API (Application Programming Interface) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. Like a vending machine, you can connect “D3” to get the bag of chips you want - that’s how API’s work. Scanalytics has an API to help you connect your data to your building management systems like HVAC and your BMS

ARPA The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency. It funds the most risky, strongest potential projects and holds its participants to the highest standards. Scanalytics has won two different ARPA grants for Smart Flooring and its proven energy savings.

BIL and IRA (affectionately called Uncle Bill and Aunt Ira sometimes.) These are the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that are delivering unprecedented incentives and policy support for green buildings. Scanalytics is working with the Department of Energy and other Federal parties to create incentives such as tax and carbron credits for businesses that utilize our Smart Flooring system.

BMS (Building Management System) Facilities and Operations teams use Building Management Systems to keep the lights on, the building cool and/or warm with circulated air, and their people and assets safe. Scanalytics integrates with all BMS platforms out there either directly or through an API. Major BMS might include: Schneider, Johnson Controls, Cisco, Honeywell, United Tech. Our smart flooring data is compatible with any and all of these. 

BacNet is a communication protocol used by BMS’s to connect their facilities management tools like HVAC and Security. 

Cameras are both a compliment to and an alternative to our product. Generally speaking as a comparison, they are: less private, more prone to being hacked. More expensive. Not as accurate. More invasive. Not desired or appropriate for schools, government buildings, doctor/patient rooms and other sensitive environments. If you worked a law firm, you might not want cameras peeking over your shoulder as you prepared client documents. Cameras however, can work great alongside Smart Flooring. Our DOE vetted savings of 35% energy was built on top of already-installed camera and motion sensor systems. See our blog post here for more details.

Motion Sensors are in many buildings. They sense movement and open a door for you automatically or they might turn off a light in a conference room if you haven’t moved around in a while. They compliment our system, much like cameras. They are less accurate and more expensive to install. They only sense motion so it could be one person in the room, or thirty, or a Labradoodle, and they’d have the lights stay on or the air flow generated for that full room, instead of for true occupancy. They are less accurate by nature but work great in conjunction with Smart Flooring. See our blog post for more details.

Dashboard. If you’re working in tech or software, invariably, you’re going to hear this word. Here’s a sample of ours. We white-label and create proprietary dashboards for customers so they can view the data provided by the Scanalytics system in a way most meaningful to them. Some examples might be: what is the occupancy of your building, a particular space, at that moment, then viewed over time. It could also showcase: what is your energy savings by kilowatt hour usage now that you have the precise occupancy data supplied by your smart flooring system and can track this savings over time.

Data Lake is a depository of information. The “data lake” of smart flooring collects human spatial data behavior insights in aggregate. This data lake could be segmented into healthcare, retail, office space, senior living categories. LLMs (large language models) like ChatGPT LOVE data lakes, especially repositories of data that are private, anonymous, accurate, and never before been collected. 

Directionality shows not just a person’s steps, but where they’re heading. Retailers appreciate this for customer analytics and your security team who wants to ensure everyone is safe, heading in the right direction.

Dwell Time shows how long a customer/person stays in front of a “place of interest” e.g. a kiosk at a conference or a display at a grocery store. It might also show they had to wait too long at a trade show to see your “place of interest” and then lost interest and moved on.

Entrances & Exits If you’re interested in managing your energy bill, you’ll want to have precise occupancy. Smart flooring can provide this information by placement at the entrances and exits of your building - typically no more than 1-2% of the total square foot to get this information.

Footstrike is the “footprint” that our sensors capture, like the footprints you leave behind on a beach walk. Generally it’s a “heel then toe” strike, but our sensors are confirming that this is indeed a human footprint, it’s heading in this direction, and differentiates it from a cart, stroller, hospital bed, or wheelchair. (Or…a cat.)

Gait is “how we walk” and unique like fingerprints down to the individual. You’ll notice differences in gait between an 8 year old, 48 year old and 88 year old. Gait can differentiate between genders. For senior living environments, smart flooring can offer “gait analysis” to track the health of its occupants, as our gait reveals aspects of mobility and can be tracked over time so we can better predict and prevent falls and keep tabs on other health issues.

Human Spatial Data Behavior is the study of how humans move through space and time. It’s the crux of what smart flooring is delivering.

Shopper Analytics Retailers are interested to learn what patterns do customers take, where do they spend their time, what are their behavior patterns and outcomes so they can better serve their customers, putting the right products in their path or send a service associate their way. In addition to shopper analytics, you can tie behavior patterns to POS (point of sale) and other outcomes.

Path Recreation The footsteps tracked by Smart Flooring are captured by sensors and pixels. Our technology turns these pixels into paths that make sense of people’s movements.

Sensor underlayment / Sensor technology This is the “hardware” of our product, the sensor underlay mat is matched with the “software” which translates this data into meaningful information for building managers to better serve their occupants. For everything you need to know about Smart flooring, read our blog post here.

SaaS is software as a service. This is how many, many tech companies collect revenue. You “rent” their service and pay a monthly or annual fee. Think: Salesforce or even Amazon Prime. Scanalytics also operates on a software model - once your smart flooring is in place and data is being collected, we charge a small monthly SaaS fee for applications like Energy Savings, Facilities Management, Security, Leak Detection, and more. With energy savings and cleaning / other efficiencies, the ROI (Return on Investment) or “Payback” period can be measured in months, or even weeks, and becomes your target benchmark to improve upon with accurate data.

Smart Flooring is what Scanalytics is all about! You’ve heard of Smart Phones, Smart Buildings, this is an extension of having our physical world products better interpret our interactions and experiences to deliver an improved, helpful environment.

Stride is how we walk - our strides can be long or short, slow or fast and our smart flooring system captures this movement.

ML / AI (Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence) You’re probably hearing about these terms a lot these days. Chat GPT is an example. For our instance here, these nascent systems rely on data to draw conclusions. Precise, accurate data like Smart Flooring is their lifeblood as it makes their outputs more genuine, actionable, and reliable. You can also install Smart Flooring and then “train” your ML/AI to make the most of the data inputs that are useful to you and your building.

Occupancy is how many people are in a space. Occupancy is important as precise occupancy and modifying the BMS leads to far more efficient, safe buildings, especially in energy savings and security. 

Motion Sensors sensors that sense movement. Usually tied to lights on/off and some security areas. Far less precise than smart flooring. Also have an automatic timeframe, so may be lighting a space that had one person present for one moment. Also works in collaboration with smart flooring. 

Pixels are minute areas on a display screen. We know pixels from our digital photos - the more, the better as they offer more precision and depth. Our smart flooring system captures are footsteps as pixels to recreate paths, showcase directionality, and share occupancy information.

Printed Electronics Just like your computer keyboard, Scanalytics sensors are created by Printed Electronics. We have a leading industry expert in this field on our team, Dr. Gene Chen. For more details, check out our blog post on this subject.