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News : Energy
Graphite Foam Technology Cools LED Light Fixtures and Extends Lifespan
Graphite foam technology developed by James Klett of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division extends the life of light-emitting diode lamps and has been licensed to LED North America (Oak Ridge, TN).
News : Lighting
Magnetic Energy Recovery Switch Controls Electrical Flow for Lighting
The Office of Naval Research Global (ONR Global) continues to pursue aggressive energy goals established by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, with the design of a system that controls electrical flow for lighting - a highly efficient platform that may spark a new era of power...
Question of the Week
Should Internet communication services be redesigned so that law enforcement can carry out legally authorized intercepts?
This week's Question of the Week focuses on the redesign of some Internet communication services. Law enforcement officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail...
News : Energy
Organic LED Light Source for Home Electronics, Medicine, and Clean Energy
Electronic products pollute the environment with a number of heavy metals before, during, and after they're used. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills come from discarded electronics. With flat screen TVs getting bigger and cheaper every year,...
News : Electronics & Computers
Home's Electrical Wiring Acts as Antenna to Receive Low-Power Sensor Data
Sensors developed by researchers at the University of Washington and the Georgia Institute of Technology use residential wiring to transmit information to and from almost anywhere in the home, allowing for wireless sensors that run for decades on a single watch battery.
November 2011
Lighting Technology
Advances in LEDs & Solid-State Lighting
August 2011
Lighting Technology
Advances in LEDs & Solid-State Lighting
September 2011 May 2011...
News : Energy
Microscopy Technique Reveals Lithium-Ion Battery Functionality
As industries and consumers seek improved battery power sources, a new microscopy technique developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers is providing a novel perspective on how lithium-ion batteries function.
Products : Energy
Stainless Steel Strip for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Sandvik (Benton Harbor, MI) has introduced Sandvik Sanergy HTTM, an advanced stainless steel strip developed for interconnectors in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The strip has excellent high temperature corrosion resistance and very good high temperature strength in the range normally...
Question of the Week
Should smartphones be used as learning tools in the classroom?
This week's Question of the Week focuses on smartphones in the classroom. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty recently suggested students should be allowed to use smartphones in the classroom, saying that the devices have a variety of helpful educational tools -- calendars, planners, and...
News : Energy
Synthetic Fuel Research Underway
Purdue University researchers have developed a facility aimed at learning precisely how coal and biomass are broken down in reactors called gasifiers as part of a project to strengthen the scientific foundations of the synthetic fuel economy.
SOFTWARE Tech Briefs - 2011
co-sponsored by
Software Tech Briefs is a special supplement to NASA Tech Briefs. Download the digital version (PDF) at right to learn about new software programs outlined in the table of contents below.
Table of Contents
FEATURES4 Better, Faster Sonar Development With...
Question of the Week
Will 3D catch on in the long run, and will TV fans and movie buffs demand the technology?
This week's Question of the Week concerns 3D. The technology offers moviegoers and TV fans an enhanced viewing experience, and many recent 3D films, including Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, have had box office success. Several 3D movies, however, have...
News : Energy
Self-Assembling PV Technology Avoids Any Loss in Performance
The sun's rays can be highly destructive to many materials and lead to a gradual degradation of many systems developed to harness it. MIT researchers have developed a new process that imitates a plant's naturally efficient repair mechanism.
News : Energy
Using Computational Modeling to Produce Biodiesel from E. coli
Desmond Lun, an associate professor of computer science at Rutgers University–Camden, is researching how to alter the genetic makeup of E. coli to produce biodiesel fuel derived from fatty acids.
News : Green Design & Manufacturing
New Geoengineering Approaches Offset Global Warming More Efficiently
Releasing engineered nano-sized disks or sulphuric acid, a condensable vapour, above the Earth are two novel approaches that offer advantages over simply putting sulphur dioxide gas into the atmosphere, says Dr. David Keith, a University of Calgary climate scientist.
Products : Energy
Inkjet Deposition of Etchant and Dopant Materials
Trident Solar (Brookfield, CT) and Alpha (South Plainfield, NJ), a Cookson Electronics company, have collaborated on additive, non-contact inkjet technologies that provide enhanced production yields and could increase cell efficiency up to 1% when compared to the use of traditional screen...
Question of the Week
Should airplanes have families-only sections?
This week's Question of the Week concerns a poll from Skyscanner, a travel fare-comparison Web site. To reduce noise and keep children in one place, sixty percent of more than 2,000 surveyed travelers said it would be a good idea for airplanes to have families-only sections on flights.
News : Energy
New, Inexpensive Catalyst Boosts Oxygen Production for Home Energy Systems
The era of personalized energy systems — in which individual homes and small businesses produce their own energy for heating, cooling, and powering cars — took another step toward forward as MIT scientists have discovered a powerful new catalyst that is a key element...
Articles : Electronics & Computers
Using the Intel® Architecture in High-Performance Military Embedded DSP Applications
Historically, processors from the PowerPC® family, now known as Power Architecture® processors, have been the dominant choice for implementing Digital Signal Processing (DSP) in high-performance embedded military applications that take advantage of...
Articles : Electronics & Computers
Protecting COTS Military Electronics From Shock and Vibration
Military systems represent extreme environments for COTS electronic equipment. Many systems involve multiple enclosures, often from different suppliers. Equipment layout, the selection of racks, whether isolation is used, and how the electronics are "housed" can vary widely. There...
Application Briefs : Electronics & Computers
Moving From System Specification to Software Development
Systems engineering is not about developing electronics, mechanical, or software designs. Systems engineering is really about four things:
Application Briefs : Electronics & Computers
Testing DC Power Systems
DC is not always DC. When systems are developed to operate on DC power, the DC electrical environment will have noise and may experience other disturbances. This article will explore considerations for generating low frequency disturbances (glitches, sags, surges, spikes) that occur in the 100 microsecond and longer...
Products : Electronics & Computers
High-Density Rad-Hard Reconfigurable FPGA
Xilinx, Inc. (San Jose, CA) has launched the industry's first high-density, rad-hard reconfigurable FPGA. The new devices are built on the second-generation ASMBL™ column-based architecture of the Virtex-5 family with support in Xilinx's ISE® Design Suite. Virtex-5QV devices integrate many of the...
Products : Electronics & Computers
Video Frame Grabber
The PIXCI® SI2 frame grabber from EPIX (Buffalo Grove, IL) supports two high-resolution SILICON VIDEO® cameras with resolutions from 0.3 to 10 megapixels on the x1 PCI Express bus. With 64 MB of onboard memory and XCAP-Lite software, it allows image capture at rates up to 280 MB/sec and capture of short bursts of...
Products : Electronics & Computers
Multi-Touch Controller Chip
STMicroelectronics (Geneva, Switzerland) has introduced the STM32TS60, a single-chip multi-touch "resistive" touchscreen controller that detects up to 10 simultaneous touches with fingers, nails, or stylus, enabling designers to replace complex sequences with user controls. The controller combines STM32...
Products : Electronics & Computers
Electrical Test and Measurement CD
Keithley Instruments (Cleveland, OH) has released a free tutorial CD that offers practical and helpful techniques for obtaining the most accurate and precise measurements possible using advanced electrical test instruments and systems. The A Guide to Understanding Electrical Test and Measurement CD covers...
Products : Electronics & Computers
16-Bit Microcontroller
The MAXQ622® microcontroller with integrated USB transceiver from Maxim Integrated Products (Sunnyvale, CA) features an ultra-low stop-mode current (300nA, typ.) and intelligent supply switching to extend battery life in portable consumer and medical applications. Designed for low-power applications, this microcontroller...
Articles : Electronics & Computers
Let the Show Begin
VPX is like a three act play. Act one was the launching of a new high density platform for critical embedded computing applications. Leveraging the wildly popular VMEbus in 3U and 6U Eurocard formats, VPX added the capability of using high speed serial switch fabric technologies such as Ethernet, PCI Express, serial RapidIO,...
Articles : Electronics & Computers
OpenVPX — From Concept to Specification
The OpenVPX Industry Working Group, a 28-company team founded by Mercury Computer Systems, collaborated with a common goal and accelerated the completion of a system architecture specification for open system COTS suppliers and integrators to specify, design, and build multi-vendor interoperable...
Open VPX : Electronics & Computers
Transitioning to OpenVPX for Next-Generation C4ISR Systems
VPX systems offer tremendous performance for the Mil/Aero market, including naval, airborne, and ground-based computing systems. The architecture provides an unprecedented combination of bandwidth, user IO, and rugged design, in both a 3U and 6U Eurocard format. The new OpenVPX...
Articles : Electronics & Computers
Putting OpenVPX To Work
Before the advent of OpenVPX, designers of embedded systems took advantage of the extreme connectivity offered by VPX (VITA 46), but were faced with a virtually unlimited number of possible implementations. Specific choices for the control and data channel assignments for each slot, the backplane connectivity, and serial...
Products : Electronics & Computers
6U OpenVPX Radar System Upgrade
Available in both air- and conduction-cooled configurations, the Ensemble™ 6000 Series OpenVPX HCD6410 High Compute Density Module from Mercury Computer Systems (Chelmsford, MA) combines eight high-performance Power Architecture processor cores with various I/O capabilities and the scalable serial RapidIO...
Open VPX : Electronics & Computers
OpenVPX/VITA-65 Serial RapidIO® GEN-2 Switch
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) has introduced the OpenVPX™/VITA-65 compliant VPX6-6902 Serial RapidIO® (SRIO) switch card. This rugged 6U VPX board, available in both air- and conduction-cooled versions, combines Ethernet and SRIO switching in a single slot...
