The information-transmitting automatic door sensor as a new medium for the entrance. Launching the sharing service OMNICITY

Optex Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, President & CEO: Toru Kamimura, hereinafter “Optex”), an operating company of the Optex Group, is launching OMNICITY, a sharing service that utilizes automatic door sensors equipped with a beacon (*1) function, in February 2021. The entrances to facilities and stores will become a new medium as the automatic door sensors which are able to transmit information (*2) to the smartphones of passersby. Through this DX (digital transformation), the automatic door sensors can easily be used to realize marketing and promotion measures. Sharing the installed media with service providers will also facilitate new business opportunities.

• 1: Beacon is a means of communication that uses the wireless technology BLE (Bluetooth low energy). If a device that can receive beacon signals (smartphone, etc.) is within range, this will be detected, and location information is sent to the server. Moreover, information can also be sent from the server to the receiving device.

• 2: Apps offered by the relevant companies need to be downloaded to receive information.

System diagram of the automatic door sensor sharing service OMNICITY

Tens of millions of people pass by the entrances of business facilities and shops every day. The automatic door sensors installed by those entrances have conventionally had been used only for the function of opening and closing the door, but Optex has created a platform that gives these entrances new value by expanding their use to a "medium" that provides passersby with useful information and experiences. The sharing service OMNICITY, which promotes efficient use of this medium, is a first in the industry.
All it takes to start using the service is to replace existing automatic door sensors with our beacon-equipped sensors and to register. Using this medium, the automatic door sensors can be used to transmit information about your company, or it can be rented out to other stores and companies as a way to earn revenue that way.
Optex entered a business partnership with Tangerine Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Kiyoto Hirai, hereinafter, "Tangerine") in September 2020 as part of our efforts to realize OMNICITY. By combining our beacon-equipped automatic door sensors with Tangerine's Tangerine nearME, a real behavior data platform that accumulates and analyzes customer offline behavior data, we can analyze user attributes and behavior in real time.

The OMNICITY platform

Optex will replace the 2 million automatic door sensors installed across Japan with beacon-equipped ones. Moreover, we will also be expanding OMNICITY spots to Optex sensors installed in at buildings, parking lots, and various other outdoor spaced and by linking to other companies' sensors. We will first expand from automatic door sensors step-by-step with an aim of reaching 1 million locations by 2023.

[Examples of anticipated usage]

Amid the spread of the novel coronavirus and the advance of DX, digital applications have become an urgent challenge for attracting customers and management. By merging real stores and the digital via OMNICITY, Optex aims to realize a lifestyle and a society that are convenient and pleasant through "store management optimization" that utilizes marketing and operations based on an understanding of when customers come to the store, how long they stay, and other types of customer behavior as well as through "digital customer experiences" that increases services that can provide information without in-person contact and other opportunities for new connections and contact between customer and store.


-Tangerine nearME™
Tangerine's Tangerine nearME is a real behavior data platform that makes use of a variety of sensor technologies, including beacons, cameras, and Wi-Fi, to accumulate and analyze people's offline behavior data. Beacons provided by Tangerine are already in use in more than 30,000 locations across Japan, including large commercial facilities, major chain supermarkets, retail stores, and public institutions, helping to meet company needs for visualizing and analyzing data from people's behavior with regard to offline measures, in-store engagement and sales promotion, and new in-store customer experiences.


-Tangerine Inc.
Head Office｜302 22SKY Bldg., 3-19-13 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representative｜President Kiyoto Hirai
Business｜Providing OMO services / B2B marketing business / Providing IT solutions
URL｜https://tangerine.io