Briefs: Materials

Adhesive Strength Enhancement of Shape Memory Polymer Composite and Metal Joint

NASA Langley Research Center has developed technology to increase the adhesive strength between shape memory polymer composites (SMPs) and metal alloys. Shape...

Briefs: Communications

Personal Annunciation Device (PAD)

Many industrial and commercial plants, government and private research facilities, and industrial facilities perform potentially dangerous processes. Automated warning and alarm systems alert personnel to...

Facility Focus: Research Lab

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was founded in 1901, and is now part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Based in Gaithersburg, MD, it was established to remove...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Ultrasonic Transducer Delivery Tool

Stennis Space Center has the need to measure the inner wall thickness of cryogenic storage tanks without entering the inner tank of the double-walled vessels. It was proposed that an ultrasonic probe be...

Briefs: Medical

Graphene-Based Sensor for Improved Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Asthma

Asthma, which causes inflammation of the airway and obstructs airflow, affects about 300 million people worldwide. Symptoms include coughing, wheezing,...

Briefs: Communications

Mobile Underwater Acoustic Communications

Reliable, long-range acoustic communications (LRAC) is an enabling technology for numerous applications of manned and unmanned underwater systems. For example, with the capability of communicating at...

Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Data Optimization Technology Helps Wind Farm Operator Examine Costs

Seeq
Seattle, WA
For more info click here

Avangrid Renewables is a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc., and part of the Spain-based Iberdola Group, the largest wind...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Nanofabricated Devices Detect Ultrasound with Light

The Micro-ring resonator detector can determine the speed of blood flow and the oxygen metabolic rate at the back of the eye. This information could help diagnose such common and...

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

The Future of Wearable Technology

The U.S. Army uses wired and wireless systems to monitor real-time performance and safe operating limits of vehicles and aircraft, but no comparable systems exist for soldiers. New wearable technologies...

Briefs: Materials

System for Repairing Cracks in Structures

NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed an innovative coating to heal cracks in metal components, such as in aircraft and bridges. Currently, the coating is used for in-laboratory repairs of...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Bio-Detection System is a Handheld Chemistry Lab

Devices for manipulating fluids on the microscale have been developed to store, hold, and manipulate small amounts of fluids, and have been applied to the detection of analytes in sample...

Briefs: Communications

Wireless Virtual Reality Headset

One of the limits of today's virtual reality (VR) headsets is that they must be tethered to computers in order to process data well enough to deliver high-resolution visuals. Wearing an HDMI cable reduces...

Briefs: Energy

Alpha-STREAM Convertor

Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed two novel technologies that make Stirling engines more efficient and less costly. First, Glenn’s thermoacoustic power converter uses sound to turn heat into...

Briefs: Aerospace

Aircraft Landing Noise Reduction Liners

NASA Langley Research Center has developed two new implementations of acoustic liners for aircraft noise reduction whereby curved channels within tight spaces can be outfitted to provide noise...

Application Briefs: Materials

Safer, Cleaner, Corrosion-Protecting Metal Coatings

LumiShield
Pittsburgh, PA
For more info click here

Corrosion-related issues cost the U.S. economy $276 billion a year. The Energy Department’s National Energy Technology...

Briefs: Materials

Corrosion-Inhibiting Self-Expanding Foam

Surfaces such as metal and other corrodible surfaces are often exposed to extreme weathering, temperatures, moisture, impurities, and otherwise damaging external forces that accelerate corrosion....

Briefs: Materials

Reusable Sponge Absorbs Oil from Entire Water Column

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling pipe blew out seven years ago, beginning the worst oil spill in U.S. history, those in charge of the recovery discovered that the millions of gallons of...

Briefs: Aerospace

Stop-Rotor Rotary Wing Aircraft

Some unmanned aircraft designs attempt to combine the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and hover capabilities of a helicopter with the increased speed and range capabilities of fixed-wing airplanes....

Briefs: Aerospace

External Aircraft Noise Reduction Liners

NASA Langley Research Center, in collaboration with Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has developed a new external acoustic liner for aircraft noise reduction. While the acoustic liner can be placed on any...

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

LAB-ON-A-GLOVE: Enables Onsite Detection of Chemical Threats

Wearable sensors are uniquely placed to fill the technology gap for real-time analytics at the point of need. Seamless integration of chemical sensors into wearable platforms gives...

Briefs: Energy

Silicon Nanoparticles Enable Energy-Collecting Windows

Technology that embeds silicon nanoparticles into efficient luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) has been developed. The LSCs are the key element of windows that can efficiently...

Briefs: Aerospace

In-flight Global Nonlinear Aerodynamics Modeling and Simulation

NASA's Langley Research Center has developed an in-flight global nonlinear aerodynamics modeling and simulation system. The technology replaces the normal labor-intensive...

