Comments by Ed Gold ([e-mail])

Author's Note: Ed Gold is one of the original designers of a missile-tracking system developed by a major defense contractor. Similar technology is being used in the latest laser-vision correction equipment. (In fact, Gold recalls demonstrating the tracking technology for Autonomous Technologies, which is now owned by Summit Technologies.) He has more than 13 years of tracking and image-processing experience. He warns the reader that he should not be considered an authority in business and finance, optics, lasers or ophthalmology. Moreover, he holds a long position in Summit stock.

Tracking Systems

Trackers are absolutely critical in missile guidance because humans just don't have the reflexes needed to steer a missile to its target. Computers can make these kinds of decisions incredibly fast, and that makes them equally well-suited to laser eye surgery -- a job at which a human will, at best, do a merely satisfactory job.

There is no valid engineering justification for designing a Lasik system without a tracker -- the only factors that might prohibit a company from using a tracker in its system are economic. As an engineer who cares to see all the prospective Lasik patients get the best possible outcomes -- and, candidly, as an investor in Summit Technologies (BEAM Quote) -- I want to share my knowledge of these systems with you.

Summit Technologies

...