Award Data

DIFFERENTIATING AMONG THE DENOMINATIONS OF U.S. CURRENCY IS A PROBLEM FOR THE VISUALLY HANDICAPPED. CURRENTLY AVAILABLE DEVICES THAT ASSIST THE BLIND IN DETERMINING CURRENCY DENOMINATIONS ARE RELATIVELY LARGE AND EXPENSIVE. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IS A SYSTEMATIC APPLICATION OF PATTERN RECOGNITION AND MICRO-ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOP A PEN-SIZE PAPER CURRENCY READER. RECENT AD ...

We will develop technology, termed a Ruggedized Wind Measurement System (RWMS), to measure directly extreme winds with high space and time resolution, focusing on the winds that occur beneath hurricanes at land fall. This development effort will include design, fabrication of two prototype RWMS units, and a series of proof-of-concept demonstrations in strong mountain-induced downslope and severe t ...

CNC machine tools continue to be a critical part of manufacturing; yet, a majority of the users still do not have a comprehension of how the systems function internal to the control system. With the current capability and cost benefits of personal computers and multimedia tools, the opportunity to create an educational tool to display the inner workings of the CNC system is feasible. This proposal ...

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THE U.S. WEATHER SERVICE PRESENTLY USES A "TIPPING BUCKET" RAIN GAUGE FOR MEASURING RAIN ACCUMULATION. THIS DEVICE IS SENSITIVE TO WIND AND MOTION (AS ON BUOYS), CANNOT MEASURE RAIN RATE, AND REQUIRES FREQUENT MAINTENANCE, BECAUSE OF MOVING PARTS. AN ALTERNATIVE DEVICE IS BEING PROPOSED, WHICH INCORPORATES A RIGID, RESONANT TUBE, CLOSED AT THE TOP BY AN ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER, AND AT THE BOTT ...

Dia-Tool proposes herein a new manufacturing machine that will combine the processing steps of shaping the indenter and the measurement of the resulting cone into a single automated Diamond Indenter Finishing Machine. The images of the edges of the indenter cone are digitized through an imaging array and directly stored in computer memory. The indenter cone images are then transformed by image ana ...

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The program objective is to investigate the feasibility of using a very high frequency (VHF) [70 MHz] plasma technique to produce high efficiency a-SiGe:H solar cells at relatively high deposition rates. Using the VHF technique, high quality a-SiGe:H material is expected due to enhanced low energy ion bombardment of the growing film surface which has been found to be beneficial to the growth of th ...

The near-field scanning optical microscope can supply information on the shape and electrical properties of surfaces with nanometer resolution. The quantitative interpretation of images is difficult because of the difficulty of electromagnetic field solutions in the near-field limit. We propose to supply software to aid in this analysis. The finite-element programs generate two and three-dimension ...

FOR 50 YEARS THE RANDOLPH-SHEPPARD VENDING PROGRAM HAS MEANTEMPLOYMENT AND INDEPENDENCE TO THE BLIND. TODAY, HOWEVER, THE PROGRAMS AND ITS VENDOR MEMBERS FACE SEVERE CHANGES IN THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT THAT THREATEN THE LONG TERM ECO-NOMIC STABILITY OF MANY INDIVIDUAL OPERATORS AND PERHAPS THEENTIRE PROGRAM. THIS NEW BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT FEATURES IN- TENSIFIED COMPETITION FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR, ...