Building the Internet of Places
UNL is a universal addressing and naming platform for addressing, navigation and location-based services.
The UNL protocol divides the Earth’s surface and indoors spaces into a grid of programmable cells (UNL cells) on the blockchain and univocally labels each one with a unique virtual location IP address.
PRECISION & SIZE
UNL labels locations with both horizontal and vertical precision. The size of a UNL cell can vary from 4.8 x 4.8 m2 to as small as 10 cm2.
CUSTOMIZATION & OWNERSHIP
IN- & OUTDOOR NAVIGATION
UNL identifies selected cells as gates and references them to one another to indicate the most optimal route to a chosen location – both outdoor areas and inside buildings.
SMART LOCATIONS
Users can embed custom metadata on a cell, enriching real-life locations with contextual information.
The UNL protocol has a layered structure, wherein higher layers make use of functionality provided by lower layers, similar to an open systems interconnection (OSI) model.
LAYER 1: CONVERSION
Converts geo-coordinates into location IP addresses.
LAYER 2: NAMING
Gives any grid cell a unique, custom name – similar to domain names.
LAYER 3: ROUTING
Enables map-less navigation in- and outdoors.
LAYER 4: APPLICATIONS
Integrating the UNL framework into existing platforms and 3rd party applications.
The ability to capture, process and make sense of geographic information impacts businesses in a range of industries. The UNL protocol is designed to serve as a backbone to a variety of business applications, where addressing and geolocation-related technologies are critical.
In most industrialized countries, having a physical address is something that we take for granted. But in many developing countries, as well as in some emerging economies, the majority of people do not have an address.
Globally, 4 billion people do not have a physical address. This makes seemingly basic and essential tasks – open a bank account, access to financial services, access to emergency help – inaccessible.
UNL’s key functionality is to address the world. The system assigns addressing labels even where streets have no name. With this, we unlock the possibilities for people in such areas to actively participate in day-to-day economical traffic (labor market, owning a car or house, insure yourself) and gain access to all kinds of services.
The UNL solution can be plugged into any step of the supply-chain, supporting the greater movement of goods – from supplier to vendor to end-user.
Location-based advertising is growing strong among brands due to complexities involved in ad targeting and challenges around reaching a sizeable audience.
The increasing use of smart devices and especially smartphone has opened the doors to wide variety of opportunities for marketeers to talk to their target audiences at the right moment and place.
By enriching locations with custom data, UNL has the potential to become a new-age marketing and advertising tool, giving local businesses the chance to compete with bigger brands.