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A robotic arm tool for rapidly acquiring permafrost (RATRAP) is being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPO). The RATRAP is for acquiring samples of permafrost on Mars or another remote planet and immediately delivering the samples to adjacent instruments for analysis. Read more here.

Polished aluminum begins to re-oxidize and pit almost immediately, especially when exposed to climates along the sea or in hot, humid areas. A company is looking for a coating or surface-protection process to protect polished aluminum used outdoors and keep it free of scratches. The solution should be clear and have a...

MIT researchers created a waterproof adhesive bandage inspired by gecko lizards that may soon join sutures and staples as a basic operating room tool for patching up surgical wounds or internal injuries. The MIT researchers built the adhesive with a biorubber and, using micropatterning technology, shaped the biorubber into different...

Each month, NTB highlights tech briefs related to a particular area of technology in a special section called Technology Focus. Here are some of the technologies featured in the February issue focus on Test and Measurement.

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a portable detection system that identifies personal exposure to toxic lead and other dangerous heavy metals. The device accurately detects lead and other toxic metals in blood as well as in urine and saliva. It can provide an accurate blood sample...

A far-field optical appearance meter captures hemispherical light distributions. Appearance is recognized as a property that determines an important part of the human interface. The usual way to assess the overall appearance is by a trained person examining the surface visually under standard illumination. It is literally in the...

Researchers from the University of Florida and Texas Instruments have developed a high-frequency circuit made with a common CMOS transistor. The circuit is expected to find its way into environmental monitoring equipment to detect pollution, noxious gases or bioterrorism agents. It can also be used in medical equipment...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a strategy to capture, store and eventually recycle carbon from vehicles. Their goal is to create a sustainable transportation system that uses a liquid fuel and traps the carbon emission in the vehicle for later processing at a fueling station. The carbon would then...

Inkjet Printing Patents The company is an inkjet printer manufacturer looking to acquire patents to support consumer oriented printing operations. Patents related to next generation photo printing and other mass market consumer printing technologies would be considered. Click here for more info.

While working on designing an X-ray navigation system for NASA's next- generation Black Hole Imager, Dr. Keith Gendreau, a physicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, developed the world's first X-ray communication system.

A company is looking for a seasoning, in any form, that delivers the flavor and aroma of potato. This may be accomplished in a powder or a liquid, or in an encapsulation that releases when the right sensor is encountered. The delivery mechanism is open to discussion. The solution should be cost-effective and backed up by test...

Scientists at the University of Michigan have created a new energy-capturing knee brace that can generate enough electricity from walking to operate a portable GPS locator, cell phone, motorized prosthetic joint, or implanted neurotransmitter. The wearable mechanism works similarly to how regenerative braking charges a battery in hybrid...

The DASYLab 10 graphical programming software from Measurement Computing (Norton, MA) was named NTB Product of the Month for February. Designed for test and measurement applications, the software is compatible with Microsoft Vista and can be configured as an enhanced Y/t chart, X/Y chart, or data chart recorder. It supports...

An electronics architecture has been developed to enable the rapid construction and testing of prototypes of robotic systems. A system employing this architecture can easily be reconfigured to satisfy various needs with respect to input, output, processing of data, sensing, actuation, and power. Click here for more info.

Metal detectors are the most common technique used to search for landmines, many of which reside in the tropics where intensively weathered soils have properties that can limit the performance of metal detectors. To examine the problem, geoscientists at the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences and the Federal...

The use of outdoor wireless access points for services such as Internet access is gaining popularity. At the same time, there is an opportunity for municipalities to improve city lighting operational costs by using lamp management systems. A technology enables the design of a system that achieves advanced lamp management, and at...

Researchers at MIT and Texas Instruments have unveiled a new chip design for portable electronics that is reportedly up to ten times more energy- efficient than present technology. The design could lead to cell phones, implantable medical devices, and sensors that last far longer on a battery charge. The design,...

Researchers from San Diego State University and the University of California used computer models to mimic the effects of underwater noise on an unusual whale species, and discovered a new pathway for sound. Advances in Finite Element Modeling (FEM), computed tomography (CT) scanning, and computer processing have made it possible to...

Communications and telecommunications are needs that are deeply engrained in human history. These needs have significantly evolved over time, enabling today's content-rich (text, music, images and video), real-time, and multi-location exchanges through electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signals conveyed by different media....

Seeking Large Diverse Patent Portfolios 500+ patents and ideally addressing different markets. Networking area: DSL, Cable modem, power over ethernet, broadband, audio/video, bandwidth expansion software. Mobile: Mobile infrastructure, applications (imaging, security, commerce). Memory: Flash/solid state. Video:...

Two novel proteins have the potential to enhance the production of antibodies against a multitude of infectious agents. Terry D. Connell, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University at Buffalo New York, developed and patented the LT-IIa and LT-IIb enterotoxins and their respective mutant proteins as new mucosal...

A company wishes to buy US patents in the following general areas: -Digital cameras and imaging, including CCD, low-light imaging, high-speed imaging, non-visible wavelengths, motion/lighting compensation, and automatic focusing. -Display technology, including LCD, DLP, OLED, electronic ink, flexible substrates, transparent...

A method to join and seal the flow field plate to the gas diffusion layer or the coolant plate of a fuel cell structure eliminates seals and gaskets in the fuel cell assembly. This design potentially achieves considerable cost reduction and simplifies assembly. Eliminating the seal reduces the chance of stack failure due to...

A violent fate awaits a white dwarf star that wanders too close to a moderately massive black hole. According to a new study from the University of California at Santa Cruz, the black hole's gravitational pull on the white dwarf would cause tidal forces sufficient to disrupt the stellar remnant and reignite nuclear...

A company is seeking enhancement to an existing consumer package that saves weight, money, shipping costs, and also preserves the product. Current packaging is cylindrical. The new consumer packaging should convey the qualities of freshness, taste, novelty, and differentiation from other products. It should be able to be...

Researchers at the University of Washington developed a tiny camera designed to take high-quality, color pictures in confined spaces. Such a device could find warning signs of esophageal cancer, the fastest growing cancer in the United States. The scanning endoscope developed at UW consists of just a single optical fiber for...

Air-source heat pumps typically deliver 1 1/2 to three times more heating energy to a home than the electric energy they consume. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers are working to improve the performance of air-source heat pumps even further by providing engineers with computer-based...

A toolkit facilitates quick development of Honeywell Communications Interface (HCI) and OPC-compliant servers. The kit includes a time-out indicator (TOI) feature to overcome situations wherein real-time process control systems become suspended indefinitely or for long time periods. An intermediary object between the client and...

Computational biologists at Virginia Tech have mathematically modeled the process that regulates cell division in a common bacterium. The model was developed to confirm hypotheses, provide new insights, and identify gaps in the scientists' understanding of the molecular machinery that governs replication of DNA and cell...