Open VPX : Electronics & Computers
6U OpenVPX Rugged Single Board Computer
GE Intelligent Platforms (Charlottesville, VA) has announced the SBC622 rugged 6U OpenVPX-compliant single board computer. At 2.53GHz, the SBC622's Intel Core i7 processor is 30% faster than its predecessor, with up to 8 GBytes of soldered DDR3 SDRAM with ECC and a high bandwidth 10 Gigabit Ethernet I/O...
Open VPX : Electronics & Computers
6U VPX Load Board
Elma Bustronic Corporation (Fremont, CA) has introduced a new 6U VPX Load Board that helps confirm the chassis meets the VITA 46/48 power specifications for VPX and aids in locating hot spots within the enclosure. The 6U VPX load card features a microcontroller-based stepped load control to 100W maximum. Go-No-Go indicators are...
Open VPX : Electronics & Computers
Forced Air-Cooled Enclosure
Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) (Middleton, WI) is now shipping the XPand4200, a sub-1⁄2 ATR, forced air-cooled enclosure for conduction-cooled modules. The system measures 4.88" (W) × 6.0" (H) × 13.5" (D) and weighs 8.8 pounds. The XPand4200 has an optional removable memory module attachment that supports...
Products : Electronics & Computers
Two-Slot OpenVPX Development Platform
Elma Electronic Systems Division (Fremont, CA) has released a new two-slot VPX/OpenVPX test and development platform that accommodates both 3U and 6U boards via a shelf divider. The new E-Frame Series enables developers to power up one or more VPX blades under test and interconnect the J1 fabric connections...
Open VPX : Electronics & Computers
IPv4/IPv6 Gigabit Ethernet Switch
The new Kontron (Poway, CA) Gigabit Ethernet Switch VX3910 offers 3U VPX (VITA 46.x) and OpenVPX™ (VITA 65) platforms enterprise-class switching functionality with a total of 28 Gigabit Ethernet ports and advanced management features. The non-blocking fully managed L2/L3 Gigabit switch, Kontron VX3910, with...
Briefs : Software
Multiphysics Analysis of a Burning Candle
Over 150 years ago, Faraday provided the first comprehensive scientific study on the physics of burning candles. Complex combustion driven by the rate at which gases diffuse through each other produces a highly non-linear temperature profile through the flame. With local temperatures in the flame...
Briefs : Software
Capacitively Coupled Plasma Analysis
Plasmas consist of electrons, ions, and neutral species interacting with each other and with externally imposed electromagnetic fields. Plasma etching and deposition of thin films are critical processes in the manufacture of advanced microelectronic devices. These processes commonly utilize a capacitively...
Briefs : Software
3D Direct Modeling Streamlines Micro-Cogeneration System Design and Analysis Processes
SYNGAS specializes in thermal and micro-thermal technology, and designs and analyzes pre-production heating, cooling, and thermal insulation systems for a variety of applications. They provide engineering support to research centers and fuel cell manufacturers...
Briefs : Software
Microwaving Moondust with COMSOL
In 1999, NASA's Lunar Prospector revealed concentrated hydrogen signatures detected in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles. While scientists have long speculated about the source of vast quantities of hydrogen at the poles, recent discoveries made by NASA's Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing...
Briefs : Software
TEAMS Model Analyzer
The TEAMS model analyzer is a supporting tool developed to work with models created with TEAMS (Testability, Engineering, and Maintenance System), which was developed by QSI.
Briefs : Software
Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for the HyspIRI Spectrometer Mission
The OSSE software provides an integrated end-to-end environment to simulate an Earth observing system by iteratively running a distributed modeling workflow based on the HyspIRI Mission, including atmospheric radiative transfer, surface albedo effects, detection,...
Briefs : Software
Probabilistic Design and Analysis Framework
PRODAF is a software package designed to aid analysts and designers in conducting probabilistic analysis of components and systems. PRODAF can integrate multiple analysis programs to ease the tedious process of conducting a complex analysis process that requires the use of multiple software packages....
Briefs : Software
Excavator Design Validation
The Excavator Design Validation tool verifies excavator designs by automatically generating control systems and modeling their performance in an accurate simulation of their expected environment. Part of this software design includes interfacing with human operations that can be included in simulation-based studies...
Briefs : Software
Momentum Management Tool for Low-Thrust Missions
A momentum management tool was designed for the Dawn low-thrust interplanetary spacecraft en route to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, in an effort to better understand the early creation of the solar system. Momentum must be managed to ensure the spacecraft has enough control authority to perform...
Briefs : Software
Mixed Real/Virtual Operator Interface for ATHLETE
The mixed real/virtual operator interface for ATHLETE (MSim-ATHLETE) is a new software system for operating manipulation and inspection tasks in JPL's ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer). The system presents the operator with a graphical model of the robot and a palette...
Briefs : Software
Antenna Controller Replacement Software
The Antenna Controller Replacement (ACR) software accurately points and monitors the Deep Space Network (DSN) 70-m and 34-m high-efficiency (HEF) ground-based antennas that are used to track primarily spacecraft and, periodically, celestial targets. To track a spacecraft, or other targets, the antenna must...
Briefs : Software
Efficient Parallel Engineering Computing on Linux Workstations
A C software module has been developed that creates lightweight processes (LWPs) dynamically to achieve parallel computing performance in a variety of engineering simulation and analysis applications to support NASA and DoD project tasks. The required interface between the module and...
Briefs : Software
FAILSAFE Health Management for Embedded Systems
The FAILSAFE project is developing concepts and prototype implementations for software health management in mission-critical, real-time embedded systems. The project unites features of the industry-standard ARINC 653 Avionics Application Software Standard Interface and JPL's Mission Data System...
Briefs : Software
Water Detection Based on Sky Reflections
This software has been designed to detect water bodies that are out in the open on cross-country terrain at mid- to far-range (approximately 20–100 meters), using imagery acquired from a stereo pair of color cameras mounted on a terrestrial, unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). Non-traversable water bodies,...
Briefs : Software
Nonlinear Combustion Instability Prediction
The liquid rocket engine stability prediction software (LCI) predicts combustion stability of systems using LOX-LH2 propellants. Both longitudinal and transverse mode stability characteristics are calculated. This software has the unique feature of being able to predict system limit amplitude.
Briefs : Software
JMISR INteractive eXplorer
MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) INteractive eXplorer (MINX) is an interactive visualization program that allows a user to digitize smoke, dust, or volcanic plumes in MISR multiangle images, and automatically retrieve height and wind profiles associated with those plumes. This innovation can perform...
Briefs : Software
Characterization of Cloud Water-Content Distribution
The development of realistic cloud parameterizations for climate models requires accurate characterizations of sub-grid distributions of thermodynamic variables. To this end, a software tool was developed to characterize cloud water-content distributions in climate-model sub-grid scales.
Briefs : Software
Autonomous Planning and Replanning for Mine-Sweeping Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
This software generates high-quality plans for carrying out mine-sweeping activities under resource constraints. The autonomous planning and replanning system for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) takes as input a set of prioritized mine-sweep regions, and a...
Briefs : Software
'In-Situ' Pointing Correction and Rover Microlocalization
Two software programs, marstie and marsnav, work together to generate pointing corrections and rover micro-localization for in-situ images. The programs are based on the PIG (Planetary Image Geometry) library, which handles all mission dependencies. As a result, there is no...
Briefs : Software
Dayside Ionospheric Superfountain
The Dayside Ionospheric Superfountain modified SAMI2 code predicts the uplift, given storm-time electric fields, of the dayside near-equatorial ionosphere to heights of over 800 kilometers during magnetic storm intervals. This software is a simple 2D code developed over many years at the Naval Research...
Briefs : Software
Hybrid-PIC Computer Simulation of the Plasma and Erosion Processes in Hall Thrusters
HPHall software simulates and tracks the time-dependent evolution of the plasma and erosion processes in the discharge chamber and near-field plume of Hall thrusters. HPHall is an axisymmetric solver that employs a hybrid fluid/ particle-in-cell (Hybrid-PIC)...
Briefs : Software
BioNet Digital Communications Framework
BioNet v2 is a peer-to-peer middleware that enables digital communication devices to "talk" to each other. It provides a software development framework, standardized application, network-transparent device integration services, a flexible messaging model, and network communications for distributed...
Briefs : Software
Operation Program for the Spatially Phase-Shifted Digital Speckle Pattern Interferometer — SPS-DSPI
SPS-DSPI software has been revised so that Goddard optical engineers can operate the instrument, instead of data programmers. The user interface has been improved to view the data collected by the SPS-DSPI, with a real-time mode and a play-back...
Briefs : Software
Intelligent Patching of Conceptual Geometry for CFD Analysis
The iPatch computer code for intelligently patching surface grids was developed to convert conceptual geometry to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) geometry (see figure). It automatically uses bicubic B-splines to extrapolate (if necessary) each surface in a conceptual geometry so...
Briefs : Software
Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science
The Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science System (AEGIS) provides automated targeting for remote sensing instruments on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, which at the time of this reporting has had two rovers exploring the surface of Mars (see figure). Currently,...
Briefs : Software
Space Images for NASA/JPL
Space Images for NASA/JPL is an Apple iPhone application that allows the general public to access featured images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). A back-end infrastructure stores, tracks, and retrieves space images from the JPL Photojournal Web server, and catalogs the information into a streamlined rating...
Briefs : Software
Real-Time Feature Tracking Using Homography
This software finds feature point correspondences in sequences of images. It is designed for feature matching in aerial imagery. Feature matching is a fundamental step in a number of important image processing operations: calibrating the cameras in a camera array, stabilizing images in aerial movies,...
