HILLIARD, Ohio – Ubihere, a company that develops real-time, artificially intelligent spatial awareness solutions that allow for accurate tracking of location, movement, and actions in complex environments, has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine. Ubihere’s solutions use next-generation location systems to keep track of items in GPS-deprived environments such as remote, mountainous regions; or in office and hospital corridors.
By unlocking this data, Ubihere provides its customers with the intelligence needed to make valuable real-time business decisions.
Approximately $1.1 trillion worth of capital is tied up in business assets and inventory. A medium-sized hospital, for instance, can have hundreds of mobile healthcare devices spread out throughout the organization. If they’re not placed in the proper location, clinicians can be delayed in the care and treatment of their patients and the organization may face serious clinical, operational, and financial risks.
According to Mark Shaker, who served as CEO of Miami Valley Hospitals from 2012–17, lost hospital equipment is a huge problem. He says hospitals nationally could lose up to $50 million a year from lost or stolen equipment. Moreover, according to a recent survey of hospital nurses, one-third of respondents said they spent an average of 1 hour each shift trying to find commonly used hospital equipment.
“Our launch market is in healthcare where we will sell Ubitrax and Ubivision to large medical centers to support real-time asset management and process improvement,” says Eric Wagner, Ubihere Executive VP of Government Programs. “We have the technology to help organihzations recover vast amounts of money, and essentially disrupt inventory management as we know it.”
Current tracking systems require expensive infrastructure and rely heavily on the company’s internal systems, placing undue stress on the systems and the teams running them. Ubihere’s patented technologies extract data from either a video stream or custom sensor hardware tracking tags to provide precise, real-time information about assets and people without the need for extensive infrastructure modifications or costs.
Ubihere is developing two commercial product lines based on its geospatial awareness patent that are customizable and easily implemented:
Ubihere arose when NASA needed to know how future colonies of astronauts and autonomous rovers could navigate accurately on extraterrestrial planets without GPS. The space agency turned to The Ohio State University and Dr. Alper Yilmaz, head of the nationally renowned Photogrammetric Computer Vision Lab.
Over several years, Dr. Yilmaz and his colleagues successfully researched, then developed the artificial intelligence software required to learn spatial awareness in new environments, using only low-cost sensors and cameras. The breakthrough technology was granted a patent and Dr. Yilmaz was honored as Ohio State’s Innovator of the Year. Dr. Yilmaz founded Ubihere to bring this space-based technology to problems here on Earth. He is a fellow of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, senior member of the US National Academy of Inventors, holds five patents, has published 180 articles and been cited by academic journals more than 11,000 times.
Ubihere has been supported by more than $850,000 of previous investment and government contracts. The US Air Force has awarded Ubihere more than $1 million in research and development contracts for both Ubitrax and Ubivision. The company has completed commercial pilots for both products with launch customers in healthcare and retail.
In addition, Ubihere has made major inroads in developing its technology for clients and in military funding, including contracts received over the past year to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing (EVTOL) vehicles; and for a real-time adaptive, easily trainable, AI video processing technology for drones on behalf of the US Air Force. This technology has the potential to make major advances in security technology for both military and civilian life.
The Ubihere team is composed of highly experienced and successful serial entrepreneurs, engineers, and researchers. John Bair, CEO, previously founded and led to an IPO, Pinnacle Data Systems, a global electronics manufacturing company.
Ubihere has received numerous industry and academic accolades. Regional business publication Columbus Business First recognized Ubihere as one of the area’s top startups as part of its 2020 class of Columbus Biztech Award winners. Ubihere is a portfolio company of Converge Ventures, a Hilliard, Ohio-based high-tech lean startup studio model that fosters commercialization and tech transfer of research and development.
The StartEngine campaign is open to current and new investors now at https://www.startengine.com/ubihere. Early investors will receive perks including branded merchandise and bonus shares.
About Ubihere
Ubihere’s patented technology is the next-generation standard for asset tracking across an array of industries including health care, warehousing, and manufacturing. Ubihere’s AI and machine-learning based system gives users precise location and tracking data in real time, and for low cost. The company is based on the technology developed by Dr. Alper Yilmaz, professor of geoinformatics at The Ohio State University, to support NASA’s space based navigation efforts. Based in Hilliard, Ohio, Ubihere seeks to help transform business inventory and process management as we know it. To learn more, visit ubihere.com.
