Polhemus

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Polhemus is a company that makes 3D tracking systems. Polhemus' tracking systems were used in some of the first virtual reality systems. The magnetic tracking products generally have high precision. The trackers can be found in medical and flight simulator applications. Examples of their products are the Viper line and the Polhemus Patriot.

Polhemus' products include the Fastrak line. Polhemus' systems are comprised of a system electronics unit (SEU), a source, and at least one sensor. The SEU connects to a computer and plugs in to the source(s) and sensors. Polhemus has filed patents on magnetic tracking technology.

Polhemus systems were used by VPL. The company is named after Bill Polhemus. Polhemus' corporate name is Alken, Inc. and is incorporated in Vermont.[1][2]

History[edit]

Polhemus was started as Polhemus Associates by Bill Polhemus.[3] It was founded in Michigan. Polhemus Associates researched how to track objects' position and orientation in a three-dimensional space.[3] The company moved to Vermont and began focusing on hardware. It worked with Northrop Corporation, and then changed its name to Polhemus Navigation Sciences, and became incorporated in Vermont.[3][4][5] Polhemus worked on magnetic tracking for tracking a pilot's helmet for use with a head-up display. Polhemus received Air Force contracts.[3]

Polhemus faced financial difficulty, and was sold to the Austin Company, a company in Cleveland, Ohio.[3] The company was then sold to McDonnell Douglas. It was called the Polhemus Navigation Sciences division of McDonnell Douglas.[6] Two employees left and founded Ascension.[3] Polhemus was sold to Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics.[3] Philip G. Cooper was the President of Polhemus.[4][7][8]

Polhemus was incorporated as Alken, Inc. in Vermont.[9]

Products[edit]

A Patriot system, showing the SEU, one sensor, and one source.

Patents[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "Corporations Division". https://bizfilings.vermont.gov/online/BusinessInquire/TradeNameInformation?businessID=251741.
  2. ↑ "Patriot User Manual November 2004". http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~moose/mhs/trunk/PolhemusActiveXControl/polhemus/Patriot/PATRIOT%20Manual.pdf.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Carlson, Wayne E. (2017-06-20). "17.4 Interaction". The Ohio State University. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/graphicshistory/chapter/1-4-interaction/.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Polhemus". https://web.archive.org/web/19970330140351if_/http://www.polhemus.com/aboutpol.htm.
  5. ↑ Cruz-Neira, Carolina; Sandin, Dan; DeFanti, Tom; Other, Along With. "Section 17: Virtual Reality". https://web.archive.org/web/20120213214810if_/http://excelsior.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~carlson/history/lesson17.html.
  6. ↑ https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/167962.165918
  7. ↑ "Press Release: 1996-08-05: Sega Selects Polhemus to Develop Next Generation Motion Capture System". 2019-07-20. https://segaretro.org/Press_Release:_1996-08-05:_Sega_Selects_Polhemus_to_Develop_Next_Generation_Motion_Capture_System.
  8. ↑ "Polhemus Press Releases". 1997-05-22. http://www.polhemus.com/pressrel.htm#sega96.
  9. ↑ "Corporations Division". https://bizfilings.vermont.gov/online/BusinessInquire/BusinessInformation?businessID=123354.
  10. ↑ "Polhemus All Trackers". https://polhemus.com/motion-tracking/all-trackers/.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 "Polhemus". https://web.archive.org/web/19970330140519if_/http://www.polhemus.com/ourprod.htm.
  12. ↑ "Method and apparatus for determining electromagnetic field characteristics within a volume". 1998-12-17. https://patents.google.com/patent/US6377041B1/.
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