Ascension
Ascension is an American company that makes 3D tracking systems that is fully owned by Roper Technologies. It was previously an independent company. Ascension invented DC electromagnetic tracking, also called pulsed DC electromagnetic tracking. All of their products use DC electromagnetic tracking.
Ascension products have been made in USA.
Ascension/NDI's current product line is the 3D Guidance product line.
It acts as a business unit of Northern Digital Incorporated (NDI). Ascension was bought by Roper Industries, Inc in 2012 and merged into NDI.[1]
Ascension was based in Milton, Vermont.[2]
Their technology has been used for head-mounted display tracking systems for military aircraft.[3]
Its website was ascension-tech.com.[4][5]
Ascension products were early on supported by n-Vision and Virtual Research head-mounted displays.[6]
Products[edit]
- The Bird
- Flock of Birds
- SpacePad
- miniBIRD line[7]
- microBIRD
- MotionStar - DC magnetic tracker
- MotionStar Wireless
- MotionStar Wireless 2
- MotionSTAR Wireless LITE
- pcBIRD, which uses an ISA connector
- pciBIRD, which uses a PCI connector
- 3D-BIRD - launched circa 1999
- laserBIRD - launched circa 1999 - camera-based tracking
- miniBIRD II - as an internal PC expansion card - launched circa 1999
- phasorBIRD - camera-based tracking
- Hy-BIRD
- Nest of Birds
- 3D Navigator
- 3D Guidance line, including:
- 3D Guidance trakSTAR
- 3D Guidance driveBAY
History[edit]
Ascension was started by Ernest Blood and Jack Scully in 1986, who were employees of Polhemus.[8][9][10] While at Polhemus, Jack Scully and Ernie Blood had created the digitizer used in the Star Wars movies.[9]
The company was founded in Colchester, Vermont.[11]
One of Ascension's tracking systems was the LaserBIRD optical tracker, which was used as the 3D tracking in the U.S. Army's Virtual Cockpit Optimization Program (VCOP) for helicopter pilots.[12]
As of 1997, Ascension was based in the Burlington area in Vermont.[13]
In 2003, Ascension had about 20 employees and was located in a 21,000-square-foot facility at the Catamount Industrial Park in Milton.[14] The company's address was 107 Catamount Dr, Milton, VT 05468.[15]
In 2010, Jack Scully was Vice President of Ascension.[16]
In 2012, Roper Industries, operating Northern Digital, acquired Ascension. Ascension was bought by Roper Industries, Inc, circa 2012 and merged into NDI.[1] The private shareholders of Ascension Technology Corporation sold all assets of the company to Roper Industries, Inc. for US$19 million.[17]
Technology[edit]
Ascension devices from about 2000-2010 use a programmable logic device on the circuit board.[18]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Ascension Technology of Milton acquired by Roper Industries". 2012-08-28. https://vermontbiz.com/news/2012/august/28/ascension-technology-milton-acquired-roper-industries.
- ↑ [https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA457961.pdf "Air Force Research Laboratory - Next Generation, High Accuracy Optical Tracker for Target Acquisition and Cueing"]. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA457961.pdf.
- ↑ "Ascension Applications". https://web.archive.org/web/20040404092543if_/http://www.ascension-tech.com/applications/military.php.
- ↑ "3D-BIRD Manual". https://5dt.com/downloads/3rdparty/3dbirdmanual.pdf.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010301083452if_/http://www.ascension-tech.com
- ↑ Consulting, Paradigm. "Ascension Developer Links". https://web.archive.org/web/19970301170741if_/http://www.ascension-tech.com/develop.htm.
- ↑ http://www.mindflux.com.au/products/ascension/minibird-500-800.html
- ↑ "Ascension Technology of Milton acquired by Roper Industries". 2012-08-28. https://vermontbiz.com/news/2012/august/28/ascension-technology-milton-acquired-roper-industries.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Carlson, Wayne E. (2017-06-20). "17.4 Interaction". The Ohio State University. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/graphicshistory/chapter/1-4-interaction/.
- ↑ Carlson, Wayne E. (2017-06-20). "17.4 Interaction". The Ohio State University. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/graphicshistory/chapter/1-4-interaction/.
- ↑ Cutillo, Cat (2024-02-20). "Alumni Spotlight: Jack T. Scully '69". https://www.smcvt.edu/about-smc/news/2024/february/alumni-spotlight-jack-t-scully-69/.
- ↑ Arthur, Jarvis (Trey) J.; Bailey, Randall E.; Williams, Steven P.; Prinzel, Lawrence J.; Shelton, Kevin J.; Jones, Denise R.; Houston, Vincent E. (2017-02-01). "Review of head-worn displays for the Next Generation Air Transportation System". Optical Engineering 56 (5). doi:10.1117/1.OE.56.5.051405.
- ↑ "What's New?". https://web.archive.org/web/19970301170728if_/http://www.ascension-tech.com/whatsnew.htm.
- ↑ Gresham, Tom. "Business People Vermont: Ascention Technology". http://www.vermontguides.com/2003/3-mar/ascension.htm.
- ↑ "Ascension Technology Corporation". 2011-12-07. https://www.itnonline.com/company/ascension-technology-corporation.
- ↑ Release_101110_REVISED.pdf "Wayback Machine". http://www.ascension-tech.com/docs/2010/WorldVIZ_ATC Release_101110_REVISED.pdf.
- ↑ "Ascension Technology Corporation has been acquired by Roper Industries, Inc.". 2022-07-12. https://www.oaklins.com/us/en/deals/29388/.
- ↑ Ascension 3D Guidance API Documentation - ATC3DG.h
- "Virtual Reality Platform". https://sed.inrialpes.fr/ARCHIVE/PRV/CATALOG/moca.html.
- "Ascension pcBIRD". http://www.mindflux.com.au/products/ascension/pcbird.html.
- "Ascension's Products". https://web.archive.org/web/19970301170754if_/http://www.ascension-tech.com/products.htm.
- "3D-BIRD Product Brochure". http://www.mindflux.com.au/products/ascension/3dbird.pdf.
- "pciBIRD". http://www.ascension-tech.com/products/pcibird.php.
- Koved, Larry; Wooten, Wayne L. (1993). "GROOP: an object-oriented toolkit for animated 3D graphics". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 28 (10): 309–325. doi:10.1145/167962.165918. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/167962.165918.
- "Information Society Technologies Programme IST-NMP-1-507248-2 State-of-the-art in VR". https://www.cs.upc.edu/~virtual/SGI/docs/3.%20Further%20Reading/State-of-the-art%20in%20VR%20-%20Intuition.pdf.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20100531074110/http://www.ascension-tech.com/realtime/Hybird.php