Human Factors and Ergonomics
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Briefs Sensors/Data Acquisition
Thermal-to-Visible Face Recognition
For nighttime surveillance, acquisition of visible light imagery is impractical due to the lack of illumination. Thermal imaging, which acquires mid-wave infrared or long-wave infrared radiation naturally...
Briefs Physical Sciences
Evaluation of Three Extremity Armor Systems
The US Marine Corps and the US Army have been engaged in efforts to evaluate improved body armor, including armor to protect the extremities. These efforts are focused on both body armor performance...
Articles Aerospace
How Digital “Sand Tables” Will Guide Future Military Strategy
Throughout history, the use of sand tables has been common practice in rehearsing military strategy in the field. Built on piles of sand with scale models of operational units,...
Articles Test & Measurement
Improving Battlefield Connectivity for Dismounted Forces
The warfighter couldn’t take it anymore. His team’s mission was to sweep villages, collect fingerprints, photograph irises, and compare these biometric indicators against a registry...
Articles Aerospace
Laser Detection System Technology
While most ordnance is now laserguided, there is still much work to be done on the defensive detection of laser designators. Hence the growing need for advanced laser-warning systems (LWS). While multiple...
Articles Electronics & Computers
Improving Software Reliability in Satellite and Spacecraft Applications
In the space industry, much of the effort to refine system engineering processes has been done by hand using tools as divergent as Microsoft PowerPoint to IBM Rational...
Briefs Sensors/Data Acquisition
Energy-Scalable Protocols for Battery Operated Micro Sensor Networks
Networks of microsensors can greatly improve environment monitoring for many civil and military applications. Multiple sensors provide fault tolerance and can provide valuable...
Articles Electronics & Computers
Graphics Performance vs. Power Consumption in Embedded Systems Design
The rapid evolution of technology has given embedded developers more options than ever before in designing embedded graphics systems. The consumer electronics market, most...
Briefs Physical Sciences
Multifunctional Vehicle Structural Health Monitoring with Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors
A novel structural health monitoring (SHM) concept of embedded nondestructive evaluation with piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) has been...
Articles Aerospace
Automating Radiation Effects Mitigation with FPGA Synthesis
FPGA designers of aerospace and defense applications have long wrestled with radiation effects. More recently, due to shrinking technology nodes, concerns have arisen about...
Articles Aerospace
Designing COTS Optics Into Defense Projects
When settling in to design a new optical device for a defense application, it is often desirable to use Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) optical components wherever possible. COTS optics offer many...
Articles Electronics & Computers
Using Static Analysis and Code Verification to Improve Embedded Software
Modern software development and test processes encompass a wide range of best practices and development methodologies. Personal preferences and lessons learned — both...
Briefs Materials
Dynamic Response and Failure Mechanisms of Layered Ceramic-Elastomer-Polymer/Metal Composites
A thorough study through a combination of ballistic and impact experiments, microscopic failure characterization, and numerical simulations has been carried out in order to decipher the underlying mechanisms involved in the interaction between a blast...
Briefs Physical Sciences
MALDI-MSI Imaging of Latent Fingerprints
For years, forensic scientists have been seeking new methods to improve existing techniques for the visualization of latent fingerprints. The structured combination of optical methods (diffused reflection, luminescence, UV absorption and reflection), physical methods (powdering, vacuum metal deposition,...
Briefs Physical Sciences
Forehead-Mounted Sensor Measures Oxygen Saturation for Hypoxia Early Detection and Warning
Symptoms of hypoxia – a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching body tissues - have been documented among rotary-wing pilots and aircrew flying at...
Briefs Physical Sciences
Fluid Helmet Liner for Protection Against Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury
An Advanced Combat Helmet liner design uses the novel idea of including filler materials inside channels in the liner. An energy-absorbing foam was selected for the main liner structure, and several filler material candidates of widely varying properties are being...
Briefs Physical Sciences
Gesture-Directed Sensor-Information Fusion Gloves
Current chemical-protection gear for warfighters on the ground inhibits electronic communication via keyboards, cell phones, and remote-control devices. To improve communications capabilities...
Briefs Medical
High-Resolution Anatomic and Elastographic Transrectal Ultrasound for Improved Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer screening generally uses the Pro state Spe cific Antigen (PSA) blood test, free-PSA testing, and Digital Rectal Exam...
Articles Aerospace
Interaction Methods for Virtual Reality Applications
The potential of Virtual Reality (VR) technology has not been fully realized because the user interfaces are not designed to effectively support the user. One of the most critical interface...
Articles Aerospace
Active Thermal Management for Cooler Body Armor
The military places greater demands on its equipment — electronic and otherwise — than any other market segment. It is also true that it places its greatest thermal demands on the men and...
Briefs Medical
Remote Blood Pressure Waveform Sensing
This non-contact, non-invasive blood pressure apparatus continuously measures and monitors blood pressure using a laser Doppler vibrometer to create waveforms. The laser-based system may be utilized to continuously provide highly detailed information about the timing characteristics of the blood pressure...
Briefs Medical
Update on Implantable Sensors for Metabolic Monitoring
Progress has been made in a continuing effort to develop surgically implantable, biocompatible electrochemical- sensor arrays for continuous measurement of concentrations of analytes that...
Briefs Medical
Toward High-Performance Neural Control of Prosthetic Devices
A program of basic and applied research in neuroscience is dedicated to (1) advancing fundamental understanding of how the human brain plans and executes arm movements and (2) designing and building high-performance neural prostheses for controlling arm prostheses. The basic-research part...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Miniature Wheel-Leg Mobile Robots
Mini-Whegs™ are small mobile robots, designed according to abstracted cockroach locomotion principles, that can run and can climb obstacles taller than themselves. Mini-Whegs are derived from larger mobile...
Briefs Medical
Portable Simulator for Training in Robot-Assisted Surgery
Aportable apparatus is being developed as a means of training surgeons in robot-assisted surgery, including laparoscopic and other forms of minimally invasive surgery. The apparatus can be characterized as a virtual reality system that includes not only a computer and a visual display...
Briefs Test & Measurement
Small-Scale Combustion-Chamber Testing Facility
A small-scale combustion-chamber testing facility has been designed and partly built for use in evaluating advanced combustor designs for future gas turbine engines. The specific model combustor...
Articles Aerospace
Advanced Training and Simulation Technology Helps Produce Mission-Ready Warfighters
Today's warfighters operate some of the most technologically advanced vehicles, aircraft, and weapons systems, and to do so effectively and safely, they require...
Briefs Medical
AFRL Seeks Ways to Prevent Hearing Loss in Military Environments
In the 1988 movie "Good Morning, Vietnam," character Adrian Cronauer, a Saigon- based military disc jockey, performs an on-air skit in which he contacts an artilleryman in the...
Briefs Automotive
AFRL Teams With Indy Racing League® for Neck Protection
The bulletlike, open-wheel Indy racing cars hurtle around oval tracks at breakneck velocities, often approaching speeds of 220 mph or higher. While a crash at this speed is a violent,...
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Vibroacoustic and Shock Analysis for Aerospace and Defense Applications