Tech Briefs

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A comprehensive library of technical briefs from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories covering all aspects of innovations in electronics, software, photonics, imaging, motion control, automation, sensors, test, materials, manufacturing, mechanical, and mechatronics.

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Briefs: Software
Software for Analyzing Valve-Actuator

A computer program assists engineers in analyzing data on the performances of actuators of fuel and oxidizer valves in the main engines of the space shuttle. The program could be adapted to similar use in other settings in which, as in the space shuttle, valve actuators are instrumented to provide data on...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Systems of caged trim masses manipulated by magnetic fields have been proposed for effecting fine control of the positions and/or orientations of spacecraft. The systems were...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Study of Inertial and Gravitational Masses of a Boson

A report presents a theoretical study of the relationship between the inertial mass (mi) and gravitational mass (mg) of a self-interacting neutral scalar boson in a heat bath. The question of whether these masses differ arises in modern physics. In quantum field theory, the mass of a particle...

Briefs: Physical Sciences
Metal/Dielectric Color Filters for Flat Panel Displays

A report expands on the proposal described in “Low-Absorption Color Filters for Flat Panel Display Devices” (NPO-20435) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 12 (December 1999), page 34. To recapitulate: The dye pixel color filters in a conventional liquid-crystal or other display device would...

Briefs: Research Lab
Multiphase-Flow Model of Fluidized-Bed Pyrolysis of Biomass

A report presents additional information about the subject matter of “Model of Pyrolysis of Biomass in a Fluidized- Bed Reactor” (NPO-20708) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 6 (June 2001), page 59. The model is built on equations for the dynamics of three components — gas, sand, and...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Capacitors in which the main dielectric layers are made from sintered nanocrystalline BaTiO3 have been fabricated and tested in an initially successful and continuing...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Millimeter-wave/microwave ablation (essentially, heating by use of millimeter-wave and microwave electromagnetic radiation) has been proposed as a means of treating atherosclerotic...

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Briefs: Software
Software for Network Processing of

The Electronic Portable Information Collection (EPIC) computer program is a computer system that processes work authorization documents (WADs). The EPIC System, which is also known as the Portable Data Collection System, comprises a central data server and portable data terminals. The central data server acts...

Briefs: Materials

The term “prefield test” denotes an in situ test of contaminated soil in preparation for in situ treatment of the soil by a method called “electrokinetically enhanced...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

SMARTCOM is a computer program for the analysis and design of actively controlled “smart” structures. Typically, an actively controlled “smart” structure incorporates...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

A new technique for retrieving cirrus properties from radiometric measurements at submillimeter wavelengths has been developed. The technique can accurately measure the amount of ice...

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Briefs: Information Technology

An improved algorithm for detecting gray-scale and binary templates in digitized images has been devised. The greatest difference between this algorithm and prior template-detecting algorithms stems from...

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Briefs: Software

Fast algorithms and the first complete and efficient circuits for implementing two quantum wavelet transforms have been developed in theory. The significance of this development...

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Briefs: Motion Control
Software for Geometric Calibration of Video Cameras

A software library and set of programs largely automate the geometric calibration of video cameras. Developed especially for robotic vision systems, this software generates the information needed to determine the three-dimensional (3D) positions of objects that appear in two- dimensional (2D)...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A system of electronic hardware and software has been developed as an experimental prototype of a visual interface between a human operator and a possibly remote one-arm...

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Briefs: Motion Control

The figure depicts a mechanism that is capable of simultaneously rotating as many as six disposable bioreactor chambers about horizontal axes. The particular bioreactor chambers for...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Tip fences have been invented to reduce the noise generated in the airflows about the high-lift systems (the flaps and slats) of airplane wings. Tip fences also afford an important...

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Cells that contain thin, single-crystal films of photoresponsive organic materials [e.g., meta-nitroaniline (m-NA)] have been invented for use as nonlinear optics and especially as...

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics

An optoelectronic oscillator with a nominal operating frequency of 11.763 GHz has been designed and constructed to demonstrate a technique for reducing the sensitivity of the...

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics

The figure depicts an apparatus for measuring x-ray diffraction (XRD) and/or x-ray fluorescence (XRF) in a specimen of material. The specimen could be, for example, a standard XRD powder...

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Briefs: Test & Measurement

A proposed program of research would be oriented toward the development of fluorescent dyes for use in two-photon microscopy. Two-photon microscopy and its predecessor, one-photon microscopy, are...

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics

A method of growing lattice-mismatched InxGa1-xAs epitaxial layers on InP substrates using intermediate buffer layers of...

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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

The Ultrabend bolt is a specially designed bolt instrumented with strain gauges (see figure) that are connected into twin Wheatstone-bridge circuits. The geometric arrangement of the...

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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Using Laser Diodes to Characterize Force and Pressure Sensors

A proposed method of characterizing microphones and other pressure and force sensors would exploit the temporally varying forces of impingement of amplitude-modulated light beams from inexpensive laser diodes. What makes the method likely to be practical is the surprising fact that...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Automated Detection of Streaks in Rocket-Engine Plumes

A high-speed observer (HSO) system comprising a high-frame-rate digital video camera and a high-speed computer that processes the camera output has been developed for use in monitoring the exhaust plume of the space shuttle main engine (SSME) during tests. The HSO system is designed to...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Program Computes Pointing Corrections for a Radiotelescope

TLC is a computer program that determines corrections for radiotelescopepointing errors associated with tilts and elastic deformations. These errors occur because for rotation in azimuth, a radiotelescope is mounted on wheels that move on a circular track that deviates from perfect...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Two Techniques for Removing Core-Drill Debris

Two alternative techniques make it possible to remove core-drill debris more rapidly and efficiently than was previously possible. Either technique is a vast improvement over the prior art. For industries in which ultrasonic core drills are used, these two techniques are expected to result in savings...

Briefs: Information Technology
Quantum Superluminal Transmission of Random Messages

In a proposed communication scheme, quantum entanglement and quantum nonlocality would be utilized to effect instantaneous transmission of randomly chosen messages to remote locations. Although the messages would not convey any information, they might nevertheless be of some value under...

Briefs: Information Technology
Goal-Based Fault Tolerance for Spacecraft Systems

A report discusses the concept of goal-based fault tolerance as implemented in NASA’s Mission Data System (MDS), which is a developmental architecture for unified flight, test, and ground software that is intended to be adaptable to a variety of next-generation deep-space missions. In...

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