There is a push to develop telepresence systems that can assist in homeland defense through detection, monitoring and tracking of potential terrorists, bombs, or chemical/biological agents in situations where human presence may be dangerous. These multi-discipline systems require the development of advanced robotics and sensors, and have considerable impact on the direction of research efforts in this field.

Low-cost optical head tracking is a key element of telepresence operations and its use provides safer operation of the robotic systems by creating improved situational awareness. Robots are often equipped with video cameras to allow the operator to "immerse" himself into the environment and control the robot movements. Non-imagimg sensors are also installed to detect the presence people, bombs, and chemical and biological agents.  In operation, head-tracking systems keep track of, and correlate the operator’s head movements with environmental monitoring, thus allowing seamless control of the video cameras and robotic actions.  The Visidyne helmet-mounted optical tracking system is well suited to such telepresence applications.

The Visidyne Head Tracker is an all-optical six-degree-freedom (6-DOF) tracker. It outputs the position and orientation of the helmet, i.e., X, Y, Z, Roll, Pitch and Yaw. Three lightweight receivers, mounted on the helmet, are monitored in real-time by a series of transmitters positioned above the head.

The Head Tracker utilizes multiple transmitters (three or more), three receivers, supporting electronics and software for signal digitization and tracking calculations. The Visidyne approach to head tracking employs proprietary hardware and methodology for optical time-of-flight measurements between transmitter and receiver. Advanced software routines compute 6-DOF at high update rates and mitigate line-of-sight problems that usually limit the performance of other types of optical trackers.

Features include smooth, jitter-free tracking, low latency, light weight, and easily-configurable geometry to accommodate almost any workstation volume.