Huawei has presented a detailed overview of the Xingji positioning technology, which it plans to implement in the Mate 90 series and the WATCH GT Runner 2 smartwatches. At the presentation, held on October 12th at a Huawei device technology briefing, the system was introduced by Li Xiaolun, Technical Director of Huawei's Consumer Business Group and Head of Hardware Engineering and Product Development, according to IT Home.
Li noted that traditional positioning methods are no longer sufficient for navigation in modern locations such as underground garages, tunnels, overpasses, shopping malls, running tracks, and ski slopes. Instead of a single breakthrough solution, Xingji is a complex set of methods adapted for each of these scenarios.
Solutions for various use cases
On overpasses, where drivers often miss lane changes without precise guidance, Huawei combines a short-range HiSilicon chip with carrier GNSS phase measurement. The company claims this increases range accuracy by more than ten times and provides sub-meter level lane-level navigation. Furthermore, the fusion of RTK with AI-based pedestrian inertial positioning allows the Mate 90 series to navigate lanes on sports running tracks.
Tunnels present a more complex challenge, as phones inside them typically rely solely on inertial sensors. Huawei solves this problem by combining AI-based speed estimation with geomagnetic matching, which, according to the company, is not limited by tunnel length or driving time. The company asserts that Xingji is the only industry technology capable of providing lane-level positioning inside tunnels.
For runners, the design of a three-dimensional floating antenna increases the GNSS signal power on the WATCH GT Runner 2 by 5.4 dB compared to the first generation model. For skiers, the fusion of GNSS with a ski-specific positioning model makes trails five times more detailed and twice as responsive, achieving 98% distance accuracy. Huawei's wrist-worn ski resort maps cover over 3000 resorts with trail matching accuracy above 97%.
In underground areas, the technology uses 3D road network matching to pinpoint a vehicle's parking location with over 95% floor accuracy and less than 10 meters positional error. The Mate 90 series comes with the Precise Car Finder 2.0 feature, which, according to Huawei, is 50% more accurate than on the Mate 80, and already covers over 30,000 garages.
Indoors, Huawei is collaborating with partners to integrate geolocation services into retail. Xingji now supports 500,000 commercial area geofences and indoor positioning in 17,000 buildings. Meanwhile, Petal Maps offers store-level navigation in over 260 shopping centers and plans to add over 200 monthly.
