Since filing our first patent in 1988, PNI has been at the forefront of innovation in the design, development, and application of sensor technology. Our patented Magneto-Inductive (MI) sensors and modules provide accurate and reliable attitude and magnetic-field information for a wide range of applications, including robotics, surveying, navigation, and oceanography.
An Innovator and Industry Leader
What has always defined PNI as a company isn't our past or current successes, but the next groundbreaking technology we can bring to the marketplace. That's as true today as it was when we first started.
Today, PNI applies the lessons we've learned from the consumer products market, and the strengths — speed, agility, and cost-consciousness — we developed there, to help our OEMs anticipate the needs of their end users. Where other companies take a "parts" approach to their sensors, we're focused on developing Ready-To-Integrate (RTI) sensors and modules that enable companies to build sensors into their products without a large investment in in-house sensor expertise. By combining best-in-class sensors with advanced calibration and measurement algorithms that can be adapted to the specific needs of an application, PNI's RTI modules eliminate the time-consuming — and often unexpected — algorithm development and calibration work that can greatly increase development costs and time to market.
Our History
- 1987
- In the Stanford University dorms, a small group of electrical engineering students develop a new approach for sensing and reading magnetic fields that would enable the first battery-operated portable digital compass. They name their fledgling company Precision Navigation, Inc.
- 1988
- The US military awards Precision Navigation an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant to design a state-of-the-art handheld digital compass. Precision Navigation files its first patent for the development of MI sensor technology.
- 1991
- Precision Navigation releases the Wayfinder electronic vehicle compass — its first consumer product, and an instant success.
- 1993
- With the release of the TCM2 sensor module — the first fully electronic compass sensor module with no mechanical gimballing or moving parts — Precision Navigation revolutionizes the compass module market.
- 1994
- Precision Navigation's MI sensor technology becomes the prevailing compass technology for GM, Ford, and Chrysler vehicles.
- 1996
- Precision Navigation releases the first handheld electronic compass, the Outback, which quickly becomes one of the company's flagship products.
- 1999
- Precision Navigation expands its sensor-based consumer product line with the first radar detector with an integrated compass, quickly followed by a radar detector with a compass and altimeter, and later by the introduction of leading compass brands Zodiac, Traveller, and SilverBullet.
- 2000
- Precision Navigation, Inc. legally becomes PNI Corporation, reflecting our expansion beyond the compassing and navigation market.
- 2000
- Now the leading provider of sensor technologies for the retail automotive market, PNI introduces the AlcAlert, a personal breath alcohol detector.
- 2004
- With the release of a new series of smaller, faster, lower-power TCM compass heading modules that use MEMS-based accelerometers, PNI signals a shift away from consumer products, returning our focus to what made us the leader from the start: developing and refining the sensor technologies that enable OEMs to bring next-generation scientific, industrial, military, and consumer products to life.
Mission Statement
Develop and commercialize proprietary sensor technologies which complement and extend the limits of human sense and decision making.