Briefs : Software
Stereo Imaging Tactical Helper
The Stereo Imaging Tactical Helper (SITH) program displays left and right images in stereo using the display technology made available by the JADIS framework, which was described in "JAVA Stereo Display Toolkit," NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 32, No. 4 (April 2008), page 63. An overlay of the surface described by the...
Briefs : Software
XMbodyinfo was designed to evaluate potential reference trajectories, providing a proficient way to assess the quality of all satellite body flybys for a Cassini type mission tour. It is autonomous and will generate a variety of ORS (optical remote sensing) and FPW (fields, particles, and waves) plots that aid in the evaluation,...
Briefs : Software
Sparse Superpixel Unmixing for Hyperspectral Image Analysis
Software was developed that automatically detects minerals that are present in each pixel of a hyperspectral image. An algorithm based on sparse spectral unmixing with Bayesian Positive Source Separation is used to produce mineral abundance maps from hyperspectral images. A...
Briefs : Software
NAIF Toolkit — Extended
The Navigation Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) at JPL, acting under the direction of NASA's Office of Space Science, has built a data system named SPICE (Spacecraft Planet Instrument C-matrix Events) to assist scientists in planning and interpreting scientific observations (see figure). SPICE provides geometric...
Briefs : Software
Systems Maintenance Automated Repair Tasks (SMART)
SMART is a uniform automated discrepancy analysis and repair-authoring platform that improves technical accuracy and timely delivery of repair procedures for a given discrepancy (see figure a). SMART will minimize data errors, create uniform repair processes, and enhance the existing knowledge...
Briefs : Software
Centralized Alert-Processing and Asset Planning for Sensorwebs
A software program provides a Sensorweb architecture for alert-processing, event detection, asset allocation and planning, and visualization (see figure). It automatically tasks and re-tasks various types of assets such as satellites and robotic vehicles in response to alerts (fire,...
Briefs : Software
Support for Systematic Code Reviews With the SCRUB Tool
SCRUB is a code review tool that supports both large, team-based software development efforts (e.g., for mission software) as well as individual tasks. The tool was developed at JPL to support a new, streamlined code review process that combines human-generated review reports with...
Briefs : Software
Planning and Execution for an Autonomous Aerobot
The Aerial Onboard Autonomous Science Investigation System (AerOASIS) system provides autonomous planning and execution capabilities for aerial vehicles (see figure). The system is capable of generating high-quality operations plans that integrate observation requests from ground planning teams,...
Briefs : Software
Real-Time Exponential Curve Fits Using Discrete Calculus
An improved solution for curve fitting data to an exponential equation (y = AeBt + C) has been developed. This improvement is in four areas — speed, stability, determinant processing time, and the removal of limits. The solution presented avoids iterative techniques and their...
Briefs : Software
Optimal Codes for the Burst Erasure Channel
Deep space communications over noisy channels lead to certain packets that are not decodable. These packets leave gaps, or bursts of erasures, in the data stream. Burst erasure correcting codes overcome this problem. These are forward erasure correcting codes that allow one to recover the missing gaps...
Briefs : Software
Short-Block Protograph-Based LDPC Codes
Short-block low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes of a special type are intended to be especially well suited for potential applications that include transmission of command and control data, cellular telephony, data communications in wireless local area networks, and satellite data communications. [In...
Briefs : Software
Situational Lightning Climatologies
Research has revealed distinct spatial and temporal distributions of lightning occurrence that are strongly influenced by large-scale atmospheric flow regimes. It was believed there were two flow systems, but it has been discovered that actually there are seven distinct flow regimes.
Briefs : Software
GOATS - Orbitology Component
The GOATS Orbitology Component software was developed to specifically address the concerns presented by orbit analysis tools that are often written as stand-alone applications. These applications do not easily interface with standard JPL first-principles analysis tools, and have a steep learning curve due to their...
Articles : Manufacturing & Prototyping
Is It Time to Try Direct Digital Manufacturing?
Over the past 20 years, additive manufacturing technology has migrated from use in rapid prototyping to a full-fledged manufacturing solution, which is referred to as "direct digital manufacturing" (or rapid manufacturing). Increasingly, companies are applying it to manufacturing applications,...
Videos : Imaging
NASA Awards 2009 Software of the Year
The NASA World Wind Java computer program developed at Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA, has won NASA's 2009 Software of the Year award. Software engineers at Ames created the NASA World Wind Java Software Development Kit and Web Mapping Services Server. Patrick Hogan leads the NASA World Wind...
Application Briefs : Robotics, Automation & Control
Robotic 3D Scanner Automatically Scans Spacecraft Heat Shields
Adept Viper 850 robot arm
Adept Technology
Pleasanton, CA
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, performs research and technology in aeronautics, spaceflight, and information technology in a 3D vision lab. Using...
Application Briefs : Sensors/Data Acquisition
Automated Data Acquisition and Analysis Test Station for NASA's CEV
Data acquisition and distribution systems
G Systems
Richardson, TX
G Systems has delivered a Data Acquisition System (DAS) for the Orion crew exploration vehicle test station at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in...
Olympus NDT, Waltham, MA, has introduced the EPOCH 600 digital ultrasonic flaw detector, a portable instrument that enables several methods of storing, archiving, and reporting inspection and calibration data. It features onboard memory up to 50,000 individual waveform files, plus an additional 2 GBs of removable memory. Users can...
NASA Tech Needs
Ammonium Probe-Type Sensor for Biofermentation Process Monitoring
A company seeks a probe-type ammonium sensor that can stand up to high temperatures and pressure during the sterilization step for fermentation, and that can deliver real-time concentration information during fermentation. The fermentation processes used require up to 60 hours to...
NASA Tech Needs
Anti-Fouling Technologies for Hard Surfaces
A company seeks components to make up one or more systems that can remove surface contamination (biofilms), lime scum, and lime scale buildup; ameliorate water hardness, mold, mildew, and similar spores; and handle soap scum and remove surface detritus from a variety of materials. These components...
Techs for License
Multi-Vector Electronic Control of an AC Motor Drive Reduces Torque Ripple
By suppressing or controlling harmonic currents and voltages of the motor to overcome torque ripple, this system improves the efficiency and torque performance of an AC motor, especially permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM). Many PMSMs use a concentrated winding,...
Techs for License
Innovative Aluminum Flat Solar Collector
A new flat solar collector features a heat-absorbing surface that equals the heat-transferring surface, resulting in high-heat performance and efficiency. There is no mediatory unit between the heat-transferring surface of the absorber and the heating agent. This means no galvanic corrosion, which would...
NASA Tech Needs : Aerospace
Icing Protection for Composite UAV Aircraft
NASA is expanding the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) fabricated from composite materials as aerial platforms to carry scientific payloads for science and environmental missions. The UAV brings an unprecedented capability for extended flight duration (over 24 hours on station) to provide...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Instrument for Measuring Thermal Conductivity of Materials at Low Temperatures
With the advance of polymer and other non-metallic material sciences, whole new series of polymeric materials and composites are being created. These materials are being optimized for many different applications including cryogenic and low-temperature industrial...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
A Safe, Self-Calibrating, Wireless System for Measuring Volume of Any Fuel at Non-Horizontal Orientation
A system for wirelessly measuring the volume of fluid in tanks at non-horizontal orientation is predicated upon two technologies developed at Langley Research Center. The first is a magnetic field response recorder that powers and...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Multi-Axis Accelerometer Calibration System
A low-cost, portable, and simplified system has been developed that is suitable for in-situ calibration and/or evaluation of multi-axis inertial measurement instruments (e.g., accelerometers). This system overcomes facility restrictions and maintains or improves the calibration quality for users of...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Pupil Alignment Measuring Technique and Alignment Reference for Instruments or Optical Systems
A technique was created to measure the pupil alignment of instruments in situ by measuring calibrated pupil alignment references (PARs) in instruments. The PAR can also be measured using an alignment telescope or an imaging system. PAR allows the...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Autonomous System for Monitoring the Integrity of Composite Fan Housings
A low-cost and reliable system assesses the integrity of composite fan-containment structures. The system utilizes a network of miniature sensors integrated with the structure to scan the entire structural area for any impact events and resulting structural damage, and to...
Briefs : Electronics & Computers
Advanced Flip Chips in Extreme Temperature Environments
The use of underfill materials is necessary with flip-chip interconnect technology to redistribute stresses due to mismatching coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs) between dissimilar materials in the overall assembly. Underfills are formulated using organic polymers and possibly...
Briefs : Electronics & Computers
Adaptation of the Camera Link Interface for Flight-Instrument Applications
COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) hardware using an industry-standard Camera Link interface is proposed to accomplish the task of designing, building, assembling, and testing electronics for an airborne spectrometer that would be low-cost, but sustain the required data...
Briefs : Electronics & Computers
High-Performance CCSDS AOS Protocol Implementation in FPGA
The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS) space data link protocol provides a framing layer between channel coding such as LDPC (low-density parity-check) and higher-layer link multiplexing protocols such as CCSDS Encapsulation Service,...
Briefs : Electronics & Computers
High-Performance CCSDS Encapsulation Service Implementation in FPGA
The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Encapsulation Service is a convergence layer between lower-layer space data link framing protocols, such as CCSDS Advanced Orbiting System (AOS), and higher-layer networking protocols, such as CFDP (CCSDS File Delivery...
Briefs : Software
World Wide Web Metaphors for Search Mission Data
A software program that searches and browses mission data emulates a Web browser, containing standard metaphors for Web browsing. By taking advantage of back-end URLs, users may save and share search states. Also, since a Web interface is familiar to users, training time is reduced. Familiar back...
