Montreal startup Urbanoid files patent for AI solution based on location intelligence

Urbanoid, a startup specializing in Location Intelligence, has collaborated with Concordia University's Applied AI Institute to develop an innovative technology enabling marketers to target ads without relying on cookies. The AI-based solution (code name CTX) responds to a prevailing concern within the advertising industry: the withdrawal and ban of third-party cookies by tech giants like Google and Apple. CTX's technology will enable advertisers to bid intelligently for ad spaces without relying on users' browsing history.

Pascal Maeder, Founder, Urbanoid: "The ban on cookies in 2024 has provided us with an unprecedented opportunity to develop an innovative and highly accurate solution that will allow the advertising industry to replace cookies through the use of Location Intelligence, while respecting user data, which is a key consideration for us. We are delighted to have worked closely with Concordia University's Applied AI Institute to develop the CTX technology."

CTX's AI-trained model analyses dozens of contextual variables surrounding users like weather, transit schedules, public events, offers and points-of-sale in real-time, providing advertisers with a real-life contextual Adscore. The CTX service will be available for all digital advertising channels including Web, Mobile and Digital Out-of-Home. A beta version of CTX is currently being tested by select platforms. A commercial version will become available to the advertising industry in 2024.

The CTX pending patent (System and Method for Contextualized Selection of Objects in Mixed Reality) is co-invented by Hafsa Ennajari and Akinlolu Ojo, both PhD students specialising in Machine Learning and attached to Concordia's Applied AI Institute, as well as by Leonid Reinoso, Urbanoid's CTO.

www.urbanoid.com