Laser tag is a recreational shooting sport where participants use infrared-emitting light guns to tag designated targets. Infrared-sensitive signaling devices are commonly worn by each player to register hits and are sometimes integrated within the arena in which the game is played. Since its birth in 1979, with the release of the Star Trek Electronic Phasers toy manufactured by the South Bend Electronics brand of Milton Bradley, laser tag has evolved into both indoor and outdoor styles of play, and may include simulations of close quarter combat, role play-style adventure games, or competitive sporting events including tactical configurations and precise game goals. Laser tag is popular with a wide range of ages. Laser tag tournaments are staged for local, regional/state, inter-regional, national, bi-lateral international, and international levels. History In late 1970s and early 1980s, the United States Army deployed a system using infrared beams for combat training. This MILES system functioned like laser tag in that beams are "fired" into receivers that score hits. The first known toy to use infrared light and a corresponding sensor was manufactured and marketed in 1979 as the Star Trek Electronic Phaser Guns set to accompany the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In 1982, George Carter III began the process of designing an arena-based system for playing a scored version of the game, a possibility which had initially occurred to him in 1977 while watching the film Star Wars. The Grand Opening for the first Photon center was in Dallas, Texas on 28 March 1984. Carter was honored by the International Laser Tag Association on 17 November 2005 for his contribution to the laser tag industry. The award is engraved "Presented to George A. Carter III in recognition for being the Inventor and Founder of the laser tag industry". In 1986, the first Photon toys hit the market, nearly simultaneously with the Lazer Tag toys from Worlds of Wonder and several other similar infrared and visible light-based toys. Worlds of Wonder went out of business around 1988, and Photon soon followed in 1989, as the fad of the games wore off. Today there are laser tag arenas all over the world bearing various names and brands, as well as a large variety of consumer equipment for home play and professional grade equipment for outdoor laser tag arenas and businesses. In 2010, a news article appeared claiming that Lee Weinstein developed and opened