Indian Innovators by Akshat Agrawal Page B
Authors: Akshat Agrawal
Tags: Indian Innovators
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tracking have been made across the world, with differing technologies, goals and degrees of success.”
In late 2008, the Android OS was introduced and became a success. The smartphone market started to grow rapidly.
“The introduction of Android seemed like a very good opportunity. Smartphones were now much more capable and affordable. In 2009, I stopped doing consulting work, in order to focus on developing an improved smartphone application for cell towers-based tracking.
Initially, it was difficult to say no to the consulting income. However, it was clear that if I wanted to make a fine product, I had to devote all my time and energy to it. I was confident that there was a real need for it, and thus, was fully committed to taking the product to the market and not giving up easily.”
Sriram hired four people, and several revisions later, the final application was ready by mid-2010.
“When you switch on the application installed on your phone, it connects your phone to a cloud server, which can then communicate with your phone. An authorized person can log into the cloud-based server and track the current position of the phone at any time. So, it is a “where-are- you”, not a “where-am-I” system, because another person can monitor your location. That is why it was named Verayu (a distorted version of “where-are-you”).
The system makes use of Path Adaptive Cell Clustering Technology (PACCT), a patented technology for tracking cellphones using cell towers. As opposed to the traditional triangulation-based tracking techniques, PACCT works on a large database of self-learning cell tower transitions to estimate the location and path taken by a mobile phone.”
The system estimates your position based on the cell towers in your vicinity that are interacting with your cellphone and your approximate distance from each of them.
“In order to convince customers about the potential of the technology, I made them use it, rather than giving them a PowerPoint presentation. I had a representative go to the customer a day before my meeting with them and tell them how they could use the server to track my position. The next day, I would have them monitor my movement as I was on my way to their office. They would know exactly when to open the door.”
Sriram describes the other useful features of Verayu. “The communication between the server and the phone is not continuous. It is only when the person tracking you wants to know your current position and performs a specified action (sends a request via SMS or logs into the user interface of the server via the internet) that the server establishes contact with the phone to know the current location. So, it is an on-demand system.” This saves power, which would otherwise have been wasted if the system tracked the phone continuously.
Because there is no user interface on the cellphone, it further reduces power consumption, as the display is not activated.
Also, you could set up a schedule, for instance, to be tracked from 9 AM to 5 PM on weekdays only. Then, you cannot be tracked when you are off work.”
The first few customers for Verayu were companies who were interested in tracking their sales force. “They wanted to use the system to effectively monitor the activities of their salespeople. Using the system, the manager could monitor if the salespeople were actually visiting the client location and at what time.
“Moreover, the data analytics built into the software enabled managers to analyze information such as how much time a particular salesperson spent on servicing a client. This allowed him to judge the performance of the salesperson. Many managers discovered that, for the first time, they could monitor which customers were not being served well enough.
Also, the salespeople could no longer claim expenses they did not incur (for instance, they could not eat at a cheaper place and get bills from a
In late 2008, the Android OS was introduced and became a success. The smartphone market started to grow rapidly.
“The introduction of Android seemed like a very good opportunity. Smartphones were now much more capable and affordable. In 2009, I stopped doing consulting work, in order to focus on developing an improved smartphone application for cell towers-based tracking.
Initially, it was difficult to say no to the consulting income. However, it was clear that if I wanted to make a fine product, I had to devote all my time and energy to it. I was confident that there was a real need for it, and thus, was fully committed to taking the product to the market and not giving up easily.”
Sriram hired four people, and several revisions later, the final application was ready by mid-2010.
“When you switch on the application installed on your phone, it connects your phone to a cloud server, which can then communicate with your phone. An authorized person can log into the cloud-based server and track the current position of the phone at any time. So, it is a “where-are- you”, not a “where-am-I” system, because another person can monitor your location. That is why it was named Verayu (a distorted version of “where-are-you”).
The system makes use of Path Adaptive Cell Clustering Technology (PACCT), a patented technology for tracking cellphones using cell towers. As opposed to the traditional triangulation-based tracking techniques, PACCT works on a large database of self-learning cell tower transitions to estimate the location and path taken by a mobile phone.”
The system estimates your position based on the cell towers in your vicinity that are interacting with your cellphone and your approximate distance from each of them.
“In order to convince customers about the potential of the technology, I made them use it, rather than giving them a PowerPoint presentation. I had a representative go to the customer a day before my meeting with them and tell them how they could use the server to track my position. The next day, I would have them monitor my movement as I was on my way to their office. They would know exactly when to open the door.”
Sriram describes the other useful features of Verayu. “The communication between the server and the phone is not continuous. It is only when the person tracking you wants to know your current position and performs a specified action (sends a request via SMS or logs into the user interface of the server via the internet) that the server establishes contact with the phone to know the current location. So, it is an on-demand system.” This saves power, which would otherwise have been wasted if the system tracked the phone continuously.
Because there is no user interface on the cellphone, it further reduces power consumption, as the display is not activated.
Also, you could set up a schedule, for instance, to be tracked from 9 AM to 5 PM on weekdays only. Then, you cannot be tracked when you are off work.”
The first few customers for Verayu were companies who were interested in tracking their sales force. “They wanted to use the system to effectively monitor the activities of their salespeople. Using the system, the manager could monitor if the salespeople were actually visiting the client location and at what time.
“Moreover, the data analytics built into the software enabled managers to analyze information such as how much time a particular salesperson spent on servicing a client. This allowed him to judge the performance of the salesperson. Many managers discovered that, for the first time, they could monitor which customers were not being served well enough.
Also, the salespeople could no longer claim expenses they did not incur (for instance, they could not eat at a cheaper place and get bills from a
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