Apple Inc. recently announced the acquisition of Bay Area-based global positioning system (GPS) start up Coherent Navigation.

The move by Apple is aimed at strengthening and improving the company's current GPS technology and services by incorporating developers from the startup into the Apple Maps team.

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Coherent Navigation, which was established in 2008 by engineers from the Stanford University and Cornell University, focuses on developing location and navigation technologies and services.

The startup develops its technologies in collaboration with other firms such as satellite telecommunication company Iridium Communications Inc. and aircraft manufacturing firm Boeing Company.

Coherent Navigation had been working on an advanced location technology that is, according to a report, more advanced than today's consumer GPS systems.

With Iridium, the company had developed a system called "High Integrity GPS" (iGPS), in which signals from mid-earth GPS satellites is integrated with low-earth satellites. This system provides more precise information on location within just centimeters, according to a report.

The navigation company had also worked on robotics technology in the past including projects with the Department of Defense.

Apple now includes the company into its list of mapping startups it had acquired in the past such as Embark, Broadmap, Locationary, WifiSLAM, and Hop Stop.

The U.S. tech giant did not give more details about the acquisition and what it plans to do in the future.

Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc. made a similar step when it invested US$10 million last year in Finnish-based mapping service provider IndoorAtlas.

IndoorAtlas develops computer software that enables smartphone devices to identify indoor locations of people by using the Earth's geomagnetic field.

Baidu had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last March with Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in an effort to develop indoor mobile internet technology.

TagsApple Acquires Coherent Navigation, GPS, mapping, location, Apple Inc., iGPS, Iridium, bay area, Apple Maps, Navigation