Briefs : Software
Phenological Parameters Estimation Tool
The Phenological Parameters Estimation Tool (PPET) is a set of algorithms implemented in MATLAB that estimates key vegetative phenological parameters. For a given year, the PPET software package takes in temporally processed vegetation index data (3D spatio-temporal arrays) generated by the time series...
Briefs : Software
Numerical Mean Element Orbital Analysis With Morbiter
The Morbiter software numerically averages an osculating orbit's equations of motion (EOM) to arrive at the mean orbit's EOMs, which are then numerically propagated to obtain the long-term orbital ephemerides. The long-term evolution characteristics, and stability, of an orbit are best...
Briefs : Manufacturing & Prototyping
Producing Hydrogen by Plasma Pyrolysis of Methane
Plasma pyrolysis of methane has been investigated for utility as a process for producing hydrogen. This process was conceived as a means of recovering hydrogen from methane produced as a byproduct of operation of a life-support system aboard a spacecraft. On Earth, this process, when fully...
Briefs : Manufacturing & Prototyping
Self-Deployable Membrane Structures
Currently existing approaches for deployment of large, ultra-lightweight gossamer structures in space rely typically upon electromechanical mechanisms and mechanically expandable or inflatable booms for deployment and to maintain them in a fully deployed, operational configuration. These support structures,...
Briefs : Manufacturing & Prototyping
Reactivation of a Tin-Oxide-Containing Catalyst
The electrons in electric-discharge CO2 lasers cause dissociation of some CO2 into O2 and CO, and attach themselves to electronegative molecules such as O2, forming negative O2 ions, as well as larger negative ion clusters by collisions with CO...
Briefs : Materials
Low-Outgassing Adhesives
Products and manufacturing processes can be sensitive to outgassed chemical compounds, resulting in the use of adhesives, encapsulants, and sealants that have been specially formulated for low-outgassing performance. The most stringent outgassing requirements are best met by products formulated to pass an...
Briefs : Materials
Functionalization of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes by Photo-Oxidation
A new technique for carbon nanotube oxidation was developed based upon the photo-oxidation of organic compounds. The resulting method is more benign than conventional oxidation approaches and produces single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with higher levels of oxidation.
Briefs : Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Miniature Piezoelectric Macro-Mass Balance
Mass balances usually use a strain gauge that requires an impedance measurement and is susceptible to noise and thermal drift. A piezoelectric balance can be used to measure mass directly by monitoring the voltage developed across the piezoelectric balance, which is linear with weight or it can be used...
Briefs : Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Acoustic Liner for Turbomachinery Applications
The purpose of this innovation is to reduce aircraft noise in the communities surrounding airports by significantly attenuating the noise generated by the turbomachinery, and enhancing safety by providing a containment barrier for a blade failure. Acoustic liners are used in today's turbofan...
Briefs : Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Water Tank With Capillary Air/Liquid Separation
A bladderless water tank (see figure) has been developed that contains capillary devices that allow it to be filled and emptied, as needed, in microgravity. When filled with water, the tank shields human occupants of a spacecraft against cosmic radiation. A membrane that is permeable by air but is...
Briefs : Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Large-Flow-Area Flow-Selective Liquid/Gas Separator
This liquid/gas separator provides the basis for a first stage of a fuel cell product water/oxygen gas phase separator. It can separate liquid and gas in bulk in multiple gravity environments. The system separates fuel cell product water entrained with circulating oxygen gas from the outlet of...
Briefs : Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Metering Gas Strut for Separating Rocket Stages
A proposed gas strut system would separate a liquid-fueled second rocket stage from a solid-fueled first stage using an array of pre-charged struts. The strut would be a piston-and-cylinder mechanism containing a compressed gas. Adiabatic expansion of the gas would drive the extension of the strut....
Briefs : Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Counterflowing Jet Subsystem Design
A counterflowing jet design (a spacecraft and trans-atmospheric subsystem) employs centrally located, supersonic cold gas jets on the face of the vehicle, ejecting into the oncoming free stream. Depending on the supersonic free-stream conditions and the ejected mass flow rate of the counterflowing jets, the...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
True Shear Parallel Plate Viscometer
This viscometer (which can also be used as a rheometer) is designed for use with liquids over a large temperature range. The device consists of horizontally disposed, similarly sized, parallel plates with a precisely known gap. The lower plate is driven laterally with a motor to apply shear to the liquid in...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Maglev Facility for Simulating Variable Gravity
An improved magnetic levitation apparatus ("Maglev Facility") has been built for use in experiments in which there are requirements to impose variable gravity (including zero gravity) in order to assess the effects of gravity or the absence thereof on physical and physiological processes. The...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Focusing Diffraction Grating Element With Aberration Control
Diffraction gratings are optical components with regular patterns of grooves, which angularly disperse incoming light by wavelength in a single plane, called dispersion plane. Traditional gratings on flat substrates do not perform wavefront transformation in the plane perpendicular to...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Universal Millimeter-Wave Radar Front End
A quasi-optical front end allows any arbitrary polarization to be transmitted by controlling the timing, amplitude, and phase of the two input ports. The front end consists of two independent channels — horizontal and vertical. Each channel has two ports — transmit and receive. The transmit signal is...
Briefs : Information Technology
3D GeoWall Analysis System for Shuttle External Tank Foreign Object Debris Events
An analytical, advanced imaging method has been developed for the initial monitoring and identification of foam debris and similar anomalies that occur post-launch in reference to the space shuttle's external tank (ET). Remote sensing technologies have been used...
Briefs : Information Technology
Hidden Statistics Approach to Quantum Simulations
Recent advances in quantum information theory have inspired an explosion of interest in new quantum algorithms for solving hard computational (quantum and non-quantum) problems. The basic principle of quantum computation is that the quantum properties can be used to represent structure data, and...
Briefs : Information Technology
Determining Atmospheric-Density Profile of Titan
A method was developed for measuring the atmospheric density of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, to create an accurate density profile as a function of altitude. This will allow mission planners to select safe flyby altitudes, and for navigation engineers to accurately predict the delta-v...
Articles : Imaging
Advancements in Full-Motion Video for Military UAS Surveillance Applications
As warfare moves into a new era, military strategists tool up with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones to provide the visual surveillance the new combat environment requires. In urban warfare, where counterinsurgency and counterterrorist missions typically occur,...
Briefs : Physical Sciences
Plenoptic Imager for Automated Surface Navigation
An electro-optical imaging device is capable of autonomously determining the range to objects in a scene without the use of active emitters or multiple apertures. The novel, automated, low-power imaging system is based on a plenoptic camera design that was constructed as a breadboard system....
Briefs : Imaging
Reconstituted Three-Dimensional Interactive Imaging
A method combines two-dimensional images, enhancing the images as well as rendering a 3D, enhanced, interactive computer image or visual model. Any advanced compiler can be used in conjunction with any graphics library package for this method, which is intended to take digitized images and...
Application Briefs : Imaging
Imaging Technology Enables 3D Monitoring for Surveillance and Missile Defense
A new imaging technology can quickly give users accurate three-dimensional depictions of objects being tracked, whether they are incoming missiles or the faces of suspects in a crowd. The technology, being developed by Visidyne of Burlington, MA, has numerous...
Who's Who
Dr. Jaiwon Shin, Associate Administrator, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Jaiwon Shin emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 23, and in 1989, he joined NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH, where he served most recently as Chief of the Aeronautics Projects...
Dr. Jaiwon Shin, Associate Administrator, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Jaiwon Shin emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 23, and in 1989, he joined NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH, where he served most recently as Chief of the Aeronautics...
Features : Photonics/Optics
Calibrating Photovoltaic Cells
The basic function of a photovoltaic cell is to convert input — sunlight energy expressed in irradiance (W/m2) — into output — useable electrical power — with as little loss as possible. To quantify the ability of the system to accomplish this conversion, one can simply compare the output to the...
Application Briefs : Photonics/Optics
New Scanning Probe Microscopy Techniques for Analyzing Organic Photovoltaic Materials
Organic photovoltaic (OPV) materials are an emerging alternative technology for converting sunlight into electricity. OPVs are potentially inexpensive to process, highly scalable in terms of manufacturing, and compatible with mechanically flexible substrates....
Briefs : Photonics/Optics
Qualification and Selection of Flight Diode Lasers for Space Applications
The reliability and lifetime of laser diodes is critical to space missions. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission includes a metrology system that is based upon laser diodes. An operational test facility has been developed to qualify and select, by...
Briefs : Photonics/Optics
High-Speed Operation of Interband Cascade Lasers
Optical sources operating in the atmospheric window of 3–5 μm are of particular interest for the development of free-space optical communication link. It is more advantageous to operate the free-space optical communication link in 3–5-μm atmospheric transmission window than at the telecom...
Briefs : Photonics/Optics
Hybrid AlGaN-SiC Avalanche Photodiode for Deep-UV Photon Detection
The proposed device is capable of counting ultraviolet (UV) photons, is compatible for inclusion into space instruments, and has applications as deep-UV detectors for calibration systems, curing systems, and crack detection. The device is based on a Separate Absorption and Charge...
Briefs : Photonics/Optics
Mode Selection for a Single-Frequency Fiber Laser
A superstructured fiber-grating-based mode selection filter for a single-frequency fiber laser eliminates all free-space components, and makes the laser truly all-fiber. A ring cavity provides for stable operations in both frequency and power. There is no alignment or realignment required. After...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Product of the Month: PoE Compact Vision System
ADLINK Technology (San Jose, CA) has introduced the industry's first compact vision system based on the Intel® Core™2 Duo P8400 processor. The EOS-1000 provides four independent PoE (Power over Ethernet) ports with data transfer rates up to 4.0 Gb/s. Dimensions are 7.8" W × 6.5" D × 3.3" H...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Fuse and Fuseholder
Schurter (Santa Rosa, CA) has introduced the ASO series fuse and FSO series fuseholder, both designed to protect DC applications from low short circuits and overvoltage conditions in systems upwards of 1000 VDC. They are intended for use in grid or off-grid solar strings, inverters, battery chargers, and combiner boxes. The...
