Electronic Products | Nicole DiGiose

Working Out on the International Space Station

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

A look at how astronauts stay in shape in space

Here on Earth, we’re constantly using certain muscles to support ourselves against the force of gravity. But for astronauts on manned missions, the absence of gravity aboard a spacecraft makes moving physically undemanding.

Because astronauts work in a weightless environment, little muscle contraction is needed to support their bodies. Without regular exercise, muscles such as the calves, quadriceps, and those in the back and neck can weaken and deteriorate. The loss of physical strength can be extremely dangerous, especially if an astronaut must perform an emergency procedure while re-entering the Earth’s gravitational field. Studies have shown that astronauts experience up to a 20% loss of muscle mass on spaceflights lasting five to 11 days. So while working gravity-free in space, what do they do to keep their muscles from deteriorating?

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) exercise, and they do so intensively for two and a half hours a day. There’s exercise equipment aboard the ISS, and each machine has different uses to combat the many effects of muscle atrophy.

The Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) maintains muscle strength and mass in astronauts during long periods in space. It uses adjustable resistance piston-driven vacuum cylinders and a flywheel system to simulate free-weight exercises in normal gravity. Without workouts like the ones possible on the ARED, astronauts are at risk of losing up to 15% of their muscle volume, which is difficult, or even impossible, to regain back on Earth. The ARED can exercise all major muscle groups while focusing on squats, dead lifts, and calf rises. This device provides up to 600 pounds and has a touchscreen to make it easy for crewmembers to follow a personalized plan.

ARED maintains muscle strength and mass in astronauts during long periods in space.

Smartphones Journey to Space in New, Leaner Spacecraft Era

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

Created with affordable, everyday technology, small spacecraft are paving the way for future ideas

If there’s anyone who knows about spacecraft technology, it’s the Chief of Mission Design Division (MDD) at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Chad Frost. Being at the forefront of the aerospace industry for more than 25 years, Frost has designed and analyzed many flight control systems for aircraft. Now leading the MDD, he and his staff develop new spacecraft, technologies, tools, and mission concepts to accomplish revolutionary science on strict budgets.

Each year, millions of dollars go into spacecraft hardware, avionics, electronics, and software, even for small satellites. But as the world’s technology constantly advances, new and unexpected ideas are born.

“A few years ago, we had the intriguing idea that you might actually be able to build a spacecraft around a smartphone,” Frost said. “As a society, we’ve driven consumer electronics really hard to the point where they are just amazingly capable little devices, and ridiculously affordable for what they can do.”

With that in mind, NASA began brainstorming ways to build systems around familiar everyday technology. Intrigued by building a much smaller spacecraft based entirely on consumer devices and other low-cost systems, NASA got to work on combining a consumer-grade smartphone in conjunction with other commercial off-the-shelf components. The result was the PhoneSat project, the joint effort of three smartphones in orbit, as part of NASA’s nanosatellite mission.

Image taken by the PhoneSat 2.0 (Graham) nanosatellite. Reconstructed by the Ames PhoneSat Team. Credit: NASA Ames

NASA brings space to Earth

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

American lives are touched by space technology every day

Since 1976, over 1,600 documented NASA technologies have worked their way into everyday life, creating jobs and improving the quality of life in the United States. The Space Shuttle Program, which was the United States government’s manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, has generated at least 120 technology spinoffs that many Americans rely on every day.

Unexpected Discoveries

Among the most outstanding spinoffs developed from the Space Shuttle Program are life-saving medical innovations, energy-conserving insulation and design elements, and protective eyewear.

Some of the most important discoveries were advances in medical technology, such as the creation of heart pumps. The lives of more than 200 people were saved with tiny heart pumps developed from space shuttle fuel pump technology. The miniaturized ventricular assist pumps were a result of collaboration between doctors and NASA engineers. The pumps are one inch in diameter, weighing less than four ounces, and have kept hundreds of patients alive as they waited for transplants.

NASA’s artificial heart pump. Image via nasa.gov.

One of the shuttle’s most flexible spinoffs is NASA’s form of aerogel, the world’s lightest solid and one of the most effective insulators, that was used to keep liquid hydrogen fuel for the shuttle below -253 degrees C. Now aerogel is used to protect homes and industrial equipment, warm the feet of mountain climbers, and treat painful circulatory disorders.

NASA’s aerogel. Image via nasa.gov.

Smartphone used to hack into a plane cockpit

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products

A security researcher was able to hack an aircraft’s cockpit with an Android smartphone

After you board a plane and are safely buckled in your seat, the pilot reminds you and the other passengers with their noses tucked into their touchscreens to power off all electronic devices. If they interfere with the in-flight management system, there could be some serious disturbances. But still, there are the few testy travelers who ignore the pilot’s requests, because, really, how much harm can a little smart phone do?

