Project Overview
The project set out to explore a new way of interacting with digital three-dimensional environments. Rather than relying on line-of-sight camera tracking, external cables or bulky sensing infrastructure, the goal was to develop a compact handheld system capable of accurate desktop-scale positioning.
Over a five-year research and development programme, Denovi supported the design and validation of a proprietary sensing architecture. The system was intended to be low-cost, practical to use and technically distinctive enough to support patent development and commercial exploration.
This was not a simple product styling or prototype build. It was a deep technical R&D project involving sensor physics, embedded systems, signal processing, communication architecture, power management, industrial design and manufacturing process development.
The Technical Challenge
Indoor positioning at desktop scale is a difficult engineering problem because accuracy, latency, power consumption, physical size and user experience are all tightly connected. A device designed for natural interaction must feel immediate and comfortable while also processing complex sensor data in real time.
The system needed to work without a cabled connection and without relying on line-of-sight tracking. This placed significant pressure on the sensor architecture, firmware behaviour, wireless communication strategy and local signal processing.
The project also had to move beyond a laboratory rig. The prototype needed to be sufficiently refined to test both the technical principle and the wider business context. That required industrial design, compact electronics, a practical battery system and a physical product format that users could hold and interact with.
Design and Engineering Approach
Denovi supported the project through an integrated R&D process. Early work focused on exploring the sensing principle, defining the system architecture and identifying how the technology could be packaged into a usable handheld device.
The electronics work included custom PCB development, proprietary sensor integration, power system design and high-speed wireless communication. The system required careful consideration of signal integrity, sensor noise, sampling behaviour and the relationship between firmware processing and external software interpretation.
Sensor fusion formed a central part of the technical development. Data from the custom sensing system had to be processed, interpreted and stabilised to produce meaningful position information. This required advanced signal processing and firmware design, with iterative testing used to refine performance across different usage conditions.
Power management was another critical design constraint. The handheld product had to support low-power operation while still delivering the responsiveness required for three-dimensional interaction. Battery behaviour, duty cycles, wireless communication and processing load all had to be balanced within the wider product architecture.
The physical design process translated the technical system into a handheld product form. Denovi supported industrial design, ergonomic exploration, CAD development, prototype casing design and design-for-manufacture thinking. Because the sensor system was novel, the industrial design could not simply follow standard component packaging conventions. The form had to be developed around the electronics, sensing geometry, antenna performance, battery system and user handling.
Prototype and Production Development
A major part of the project involved turning experimental technology into functional prototypes that could be repeatedly tested and demonstrated. Denovi supported rapid prototyping, small-scale production and bespoke manufacturing equipment design to enable the system to be assembled and validated.
This type of R&D requires practical iteration. Sensor positioning, PCB layout, casing geometry, battery packaging, firmware behaviour and software integration all influenced one another. The development process therefore moved through successive prototype stages, each designed to reduce uncertainty and validate a different part of the system.
The final prototype provided a working demonstration of the proprietary positioning approach and allowed the business context for the product to be tested with a functional system rather than a theoretical concept.
Outcome
The project resulted in an advanced proprietary sensor system and a functional prototype capable of validating the core positioning concept. The work supported both the technical case and the business case for the technology, demonstrating that the system could be built into a usable product format and tested in a realistic interaction context.
For Denovi, the project demonstrates long-term technical innovation capability across sensing, electronics, firmware, industrial design, embedded systems and prototype-led R&D.