Products : Photonics/Optics
LED Power Supplies
ERG Lighting, a division of Endicott Research Group (Endicott, NY), has introduced the eDriver family of LED power supplies for solid state lighting (SSL) applications. It is available in a range of constant voltage and constant current drivers. The driver modules are 90% efficient and fully isolated, with universal input...
Products : Photonics/Optics
CCD Microscope Cameras
Jenoptik Optical Systems Division (Jupiter, FL) has added two USB camera types to its CCD microscope camera range: ProgRes® SpeedXTcore 3 and ProgRes® SpeedXTcore 5. SpeedXTcore 3 features a live image speed of 17 fps at the maximum possible resolution of 2080 × 1542 pixels, while the...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Thermal Imaging Camera Core
FLIR Systems (Portland, OR) has introduced the 640 × 480 resolution Tau 640 long-wave camera core. It delivers thermal imagery with a 17-micron pixel size and Digital Detail Enhancement image processing algorithms. Suitable for use in small, unmanned aerial and ground vehicles and security systems, it also includes...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Counter-Rotating Doublet Prisms
Optical Surfaces (Surrey, England) has announced the delivery of a pair of ultra-high-precision counter-rotating doublet prisms for an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC), which is part of the SONG (Stellar Observations Network Group) project, a collaboration between scientists at the Department of Physics and...
Products : Photonics/Optics
CCTV Lens
Universe Kogaku America (Oyster Bay, NY) offers the EL1025B, a 25mm CCTV lens with adjustable focus and iris that offers an F/0.95 aperture. Aperture range is 0.95 to 16 in a 16mm lens format. The lens is suitable for low-light applications such as surveillance and security.
Products : Photonics/Optics
Machine Vision Solution
DALSA Corporation (Billerica, MA) has introduced the BOA M1280, a high-resolution model of its BOA vision system, a highly integrated smart camera that comprises the elements of an industrial machine vision system. It offers 1280 x 960 resolution and operates at up to 24 frames per second. The M1280 incorporates multiple...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Electron and Ion-Beam Microscope System
FEI (Hillsboro, OR) has introduced the Helios NanoLab™ x50 DualBeam™ Series, which integrates FEI's extreme high-resolution scanning electron microscope (XHR SEM) with a high-performance focused ion beam (FIB) to deliver imaging and milling capability. The Tomahawk FIB provides SEM and FIB live...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Optical Table
The 5300 Series optical table from Kinetic Systems (Boston, MA) offers maximum dynamic deflection coefficients of ≤0.3 (10)-3 and an IRD-maximum relative motion as low as 0.8(10)-9 inches. It features broadband damping and quad-tuned dampers in each corner. Flatness is ±0.005" overall; core shear modulus is...
Hyperspectral Imaging Sensor
SPECIM, Spectral Imaging Ltd. (Oulu, Finland), offers the V10M, a high-resolution hyperspectral imaging sensor with dimensions required for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications. The sensor operates in the VIS/NIR range of 380 to 1000 nm, and provides spectral and spatial imaging with negligible sub-pixel...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Low-Energy Laser Measurement Sensor
Ophir-Spiricon (Logan, UT) has introduced the PD10-IR-pJ photodiode energy sensors. It extends the low measurement capability to the NIR range, covering from 800 to 1800nm, and is designed for low-energy military applications, such as remote sensing. It measures very low energies, either single short or...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Plastic-Coated Silica Fibers
Fiberguide Industries (Stirling, NJ) offers a line of low and standard hydroxyl concentration (OH) plastic-coated silica fibers. The Anhydroguide™ and Superguide™ are low-cost optical fibers that provide UV and infrared transmissions. The Anhydroguide fiber is constructed of a pure fused silica core, made by...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Optical Receiver
PHOTONIS USA (Sturbridge, MA) has introduced an optical receiver that is capable of sustaining tens of microamperes of signal current over an indefinite period. It also features an integrated power supply with low power consumption and a small footprint. The receiver promotes an active area of 12 mm, and data rates are expected...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Semiconductor Tapered Amplifiers
New Focus™ (Santa Clara, CA) has introduced a new series of semiconductor tapered amplifiers for high-power tunable and fixed-wavelength applications. The VAMP series is designed to accept many fiber-coupled seed sources, providing easy alignment and helping protect the chip from unintentional misalignment. The...
Products : Photonics/Optics
Infrared LED
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors' (Sunnyvale, CA) new infrared DRAGON SFH 4236 LED achieves a typical radiant intensity of 650 mW/sr at a DC current of 1A, more than three times that of the standard IR DRAGON. The device emits at a wavelength of 850nm. The new infrared DRAGON is designed for applications that require narrow radiation...
Products : Imaging
Frame Grabber
ADLINK Technology, San Jose, CA, offers the HDV62, a PCI Express frame grabber with uncompressed image acquisition and video streaming in 1080p HD. The unit provides 1920 × 1080p resolution, progressive scan, and noise generation, as well as a wide aspect ratio. It is equipped with a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and 512 MB...
Products : Imaging
Low-Light Lens
Universe Kogaku America, Oyster Bay, NY, has released the EL1025B lens with a F/0.95 aperture in a 1" format. The 25-mm CCTV lens features adjustable focus and iris, and is designed for low-light applications such as surveillance and security. The aperture range is 0.95 to 16. The 16-mm lens format provides high image quality.
Products : Imaging
Vision Appliance
DALSA, Waterloo, ON, Canada, offers the GEVA Gigabit Ethernet (GigE)-ready vision appliance that is compatible with DALSA Genie and Spyder3 cameras. It offers an expandable platform for multi-camera vision applications such as final inspection of large assemblies. The high-bandwidth camera ports are compatible with a range of...
Products : Imaging
Graphics Adapter Board
Matrox Imaging, Dorval, QE, Canada, has introduced the Orion HD graphics adapter with video capture capabilities. It features two independent video paths; each path can connect and switch between RGB/CVBS/YPrPb, DVI-D/HDMI, and SDI signal types through DVI-D and BNC connectivity. It can handle different resolutions and...
Products : Imaging
Image Processor
The Northstar nBoxTM simulation display processor from 3D perception, Orlando, FL, is a plug-and-play, zero-frame-latency controller that scales, warps, blends, and color-corrects content, outputs to multiple projectors, and displays imagery across all screen shapes. Features include support for projector resolutions...
Products : Imaging
Color Cameras
FLIR Systems, Colorado Springs, CO, offers the ChromaNox electron multiplied CCD low-light cameras available in VGA (640 × 480) and SXGA (1280 × 1024) resolution, and in color and monochrome models. The cameras feature proprietary image processing algorithms to highlight hidden image details in difficult scene conditions. The...
Products : Imaging
Digital Microscope
The VHX-1000 digital microscope from Keyence Corp. of America, Woodcliff Lake, NJ, features real-time 16-bit imaging resolution that makes subtle color differences visible, and optimizes areas that are too dark or too bright to see. Brightness ranges to 65,536 levels, and the 3-CCD color clarity is 2.8 trillion colors. The...
Products : Imaging
SWIR Lenses
Alternative Vision Corp., Tucson, AZ, has released the f/1.4 SWIR lens series from Optec. The lens line is designed for large-format (20.5 mm) shortwave infrared (SWIR) imagers, and combines high throughput with low vignetting and distortion. The lenses are optimized for use with indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) SWIR sensors....
Products : Imaging
Touch Screen Display
Banner Engineering, Minneapolis, MN, offers the iVu Remote Touch Screen Display for vision inspection in hard-to-access areas. Users can program iVu sensors through a single display and change inspection parameters remotely with no PC or external devices. One display can be used to program multiple iVu sensors. Connected via...
Products : Imaging
Machine Vision Software
IMPACT® 9.1 machine vision software from PPT Vision, Bloomington, MN, features the Pinpoint Pattern Find tool for applications including robotic guidance and high-speed inspection of randomly oriented, scaled, and located parts. Custom inspections can be designed with the Vision Program Manager, which features...
Products : Imaging
Microscope Cameras
Jenoptik Optical Systems Division, Jena, Germany, offers the ProgRes® SpeedXTcore 3 and ProgRes SpeedXTcore 5 USB CCD microscope cameras. The first model features live image speed of 17 fps at the maximum resolution of 2080 × 1542 pixels; the second model offers 13 fps image speed at 2580 ×...
Products : Imaging
Microscopy Camera
QImaging, Surrey, BC, Canada, offers the Rolera EM-C2 EMCCD microscopy camera for low-light imaging applications that features a 40-MHz pixel clock rate. Up to 34.2 frames per second can be read out and transferred over an optimized 800 Mb/s implementation of the FireWire protocol. The camera's Easy-EM mode optimizes the...
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text:
Le Papillon Leggings
These have got to be the most flattering leggings, at least on my body type. More so than even one very popular, expensive brand that has its own outlets. They may not last as long as some, but well worth more than what you pay. Squat proof and has a unique texture compared to other seamless knits. I love them! Only wish there were more colors.
