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The Embedded Technology supplement to the Air Force Research Laboratory's Technology Horizons magazine features board-level electronics and COTS solutions for design engineers, as well as a variety of product offerings.

Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester recently won $847,000 from NASA's Astronomy Physics Research and Analysis program to build and test a detector that will capture sharper images and consume less power than technology currently in use. This new detector could transform imaging applications on NASA...

You're a master of the air guitar, playing along with your favorite rock band. But what if your air guitar actually made real music? A team of engineers at the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has created the wearable instrument shirt (WIS), a T-shirt that lets...

Computer science engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed wireless sensor networks with software agents that have been able to navigate a robot safely through a simulated fire, and spot a fire by seeking out heat. The sensor networks also can be used to protect containers in a manufacturing environment.

Engineers at Nippon Telephone & Telegraph (NTT, Tokyo, Japan) have developed three separate prototype devices that use a new electric field/photonics method allowing the surface of the body to be used as a safe, high-speed network transmission path. Called "RedTacton," a transmission path is formed at the moment a part of the...

At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a team led by assistant professor Marin Soljacic is developing a method to broadcast power to devices to charge them, rather than depending on cords and cables. Instead of irradiating the environment with electromagnetic waves, a power transmitter would fill the space around it...

Researchers at the University of Manchester (Manchester, UK) have devised an experimental method of virtual reality for the treatment of phantom limb pain (PLP) experienced by some amputees. Using headsets, data gloves, and other sensors, amputees used their remaining physical limbs to control the movements of a...

Renishaw, Hoffman Estates, IL, has introduced a 13-bit magnetic sensor for rotary and angular positioning control. Providing 8,192 counts per revolution, the sensors are available in chip, chip-on-board, and ready-to-mount packaged versions. The solid-state, non-contact design features an integrated circuit chip that senses...

A report describes the main features of a system for testing pyrotechnic and mechanical devices used to separate spacecraft and modules of spacecraft during flight. The system includes a spacecraft simulator [also denoted a large mobility base (LMB)] equipped with air thrusters, sensors, and...

The surface interferometric skin-friction (SISF) measurement system is an instrument for determining the distribution of surface shear stress (skin friction) on a wind-tunnel model. The SISF system utilizes the established oil-film interference method, along with advanced image-data-processing...

A laboratory method has been conceived to enable the enumeration of: Cultivable bacteria and bacterial spores that are, variously, airborne by themselves or carried by, parts of, or otherwise associated with, other airborne particles; and Spore-forming bacteria among all of the...

A proposed approach to control of noise and chaos in dynamic systems would supplement conventional methods. The approach is based on fictitious forces composed of expectations governed by Fokker-Planck or Liouville equations that describe the evolution of the probability densities of the controlled...

A report proposes the development of a system to collect volatile elements and compounds from Lunar soil for use in supporting habitation and processing into rocket fuel. Prior exploratory missions revealed that H2, He, and N2 are present in Lunar soil and there are some indications that water ice may...

A report proposes to use electrostriction to manipulate the ullage in a tank containing a dielectric liquid in a microgravitational environment. In the original intended application, the liquid would be a spacecraft propellant and the goal would be to force the ullage (comprising bubbles...

A document presents equations for scoring rules in a diagnostic and/or prognostic artificial-intelligence software system of the rule-based inference- engine type. The equations define a set of metrics that characterize the evaluation of a rule when data required for the antecedence clause(s) of the...

A document describes the proposed addition of a radar function to the Autonomous Formation Flying Sensor, making possible coarse relative-position control to prevent collisions in the event of failure of one of the spacecraft. According to the proposal, in addition to tracking GPS-like...