NASA awards InterSense extended SBIR Contract to test head-worn tracking system for pilots
BILLERICA, Mass., 20 Jan. 2010. Intersense Inc., received additional funding from NASA to continue development and testing of an inertial-optical head tracking system for commercial pilots.
This next round of funding will build off previous small business innovative research (SBIR) contracts awarded to InterSense for the development of a miniaturized inertial-optical tracker prototype integrated into a Head-Worn Display (HWD) for airline and business jet pilots. In this next phase, InterSense will participate in the testing and analysis of the system during flight tests in order to assess its functionality and performance.
Based on the Company's hybrid inertial-optical motion tracking technology, the commercial cockpit vision system integrates 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.
Research from NASA's Aviation Safety Program reveals that HWD technology helps enable safe advanced applications for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), the Federal Aviation Administration's movement to overhaul the entire U.S. air transportation system. Specifically, HWD systems enhance visualization of spatially-integrated flight information while simplifying installation, reducing operating costs by reducing weight and fuel consumption, and overcoming space constraints in smaller cockpits. By coupling miniature head-worn displays with head-motion tracking, the InterSense system will provide the pilot with visually-coupled data that can pinpoint threat alerts, "highlight" assigned taxiways and airways, reduce cockpit workload and increase overall situational awareness.
"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. "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," says T.C. Browne, chief executive officer of InterSense