Rated 4 out of 5
Rated 0 on a scale of minus 2 to 2, where minus 2 is Runs Small, 0 is True to Size and 2 is Runs Large

subset: commoncrawl


text:
WHITTON and RITCH -Surname Studies and people from the Island of GRAEMSAY, Orkney
Thomas Parkinson Whitton1896 - 1947 (51 years)
Name Thomas Parkinson Whitton Born 29 Jun 1896 Brechin, Angus, Scotland Gender Male Died 25 Aug 1947 Davilak Avenue, Hamilton Hill, Fremantle Western Australia buried Hamilton Hill Person ID I3375 Whitton Last Modified 16 Oct 2019
Father David Leighton Whitton, b. 4 Aug 1846, Arbroath, Angus c 23-8 , d. 7 Jun 1906, Infirmary Street, Brechin 275-65 buried 11-6 (Age 59 years) Relationship natural Mother Ann Weir Hay, b. 16 Nov 1857, 36 Carnie Street, Arbroath, Angus , d. 11 Jun 1905, Brechin, Forfarshire (Age 47 years) Relationship natural Married 19 Feb 1879 Marykirk Family ID F348 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Christina Janet Giles, b. 1 Jan 1895, d. 29 Jan 1980, 24 Outram Street West, Perth, Western Australia (Age 85 years) Married 21 Feb 1920 All Saints Church, Shooters Hill, Kent Children 1. Christina Ann Hay Whitton, b. 16 Mar 1921, Plumstead, England , d. 17 Mar 2000, Nedlands, Western Australia (Age 79 years) [natural] 2. William Robert Thomas Whitton, b. 15 Jan 1926, Perth, Western Australia , d. 3 Dec 1982, Fremantle, Western Australia buried Hamilton Hill (Age 56 years) [natural] 3. Kenneth Alexander Whitton, b. 19 Apr 1930, Roeburn, Fremantle Western Australia , d. 3 Jul 2000, Nedlands, Western Australia buried Glenlough (Age 70 years) [natural] 4. Margaret Holly Whitton, b. 28 Dec 1934, Fremantle, Western Australia , d. 20 Nov 2006, Murdoch, Western Australia (Age 71 years) [natural] Last Modified 16 Oct 2019 Family ID F2020 Group Sheet | Family Chart
- at 1901 census at Bog of Kinbrocker, Brechin ref 275-17-003
at 1911 census at Forfar ref 024-00-010
Person: Thomas P WHITTON
Date of departure: 23 June 1923 Port of departure: London
Destination port: Australia Destination country: Australia
Ship: LARGS BAY address 38 Cornwallis Road, St Johns Wood NW8 a Police Constable
They lived on the Peel Estate for 2 years eventually settling in Hamilton Hill in 1933. Tom was a Counsellor of Fremantle Road Board.
When enlsting in Australia in 1940 the records show that he was in RASC Overseas 1915-1919
Service Record WW2
Name WHITTON, THOMAS PARKINSON
Service Australian Army Service Number W233902
Date of Birth 30 Jun 1896 Place of Birth BRECHIN, SCOTLAND
Date of Enlistment 1 Jul 1940 Locality on Enlistment HAMILTON HILL, WA
Address Davilack Road, Hamilton Hill WA a Railway Foreman (Unemployed)
Place of Enlistment FREMANTLE, WA Next of Kin WHITTON, CHRISTINA
Date of Discharge 28 May 1945 Rank Sergeant
Posting at Discharge 4 AUST MOVMENT CONTROL GP
Military papers show that he changed his date of birth to the 30th June 1896!!! on 9-4-1945 by Statutory Declaration.
In voters Roll Freemantle 1936
- at 1901 census at Bog of Kinbrocker, Brechin ref 275-17-003


text:
After the lackluster performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, LucasFilm has decided to put a hold on any of the upcoming Star Wars films following the ':A Star Wars Story' formula. Sources say LucasFilm has chosen to focus on Star Wars: Episode IX and the upcoming trilogy instead of working on more spinoff movies.
While $192.8 million domestic and $339.5 million world wide is hardly a poor showing, when it comes to Star Wars those are small showings. The movie had a lot of bumps in its production, changes in director and a number of reshoots. It also doesn't help that it came out in May, only weeks after Avengers: Infinity Wars and Deadpool 2.
This difficulty during production seems like a reoccurring problem with the spinoffs. Rogue One and Boba Fett where both being developed at the same time. Then, Josh Trank was removed from the Boba Fett project and the entire thing was put on hold. Before Solo's release, there had been talks of James Mangold, the filmmaker of Logan, taking over the project. However, that now seems to also be in a waiting pattern.
Rogue One also had extensive reshoots. Story issues lead the entire third act being reshot. Oscar-winning screenwriter Tony Gilroy joined the production team of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story late into reshoots. In an interview with Brian Koppelmanhe on his podcast, Gilroy explains that his ability to change and refocus the movie came from his lack of personal investment in the series.
That was my super power. I've never been interested in Star Wars, ever. So I had no reverence for it whatsoever. I was unafraid about that. And they were in such a swamp… they were in so much terrible, terrible, trouble that all you could do was improve their position."
There are plenty of spin off movies that the fans want to see. Obi-Wan and Boba Fett are probably the two highest on the list, with Lando coming in as a solid third choice. (Especially with Donald Glover playing Lando.) It looks like, however, those movies are going to be on hold for the foreseeable future.
What do you think? Are you upset that there aren't going to be more Star Wars Story movies anytime soon or were you getting burnt out on the movies coming out so often? Let us know what you think in the comments.
flomax no prescription


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The Journey of Michael Arrington From A Tech-Blogger To TechCrunch
Are you a tech enthusiast? If yes, then you must be aware of TechCrunch, which is an American online publisher of news related to technology.
This platform attracts approximately 37 million viewers every month, thus demonstrating the site's immense popularity. However, to reach such heights, TechCrunch had to demonstrate dedication, persistence, and hard work. Therefore, you can make money online, and there are many writers who have become millionaire bloggers such as the founders of TechCrunch.
Background Information on TechCrunch
The story of TechCrunch began in 2005 when its founder Michael Arrington published his first blog. The article was shedding light on companies that were escalating Web 2.0. By then, Arrington was a part-timer blogger, but his work was gaining popularity as well as attracting venture capital. The company was located at Arrington's house, but today the American online publisher is located in the Bay Area.
In 2006, Arrington announced the acquisition of YouTube by Google, and this was the turning point of TechCrunch. From that time onwards, larger online and famous news media houses began quoting Arrington's viewpoints on this acquisition. This was the start of TechCrunch's success. Although Arrington is no longer the TechCrunch's CEO, much of its success is attributed to him.
The Entrepreneurial Journey of Michael Arrington
Michael Arrington was engaged in different successful entrepreneurial ventures. The following are some of his remarkable endeavors.
- He abandoned his career as a lawyer in the merger and acquisition space to join Real names, and this project raised more than $100 million.
- He partnered with his friends to establish Achex, which is an online payment company.
- Arrington created Zip.ca, which is an online movie and DVD rental kiosk. Others were pool.com and Edgeio.
- He was a member of the board of directors of Foldera.
- Michael Arrington served as the COO of Razorgator.
Although he began blogging as a hobby, he later discovered that his useful posts were attracting a wider audience. For that reason, he began publishing several articles every day, and to create high-quality blogs, he needed great focus. He endeavored to produce excellent content articles each day, and in no time they gained popularity. This became the secret behind the TechCrunch success story.
The Growth of TechCrunch
TechCrunch grew to $10 million in the annual gross revenue, and in September 2010, AOL acquired TechCrunch at approximately $40 million. Arrington later resigned from his editorial position in September 2011. He established CrunchFund, which is a venture capital platform that supports technology startups. Arrington couldn't edit a site that was covering the tech startup ecosystem, yet he was running a venture fund. Thus, he stepped down from TechCrunch due to conflict of interest.
When Arrington was working with TechCrunch, he ensured that all the articles were completely transparent since the two main pillars of TechCrunch are honesty and transparency. Today Arrington has a personal blog called UnCrunched, which has a similar foundation like TechCrunch. All his articles are pure nugget of truth, transparent, and about entrepreneurs.
On the other hand, TechCrunch is currently dedicated to covering technology news and startups, as well as reviewing innovative internet products and services. Further, the company is now a one-stop destination for startups. It is has established two startup competitions, namely TechCrunch Battlefield and TechCrunch Disrupt, which are held four times every year in London, LA, New York, and San Francisco.
These platforms support new ventures that have no prior press exposure. 15-30 startups are invited to pitch in front of judges who are entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, and a large live audience. The finalists are awarded $50,000 and the Disrupt Cup. Further, each contestant receives huge media and investors' attention. For that reason, TechCrunch is a free platform that supports startups by matching them with investors.
The reason behind TechCrunch's success as a one-stop destination for startups and investors is a huge database for startup ecosystem called Crunchbase. It contains details about startups, investors, and incubators. Other information is mergers, acquisitions, and funding. Since 2015, Crunchbase is a private entity after splitting from TechCrunch.
The Crunchies is an award ceremony that recognizes and rewards compelling startups, internet and technology-related innovations, and venture capitals. Thus, since 2005 to date, Arrington is concerned about the quality of the content that is published on these platforms and the current contributors to the blog are demonstrating a similar outlook. TechCrunch is a great viral blog in the history of blogs and the field of entrepreneurship.
The Secret of Becoming a Successful Blogger
Passion: Michael Arrington had an absolute passion for blogging about technology and entrepreneur.
Don't Write With The View Of Making Money: Start blogging as a hobby, as Arrington did. It's his story about the acquisition of YouTube by Google in 2006 that brought him into the limelight but not his efforts to become a millionaire that turned him into one.
Write, Write, and Write: Michael began blogging on a part-time basis because he was working as a lawyer. However, when his article became popular, he began writing more articles. As a result, making money online gave him freedom; thus, he resigned from his career as a lawyer and concentrated on blogging and other successful ventures such as establishing platforms to support and mentor the startups.
