Smart Remote, the world’s first consumer-grade product with our state of the art Ultra-Wideband (UWB) software solution. Our field-proven UWB stack supports applications ranging from device control, spatial awareness, location tracking, access, security, and more. Through UWB, we provide a seamless digital experience while using smart devices inside the comforts of one’s home.

Ultra-Wideband has been around for many years, but no one had used it in consumer electronics. I came up with the idea of having a contextual awareness experience inside the home using the ranging and accuracy capabilities of UWB technology. With that, a smart device can gather information about its environment and contextually adapt behaviors accordingly. For example, consider a user pointing a smartphone or remote control to UWB-enabled appliances installed at his home. With UWB, the smartphone (or remote control) understands the location and context and brings the right controls. Contextual awareness was a missing piece, which prevented the seamless interactions inside buildings; now, UWB enables it.

Could you walk me through your UWB offerings?

In 2018, we successfully launched Smart Remote, the world’s first consumer electronics product to leverage UWB, offering indoor positioning and orientation tracking round the clock without recalibration and realignment by the user.

Smart Remote is a control platform for smart homes. With Smart Remote, users can control smart home devices such as music systems, digital lighting systems, and more. We are proud of the fact that we could launch a UWB-enabled product first on the market. UWB technology has limitless potential as it can be integrated into thousands of smart devices. We are the pioneers who introduced UWB to the consumer electronics industry, and today, following the acquisition by Qorvo we’re able to offer a complete solution consisting of both software and hardware (Sevenhugs UWB software and Qorvo-acquired Decawave UWB chip). Our UWB software can be easily integrated with any type of consumer application.

What are the unique features offered by your solution?

Our patented stack leverages UWB raw precision ranging technology, which is composed of three key pillars; a reliable communication protocol for perfect interoperability and coexistence, a powerful sensor fusion engine for precise position and orientation, and a user-centric application-specific software service. With that, manufacturers benefit from an end-to-end solution that is reliable and ready to deploy. As companies are expecting a faster time-to-market, we provide a solution that is easy to integrate and deploy—we help them gain a competitive advantage. Our stack requires an incredibly small software footprint and is low power. We also offer an architecture for Android-based smartphones. Our technology can be integrated with location trackers, entertainment systems, smart home appliances, security systems, smart speakers, gaming systems, and automobiles in addition to smartphones.

We have future-proofed the products in order to handle multiple use-cases simultaneously.

What does the recent acquisition mean to Sevenhugs?

Sevenhugs was acquired by Qorvo last month. Prior to acquiring Sevenhugs, Qorvo had acquired Decawave, a UWB hardware solution provider. We have been working closely with Decawave since our inception. With the recent acquisition, we are combining the best of the hardware and software under one roof. At present, we have the software and in-house hardware manufacturing capabilities to commercialize UWB integrated solutions, thanks to Qorvo’s scale and expertise shipping billions of products for smartphones. I cannot share our plans, but we are going to be aggressive. We are really excited to see the growth potential and opportunities awaiting us. The acquisition has brought our destination closer. We are expecting a lot of announcements in 2021 with regard to adoption.

- Ben Jackson
    December 22, 2020

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