acoAR
Pre-launch · SDK opens Q3 2026

Camera-free spatial intelligence
for indoor environments.

acoAR turns existing microphones, speakers, Wi-Fi signals, and motion sensors into a privacy-preserving spatial awareness layer — for smart buildings, AR, robotics, and ambient computing. No cameras. No LiDAR. No dedicated beacons.

POSITIONING
STANDARD
PILOTS
Apply for a pilotJoin SDK waitlist

SDK waitlist · pilots open now · enterprise inquiries welcome

Building on IEEE 802.11bf and acoustic SLAM research. London-based. Private pilots underway.

SRC · 0.1m20Hz · 22kHz
RX · reflectionSNR 24dB

Fig 1. Acoustic ping propagating, attenuating across a wall, returning as a faint reflection. The same primitive in radio gives you 802.11bf.

What acoAR enables

Structured spatial events, with confidence scores included.

acoAR converts acoustic echoes, Wi-Fi distortions, and inertial signals into a stream of typed spatial events — each with timestamp, confidence, and uncertainty metadata.

Indoor positioning

< 1m median target

Sub-meter location awareness in supported environments. Updated continuously. Works without beacons, GPS, or cameras.

Room recognition

Room-level context

Detect room transitions and identify spaces from acoustic signatures. No fingerprint database required.

Presence & motion

Privacy-preserving

Sense occupancy and movement patterns from signal changes. Non-optical. Configurable consent zones and privacy boundaries.

Confidence scoring

Enterprise-ready

Every event includes confidence, uncertainty radius, and signal quality. The SDK abstains rather than guessing when conditions are poor.

Capability maturity
Acoustic room recognitionPrototype · private pilotNow
Smartphone acoustic localisationLab validationPrivate pilots
SDK — iOS / AndroidIn developmentQ3 2026
Wi-Fi sensing fusionStandards-aligned roadmapAs 802.11bf hardware matures
Enterprise deployment toolkitPlannedPilot partners
Built for

Teams where cameras don’t fit.

Camera-free spatial sensing matters most where privacy, deployment cost, or environment make visual sensing impractical or unacceptable.

Smart buildings & facilities

Facility & workplace teams

Occupancy sensing, zone awareness, and space utilisation analytics without camera infrastructure or GDPR complexity.

Spatial computing developers

AR / XR developers

Room-aware spatial experiences with persistent anchors — on any device, without LiDAR or visual markers.

Join SDK waitlist
Robotics & automation

Robotics & indoor autonomy

A non-optical sensing layer for indoor navigation in low-light, reflective, or visually degraded environments.

Regulated use case
Healthcare & eldercare

Regulated environments

Privacy-preserving presence awareness for sensitive rooms. No visual capture. No identity data. Fully consented deployments.

The thesis

Every room is full of signals. Sound bouncing off walls. Wi-Fi passing through them.
We built the software to read them — and convert any device into a spatial awareness layer.
No cameras. No dedicated beacons. No LiDAR. No visual identity capture.

Localisationsub-meter*
Sensingnon-optical
PlatformiOS / Android
Privacyby design

* Sub-meter in supported indoor environments. Accuracy varies by device, room type, and noise level. Every spatial event includes confidence and uncertainty metadata.

Outputs:Position stream·Room events·Presence events·Confidence scores·Map anchors
How it works

Three signals.
One spatial stream.

01

Acoustic SLAM

The phone emits a near-inaudible chirp. The microphone hears the room reflect it back. Geometry, position, and room identity follow — at sub-meter precision.

02IEEE 802.11bf

Wi-Fi sensing

Wi-Fi signals bend, attenuate, and scatter as they pass through people and walls. Reading those distortions reveals motion, presence, and approximate location — through walls.

03

Sensor fusion

Acoustic gives you geometry. Wi-Fi gives you penetration. IMU gives you continuity. acoAR fuses them into a single spatial stream any app can query.

Architecture

Three device signals.
One privacy-preserving spatial stream.

Device signals
Speaker / microphone
↓ Acoustic echo features
Wi-Fi / CSI / 802.11bf
↓ RF sensing features
IMU / accelerometer
↓ Motion continuity
↓
acoAR engine
01Signal cleaning
02Feature extraction
03Localisation model
04Room recognition
05Confidence scoring
06Privacy / permission layer
↓
Developer APIs
Position stream
Room events
Presence events
Map anchors
Confidence / abstention

Every output includes confidence and uncertainty metadata. The acoAR engine abstains rather than emitting a low-confidence event — reducing false-positive risk for enterprise deployments where a wrong spatial decision is worse than no decision.

Why now

Two long-running threads just landed in the same year.

Wi-Fi sensing went from research demo to published standard. Acoustic SLAM went from kilometre-scale mapping to sub-meter precision on a phone you already own. Together, they make a platform — if someone builds it.

  1. 012025

    802.11bf published

    The IEEE Wi-Fi sensing standard moved from draft to published amendment, opening a path to commercial rollout.