Michael Arrington is the founder of TechCrunch, who was a part-time blogger. His posts that were focusing on technology began attracting increased attention, and a result this blogger resigned from his career as a lawyer to focus on his writing job and engage in other ventures.
Arrington resigned as an editor when AOL acquired TechCrunch, and he established UnCrunched citing conflict of interest since the online publisher was covering the startups' ecosystem while the later platform was funding and mentoring new entrepreneurs.
On the other hand, Arrington upheld TechCrunch's two core values, namely honesty and transparency. He engaged in blogging out of passion and not to make money. As a result of his hard work, consistency, and quality content Michael Arrington rose from a mere tech blogger to TechCrunch.
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9 Boss Habits You Need To Adopt As A Startup CEO
The Chief Executive Officer of a company is the highest-ranking executive in a company with the primary responsibilities like making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of a company, acting as the main point of communication between the board of directors and the corporate community. Successful CEOs have an exceptional persona that makes them standout. This persona is built through adopting a myriad of habits, which we point in this article;
Be a good communicator
Any CEO must be a person with potential to communicate reasonably, articulately and rationally. The Chief Executive is the head and the senior top representative of the company; meaning that he gets to mingle and interact with various people on a daily basis. This position requires a person who knows what to speak and when to speak; a person who doesn't let emotions compromise his or her rational judgment. It is totally illogical for a CEO of a company to involve themselves in vulgar verbal exchanges that can put holes into their personal credibility.
Respect Time
When you're a CEO, you have various tasks to accomplish in a very tight schedule. Successful CEOs know how to keep time and how to use it. When you supposed to attend a meeting with partners or anyone, be there in time and avoid reaching hours late. People disrespect leaders who don't value time.
Read Books
Reading is the most common way of getting informed. You can't be a CEO of a company without being informed. The head of a company is considered to be a person with diverse pool of knowledge. Successful CEOs read a variety of genres, from autobiographies to fiction to business books. Billionaire CEOs like Bill Gates even have a list of favorite books on their websites.
Be Curious & Cautious
Nobody expect a CEO to be naive and stupid in whatever they do. A CEO is leader who is ever curious, wanting to know things by all means. In addition, they're ever cautious to adopt anything. When employees approach them, they don't just buy whatever they're told. They question everything until they get what they're looking for. In addition, Successful CEOs not only ask questions, they ask the right kind of questions to get the answer they need. According to Andrew Cosslett, the CEO of the InterContinental Hotels Group, he says that; "in business, the big prizes are found when you can ask a question that challenges the corporate orthodoxy,"
Motivate & Inspire
If you're a CEO of a company, you need to build an image which people look at with great admiration. Being a CEO of a big company doesn't deter you from being kind and empathetic. This means that it is possible to use your influence as a CEO of the company and do good in the community. This kind of image motivates and inspire people, as they see you as super role model.
Network & Build connections
When you're a CEO, it means you have the responsibility to make sure the company you lead stand out. CEOs are people who strive to make sure they build and utilize networks and connections in every angel. Through these connections, the companies they lead can end up acquiring opportunities from them. CEOs can also network with their fellow CEOs to bounce ideas off and to receive or offer mentorship.
Be honest & transparent
When you're a leader and you're a liar, nobody would want to trust anything from you. Lying and dishonesty makes you lose respect from the very people you lead and those who would have trusted you. You as CEO should be willing to tell even the hardest truth to the people you lead. Furthermore, when a CEO is honest, this builds a transparent culture even in those he leads. This means that the company can't risk doing something dishonest, just for the sake of protecting its corporate and business interests.
Be Selfless
A CEO is a person who should prioritize others before themselves. As a leader it is always a good habit to first look out for the interests of the people you're leading as most of them expect you to be their rock in the times of trouble. Selfishness and oneness are a habit best known in people with corrupt and rigid mentalities.
Be open-minded
Being open-minded means being receptive and embracing to all ideas even when you don't agree with them. A CEO of a company must be that person willing to pay attention to all people even if he disagrees with them. Simply because you're the company's top executive doesn't mean you going to shutdown or intimidate everyone you don't agree with. A CEO uses a rational approach to solve problems and make sure all people in the company are equally attended to and their problems effectively solved.
10 (quick & easy) Work Makeup Tips for Entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur, you can find yourself swamped with meeting deadlines, attending meetings or chasing down clients. This can get overwhelming and before long, doing your makeup can become like a burden which you may be more than happy to set aside so as to focus on the "more important" stuff.
A well applied makeup can make you the model professional that you aim to come off as whereas bad makeup can leave you looking like a complete and utter mess.
Here are 10 makeup tips that you as an entrepreneur should apply as you deal with the running of your company;
1 – Don't Overdo
Whenever applying makeup, what should be in your mind is to make it seem like you aren't wearing any at all. That's 'Makeup 101'. I know that that may seem like a herculean task but that's what you should aim to achieve. You are a professional and an entrepreneur so your look should represent that.
2 – Go with Nude Color for Your Lips
I know you are a power lady running a business and you may want to go with something bold and powerful like red lipstick but you could end up in an embarrassing situation where your, at the time, perfectly applied red lipstick starts running down your face. Better to play it safe and go with soft nude or peach colors, or as a last resort, lip balm can do the trick.
3 – Don't Forget the Brows
After applying a full face of makeup, a lot of women forget to fill in their brows or probably do not bother, giving what I'll call an "unfinished look." Look, I'm not suggesting that you draw on every single fibre, but if you lightly apply a bit of pencil or shadow, you're certain to showcase your confidence and professionalism.
Remember to set all of your makeup in place before you head out for the day. To achieve this there are a number of products you can use such as a finishing powder or a setting spray. Some brands of the latter can set your makeup in place for up to 24 hours.
4 – Falsies are a No No
Going for a huge party or maybe an informal event? Slap on your false lashes and everything's good. Going to work though, where you're more than likely going to spend all day jumping from one meeting to another, meeting all kinds of people? It's probably a terrible idea to put on those falsies. It could leave you in an awkward situation if in the middle of your meeting with one of your most important clients, your false lashes were to fall off. Major oops!
5 – Don't Use Glitter
It probably goes without saying, but in case you don't know, glitters are not for work environments. It doesn't matter if it's a highlighter or a glitter eyeshadow. Your time is better spent in the running of your business than applying a frosty lip.
6 – Ditch the fake Bake
From time to time we love to try out some fake tan and there's absolutely no problem there, but it's best to push your fake tan experiments to weekends. As an entrepreneur you should not show up to work on different days with different shades of dark. Your clients are probably going to think that you're not one to make up your mind on something quickly.
7 – A Blotting Paper is Handy
You're likely to experience varying temperatures in an average day. Having blotting papers in your bag at all times means that you can easily reach for one and quickly apply, and just like that it would appear like you just had a full makeup session. Blotting papers do this by getting rid of the oil or shine.
8 – A Lip Balm is Essential
Having different seasons means that it gets to the time of the year when it gets cold and your lips tend to get dry after taking the time to get your makeup going. At those times, you can easily use your lip balm and you're good again. Another hack is to use it refresh your lipstick after a meal at the office.
9 – Take Your Body Spray or Perfume With You
Your deodorant or perfume should absolutely be part of the essentials in your handbag. It is hygienic. The office environment could drastically change and your body may have a less than ideal reaction to it. Your perfume got you covered in such a situation.
10 – Do Your Touch Up Away From Your Desk
You're an entrepreneur. How would you feel if you're walking through the halls of your company and you happened upon one of your employees focused on getting her makeup right, right at her desk? Not a good look right? Well, it would not be a good look as well if you as the boss were to take on that habit. It's company time and that time is better spent on productive things.
Makeups may not be absolutely essential, but you never know where or when they'll become handy and tip the scales in your favour.
Remember that it's better not to wear any makeup than to wear it wrong!
Top 10 Cities in the US for Entrepreneurs and Startups (outside of east coast and silicon valley)
You may want to launch your startup in the US, but you're wondering which city has a critical mix of network, venture capital funding, and talent to drive your business. Silicon Valley has been providing a startup ecosystem for years now; however, you can find your way across the US.
The country has several metro areas with increasingly skilled workforces and growing infrastructures to support your startup. The majority of these cities have appeared in the rankings of top cities in the US for entrepreneurs and startups.
Therefore the article provides you with a list of significantly less expensive metro areas outside the East Coast and Silicon Valley to build your business.
1. Atlanta is the most populous city and the capital of Georgia. It has a blossoming tech culture, thus a top technology town in the US. The metro area has an exploding blend of opportunities. It's one of the cheapest places to live in Georgia, and the cost of doing business is below the national average. There is a lot of labor from talented graduates leaving Georgia Tech and Emory University. Atlanta is the home to multinationals such as Coca-Cola Company, Porsche AG, and the Home Depot.
2. Austin City is the capital of Texas State and has a reasonable cost of living, high levels of education, and plenty of labor. It is the home to world-class multinationals like Google, Apple Inc, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung Group, Facebook, and PayPal, among others. These giants have changed the city as well as lured talents to this metro area. The small business community operating in this city is known for its supportiveness. Thus, Austin is not only offering lots of live music, but it's also creating business.
3. Boston is located in Massachusetts and the most populous city in this state. This capital is the home to several tech startups targeting senior citizens. The city is ranked the top metro area for social venture startups and has overtaken New York for venture investment. Companies like General Electric, Fidelity Investments, and Cengage are located in this city.
4. Chicago is the most populous city in Illinois and the third in the US. The city's tech proficiency is starting to get noticed in the startups' ecosystem. The metro area has been climbing up the radar of the top cities in the US for startups and entrepreneurs due to its capital market and innovative culture. Although Chicago had scarce resources for startups, today, the city is the home to several businesses at different phases of their startup journey. Chicago is the home to Boeing.
