Polhemus

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Polhemus is a company that makes 3D tracking systems. Polhemus trackers have been used in virtual reality systems. Examples of their products are the Viper line and the Polhemus Patriot.

The magnetic tracking products generally have high precision. The trackers can be found in medical and flight simulator applications.

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.

The trackers can be used with or without kalman filtering.

The company is named after Bill Polhemus.

Polhemus' corporate name is Alken, Inc. and is incorporated in Vermont.[1][2]

Products[edit]

History[edit]

Polhemus was started as Polhemus Associates by Bill Polhemus.[5] It was founded in Michigan. Polhemus Associates researched how to track objects' position and orientation in a three-dimensional space.[5]

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.[5][6][7]

Polhemus developed magnetic tracking for tracking a pilot's helmet for use with a head-up display. Polhemus received Air Force contracts.[5] Polhemus faced financial difficulty, and was sold to the Austin Company, a company in Cleveland, Ohio.[5]

The company was then sold to McDonnell Douglas. It was called the Polhemus Navigation Sciences division of McDonnell Douglas.[8]

Two employees left and founded Ascension.[5]

Polhemus was sold to Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics.[5]

Philip G. Cooper was the President of Polhemus.[6][9][10]

Polhemus was a subsidiary of Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics.[9]

Polhemus was incorporated as Alken, Inc. in Vermont.[11]

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. ↑ "Polhemus All Trackers". https://polhemus.com/motion-tracking/all-trackers/.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Polhemus". https://web.archive.org/web/19970330140519if_/http://www.polhemus.com/ourprod.htm.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Carlson, Wayne E. (2017-06-20). "17.4 Interaction". The Ohio State University. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/graphicshistory/chapter/1-4-interaction/.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Polhemus". https://web.archive.org/web/19970330140351if_/http://www.polhemus.com/aboutpol.htm.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/167962.165918
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "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.
  10. ↑ "Polhemus Press Releases". 1997-05-22. http://www.polhemus.com/pressrel.htm#sega96.
  11. ↑ "Corporations Division". https://bizfilings.vermont.gov/online/BusinessInquire/BusinessInformation?businessID=123354.
  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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