Business & GA, Commercial

InterSense Awarded NASA Contract

By Tish Drake | January 20, 2010
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InterSense, of Billerica, Mass., received additional funding from NASA for the continued development and testing of an inertial-optical head tracking system for commercial pilots. InterSense is developing a miniaturized inertial-optical tracker prototype integrated into a Head-Worn Display (HWD) for airline and business jet pilots. In this next phase, InterSense said it will participate in the testing and analysis of the system during flight tests in order to assess its functionality and performance. The company said the system is based on its hybrid inertial-optical motion tracking technology, and will integrate real-time position and viewing orientation of the pilot with a HWD in place of the current standard, fix-mounted Heads-Up Display (HUD) technology. This new approach enables the pilot to see critical, spatially-integrated Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems information without having to look down into the cockpit or even straight ahead, according to InterSense. “Our continued work with NASA is a testament to InterSense’s ability to deliver next-generation, real-time motion sensing technology enabling cockpit innovations to improve safety for airline, corporate and charter pilots,” said T.C. Browne, CEO of InterSense. “Our goal is to bring the spatially-integrated Head-Worn Display concept of military aviation to pilots in commercial flight environments, an achievement we hope eventually translates to industry-wide adoption of more effective cockpit vision systems.”

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