Super Puck and Foxtrax

The Fox Trax System and Its Super Puck:
With its expertise in remote sensing, Vista Research was part of a multi-company team that developed a way to enhance the visibility of the hockey puck during televised broadcasts of National Hockey League games.

The Super Puck technology:

1. A regulation NHL hockey puck is modified to accommodate infrared emitters.
2. On the ice, the Super Puck emits infrared pulses to sensors along the rink's walls and in the rafters. These sensors synchronize infrared cameras to the pulses.
3. Infrared cameras in the rafters detect the puck in the infrared camera images and transmit their coordinates to the "Puck Truck."
4. In the "Puck Truck," a bank of computers superimposes video graphics over the coordinates indicated by the infrared cameras.
5. The video-enhanced puck appears on viewers' TV screens.