Ascension Technology Corp

Ascension is at the forefront of the motion tracking industry. Using DC magnetic, infrared-optical, inertial and laser technologies, Ascension provides turnkey motion capture systems for animated entertainment as well as custom tracking solutions for original equipment manufacturers to integrate onto their products.

TRAKSTAR

TrakSTAR has three varients – one for short and mid range tracking and one for wide-range tracking and an expandable desktop model. TrakSTAR’s wide-range transmitter generates DC magnetic fields for wide-range tracking of miniaturized sensors. Each synchable electronic unit tracks four sensors.

Replacing Ascension’s “Bird” trackers, TrakSTAR is capable of tracking up to 16 miniaturized 6 DoF sensors simultaneously.  Another advantage is that it can navigate instruments in 3D without ionising radiation. TrakSTAR generates 240–420 updates per second and there is no internal drift or optical interference. As a magnetic tracker, its outputs are unaffected by "power line" noise sources though naturally some metal rich environments might prove problematic. The expandable desktop model has been designed for real-time visualisation applications in which fast tracking of unobtrusive sensors is important.

LASERBIRD II

The LaserBIRD is a highly accurate optical tracker for use in environments that preclude magnetic, acoustic and inertial trackers. A precise optical tracker for the most demanding tracking environments, it was designed for head and object tracking in simulator, medical and 3D visualisation applications. LaserBIRD uses scanning laser beam technology, without metallic distortion, noise or acoustic interference. It is also unaffected by ambient light.

“The Laserbird II was specifically designed for cockpit motion tracking. It is very robust, and accurate and has the distinction that it has been used in a helicopter in flight in a recent project by QinetiQ.” - Mike Gavins, Virtalis Systems Guru, on the Laserbird II.

HY-BIRD

Hy-BIRD fuses optical and inertial technologies to enable compact 360o tracking. Its primary optical technology outputs highly accurate, fast tracking data with minimal lag. A fully integrated inertial tracker seamlessly continues tracking whenever the optical scanner is blocked or its field of view exceeded. Hy-BIRD is a robust tracking solution and is ideally suited for use with HMDs, like the Virtalis ActiveSpace.

MOTIONSTAR

An affordable MotionSTAR is the tethered tracker for capturing human motions. It comes in a fully-integrated enclosure with a fast Ethernet interface.

DRIVEBAY AND MEDSAFE

These systems are designed to work with new miniature sensors, as small as 0.9mm, and support between one and four simultaneously. The driveBAY controller will fit into the drive bay of a PC, whereas the medSAFE controller is an external unit measuring 11inches x 10.7 inches x 2.5 inches high. They are both a Class 1 medically compliant devices, with medSAFE being also Type CF Defib Proof.

Ascension Technology Corp. Website: http://www.ascension-tech.com/