SONY GPS products boast industry-leading power consumption and exceptional accuracy. The GPS module can operate in difficult conditions due to non-linear operation and has a small footprint of just 10mm2, making it well-suited to mobile applications such as individual persons, pets, UAVs, assets and vehicles. 

*1 Based on SONY’s lab testing of LSI performance for CXD5610GF GNSS receiver (up to August 19, 2020)

Product



 

Applications

Wearable Devices

Small, light and compact wearable devices require accurate and continuous positioning as well as a longer battery life to maximize the interval between recharging.

Sport watches need to be light, compact, and have a longer battery life while providing highly accurate tracking for all types of activities. The advanced chip design of SONY’s GNSS Rx solution delivers minimum footprint and power consumption that developers of wearable devices want.

Different algorithms are incorporated into SONY’s GNSS devices to support different real-world scenarios such as the swinging of the arms while running, GNSS signal cutting out for short to medium-length periods in urban environments, and the arm leaving the water only for brief moments while swimming.

Vehicle Tracker
Vehicle and driver tracking sensors require low cost, and ease of user installation while providing accurate positioning with fast startup and long battery use. It must be able to handle any temporary loss of GNSS signal.

Vehicle trackers and devices for reporting on driver behavior typically need to be connected to the vehicle’s power supply to keep the GNSS device running reliably. Professional installation is then required. The cost and inconvenience to users limit its utility to insurance companies.

There is now a trend towards battery-driven tracking devices to expand the potential market for vehicle and driver tracking. The device with integrated SONY GNSS can simply be attached to the windscreen by the user.

Such devices require high accuracy and a service life of several years. GNSS devices need to support 1Hz position updates while the vehicle is motion. It must also be smart enough to turn off the power at the end of the journey and save all necessary data for a quick restart.

Auxiliary GNSS technology (such as independent calculation of satellite ephemeris or ephemeris data downloaded from cloud) must also be used for very rapid initialization.

A wide range of examples are supplied by SONY to help device developers make the most use of GNSS functionality and offload most of the processing to the GNSS device itself and simplify the software running on the main CPU.

Special variants of the standard GNSS device can be linked to the Inertial Management Unit (IMU) to support dead-reckoning concurrently with GNSS position. This allows for the location to be accurately maintained for several minutes when the GNSS signal is temporarily lost in a tunnel or underground car park. The function can also be used for tracking stolen vehicles as the thief may attempt to jam the GNSS signal.

Animal Tracker

Pet, livestock and wildlife trackers must be light, compact, tough and durable while delivering accurate positioning and long service life.

Pet:
Small size and low weight are critical to keeping devices usually worn on the collar from inconveniencing the pet. SONY’s very low power consumption ensures battery dimensions and weight are kept to a minimum with several weeks between recharging.
Pets usually spend most of their time at or near their homes. Their position must however be updated with high frequency so that when the pet goes out of the bounds, their owner is immediately alerted and provided with real-time updates on the pet’s location. With SONY’s GNSS device, smart algorithms can be written to the main CPU for wake, check, sleep, or wake, check, alarm to keep power consumption to a minimum.

Livestock:
Livestock tracking is usually implemented through ear tags or collar-mounted device. Such components must be tough and durable. They must also provide accurate positioning under difficult signal conditions and have a longer battery life. SONY’s GNSS device offers high sensitivity and very low power consumption for use in small, rugged devices. The device is equipped with an integrated micro antenna and can accurately track animal movements for several months with no maintenance.

Asset Tracker
A GNSS device with multiple operating modes is needed for tracking different types of assets. The design must have the flexibility to satisfy the requirements of all solutions.

There are a wide variety of asset tracking scenarios. Some assets for example will stop in a warehouse for several weeks or months before moving while other assets will be constantly on the move. SONY offers versatile functions in its GNSS receiver. Its experienced support engineers around the world will work with asset tracker vendors to help optimize their solutions.

Common requirements for asset tracking include small footprint and very low cost. The low power consumption of the SONY GNSS receiver allows for very small batteries and tiny packaging footprint. This translates into a very small footprint for the tracker itself.