To better understand user needs and their perspective a comprehensive questionnaire was presented to the end users. The main observation was that 86% of them would prefer NIRIS over the cameras for non-intrusive room-level localization and identification task. Furthermore, the personal and family security is one of the main reason to purchase NIRIS sensor, following the energy efficiency, well-being and comfort in that order. Overall, 92% of respondents were interested in purchasing NIRIS which confirms our predictions of the NIRIS versatility.
In the market study we explored the global, specifically the EU market trends to predict the NIRIS market size and its growth rate. As a result, Germany, France, UK, Belgium and the Netherlands were identified as the most attractive new market for NIRIS, since this are the countries with the highest smart home ratio in the EU at the moment. At the end of 2014, there were a total of 3.3
million smart home systems in use in the EU28+2 countries, up from 1.75 million in the previous year. Around 0.34 million of these systems were multifunction or whole-home systems. In 2014 the EU market revenues grew by 60 percent to € 0.77 billion. The market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 58 percent between 2014 and 2019 to reach € 7.6 billion at the end of the forecast period.
Based on the market study results an entry market plan was made. Since NIRIS is an Internet of Things (IoT) device and has to be connected to a smart home system we decided to sell it to the smart-home manufacturers. This way we will penetrate to the market through the established selling channels and will not need to deal with the end customers directly. On the other hand, the companies who will include NIRIS in their systems will gain a great advantage over the competition.
The company’s scale up process will require an integrated approach in order to meet all the market needs. In this process all the key player will be involved from the electronic suppliers all the way to the end customers. This way optimised production will meet all the users’ needs. The key task is to obtain the most recognised smart-home manufacturers to include NIRIS into their system.
Industrial Property Rights (IPR) for the NIRIS are owned by Elgoline or are in public domain. The most important IPR – the sensor hardware and method for sensor operation – is protected by the patent owned by Elgoline, which was filed on July 30th 2014 at the Slovenian patent office (P-201400271) and on to the PCT office at May 18th 2015 (PCT/IB2015/053638).
In general our technology is not challenging concerning conformity with standard requirements. In any case we have to fulfil all necessary regulatory and standard requirements related to this kind of products like CE label for electrical equipment, IP security standard, ROHS certificate for conformity (degradable and non-toxic) of used materials, IPC standard for flexible circuits etc.
From the ethics, legal and personal data management point of view, the law doesn’t regulate the question of the use of such sensors in public buildings or on public areas. The analogy with video surveillance can be used as a guideline for the use of sensors in private or public buildings.
