Development and characteristics of the hardware for Skylab experiment S015

Details are given regarding the hardware for the Skylab S015 experiment, which was designed to detect the effects of zero gravity on cell growth rates. Experience gained in hardware-related considerations is presented for use of researchers concerned with future research of this type and further study of the S015 results. Brief descriptions are given of the experiment hardware, the hardware configuration for the critical design review, the major configuration changes, the final configuration, and the postflight review and analysis. An appendix describes pertinent documentation, film, and hardware that are available to qualified researchers; sources for additional or special information are given

Illuminance and luminance distributions of a prototype ambient illumination system for Space Station Freedom

Preliminary results of research conducted in the late 1970's indicate that perceptual qualities of an enclosure can be influenced by the distribution of illumination within the enclosure. Subjective impressions such as spaciousness, perceptual clarity, and relaxation or tenseness, among others, appear to be related to different combinations of surface luminance. A prototype indirect ambient illumination system was developed which will allow crew members to alter surface luminance distributions within an enclosed module, thus modifying perceptual cues to match crew preferences. A traditional lensed direct lighting system was compared to the prototype utilizing the full-scale mockup of Space Station Freedom developed by Marshall Space Flight Center. The direct lensed system was installed in the habitation module with the indirect prototype deployed in the U.S. laboratory module. Analysis centered on the illuminance and luminance distributions resultant from these systems and the implications of various luminaire spacing options. All test configurations were evaluated for compliance with NASA Standard 3000, Man-System Integration Standards

Real-time computer data system for the 40- by 80-foot wind tunnel facility at Ames Research Center

The background material and operational concepts of a computer-based system for an operating wind tunnel are described. An on-line real-time computer system was installed in a wind tunnel facility to gather static and dynamic data. The computer system monitored aerodynamic forces and moments of periodic and quasi-periodic functions, and displayed and plotted computed results in real time. The total system is comprised of several off-the-shelf, interconnected subsystems that are linked to a large data processing center. The system includes a central processor unit with 32,000 24-bit words of core memory, a number of standard peripherals, and several special processors; namely, a dynamic analysis subsystem, a 256-channel PCM-data subsystem and ground station, a 60-channel high-speed data acquisition subsystem, a communication link, and static force and pressure subsystems. The role of the test engineer as a vital link in the system is also described

A mask-based approach for the geometric calibration of thermal-infrared cameras

Accurate and efficient thermal-infrared (IR) camera calibration is important for advancing computer vision research within the thermal modality. This paper presents an approach for geometrically calibrating individual and multiple cameras in both the thermal and visible modalities. The proposed technique can be used to correct for lens distortion and to simultaneously reference both visible and thermal-IR cameras to a single coordinate frame. The most popular existing approach for the geometric calibration of thermal cameras uses a printed chessboard heated by a flood lamp and is comparatively inaccurate and difficult to execute. Additionally, software toolkits provided for calibration either are unsuitable for this task or require substantial manual intervention. A new geometric mask with high thermal contrast and not requiring a flood lamp is presented as an alternative calibration pattern. Calibration points on the pattern are then accurately located using a clustering-based algorithm which utilizes the maximally stable extremal region detector. This algorithm is integrated into an automatic end-to-end system for calibrating single or multiple cameras. The evaluation shows that using the proposed mask achieves a mean reprojection error up to 78% lower than that using a heated chessboard. The effectiveness of the approach is further demonstrated by using it to calibrate two multiple-camera multiple-modality setups. Source code and binaries for the developed software are provided on the project Web site

Retention and application of Skylab experiences to future programs

The problems encountered and special techniques and procedures developed on the Skylab program are described along with the experiences and practical benefits obtained for dissemination and use on future programs. Three major topics are discussed: electrical problems, mechanical problems, and special techniques. Special techniques and procedures are identified that were either developed or refined during the Skylab program. These techniques and procedures came from all manufacturing and test phases of the Skylab program and include both flight and GSE items from component level to sophisticated spaceflight systems

e-Counterfeit: a mobile-server platform for document counterfeit detection

This paper presents a novel application to detect counterfeit identity documents forged by a scan-printing operation. Texture analysis approaches are proposed to extract validation features from security background that is usually printed in documents as IDs or banknotes. The main contribution of this work is the end-to-end mobile-server architecture, which provides a service for non-expert users and therefore can be used in several scenarios. The system also provides a crowdsourcing mode so labeled images can be gathered, generating databases for incremental training of the algorithms.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Network Denial of Service Defense System (nDos)

Denial of Service attack is widely spread within virtual world as a malicious act that could give a huge impact in terms of the system performance and financial aspect. Network Denial of Service Defense System is an extension of intrusion detection system which incorporated with detection and prevention ~.<apabilitie&; The ar~<hite~.<ture of nDos is based on NIPS where it is place inline on the network statefully analyzing packet content and block certain packets that match a signature and alert on others. A NIPS protection is based on the content of packets. The system loads a large array of signatures. These signatures take the form of a string of data characteristic of some particular type of attack. When a data packet enters the network, the IDS!IPS examines that data against its database of signatures. If the data match, then the IDS/IPS takes appropriate action. In the case of an IDS, the intrusion attempt will be logged, whereas, in the case of an IPS, the system can drop the data packet, or even sever the offending machine's connection. Ndos provide web interface for data retrieval and manipulation. The front;end of the system is based on PHP/MySQL hence it could provide statistical analysis for managerial point of view. The back-end of nDos is using snort_inline as detection engine and iptables firewall for traffic prevention mechanism. Once an attack being launch nDos will logged the incident based on rules and configuration and iptables or generic firewall need to determine the traffic state whether to accept or drop the connection. Predefined thresholds value is important for DoS attack where a lot of connections of traffic generated hence when exceed the value the detection engine could identify Stich an attack. nDos is targeted for educational purpose and small-medium size enterprise because of there is only commercial IPS solution available in the market. Portability and compatibility is an issue where for future recommendation Live CD features could be implemented to provide high compatibility without concern of the OS