Apparently a lot, as was evidenced by a security researcher, who claimed that he could hack into an aircraft’s cockpit with his Android mobile phone.

Image via marketplace.org.

At the annual security conference, Hack In The Box, which took place in Amsterdam this year, security researcher, Hugo Teso, demonstrated that it’s possible to take full control of aircraft flight systems and communications. All you need are two things: an Android smartphone and a specialized attack code. Read More

The sun’s strongest flare this year

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

As the sun reaches the end of its 11-year cycle, solar flares will become increasingly common

Classified as an M6.5 flare, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a striking image of the strongest flare emitted from the sun this year.

The M6.5 solar flare captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Image via nasa.gov.

Though it’s 10 times less powerful than the strongest flares recorded, which are labeled as X-class flares, an M-class flare, like the one pictured below, can still cause space weather effects near Earth. This particular flare produced a radio blackout, categorized as an R2 on a scale between R1 and R5 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) space weather scales, but has since died out. Read More

Hubble Finds Light and Dust in a Nearby Starburst Galaxy

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

Astronomers are looking into what happens within these unusual star formations

Earlier this month, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a small, glistening hook in the dark sky, an incredible object known as J082354.96+280621.6, or J082354.96 for short. This unusual high rate of accumulating stars is known as a starburst galaxy.

Starburst galaxy J082354.96. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA.

The rate of star formation in a starburst galaxy is so excessive that the galaxy consumes all of its gas accumulation, which the stars form from, on a timescale much shorter than the existence of the galaxy itself. Since it only occupies a brief period of a galaxy’s evolution, the starburst nature of a galaxy is just a phase. Read More

Headphones scan brainwaves to match music to your mood

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

To create the perfect soundtrack, Mico headphones use a brainwave sensor to detect the wearer’s emotions

Before that song even has a chance, you hit the “next” button on Pandora, even if you previously gave it a thumbs-up. Then, most likely, you continue to do so until you’re at your limit. The new Mico headphones from Neurowear turn things up a notch. By scanning your brain, these headphones can select a song based on how you’re feeling.

Image via gizmag.com.

Protruding from the front of these bulky headphones is an EEG (electroencephalograph) sensor, which allows the headphones to analyze the wearer’s brain patterns and determine their mood. Once the wearer’s state of mind is detected, their mood is matched with a suitable song. Read More

Google wants to replace your passwords with a ring

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

The world’s largest search engine plans to create a data-encrypted ring that authenticates the user’s identity

When most people decide to be risky and change their passwords to something new and different, they usually wind up outsmarting themselves and forget what it is. Eventually, they go back to using the same three closely related passwords, but that’s not so secure. Google wants to change that, and will attempt to do so with its magic ring.

Image via venturebeat.com.

How this bright idea will work

This time Google’s big idea to change the world as we know it is to replace our passwords with data-encrypted rings. The web giant is toying with the idea of having a USB drive mounted on a ring or another form of small jewelry that uses a cryptographic key, a tiny bit of software meant to encode a message that’s unreadable to all but the intended recipient. Read More

Text and write e-mails in the air

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

The air-writing glove converts hand-drawn letters into digital text

Most of the time you spend jabbing your thumbs on your touchscreen’s small keys, you’re correcting mistakes that apparently were already auto-corrected. When squiggling a sentence with your finger into the clear blue sky, that doesn’t happen.

Thanks to the computer scientists at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, writing in the air is possible. They’ve created an air-writing glove system that allows wearers to draw letters in the air with their hands. The sensor-equipped glove system is able to identify which letters are being drawn, and then converts them into digital text, which can be wirelessly entered into a text message, e-mail, or mobile app.

Developer of air-writing, Christoph Amma of KIT, Image via digitaltrends.com

The Art of Video Gaming

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

Play 14 classic video games in MoMA’s interactive gallery

How often do you get to go into a museum and actually touch the art that’s on display? The Modern Museum of Art recently added 14 classic video games to their collection, and visitors are encouraged to express their artistic sides and play them.

While browsing the collection of objects in the Applied Design installation in The Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries, you’ll come across features representing contemporary design, such as dynamic visualizations, and 3D-printed furniture and bowls, but the most surprising works of art on display are the 14 classic video games.

The Sims, image via moma.org

While to some, having The Sims housed under the same roof as Vincent Van Gogh’s respected paintings may seem a bit unacceptable, MoMA considers the games expressions of art and design, even masterpieces, as they fuel creativity and provide inspiration. Read More