Press Releases Home > News > Press Releases phasorBIRD Paper Presented at SPIE Conference BURLINGTON, VERMONT: May 5, 2006 – Ascension Technology Corporation’s Don Odell had the recent honor of presenting a paper -- Next Generation, High Accuracy Optical Tracker for Target Acquisition and Cueing -- at the SPIE Defense and Security Symposium 2006 in Orlando, Florida, April 17 – 21. The paper summarizes the development and capabilities of phasorBIRD™, a high resolution, “lens-less” optical tracking device. phasorBIRD precisely tracks a pilot’s head over a wide field of view, at high speed, with accuracy better than 1° -- a hard requirement for use in helmet-mounted display systems in combat vehicles, air and ground. SPIE -- The International Society for Optical Engineering – is an international organization committed to the exchange, collection and dissemination of knowledge in optics, photonics and imaging. In Ascension’s presentation, Mr. Odell, who is the Primary Engineer of the phasorBIRD project, explained how phasorBIRD significantly overcomes the limitations of previous generation magnetic helmet trackers and how the design fully meets emerging military requirements for target acquisition, intra-cockpit cueing, and interactive training. In a nutshell, phasorBIRD enables a pilot to aim weapons, acquire mission-critical information, and receive self-protection prompts simply by looking at a target through a reticle (graphical icon) superimposed on the pilot’s visor. The phasorBIRD paper can be accessed using the following link: http://www.ascension-tech.com/applications/SPIE_2006_final.pdf *** Ascension Technology Corporation (Burlington, Vermont, USA) makes magnetic, optical, inertial and hybrid head tracking devices for use in flight and simulator systems. For more information about its state-of-the-art target acquisition and simulator tracking systems, visit http://www.ascension-tech.com.