Application Briefs

Custom Drive System Helps Mercedes-Benz Reduce Draft in Convertibles

The AIRCAP® automatic draft stop, offered in the Mercedes-Benz E-Class convertibles, is distinctively different from conventional angular wind deflectors. It is entirely...

Calibration of 2D Cameras for 3D Inspection

In many applications, 2D cameras are used to produce 3D imaging for general purpose inspections. There are numerous 3D inspection applications. Some of them include reverse engineering, electronics...

NASA Uses Video Processing Platform to Study Hurricanes and Wildfires

As part of NASA’s Hurricane Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) missions, video processing technology from GE Intelligent Platforms was deployed onboard NASA’s Global Hawk...

Surface Temperature Mapping System Measures Laser-Heated Targets

Bodkin Design & Engineering, LLC (BD & E) has been awarded a $125,000 SBIR contract by NASA to develop a surface temperature mapping system for re-entry vehicle heat...

Students Drive Effort To Introduce “Smart Lighting” on Rensselaer Campus

An effort by students, faculty, and staff at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to install ultra-efficient LED light bulbs in one campus facility will save the...

LEDs Allow Home Lighting System Control Using Smartphone or Tablet

Philips recently unveiled what it claims is the world’s smartest web-enabled LED home lighting system. Philips hue allows you to create and control the light in your home...

Satellite Sensors Produce Aerial Images of Hurricane Sandy

NASA’s Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is one of five instruments currently in use by the National Polar- Orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System (NPOESS)...

Video Wall Displays High-Resolution Images from JPL Rovers

Wilshire Media Systems, a division of Wilshire Home Entertainment, will allow NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to display ultra-high-resolution images from its active missions...

Linear Stage Brings Speed and Precision to Semiconductor Inspection

With some of the most demanding quality control regimens of any industry, semiconductor manufacturers use a variety of sophisticated metrology instruments to inspect wafers at...

Solar Powered UAVs

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been increasing worldwide as demands for agile, rapid, targeted response forces have grown. UAVs provide surveillance and detection capabilities to these smaller forces that are...

Controller Boards Bring 12-Monitor Video Wall to the Track

Matrox Graphics Montreal, Canada 514-822-6000 www.matrox.com The P.A. People, specialist contractors within the audio-visual systems sector, were commissioned by the Australian Grand...

Bearing Keeps Spectrometer Stable in Telescope

Kaydon Bearings Division Muskegon, MI 231-755-3741www.kaydonbearings.com How do you collect data from stars thousands of light years away while positioning a 300-ton, 10-meter telescope to within...

NASA Uses GPUs to Build More Vivid Flight Simulators

NVIDIA Santa Clara, CA 408-486-2000www.nvidia.com Nearly everyone is familiar with terms like 20/20 vision, but what does that mean when it comes to developing a flight simulator?

JetBlue Airways Hangar and Training Center Get New High Output CFL Lamps

To provide significant energy savings with optimal lighting quality, JetBlue Airways recently selected MaxLite’s High- Max® High Output compact fluorescent (CFL) lamps...

Marriott Headquarters Implements Campus-Wide Lighting Upgrade

GE Lighting LED solutions were recently installed in several locations at Marriott International’s headquarters located in Bethesda, Md. The installations have enriched lighting...

LED Landing Light Is Impervious to Shock and Vibration

Hoffman Performance Lighting has introduced the firstever PAR64 LED Landing Light, a drop-in replacement for existing Q4559 and Q4559X quartz halogen lamps. The ruggedized PAR64 can be used...

Sensors Enable Precise Mounting of X-Ray Telescope Assembly

NASA’s newest orbital X-ray telescope technology uses highperformance capacitive displacement sensors from Lion Precision. The sensors, capable of resolving position to less than 10...

Gait Analysis Based on Inertial and Magnetic Sensors

Motion analysis often is based on stereophotogrammetry, which estimates the three-dimensional coordinates of points on an object by measurements made in two or more photographic images taken...

Simulations Prepare Curiosity Rover for Touchdown on Mars

Using MSC Software’s Adams multibody dynamics software, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers simulated the final sky crane landing sequence of the Curiosity Mars rover....

Sensors Monitor Curiosity’s Drilling Arm

With the successful landing last August, NASA’s Curiosity rover is maneuvering the surface of Mars, analyzing samples of soil. Two sensors were developed by FUTEK for Curiosity. The first is a...

Light-Control Systems Help NASA Go ‘Net Zero’

The Propellants North Administrative and Maintenance Facility at Kennedy Space Center, located in Cape Canaveral, FL, achieves net-zero energy use. To offset the costs of electricity provided by...

U.S. Department of State Retrofits Harry S. Truman Building With New Lighting Controls

The Harry S. Truman Building is the State Department’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. Its main corridor spans two city blocks and contains more than 150...

The Eyes of the Mars Curiosity Rover

On August 6, 2012, the Mars Curiosity rover successfully landed on the floor of Gale Crater on Mars. The Curiosity rover is about the size of a small SUV — 10 feet (3 meters) long, not including the arm, 9...

Image Sensors Enable Curiosity to Capture High-Definition Images From Mars

The Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, is designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support life by deploying the most advanced set of...

Thermoelectric Cooler Helps Maintain Curiosity’s Temperature

The first spectrometer data from the Mars Rover Curiosity has made its way back to Earth, analyzing the plasma light captured during laser excitation of rocks and soil on the...

Connectors Enable Precise Movement of Lunar Robotic Tool Changer

NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA hired Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corp. to develop a totally mechanical tool changer for the end of what Langley’s...

Designing Rugged In-Vehicle Displays

Historically, the displays deployed in military vehicles have been simple monitors, acting as an interface to an onboard system. That’s no longer good enough. As military vehicles are equipped with more...

Relays Enable Curiosity Rover’s Chemistry Instrument

NASA’s Curiosity rover landed in the Gale Crater on Mars on August 5, having flown over 127 million miles since its November 2011 launch. As part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program,...

Motion Control Components Keep Curiosity on the Go

PI Ceramic monolithic piezo actuators (PICMA) were put to use in the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) on the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. CheMin is an Xray...