PhaseSpace Inc. was initially founded in 1994 with the mission of developing new technologies and products for emerging motion tracking markets. Drawing upon the talents of a strong team of scientists and engineers from diverse technical backgrounds, PhaseSpace developed motion capture solutions for the research, industrial and graphic arts communities. Not SBIR involved until 2000 but having been fairly steadily SBIR active periodically since then, the PhaseSpace Impulse X2 System was developed as a new generation of 3D optical motion capture systems designed to be affordable to small companies, universities and individuals, lowering the cost of ownership so that it would be a financially feasible tool for a single artist or researcher. The PhaseSpace system utilizes custom optics and camera technology that leverages Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and synthesized digital signal processor (DSP) technology to deliver real time functionality at a new price threshold. With only a handful of relatively small companies participating in this market, current full body optical systems are expensive at an average of $250,000 to $500,000 and do not meet the broad spectrum of customer requirements. Most systems from competitors require a dedicated staff for support and daily use. A complete system including workstation, software and studio modifications can increase the cost per application by several times the hardware costs. PhaseSpace realized that simply reducing the cost of the hardware was not enough. Practical cost limitations indicate that systems not only need to be affordable to acquire, but that total cost of ownership must be low. Single-person use, ease of use in non-specialized settings, and removing lighting restrictions common to other motion-capture technologies, are critical to reducing overall cost of use. Users of the PhaseSpace system dont need a dedicated room, with black walls and no other light source - nor do they need a team of operators to get the system up and running. Instead, any room in the users building can be set up to begin motion capture within an hour or so (often within minutes) with PhaseSpace among the first to introduce a product that breaks the cost barrier with affordable hardware and affordable applicatio
