April 16, 2015 – Acuity Brands Inc. has acquired certain assets—including the patent portfolio and all other intellectual property rights—of ByteLight Inc., a provider of indoor location software for LED lighting.

“Incorporating ByteLight’s indoor positioning technology with Acuity’s digital lighting platform is a natural fit as we work closely with leading retailers to help shape retail shopping in a connected world,” said Steve Lydecker, Acuity’s SVP of Applied Integrated Solutions.

(You may recall ByteLight from our news item last year: ByteLight and GE light the way to social shopping.)

ByteLight exploits Visible Light Communication (VLC) and Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) technologies—in combination with smartphone apps and cloud services—to transform LED lighting into indoor location waypoints. These waypoints provide shoppers with indoor navigation and provide retailers with the capability to create a personalized and engaging shopping experience for their customers by communicating specific and targeted digital content to a shopper’s smartphone.