Mapping technology is an integral part of life in the 21st century. In many industries, the ability to map consumer movement and behavior in the real world has always been something of a pipe dream, but cutting-edge location data and intricately detailed mapping technologies are now making those dreams a reality.
These seven Seattle area tech companies are helping advertisers, real estate brokers and even urban treasure hunters tether their activities to locations in the physical world.
What they’re mapping: Malls and airports
Who’s it for: Malls, airports, retailers, corporate offices, arenas and other indoor venues
Details: Point Inside works with over a thousand malls and airports to produce intricate indoor maps. The company combines this vast trove of maps with technology that can track devices as they move from store to store within a mall, or to a gate in an airport. There are numerous applications for such technology, including navigation through indoor spaces, matching location data with ad impressions and optimizing the placement of retail locations within a mall. In November, the Bellevue company raised a $3.5 million round from Florida-based Vestech Partners.
What they’re mapping: Real estate
Who it’s for: Insurance carriers, construction firms, energy companies and governments
Details: EagleView Technologies’ fleet of aircraft have been taking high-resolution aerial photographs of properties and city streets since 2008. Now, with the application of machine learning, the company can assess natural disaster damage, the adoption of solar panels and roof condition over time, and help governments with plans to improve or expand infrastructure. The resulting reports feature intricate three-dimensional diagrams calculating roof length and pitch.
What they’re mapping: Properties and trends in the real estate market
Who’s it for: Home buyers and sellers
Details: Redfin has become one of Seattle’s most successful exports, thanks to its innovative brokerage services. The company uses technology to dramatically cut costs associated with selling a home. Among the company’s extensive technological offerings is the ability to search for listings within a hand-drawn circle on a map, three-dimensional scans that allow buyers to peruse digital renderings of properties and a recently announced “Compete Score,” which ranks the competitiveness of individual neighborhoods for prospective buyers.
What they’re mapping: The online behaviors of consumers as they move through the real world
Who’s it for: Advertisers
Details: By collecting cell phone data, Placed can tell advertisers the percentage of people who viewed a mobile ad and went on to visit a physical store. Instead of relying on customer surveys, clients can use the technology to track consumer behavior on macro and micro levels, and target their ads based on the businesses and other locations consumers visit. While this kind of capability sounds like science fiction, Placed can measure 140 billion locations per month from over 150 million devices right now.
What they’re mapping: A global network of stashed knickknacks and logbooks
Who’s it for: Anyone with spare time and a desire to explore
Details: Geocaching bills itself as the world’s largest treasure hunt, with over three million caches hidden by users in 191 countries around the world — as well as Antarctica. Players use their phones to seek out the caches, which other users generally stuff with random knickknacks to exchange and a logbook to list the players who have found that particular geocache. Headquartered in Fremont, the company was founded in 2000 as a way to get people outside and engaged with their environment — and has never accepted outside investment.
What they’re mapping: Consumer location
Who’s it for: Businesses that work with deliveries and appointments
Details: Glympse isn’t “Uber for deliveries,” but it incorporates an element that ridesharing app users will recognize: the ability to see where a driver is in real time. The Glympse platform sends customers mobile notifications with an estimated time of arrival for their delivery. When the driver (or drone) heads out, users can track it on a map as it nears, and an arrival notification acts as a virtual doorbell, so they can go out and retrieve the delivery or meet their appointment. The app incorporates numerous customizable features to suit a business’ individual needs, along with customer feedback tools. Glympse recently partnered with AAA so stranded customers know exactly how long it’ll take for a tow truck to arrive.
What they’re mapping: Indoor and outdoor spaces
Who’s it for: Stadiums, hospitals and other large, public spaces
Details: Cartogram helps users navigate inside, outside and between buildings — to the correct parking lot, the right entrance to a building or to the right room at a university. The technology helps venues control and understand foot traffic, while users ideally never have to ask for directions again. The company has indexed some 15,000 indoor maps, and works closely with stadiums and sports teams around the country.