Application Briefs: Motion Control

Motor Control Technology Boosts Performance of Remotely Piloted Aircraft

PC Krause and Associates
West Lafayette, IN
For more info click here

With support from the Air Force Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business...

Briefs: Medical

Artificial “Wrist” Enables Design of Wearable Blood Pressure Monitors

Unfortunately, blood pressure (BP) measurements currently require the use of a cuff that temporarily stops blood flow. A wearable BP “watch” using today’s...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Impedance Measurement Box

The dependability of energy storage devices — particularly batteries — is becoming increasingly important to consumers, industry, and the military. As battery technology becomes more complex and users'...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Transducer-Actuator Systems for On-Machine Measurements and Automatic Part Alignment

When performing machine tool setup and maintenance operations, it is frequently necessary to use a position transducer to “sweep” a surface and...

NASA Spinoff: Photonics/Optics

Blue-Light-Canceling Lens Gives Skiers a Clearer View

Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the...

Briefs: Energy

Bacteria-Powered Battery is Printed on a Single Sheet of Paper

A bacteria-powered battery that can power disposable electronics has been created on a single sheet of paper. The manufacturing technique reduces fabrication time and cost, and...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Paper-Based Electrochemical Test Strip Detects Harmful Bacteria

Borrowing concepts from medical diagnostic devices, researchers have created a simple, inexpensive set of handheld tests that can detect the presence of many water- or...

Briefs: Energy

Internal Short Circuit (ISC) Device Helps Improve Lithium-Ion Battery Design

Battery safety is key to the acceptance and penetration of electric vehicles into the marketplace. When battery internal shorts occur, they tend to surface without...

Articles: Materials

Products of Tomorrow: July 2017

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...

Briefs: Aerospace

Heavy Lift Wing in Ground (WIG) Cargo Flying Boat

There are two commonly used options to transport large-volume and heavy cargo across the ocean: container ships and airline transport aircraft. Container ships take about 3 to 4 weeks to...

Briefs: Medical

Miniaturized Chemical Detectors for Point-of-Care Diagnosis

This chemical detector, based on a miniaturized, pulse-discharged ionization detector (mini-PDID), makes it possible to diagnose illnesses by identifying volatile organic compounds...

Articles: Imaging

CMOS The Future of Image Sensor Technology

CMOS imaging is trending to become the dominant imaging technology. Initially, CMOS was limited by its inherent noise. Architectures were then essentially analog and the idea of integrating the...

Articles: Photonics/Optics

Ruggedization of Imaging Lenses

Imaging lenses used in many industrial machine vision applications have special requirements beyond those of standard imaging lenses. The lenses used in factory automation, robotics, and industrial inspection...

Briefs: Imaging

The Advanced Land Imager Helped NASA Mission Exceed Expectations.

After more than 16 years of operation, NASA’s Earth Observing–1 (EO-1) spacecraft was decommissioned on March 30 of this year. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) developed by...

Products: Photonics/Optics

New Products: July 2017 Photonics & Imaging Technology

Photoluminescence Spectrometer (PRIORITY)

Edinburgh Instruments (Kirkton Campus, UK) introduces the FLS1000 state-of-the-art, modular photoluminescence spectrometer. The...

Application Briefs: Imaging

Robotic Vision Keeps an Assembly Plant at Home

A major manufacturer of electromechanical products had been operating six separate indexing assembly machines, each producing one of a family of more than 75 different products at about 40 parts...

Application Briefs: Imaging

Wide-Area Surveillance Using HD LWIR Uncooled Sensors

The effectiveness of airborne search and rescue, navigation, and situational awareness tasks is predicated on the availability of high-resolution imagery that provides pilots with a clear...

Articles: Photonics/Optics

Snapshot High-resolution Hyperspectral Imaging

Traditional digital cameras are comprised of an image sensor, typically either a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), or, more commonly Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS). In either case,...

Articles: Imaging

Chip-Scale Device ‘Fine-Tunes’ Wireless Communications

Achip-scale optical device, developed by a team from the University of Sydney’s Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology (AINST), achieves radio frequency signal...

Articles: Imaging

Round Lens. Square Pixels. Accurate Images. Really?

Alens is cylindrical. It captures light in a circular plane for collection onto a rectangular digital sensor plane. This collection of photons is then transformed into electricity by...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

Sensors Detect Disease Markers in Breath

A small, thin square of an organic plastic that can detect disease markers in breath could soon be the basis of portable, disposable sensor devices. By riddling the thin plastic films with pores,...

News: Energy

Sound-Off: Can Hydrogen be Stored in Carbon Nanotubes?

The fuel cell, an increasingly popular device in the automotive sector, creates a power source when coupled with hydrogen. The hydrogen can be made from natural gas or electrolysis of...

