Electromagnetic Motion Tracking and Metallic Distortion. Is it a Problem and Is There a Solution?

Posted: April 01, 2020

Polhemus Introduces FTT™

Electromagnetic motion tracking is known for delivering highly accurate position and orientation measurement, with no line-of-sight occlusions, but does metallic distortion ever cause a problem? The answer is, sometimes, and it’s highly dependent on the application.

The majority of the time, Polhemus electromagnetic tracking solutions do not encounter any issues with metallic distortion (a non-linear signal corruptor which induces accuracy degradation in the tracker's output).

With tens of thousands of trackers in the field, and more than 50 years of experience as the Motion Tracking Experts™, we know what works and what doesn’t work with tracking applications that are as diverse as our customer’s imaginations.

Are there solutions to challenging tracking environments with distortion concerns? YOU BET. Is there a simple, on-the-fly, “fix” for mitigating distortion in real-time? The short answer is YES.

The solution is FTT™ (Fly True Technology), by Polhemus. FTT is a proprietary feature built into the latest electromagnetic motion tracking system, VIPER™. FTT utilizes environmental sensing technology and algorithmic filters to produce an iterative compensation method.

What’s That Really Mean?

It means the VIPER tracking system senses the distortion caused by metal and compensates for it automatically. Think of it like a smart sensing feature that knows when there is metallic distortion in the environment, and compensates for it in real-time.

Do I Need FTT?

In a vast number of tracking environments, there is not enough metal present to cause electromagnetic distortion.

Additionally, when using electromagnetics, there are typically work arounds, such as tip offset methods, or the option to make changes to the environment itself, that allows for a steady stream of distortion-free data.

If your application lacks these types of work arounds, or you just want an even easier way to ensure your tracking performance, turn on FTT. Let FTT engage, sense the distortion, and apply a mitigating correction in real-time.

Watch the video to see FTT in action!

Learn more about the latest tracking system, VIPER, with proprietary FTT