Human Factors and Ergonomics

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Articles: Physical Sciences
Optics are used in a vast range of applications in virtually every sector of human endeavor, from scientific microscopes to medical diagnostic imaging, from automobile headlights to telescopes pointed at the stars. Read on to learn about their advances.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The camera mimics the involuntary movements of the human eye to create sharper, more accurate images for robots, smartphones, and other image-capturing devices. Read on to learn more about it.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Researchers have found a way to bind engineered skin tissue to the complex forms of humanoid robots. This brings with it potential benefits to robotic platforms such as increased mobility, self-healing abilities, embedded sensing capabilities and an increasingly lifelike appearance.
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Briefs: Aerospace
Recognizing the need for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) to support long-duration human missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Sidus Space have developed a novel three-dimensional print head apparatus using regolith-polymer mixtures as a building material.
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NASA Spinoff: Photonics/Optics
Eye surgery patients on Earth are benefiting from early research on the NASA’s James Webb Telescope’s enormous mirrors.
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Briefs: Imaging
Imaging technology used to map the universe shows promise for more accurately and quickly identifying cancer cells in the operating room.
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5 Ws: Wearables
Who Ear infections are the most common reason that parents bring their children to a pediatrician, according to the National Institutes of Health.
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Briefs: Medical
Currently, concussion is measured by the symptoms someone experiences, but it is difficult to know what is happening in the brain in any one person. To address this problem, a portable brain imaging system was...
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
An acknowledged objective of critical-care medicine is a timely, accurate, readily deployable, cost-effective, and, importantly, safe means of assessing and/or monitoring critical...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Inspired by brains, neural networks are composed of neurons (or nodes) and synapses, which are the connections between nodes. To train a neural network for a task, a neural network takes in a...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a scanning technology commonly used by ophthalmologists to check for eye diseases. A team of scientists has figured out how to retrofit these high-performance machines with...
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Articles: Motion Control
Many small motor applications, such as robotics, industrial equipment, and consumer products, employ digital incremental encoders for feedback sensing. Encoder selection is therefore an important part of the...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Temperature-Compensating PMT Housing
Shrinking or contracting light guides is a problem when photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are glued to the guides. If there is no way to allow movement of the PMTs, when the temperature goes down, the light guide contracts and breaks the glue joint. The PMTs cannot be left loose to rattle around inside the detector....
Articles: Aerospace
NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-Rex) spacecraft launched on September 8 to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to harvest a...
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Briefs: Materials
Multi-Phase Ceramic System
Bearing surfaces are typically either metal-on-metal (MOM), ceramic-on-ceramic (COC), or metal-on-polyethylene (MOP). MOM and MOP couplings have the drawback that metallic or polyethylene particles can sometimes separate from the couplings, which can cause significant problems, particularly in a hip or joint replacement....
Articles: Imaging
Using sophisticated 3D imaging, a team at University College London, The European Synchrotron (ESRF), University of Manchester, Harwell Oxford, Oregon State University, and the National...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Method for Fabricating Metallic Panels with Deep Stiffener Sections
This innovation integrates existing highperformance metallic materials and manufacturing technologies (all of which are now certified and used to produce thinner stiffened panels for launch vehicle structures) in a novel manner to allow fabrication of more structurally efficient...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Wideband Single-Crystal Transducer for Bone Characterization
The microgravity conditions of space travel create unique physiological demands on the astronauts’ skeletal structures, resulting in a reduction in bone strength from restructuring of the micro-architecture and loss of key minerals. An ultrasound system was developed that is capable of...
Articles: Aerospace
In 2007, Dr. Hrayr Shahinian was looking for an engineering team to help him develop an endoscopic device suitable for brain surgery, and capable of both steering its lens and producing a...
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Application Briefs: Imaging
Thanks to a partnership between a surgeon and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a new camera system could improve minimally invasive surgeries and provide 3D endoscopic...
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Articles: Defense
Many users of CCD sensors are asking about the advantages of the latest CMOS sensors, particularly if they have been using CCD-based cameras. The two sensor technologies, a comparison of the...
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Articles: Imaging
By detecting nearly imperceptible changes in skin color, emerging imaging technologies have been able to extract pulse rate, breathing rate, and other vital signs...
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Articles: Photonics/Optics
With the standardization of 4G wireless, the increase in cloud storage and computing, and the push for faster network data rates, the highest quality passive interconnect systems must be used. While the robustness and...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
In this innovation, a team successfully developed and implemented a combined convective and conductive cooling system that permits rapid cooling. Using...
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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Rikki Razdan, Alan Kielar, Pat Stearns, and Melissa White ISCAN Inc. Woburn, MA The intrinsic speed and precision of the human ocular-motor system makes the eye an...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
NASA’s next-generation launch vehicles will be enabled by high-performance composite materials and innovative manufacturing methods. As such, NASA uses adhesively...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Communication Monitoring System for Enhanced Situational Awareness
The system and method of reconfigurable Auditory-Visual Display creates a multi-mode communications environment with the express intent of increasing situational awareness for the operator (controller), and for reducing operator fatigue. Situational awareness is increased by a...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The use of composites is rapidly growing across many industries, fostering the need for new design, analysis, and optimization technologies. Every industry feels increasing pressure to launch breakthrough...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Enhanced Auditory Alert Systems
Auditory warning systems for human interfaces are often designed around criteria that depend primarily upon signal loudness. It is well understood from the auditory literature that, by making an alert signal substantially louder than the measured background noise level, one can insure that an alert signal will be...

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