In the next installment of our Investing in 5G: Portfolio Spotlight Series, we spoke with CEO and Founder of Origin Wireless Dr. Ray Liu to learn more about Origin Wireless’ influence on connected living and how 5G provides solutions to “improve individuals’, families’ and communities’ everyday lives.”
Tell us about your company - what problem are you solving and why is it relevant now?
Origin Wireless’ mission is to improve individuals’, families’ and communities’ everyday lives using our patented WiFi Sensing AI technology that enables people to understand the activity taking place in their homes using just WiFi, without dedicated sensors.
One way we’re looking to make a difference is by making it easier for people to enjoy the independence in their own homes as they age. Within the next 10 years, one in every five Americans will be over 65 years old, according to the U.S. Census. We want to give them the tools they need to stay home longer while keeping them safe and connected to their loved ones. Our Home and Health platforms aim to solve the problems that plague existing solutions like wearables adherence, in-home coverage and privacy using the same ubiquitous WiFi technology that’s already in millions of American homes.
Origin Wireless goes farther than just aging in place. WiFi Sensing AI technology can power solutions from home security, to automation, to real time location services (RTLS), and more. We truly believe the applications are endless and that we can change lives with WiFi.
How does the utilization of 5G help further your company’s mission now, and in the future?
5G allows us to offer a superior solution to our customers in their own homes.
With the higher bandwidth offered by 5G, we can support more devices in a home and perform more granular sensing. In general, as bandwidth increases, our sensing accuracy increases, and we can pick up motions with greater details. Our technology will also benefit from the lower latency of 5G networks because it helps systems react and notify as quickly as possible, bolstering security, health and automation.
The huge bandwidth and latency advantage of 5G is evident in our breathing tracking system. High bandwidth connections help us detect breathing rates anywhere in a home, not just a specific location. If someone’s breathing is out of the ordinary, we will pick it up faster and notify the user in milliseconds.
The 5G latency advantage is further amplified when you pair it with edge cloud computing. In the future this could allow us to deliver even more advanced insights by enabling near real-time access to remote computing resources. It would be like having a powerful data center sitting next to every one of our customers’ homes.
With the growth and evolution of 5G in the home, we believe we’ll be able to do even more advanced sensing like heart rate monitoring and people counting, which consists of being able to tell how many people are in an environment for capacity purposes. As I said, the applications are endless!
How should (consumer and enterprise) entrepreneurs be thinking about 5G in your industry?
Entrepreneurs should be thinking about how they can tap into the wireless sensing ecosystem Origin has built by utilizing the low latency, immense bandwidth and edge cloud computing capabilities. For example, the huge bandwidth can help power sophisticated artificial intelligence systems that routinely generate and utilize massive amounts of data. Entrepreneurs can have unprecedented flexibility in choosing where computing will take place, without having to trade off hardware, latency and connectivity costs. They can ultimately deliver a cost effective and high-performance option to their customers. The low latency is especially beneficial to time critical applications. Entrepreneurs can realize genuine real-time systems today that were impossible yesterday.
What’s one founder tip for those building with 5G?
5G and WiFi Sensing are perfect partners for improving everyday life. 5G provides a very attractive means of high-speed internet access to users. Now, users often use WiFi to provide last-mile high speed local area networks to their IoT devices, but soon, 5G will reach users’ home networks and ultimately their home IoT devices. Origin’s Sensing AI can also be extended to 5G and introduce innovative and valuable sensing functionalities with a software upgrade.
Looking forward, we are promoting the standardization of WiFi Sensing interface with WiFi so that all players in the industry can benefit from the resulting compatibility and interoperability.
How has Verizon Ventures furthered your growth of your AI technology?
Joining the Verizon Ventures portfolio gave us the opportunity to connect with other portfolio companies on synergetic growth opportunities specific to 5G and AI. Every company has its unique expertise and insights. By developing key strategic partners with complementary competencies, one plus one can truly be greater than two. In fact, we are already leveraging our common Verizon relationships to have deep collaboration discussions with other startups!
CEO and Founder of Origin Wireless Dr. Ray Liu
