Super accurate GPS signals could be in phones in two years

The technology could improve satellite navigation as well as driverless cars, wearables and robotics

Credit: Reuters

Super-accurate location sensors could be in smartphones within two years after a British start-up that detects GPS signals with 10 times the precision of today’s receivers secured funding from a top tech investor.

Cambridge-based Focal Point Positioning has raised £6m from Draper Esprit, the London-listed venture capital investor that has backed companies including Graphcore and Revolut.

Focal Point’s software, based on research from the University of Cambridge, uses advanced physics to detect the precise angle at which a GPS satellite’s signal hits a device.

While today’s GPS receivers often suffer from interference as signals bounce off buildings and other objects, the company’s “supercorrelation” technology is able to pinpoint the direct signal from a satellite, ensuring more precise location readings, in particular in big cities and indoors.

Focal Point says it combines this with software that also includes readings from sensors including a device’s gyroscope to build up a centimetre-precision location reading.

Ramsey Faragher, Focal Point’s chief executive, said he expected the first GPS chips using its technology to appear in phones toward the end of 2022, although other devices such as smart watches could incorporate it as early as this year. It recently signed a deal with Swiss location chip specialist u-blox to start including the technology in commercial products.

The technology is up to 10 times more accurate

Credit: FocalPoint

Super-accurate positioning is likely to be important in areas such as autonomous vehicles and robotics, as well as precise readings on fitness trackers. It can also improve battery life by relying on fewer signals.

Mr Faragher said the technology helped thwart efforts to interfere with GPS signals, a growing concern as location technology becomes increasingly essential.

“One of the most important things it does for example for the security or military sector, is it gives you complete confirmation that the signal you’re picking up has come from the true direction,”

Focal Point, which has offices in Cambridge and Bristol, said it planned to double its current staff of 22. The funding adds to a £4m investment round in 2017.

Draper Esprit partner David Cummings, who led the investment, said the technology could increase the market for technologies that rely on location signals. “The acceleration in automation, robotics and home deliveries (manned and unmanned) all point towards ever more devices needing accurate and reliable navigation capabilities,” he said.