Question of the Week: Imaging

Could lenses and thick cameras become obsolete?

A team at the California Institute of Technology designed a lens-less camera. "Once scaled up, this technology can make lenses and thick cameras obsolete," said graduate student and camera...

News: Energy

Smart Windows Get Smarter (and Self-Powered)

A “smart window” from Princeton University uses a transparent solar cell to selectively absorb and harvest near-ultraviolet light. The advanced window controls the transmission of visible...

INSIDER: Photonics/Optics

Ultra-Thin Camera Says Good-Bye to the Lens

A new proof-of-concept design retires one of the most familiar parts of a traditional camera: the lens. By swapping out the glass lens with a tiny array of light receivers, a California Institute...

News: Test & Measurement

Sound-Off: How to Set Pass/Fail Thresholds for Self-Driving Vehicles

As Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) technology evolves, how do you test autonomous cars that ‘learn from their mistakes?’

Products: Test & Measurement

Product of the Month: July 2017

Tektronix, Beaverton, OR, introduced the TTR500 Series USB vector network analyzer, a USB-based RF test instrument. It includes VectorVu-PC analysis software and built-in bias tee for testing active devices....

News: Software

Sound-Off: How to Simulate the Impacts of an Exoskeleton

Over the past decade, warfighters’ personal loads have increased, leading to more injuries, pain, and discomfort. To relieve the burden, the military is investigating...

Who's Who: Data Acquisition

Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D. C.

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), managed at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., is responsible for early detection of...

INSIDER: Energy

'Smart' Transformer Supports Power Grid of Tomorrow

Imagine a system that handles electricity flow not just from the power company to our homes, but also back from our homes to the power company. North Carolina State University researchers...

Question of the Week

Will the smart grid become a reality?

Today’s lead INSIDER story featured a new building block for the smart grid: a solid-state transformer."

The SST is a fundamental building block in the smart-grid concept," said NC State...

INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

'Magic' Alloy Could Spur Next Generation of Solar Cells

In what could be a major step forward for a new generation of solar cells called "concentrator photovoltaics," University of Michigan researchers have developed a new semiconductor...

INSIDER: Imaging

New Class of ‘Soft’ Semiconductors Could Transform HD Displays

A new type of semiconductor may be coming to a high-definition display near you. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory...

INSIDER: Imaging

World’s Brightest Laser Sparks New Behavior in Light

Physicists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are seeing an everyday phenomenon in a new light. By focusing laser light to a brightness 1 billion times greater than the surface...

INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics

New Products: July 2017 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Asphere Measurement System

The AspheroCheck UP from TRIOPTICS (Weden, Germany) is designed with a completely automated measurement process that requires no manual interaction to...

INSIDER: Automotive

Can Self-Driving Cars be Modeled for Morality?

Imagine a self-driving car making its way down a foggy road that is suddenly blocked by two separate obstacles – is one of them an object? A person? An animal? Would the autonomous vehicle...

Question of the Week

Can autonomous systems make moral judgments?

Today’s lead INSIDER story highlighted Osnabrück University researchers’ attempts to model morality in self-driving vehicles. What do you think? Can autonomous systems make moral...

News: Imaging

Sound-Off: How Do a Vehicle’s Imaging Sensors Filter Out Weather, Crosstalk?

A "Geiger-mode" lidar sensor sends out pulses at a high repetition rate (200 kHz), forming an image on the percent of pulses that return. The technology has been...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

How the Dragonfly’s Brain Offers Insights for Robotic Vision

By carefully studying the neurons of the dragonfly, University of Adelaide PhD student Joseph Fabian discovered the predator’s keen way of catching its prey. Fabian and his...

INSIDER: Motion Control

Soft “Vinebot” Excels at Search and Rescue

Inspired by natural organisms like vines that cover distance by growing, researchers at Stanford University have created a soft, tubular robot that lengthens to explore hard-to-reach...

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Electromagnetic Actuator Decouples Linear and Rotary Motions

A lightweight module for rapid, accurate, and versatile positioning of semiconductor chips features a novel electromechanical actuator that can move objects both linearly and...

INSIDER: Energy

Future Fashion Statement? New Material Generates Power from Human Motion

Vanderbilt University researchers developed an ultra-thin system that can harvest energy from the slightest of human motions — even sitting. Made from materials five...

Question of the Week: Software

Do you see augmented reality as a way of improving design processes?

A report last week concluded that the augmented reality (AR) market is expected to grow from $2.39 billion in 2016 to $61.39 billion by 2023. The research from the...

News: Photonics/Optics

Sound-Off: What’s Next for Optical Design Processes?

Mechanical engineers require a variety of tools to ensure the proper design of optical products like cell phones and autonomous vehicle sensor systems. In a presentation titled "Trends...