Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fiber-Optic Rotary Joint for Passing High-Definition Video
A video camera has been integrated with a tracking pedestal (see figure) for tracking of aircraft and spacecraft. The camera is of a high-definition (1,280 × 720 pixels),...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Mesoscopic Steerable Mirror
A proposed lightweight, micromachined, multiaxis-steerable mirror would have mesoscopic dimensions. Its steering function would involve mesoscopic positional excursions of its support points and would be...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Testing Grazing-Incidence Mirrors at Nearly Normal Incidence
An optical system that utilizes visible light at nearly perpendicular incidence has been invented for use in testing the surface figures of nominally axisymmetric (paraboloidal,...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Making Digital Composite Images for Technical Illustration
A method of generating three-dimensional composite digital images can serve multiple purposes in technical illustration. The method was devised to accelerate and facilitate the design of new electric lights and receptacles for large buildings, and can just as well be applied to the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Phase-Retrieval Camera for Optical Testing
A portable instrument denoted a phase-retrieval camera (PRC) is designed to enable the testing of large, lightweight optics in the presence of vibrations and atmospheric turbulence. The development...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Liquid-Crystal Phase-Shifting Shearing Interferometer
The liquid-crystal phase-shifting shearing interferometer is a common-path interferometer based partly on a lateral-shear-plate interferometer. It bears a partial similarity to the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fiber-Optic Phase-Locked Loop Sensitive to Local Strain Only
The figure schematically depicts an apparatus for measuring strain at only one designated location on a structure. The apparatus is a fiber-optic phase-locked loop, wherein strain...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Light Recycling and Color Scrolling for Brighter Displays
The efficiencies and thus the brightnesses of flat-panel projectors based on liquid-crystal devices (LCDs) and digital mirror devices (DMDs) would be increased by the combination of...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Multi-Screen-Image- and Catalog-Viewing Program
A computer program enables the single- or multi-screen display of multispectral, multiresolution images — especially astronomical ones — stored as sets of data that range upward in size from hundreds of gigabytes. In cases of multi-screen displays, the software synchronizes the screens so that...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Software Automates Processing of SAR Image Data
The Automated SAR Image Processor (ASIP) computer program increases the efficiency of production of scientifically useful imagery from raw synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) image data. In the absence of ASIP, the processing of SAR data is a labor-intensive task, often involving supporting personnel,...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Compact, Stiff, Lightweight, Quick-Release Clamp
The term "COSMOWRAP" denotes a compact, stiff, remotely actuatable, lightweight, quick-release clamp that could be substituted for the larger, heavier, and more-difficult-to-use toggle-action...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Crystalline Organic Films for Optical Applications
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...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optoelectronic Oscillator With Low Acceleration Sensitivity
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...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Apparatus Measures X-Ray Diffraction and Fluorescence
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...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fluorescent Dyes for Two-Photon Microscopy
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...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Critical Composition Buffering for Growing InxGa1-xAs on InP
A method of growing lattice-mismatched InxGa1-xAs epitaxial layers on InP substrates using intermediate buffer layers of...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Portable Airborne Multispectral-Imaging System
A portable instrumentation system that includes an airborne and a ground-based subsystem acquires multispectral image data over swaths of terrain ranging in width from about 1/2 to 1 km. The...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Lossless Image-Compression Algorithm Implemented in an FPGA
A lossless image-compression algorithm that can be executed entirely in electronic hardware has been developed. This algorithm yields about 15 percent more compression than does the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Hardware and Software for Air-to-Air Schlieren Imaging
Software and electronic hardware are being developed to provide cockpit guidance and camera control for an air-to-air schlieren photography system that is to be used to take...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Hand-Held Optoelectronic Particulate Monitors
Optoelectronic instruments are being developed for use in measuring the concentrations and sizes of microscopic particles suspended in air. The instruments could be used, for example, to detect smoke, explosive dust in grain elevators, or toxic dusts in industrial buildings. Like some older,...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
High-Performance Processor of Hyperspectral Images
The Remote Sensing Hyperspectral Engine (RSHE) is a special-purpose, portable computer that performs high-performance processing of hyperspectral image data collected by a remote-sensing optoelectronic apparatus. Typically, the remote-sensing apparatus is airborne or spaceborne, the images are...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Lateral-Current-Collection HgCdTe Infrared Detectors
Arrays of HgCdTe infrared photodetectors have been developed to satisfy stringent performance requirements for use in NASA’s Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer. The design of these...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
System for Measuring Three Tilts and Distance of an Object
An optoelectronic system discussed herein measures the state of alignment (SOA) of an object under test in four of its six degrees of freedom (DOFs). This system was originally...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Thermal Imaging for Diagnosing Fuel Cells
Thermal (that is, infrared) imaging has been demonstrated to be an effective technique for the diagnosis of operating fuel cells and fuel-cell stacks. Thermal imaging can be used to identify a...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Tunable Ultraviolet Light Source for Combustion Experiments
An ultraviolet light source that comprises a tunable diode laser and associated optics provides the optical excitation needed for simultaneous wavelength-modulation-absorption...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Fourier-Transform X-Ray Microscope
A proposed x-ray instrument - a Fourier-transform x-ray microscope - would enable high-resolution imaging of objects with sizes of the order of 20 nm. (This size range is typical of cell organelles.) The instrument would also offer a spectroscopic capability for the sensitive detection and identification of...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Ring-Resonator/Bragg-Grating Laser-Feedback Elements
Integrated optical structures that contain ring resonators and Bragg gratings have been proposed as external feedback elements for semiconductor lasers. These feedback elements would...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Computer Program for Designing Diffractive Optics
AMPERES is a prototype computer program that implements the algorithm, described in the preceding article, for optimizing designs of diffractive optics. Several other programs for designing refractive optics are commercially available, but they offer very limited capabilities with respect to...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fiber-Optic Illumination for Microscope
In a simple but very effective method for providing intense illumination of an opaque specimen under a microscope, light is supplied via an optical fiber. This system eliminates the need for...
Top Stories
Blog: Aerospace
A Former NASA Mission Manager Reflects on a 'Flawless' Mars Landing
Videos: Aerospace
'LaserFactory' Manufactures Fully Functional Devices & Drones
Podcasts: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Here's an Idea: Hospital Robots
Videos: Aerospace
Watch NASA's Perseverance Rover Land on Mars
Articles: Internet of Things
Nano Diamond Battery Provides Universal Applicability
INSIDER: Motion Control
Webcasts
On-Demand Webinars: Electronics & Computers
Contactless Position, Torque, and Force Sensing for Today’s and Tomorrow’s...
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
How to Achieve Multidisciplinary, Collaborative, Concurrent...
Upcoming Webinars: Materials
Ultra-High Purity Silicone in Aerospace and Defense Product Design
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
A Four-Pillar Approach to Driving Greater Efficiency ePowertrain...
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Confident TCU Connectivity Through Efficient Functional Testing
Upcoming Webinars: Transportation
Trending Stories
Articles: Software
Modeling & Simulation for Battery Development
Articles: Data Acquisition
Executive Roundtable: Facility & Network Security
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A New, Highly Improved Two-Cycle Engine
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The Modern Industrial Workhorse: PID Controllers
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Mars 2020 – The Science of Mars 2020
NASA Spinoff: Energy