    IEEE 802.11bf
  2. 022022–2024

    Acoustic SLAM goes sub-meter

    Peer-reviewed research demonstrated 0.1m–0.5m localisation accuracy on commodity smartphones, outperforming Wi-Fi and geomagnetic methods.

    arXiv:2304.11936
  3. 032026

    The platform layer is open

    No vendor owns cross-platform spatial sensing. The window to define it is now — before someone else does.

For developers

An SDK for spatial awareness, before the rest of the stack catches up.

  • 01

    Indoor positioning

    Sub-meter location stream from acoustic echoes and IMU. No beacons. Runs on existing iOS and Android hardware.

  • 02

    Room recognition

    Detect room transitions and identify spaces from acoustic signatures — no fingerprint database to maintain.

  • 03

    Confidence-scored events

    Every position, room, and presence event includes confidence, uncertainty radius, and signal quality. The SDK abstains when conditions are poor rather than returning a bad result.

  • 04Coming

    Wi-Fi sensing fusion

    As 802.11bf chipsets ship, acoAR adds RF-based presence and motion sensing without requiring API changes.

Spatial.swift
// 1. Initialise
import AcoAR

let session = AcoAR.startMapping()

// 2. Subscribe — with confidence gate
session.onPositionUpdate { position in
    // confidence 0.0–1.0  uncertainty in metres
    guard position.confidence > 0.7 else { return }
    map.center = position.coordinate
}

// 3. Room transitions
session.onRoomChange { room in
    analytics.log("entered", room.id)
}
CapabilityStatusAvailable
iOS SDKIn developmentQ3 2026
Android SDKIn developmentQ3 2026
Acoustic room recognitionPrivate pilotsNow
Wi-Fi sensing fusionPlannedAs 802.11bf ships
Edge / embeddedRoadmapTBD
Known limitations
  • Heavy background noise (HVAC, music) reduces acoustic accuracy
  • Microphone and speaker quality varies significantly by device model
  • Open-plan spaces without reflective walls require additional calibration
  • Wi-Fi sensing requires 802.11bf-capable hardware — not yet widely available
  • Through-wall sensing is policy-gated and requires explicit consent configuration

Early access opens Q3 2026. Join the waitlist to get an SDK key.

Where it ships first

Where camera-free spatial sensing matters first.

How acoAR compares

Indoor sensing approaches — strengths, trade-offs, and where acoAR fits.

BLE beacons
Strength: Mature, low cost
Weakness: Installation & maintenance overhead
acoAR angle: No beacon infrastructure needed
UWB
Strength: Very accurate (~10 cm)
Weakness: Requires dedicated hardware
acoAR angle: Software-first — no new hardware
LiDAR
Strength: High spatial detail
Weakness: Device-limited, power-heavy, optical
acoAR angle: Works on any device with mic + speaker
Cameras
Strength: Rich context
Weakness: Privacy concerns, legal complexity
acoAR angle: No visual capture, no identity data
Wi-Fi RTT / RSSI
Strength: Uses existing infrastructure
Weakness: Variable hardware support, ~3–5 m accuracy
acoAR angle: Fused with acoustic + IMU for better accuracy
PIR / mmWave radar
Strength: Simple occupancy sensing
Weakness: Fixed hardware, per-room deployment
acoAR angle: Device-native signals, no install
acoARacoAR
Strength: Privacy-first, infrastructure-light
Weakness: Environment-sensitive (noise, materials)
acoAR angle: Confidence-scored; abstains rather than guesses

acoAR is designed to complement, not replace, existing sensing infrastructure. Confidence scoring and abstention reduce false-positive risk in production deployments.

Trust

Designed for privacy-sensitive environments.

Camera-free sensing is meaningless if the sensing itself isn’t trustworthy. acoAR is built around consented deployments, local processing, and explicit data minimisation.

What acoAR does
  • No raw audio retained by default
  • Local feature extraction on-device
  • Acoustic signatures, not intelligible audio
  • Configurable sensing zones per deployment
  • Explicit application-level consent model
  • Enterprise admin controls (planned)
  • Encrypted transport — TLS 1.3
  • Data Processing Agreement templates in preparation
What acoAR will not support
  • Covert monitoring or hidden surveillance
  • Unauthorised through-wall tracking
  • Collection of raw audio for analytics or training
  • Identification of individuals from acoustic data
  • Deployment without explicit user disclosure
  • Child or eldercare monitoring without guardian consent
  • Law enforcement surveillance without strict legal basis

Enterprise security questionnaire available on request. Data Processing Agreement (GDPR) templates in preparation.

Full privacy architecture
Get started

Build with camera-free spatial awareness.
We’re running private pilots with a small number of teams.

Smart buildings · healthcare · retail

Apply for a private pilot

Work directly with our team to validate camera-free spatial sensing in your environment. 2–12 week engagements with defined deliverables.

App & platform developers

Join the SDK waitlist

Get early access when the iOS and Android SDK opens in Q3 2026. Priority queue for waitlist members. No spam.

Join waitlist
Integration partners · investors

Request a technical briefing

Understand the technology, roadmap, and commercial model in a focused 45-minute session with the founding team.