In a highly competitive market, customers’ information is the key to enable businesses to stay ahead of the game by offering products and services that answer to customers’ needs. NECTEC-NSTDA has developed a technology to perform data collect and analysis to enhance the competitiveness of Thailand’s multi-billion-Baht MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry.
Such technology is called UNAI platform. Dr. La-Or Kovavisaruch, Leader of Location and Automatic Identification Systems Research Team explained that UNAI provides online location or moving direction data of an object or person within the building. The platform contains the signal receiving device “Anchor” and transmitting device “Tag” using the small embedded system and the Bluetooth Low Energy wireless communication system with Wi-Fi. The platform supports 3G/4G cellular network and 5G for data transmission to the server.
Dr. Lo-Or revealed that UNAI was first developed to identify the location and track the movement of office equipment to improve the efficiency of inventory management. The team obtained additional funding from the Program Management Unit for National Competitiveness Enhancement (PMU-C) and support from the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) to improve the features and test the platform with players in the MICE industry.
With UNAI, event organizers and exhibitors can gain insights into visitors’ interest by tracking the locations where visitors stop to participate in activities or view the exhibits. Such insight can help exhibitors and organizers improve their service and visitors’ experience such as offering a navigation system for visitors to get to the exhibits of interest faster or searching for children and seniors who are lost in the event.
