OptiSense Buys GasCam Instrument, Rights

WEST SUSSEX, England, April 17 -- OptiSense Ltd. has purchased the hardware and intellectual property rights to a portable FTIR spectrometer designed to be used as an industrial gas detection system. The GasCam instrument was developed by OptiGas Ltd. between 1996 and 2000, when OptiGas ceased trading.

The GasCam system is a portable, field-deployable gas detection system that mounts on a standard surveyor's tripod and is powered from a small battery pack. It can be applied to a number of gas detection situations but is primarily intended for use in pollution monitoring and loss control. In additional to being portable, it was designed to operate in a passive mode, where the source of infrared is from naturally occurring background objects or the gas itself. OptiSense said it expects to begin selling the units in 2003.