Japan’s first high-precision 3D positioning to instantly determine the location of the building’s manager – Cooperating with the smart building management system

Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director, President and CEO Hitoshi Nomura; hereinafter referred to as “Tokyo Tatemono”) and MetCom, Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo), which provides wide-area and highly accurate 3D location information , (Representative Director Hiroki Hirasawa, hereinafter “MetCom”) is a demonstration that combines indoor positioning technology and vertical positioning service “Pinnacle” (* 1) (hereinafter “Pinnacle”) to capture the position of an administrator in a building in three dimensions. We conducted an experiment and succeeded in grasping with an error level of 1m. With conventional positioning technology, it was not possible to accurately grasp indoor location information, and it has not been put to practical use in building management work. By linking the management system and 3D positional information within the application on the administrator’s smartphone, it is now possible to instantly grasp which room on which floor the administrator is in the building. In the future, we will work on the DX of patrol security through additional experiments, and the sophistication and efficiency of a wide range of operations such as inspections and cleaning. This is the first case of utilizing 3D location information in building management operations.

Metcom
How to see the position of the manager on the smart building management system

In December 2020, the Tokyo Tatemono Nihonbashi Building (Chuo-ku, Tokyo), where the demonstration experiment was conducted, has been using the smart building management system “Dynamic Building Matrix” (hereinafter referred to as “DBM”) (*2) to monitor the situation inside the building. Information necessary for building management such as building management, inspection work, and air environment is converted into data and managed in the cloud. In this demonstration experiment, we are linking DBM and 3D position information, and we plan to continue accumulating records to improve the efficiency of inspection work.

In the future, MetCom is going to be installing wireless base stations that cover the entire town so that high-precision 3D location information can be obtained without installing infrastructure such as Wi-Fi access points in buildings.

*1 Vertical positioning service Pinnacle is a service that measures the altitude of your smartphone or IoT device with high accuracy both indoors and outdoors. The device’s built-in pressure sensor information is compared and analyzed with nearby reference point pressure information and measured in real time, so you can identify the height with an accuracy of 2-3m. For more detailed information on Pinnacle’s mechanism, service area, etc., please refer to MetCom’s “Vertical Positioning Service” explanation page (https://metcom.jp/service/pinnacle/).

*2 Dynamic Building Matrix (DBM) is a cloud-based building management system that integrates and visualizes the information necessary for building management operations. It consists of a business management system, facility/asset management system, 3D space visualization platform, etc.

About the demonstration experiment

Verification time and place
In March 2023, verification was conducted on each floor from the first basement floor to the second floor of the Tokyo Tatemono Nihonbashi Building.

Verification details
Verification of the achievability of 3D positioning accuracy of people in the building (within approximately 3m), which is necessary for building management work

Verification method
We have developed a smartphone application that performs high-precision 3D positioning by combining horizontal and vertical positioning. This app uses add3 (*3), an indoor positioning engine, and has installed Wi-Fi access points in a total of 22 locations from the first basement floor to the second floor of the Tokyo Tatemono Nihonbashi Building. In addition, this high-precision 3D positional information was imported into the DBM to map and display in real time where the manager is in the area displayed by division.

Metcom
Wi-Fi access point installed in the building (commercially available)

*3 add3 is a high-precision indoor positioning technology and indoor map platform using sensor data and AI technology developed by POC-DC. With IoT devices and smartphones, it is possible to acquire location information with an accuracy of 1 to 3m at all times, along with the behavior of the device holder, regardless of whether it is indoors or outdoors.

Confirmed results
Walking around various locations on each floor from the 1st basement to the 2nd floor, the trajectory of each walk was displayed in real time on the smartphone app and DBM. As a result, it was confirmed that the error between the actual location of the building manager and the location displayed by the smartphone app and DBM was within the 1m level.

Metcom
Walking trajectory displayed on the developed smartphone app for evaluation
Metcom 3D
Displaying the location of the building manager in the Tokyo Tatemono Nihonbashi Building in DBM

Items to be verified in the future
By the middle of 2023, we will quantitatively verify the reduction of initial response time and inspection work time through the use of smartphones to reduce inspection work time, share the exact location of management staff, speed up response, and accumulate records. By accumulating records, it becomes possible to simulate an efficient patrol route.

Demonstration test partner companies

  • KYOCERA Communication Systems Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture; Yoshihito Kurose, President)

Overall installation including layout design of Wi-Fi access points

  • POC-DC Ltd. (Headquarters: Hino City, Tokyo; President Tomoki Yokota)

Providing a smartphone application that combines Pinnacle and high-precision indoor positioning technology “add3”

  • Techsor Inc. (Headquarters: Tama City, Tokyo; President and CEO: Qiang Zhu)

Coordination with the smart building management system “Dynamic Building Matrix (DBM)”

Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd.
Established in 1896 by Zenjiro Yasuda, it is the oldest comprehensive real estate developer in Japan. Focusing on the development of office buildings and condominiums, a wide range of businesses as a group, including real estate sales, brokerage and consulting, parking lot development and management, resort business, logistics facility development business, asset management business, overseas business, real estate appraisal business, etc. is expanding. Based on our corporate philosophy of “trust to the future”, we aim to achieve both “solution of social issues” and “growth as a company” at a higher level.

MetCom, Inc.
MetCom, Inc. is a company that provides wide-area and highly accurate 3D location information that visualizes “what, when and where”. It solves the major issues of GPS, “indoor/underground”, “vertical positioning”, and “security issues”, and provides a 3D positioning service that can be used seamlessly both outdoors and indoors. NextNav, a world leader in this field, is a major shareholder, and in partnership with this company, we will realize the world’s highest level positioning service. We aim to develop and operate social infrastructure that realizes a safe and secure society and highly convenient citizen life in Japan.

About the efforts of each company so far:

Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd.:
“For the first time in Japan, Tokyo Tatemono introduced the cloud-based smart building management system ‘Dynamic Building Matrix’ and started a demonstration experiment.”

MetCom, Inc.:
“Providing vertical positioning service in Tokyo from September” (Demonstration of high-precision 3D indoor positioning of people flow)

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Inquiries about this matter:
MetCom, Inc. Public Relations Manager
Mail: [email protected]
URL: https://metcom.jp/