Detecting Threats Beyond the Limits of Human, Sensor Sight

A new patented software system can find the curves of motion in streaming video and images from satellites, drones, and far-range security cameras and turn them into signals to find and track moving objects as small as one pixel.

A Laser That Could Reshape the Landscape of Integrated Photonics

This technology will pave the way for new applications of integrated semiconductor lasers in LiDAR.

Small But Mighty: Stratospheric Microballooons

A zero-emission reusable stratospheric balloon developed by Urban Sky for remote sensing could one day be used for real-time wildfire monitoring.

Pulsed 2-Micron Laser Transmitter

The design produces a compact, efficient, long-lifetime laser transmitter as needed for use in space, while also having potential applications as an airborne or ground-based wind measurement tool.

Optical Signal Amplifying Technique

Optical Signals can be retrieved from inherent background noise using Talbot effect to amplify them.

Self-Powered Alarm Monitors Fires and the Environment

This remote forest fire detection and alarm system is powered by nothing but the movement of the trees in the wind.

Photonic Integrated Chip for Improved Light Control

This combination of technologies could enable developments for many optical applications.

Multispectral Imaging, Detection, and Active Reflectance (MiDAR)

This is a novel remote sensing instrument with myriad applications.

Graphene-Based Photonics Devices for Remote Sensing

Growing large-area graphene on optical substrates enables use in photonics devices.

Photonic Integrated Chip for Improved Light Control

This combination of technologies could enable developments for many optical applications.

Rad-Hard CMOS Crystal Oscillator

The oscillator is designed for localized clock signal generation and data transmission in telemetry systems and remote sensing.

Drones Use Machine Learning to Detect Landmines

Dangerous “butterfly” landmines can be detected using low-cost drones and infrared cameras.

Monolithic Optical Parametric Oscillator for Laser Spectrometer

Applications include remote sensing, laser spectroscopy, and gas analysis.

Portable Acousto-Optic Spectrometers

Spectrometers are widely used for applications such as chemical analysis, remote sensing, quality control, environmental monitoring, spaceborne measurements, and optical measurements. Most spectrometers...

Remote Sensing for Smarter Forest Fire Fighting

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

Hyperspectral Imaging – Teaching Robots to See

Hyperspectral imaging is an exciting and promising new technology. When combined with modern machine learning software and actuators such as robots, air-jets, or flippers, hyperspectral...

Hunting New Mining Deposits with Hyperspectral Imaging

How much gold remains to be mined on Earth? How about the lesser-known element, indium, necessary for computer and smartphone displays? With known sources of some essential metals facing...

Radar Scanner Tests Wind Turbine Blades for Defects

Wind power has become an indispensable part of an environmentally friendly power supply. Therefore, it is important for this growth market that wind turbines become more efficient, more...

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...

Digital Beamforming Interferometry

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a new radar approach that uses a single phased array antenna and a single-pass configuration to generate interferograms, known as Digital Beamforming...

Chip-Based Power Measurement Sensor

Phone signals spend at least some time traveling over fiber-optic cables. To ensure that the information gets where it needs to go, and to help researchers find better ways to ferry this information...

Wire Sensors Detect Dangerous Conditions in the Clouds

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

Active Remote Sensing Radiometer

2.2-Micron, Uncooled, InGaAs Photodiodes and Balanced Photoreceivers up to 25-GHz Bandwidth

Traditional applications for 2-micron photodetectors have been largely dominated by passive remote sensing where detectors having bandwidth of even...

Researchers Turn iPhone Camera into Optical Sensor

By integrating an optical Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, chip into an iPhone camera, researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have developed a new,...