SnapTrack Licenses Personal Location Technology to Motorola

San Jose, CA-based SnapTrack Inc. has announced a strategic partnership with Motorola (Austin, TX). Under the agreement, Motorola will license SnapTrack's personal location technology and will employ this technology in its wireless chip set solutions. In addition, Motorola has made an equity investment in SnapTrack. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

SnapTrack provides a cellular-aided GPS solution for wireless handsets. Running on a handset's DSP, this solution is designed for locate a wireless caller using the GPS satellite network.

When a caller activates SnapTrack's cellular-aided GPS technology in the handset, the wireless network sends the approximate location of the handset to a server. The server then informs the handset which GPS satellites are in its area. The handset takes a snapshot reading of the GPS signal, calculates its distance from all satellites in view, and sends this information back to the server.

SnapTrack's server software performs error correction on received GPS information to calculate the caller's latitude, longitude, and altitude. In E-911 situations, the server sends this information to the most appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP).

SnapTrack solution is network independent. It can be used in TDMA, GSM, CDMA, and AMPS systems operating in the 800 or 1900 MHz range.

Motorola is not the only company licensing SnapTrack's technology. In August, Texas Instruments (TI; Dallas, TX) made an equity investment on SnapTrack. Under this agreement, TI will evaluate employing SnapTack's technology is digital signal processor (DSP) designs.