| miniBird 800 (Ascension Technology Corporation, Burlington, Vermont) is a six degrees-of-freedom measuring device that is used to measure the position and orientation of a small sensor with respect to a transmitter. The sensor is capable of making from 30 to 144 measurements per second of its position and orientation when it is located within 30 inches of its transmitter. The miniBird determines position and orientation by transmitting a pulsed DC magnetic field that is measured by its sensor. From the measured magnetic field characteristics, the sensor computes its position and orientation and makes this information available to the host computer. |