ISRO To Bring Its Highly Accurate Positioning System NavIC To Xiaomi Smartphones

Xiaomi said on Tuesday that its smartphones will feature NavIC, ISRO’s Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The integration has been made possible by Qualcomm Technologies Inc with multiple Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platforms.

NavIC stands for Navigation with Indian Constellation is an autonomous satellite navigation system that can offer precise positioning in and around the Indian mainland. The system is thought to rival the U.S’s GPS, Europe’s Galileo, and Russia's Glonass.

In a statement, Xiaomi said that this year, many of its handsets at different price points would have support for NavIC, courtesy of R&D effort from ISRO, Qualcomm, and Xiaomi.

The statement further confirmed that this was part of its commitment to Make in India with the effort to bring home-grown technology to its smartphones.

NavIC can provide users with accurate positioning within Indian borders as well as 1,500 km around the country’s mainland. The system works on seven satellites with four are in geosynchronous orbit and three in geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean.

According to Xiaomi, NavIC can enable a wide range of applications on smartphones. Some of them are accurate location mapping even when users are in remote areas, exact timing, voice and visual navigation which can come in handy for drivers.

According to Manu Jain, Global Vice President of Xiaomi, the company was proud of the highly precise geo-positioning technology developed by ISRO. The pride was even more when they could integrate that sophisticated tech into their handsets.

Xiaomi also extended gratitude for Qualcomm, their partner, for making it possible for the company to enable the tech on their smartphones, first to Redmi handsets in 2020.

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