5. Denver is the capital of Colorado that is attracting hordes of millennials after Austin. The city is technology-focused, thus attractive to angel investors. Some of its growing segments are machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, cryptocurrency, and blockchain. Further, the cannabis industry is responsible for its startups.
6. Detroit is the largest city in Southeastern Michigan that allows startups to stand out despite being a big city. The metro area has a low cost of living, plenty of talents and empty lots, and skyscrapers for purchase. Detroit has been the home to General Motors for many years.
7. Los Angeles is a city in the State of California that is known for its stars, sun, and surf. It falls behind New York and Silicon Valley as the largest hub for startups and the center for tech entrepreneurship. For that reason, it has attracted more investors and venture capital investment. Companies like Space X, Snapchat, and Oculus calls LA home. Further, the city is the center of the country's film and television industry, as well as the headquarters of Hollywood. Therefore, Los Angeles is ideal for startups and entrepreneurs due to its vast potential.
8. Nashville is a city located in Tennessee and among the top ten fastest-growing cities in the US due to its impressive unemployment rate and creative work environment. The Nashville Entrepreneur center provides entrepreneurs with opportunities for co-working, networking, and workshops. You will find Genesco, Universal lighting technologies, Thomas Nelson publishing, and Jerry Jones Guitars here.
9. Salt Lake City is a mountainside city located in Utah, where the transcontinental highway and railroad crosses. The city is known for its world-class skiing, and it's the home to Adobe, Oracle and Electronic Arts. Its cost of living is affordable when compared to other tech hot spots. The city has skilled labor due to its three major universities and several colleagues releasing qualified graduates every year. Further, Salt Lake City has business-friendly laws, thus a hotbed of startups and entrepreneurs.
10. Seattle is also among the fastest-growing cities in the USA. The city is located in Washington and is the home to Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon, among others. The city of Seattle has a booming tech industry, vibrant population, and a series of unique shops, exciting restaurants, and coffeehouses that are welcoming to entrepreneurs, startups, and small business owners. Although Seattle doesn't have significant tax incentives, it offers economic development ventures and plenty of venture capital companies that nurture the development of startups and small businesses.
Other Rising Cities
The following cities are slowly growing towards becoming successful hubs for startups and entrepreneurial activity. These are; Charlotte, Columbus, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, San Diego, and Pittsburgh.
It would be best if you considered other cities besides the Silicon Valley as you prepare to launch you're your startup or even growing your existing business. The article has provided a list of cities with reasonable costs of living and doing business, plenty of skilled labor, attractive to venture capital, and a supportive busy community that is needed to fuel your startup or existing business.
These cities house some of the global giants like Amazon, Apple Inc, Microsoft, General Motors, Hollywood, and Boeing, among others. Indeed this makes them attractive for startups and entrepreneurs due to already established infrastructures. For that reason, you can commercialize your idea or expand your existing business in these top 10 cities in the US.
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Acupuncture For Cynics
Have You Always Been Curious About Acupuncture, But Were Never Quite Sure Where To Stick The Needles? If you associate acupuncture with needles, pain and weird alternative medicine then you are horribly misinformed about the benefits of the world's oldest form of medicinal treatment.
The chakras of acupuncture
The widely practised system of healing called acupuncture is actually based on the control and manipulation of the chakras. The chakras utilized, however, are not confined to the principal ones used in yogic practices, but include about seven hundred chakras located throughout the entire body. These chakra points are stimulated by needles on specific areas of the skin surface. This physical stimulation induces changes in the more subtle chakras, which in turn bring about positive changes in the state of health of specific internal organs to which they are connected by subtle pathways. These pathways are called nadis in yoga, keiraku in Japanese terminology and meridians in the context of acupuncture. Stimulation of these chakra points can also bring about psychological changes within an individual. Incorrect stimulation can also produce the opposite effect to that given by acupuncture, that is, ill health of the body and negative psychological states....
Scriptural references
Pranayama is concerned with removing congestion in the pranic passages (nadis) so that the prana flows smoothly and without hindrance. This is referred to in various slokas. We will quote the following as an example If pranayama is practised correctly then the entire pranic body will be well-integrated and the prana will flow easily through the sushumna (the most important nadi in the whole body), for pranayama will remove all blockages which tend to impede free flow of prana. This will give rise to steadiness of the mind. (2 41-42) This is exactly the same aim as in acupuncture
Arohan and awarohan psychic passages
These two psychic passages are widely known throughout the world, especially in mystical circles. They are used in various types of healing methods. In acupuncture there are two types of pranic passages (meridians) - normal meridians (called sei-ke) and abnormal meridians (called ki-ke). The normal meridians, twelve in number, are used in diagnosis and treatment. The abnormal meridians, eight in number, have no yin-yang interrelationships. The two principal abnormal meridians are called the meridian of conception, running up the front part of the body directly in front of the spine, and the governor meridian, running inside the spine (refer to Religion and Parapsychology by Motoyama of Japan). These two meridians correspond exactly with the arohan and awaro-han psychic passages of kriya yoga. The front passage is yang, whereas the spinal passage is yin. These principles of yin and yang have deep implications and roughly correspond with the yogic principle of ida and pingala. In...
Meridians and Deep Meridians
Meridians are the energy paths that run through the body and control its individual functions (circulation, respiration, digestion, and individual organs). The beginning and ending points of the meridians are taken into particular consideration by the mudras. In acupuncture, only the superficial meridians are considered and the system of deep meridians is often even rejected as being speculative. Since the effect of many mudras only
The tools of kriya yoga
Psychic passage awareness this is a vital aspect of kriya yoga practice. It is due to the subtle perception of ancient yogis that the significance of psychic passages became known. The science of prana was especially developed in India and China. In China it resulted in such a subtle science as acupuncture. In India it led to the development of pranayama and prana vidya (the science of prana flow).
Different methods of regulating prana
There are various methods of manipulating and influencing the flow of prana throughout the whole psychic body. The Chinese developed the two systems of acupuncture and tai chi chu'an to bring the pranic system into balance1. In the system of tai chi chu'an a series of dynamic movements are utilized. There are various systems in vogue today, though it is said to have been originated by San Fung Chang. The movements are so designed to bring the negative and positive forces (yin and yang) of the pranic body into balance and coordination. This in turn calms the mind and allows the state of meditation to spontaneously flower. The nadis or psychic passages The nadis are pathways along which prana or bioplasmic energy travels. In acupuncture these pathways are known as meridians (at least in modern western terminology). Various ancient yogis said that there are seventy two thousand nadis in the psychic body. Others said the number is in the region of three hundred and twenty thousand....
Religious and traditional aspects
Be careful not to consider this as mere theory. This very concept is utilized in the system of acupuncture, which was practised in China thousands of years ago and continued in present day China. The success of this system of curing diseases depends on the concept of yin and yang. If the yin and yang principles did not have some approximation to the actual situation regarding energy in the universe and in the human body then acupuncture would be incapable of achieving the good results that it does. Even modern materialistic China has had to accept the ancient theory to explain the practical results that they obtain in millions of patients, with a wide variety of diseases.
Uses of pranic control
Acupuncture has also been scientifically investigated with very conclusive results. Medical scientists were always completely mystified when they saw the wonderful results that the ancient system of acupuncture could give. It did not fit the patterns of thought associated with physiology and the highly developed scientific theories of the modern world. Yet the results were there to be seen. The ancient Chinese, unlike modern medical practitioners, did not treat the human body as a collection of separate physical organs. They saw the whole body as a unit and that each part of the body was intimately related to the whole. We have already mentioned that the Chinese of antiquity knew of the pranic body. Not only this, they actually mapped out specific pathways of pranic flow within the physical body. Further, they were aware of seven hundred or so particular points on the skin which corresponded to the position of this flow which cannot normally be detected. It is within but not of the...
The chakras physical organs and trigger points
Think of the chakras as mountains in the sea. Only the peaks are visible and these are comparable to the physical aspects or influence of the chakras. Most of the island, and certainly the base, lies hidden below the waves. It is the same with the chakras they mainly lie below the surface of normal perception. Their root lies behind the scenes, just as the base of the chakras comes from the mind. Yet at the same time, stimulation of the physical aspects of the chakras will give some feedback to the psychic realms. There will be stimulation of the deeper realms of the mind. This is the purpose of chakra stimulation. This stimulation can be physical, as in the case of acupuncture, or both physical and mental as in the case of yogic practices, such as kriya yoga.
Psychic implications
The Chinese, thousands of years ago, developed the concept of yin and yang. These two principles correspond exactly to the ida and pingala principles. The Chinese also developed the healing system of acupuncture based on the flow of prana within the body. Modern researchers in Russia have photographed these pranic flows, calling the energy bioplasma. This energy is also used in the science of psychic healing (sometimes called spiritual healing). In all these cases it is the pingala aspect of man's psychic being that is being utilized . . . that is prana.
The Body Field
Each of the centers in the body, be they glands with internal and external chemical electric secretions or groups of nerves as a nexus or plexus, are inter-linked with all the other glands organs and nerve groupings through a number of systems, including the bloodstream, the nervous systems, the lymph system, meridians and so on. As an example of this, you can look at the charts that have been made for the eyes (Dr. Jensen), colon (Dr. Walker), hands and feet, meridians, acupuncture and acupressure points and similar charts that show the inter-linking of every gland and organ and center with all others.
Next to acupuncture, acupressure is the best-known Chinese healing method in the Western countries. Instead of using needles, the meridians are stimulated with the fingers. In the following two illustrations you can see the corresponding points. The nonexpert can simply press them lightly with the thumb for several minutes to achieve a positive effect.