Our D-Tail product can improve the accuracy and integrity of any sports wearable. Compared to leading sports wearables on the market today, you can expect:
- 10x improvement in the accuracy of distance travelled
- 10x improvement in the accuracy of line on a map
- Faster ‘ready to run’ start
- More accurate first fix
When can I get FocalPoint on my running wearable?
Our D-Tail product is not a standalone app, but is designed to be integrated into wearables that use our Supercorrelation technology at the GNSS chip level.
We are currently working with a number of wearables companies to integrate D-Tail into their technology.
I’m a runner – can I become a FocalPoint trialist?
D-Tail is designed to be integrated into the firmware or application layer of wearables and smartphones to upgrade the performance of any device or app.
We’re looking for enthusiastic runners to join our trialist community to help test and improve the product. If you’re frustrated by the accuracy of your current wearable and want to be one of the first to experience the difference that our tech can bring, please join by following the link below and we’ll be in touch.
Become a trialist
Why are today’s running wearables inaccurate?
Errors in running wearables can be down to the quality of the components, the data and the processing. While the components play a role, across consumer wearables most errors can be traced back to poor quality GPS data, and poor processing of that data.
GPS works best when there is an uninterrupted line of sight between the device and the satellite - fine for when you are running outdoors under open skies. But just like sunlight, GPS signals from satellites get reflected off buildings, cars, landmarks and other geographic features.
This means running in cluttered urban environments or under tree cover creates multiple reflected singles and will confuse the GPS receiver in your running device.
The result: your wearable may think that you are tens or even hundreds of metres away from your true position, giving you an incorrect read of distance travelled and incorrect line on a map.
The first GPS fix that your device gets is also critical to the calculation of your route and distance travelled. GPS chips and apps smooth out the raw data, so a bad first fix will ruin the first few hundred metres of your run as the device or app struggles to catch up and smooth out the differences between the first fix and the subsequent ones.
How does FocalPoint technology solve this?
Our human motion modelling solution, called D-Tail, combines data from the sensors within the device - accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer and compass, with a custom AI to build a centimetre-level view of a runner’s motion through space. It then pairs this with a better way of filtering GPS signals to ensure we discard the least accurate position fixes. Together they build a more accurate picture of distance travelled, speed and route taken.
D-Tail is available as a complementary technology to our core Supercorrelation, specifically for use cases that require more accurate path of human motion. In doing so, it improves the device's ability to recognise and reject incorrect fixes, helping to overcome the problems suffered by other wearables that lack D-Tail technology.