Navigation Assisting Visual Interface (NAVI)

The NASA Wearable Technology Collaboration for Leveraging Universities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Research (CLUSTER) engages students in NASA’s technology development efforts by connecting engineers and scientists in the conceptualization and prototyping phases of development with university faculty and students in relevant fields.

Once a year, all participating schools gather to present their research and demonstrate their prototypes at the annual Wearable Technology Symposium at Johnson Space Center.  This year’s Symposium included research teams from The University of Minnesota, The University of Alaska, Pratt Institute, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.

Students in Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman’s Wearable Technology class from Pratt Institute’s Industrial Design program presented four projects that focused on astronaut efficiency aboard the International Space Station. Because astronauts spend much of their time aboard the station carrying out experiments, the Astro VISION team designed a wearable device that improves the interaction between a camera module and user during an experiment, for a hands-free experience. The LUNA team developed a wearable interface to manipulate the lighting conditions on the space station, focusing specifically on brightness and light temperature, which impact astronauts’ ability to sleep.

The Navigation Assisting Visual Interface (NAVI) team designed a wearable device that points astronauts to the correct cargo transfer bag when locating items stored in one of hundreds of identical bags aboard the station. The Receptive Active Communication Hub is a push-to-talk solution developed by the REACH team to give astronauts separated from crew members on other ISS modules the ability to relay information and data. All of the solutions developed by the students over the course of the year are focused on improving astronaut efficiency through wearables.