FROM CELL PHONES TO SPACECRAFT – TOUCHSCREENS ARE TAKING OVER UI

 As SpaceX prepares to launch NASA’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station, the Crew Dragon spacecraft has already distinguished itself from prior generations of space capsules. 

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley set off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020, and reached the ISS with no complications while testing out new features designed by the SpaceX team. Onboard were groundbreaking new tools such as the spacecraft’s dashboard. Normally when you see a picture of a cockpit, levers, dials, and gauges fill all the surfaces. Aboard the Dragon though, is a sleek touchscreen and a handful of buttons.

Questioned over their use of a touchscreen for a mission-critical interface, the SpaceX software team took to a Reddit AMA to answer questions. 

According to the team, their goal was to follow a human-centered design. This included safety and “identifying minimum crew interaction as a success criteria.” According to Sofian Hnaide, a SpaceX team member, they mapped out the crew’s tasks. They identified critical functions and then broke it down into a digestible screen display.  

HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN AND CHROMIUM 

What is “human-centered design” and why is SpaceX prioritizing it? 

Human-centered design, in short, is the idea that people will follow a routine that is intuitive. By increasing accessibility, a task will be easier to accomplish. This can improve safety, efficiency, and happiness among users. 

For example, a person is working in an assembly line and they need to cut a piece of wood. They need to perform this action dozens of times an hour, but they have to travel to get the tools each time. By moving the tools closer productivity improves. Small, simple changes in layout can drastically improve performance and safety. 

With this in mind, the SpaceX software team sat down with Behnken and Hurley to develop the dashboard. Together, they identified all the commands for typical and emergency protocols. 

Then, they identified which data would be mission-relevant and made it part of the main display. Emergency hardware buttons were designed to function in case the display was rendered useless. 

Some of these include: 

Break out button to abort a station approach 

Emergency deorbit 

Execute command 

Cancel command 

Cabin fire response 

The Dragon software team used Chromium to develop their dashboard’s user interface (UI). Chromium is a free and lightweight browser framework. Google uses it as the core for its Chrome browser – which arguably dominates the browser world today. The same code used by people to look up sleeping pug videos helped astronauts reach the International Space Station. 

Per the Reddit AMA, Sofian Hnaide explained Chromium was originally part of a proof of concept to NASA. They hadn’t intended to use it in real-world applications. As testing continued they found the stack to be robust and reliable, so they moved forward with the design. Chromium gave the dashboard modern features and gave the team access to a fluent talent pool. 

Chromium is only surface level though. The dashboard and user interface look straight out of Star Trek, but in reality, it hands off commands to a Linux and microcontroller backend. According to SpaceX, they used a combination of CSS/HTML/Javascript for the displays, C++ for vehicle controls, and Python for testing. 

Linux – an open-source (aka free) operating system that can be highly customizable 

Microcontroller – a tiny specialized computer that’s usually designed to handle a single task (push a lever, release a solenoid valve, etc.) 

AUTONOMOUS AND MANUAL FLIGHT 

So the controls look space-age, but how well do they actually work? 

The ship is designed to be completely autonomous – including docking, landing, and de-orbiting but it does have the option for manual flight. Before the ISS docking process, Behnken and Hurley took the Dragon for two manual flights. Hurley ran through a series of commands to test out the controls. 

In a TechCrunch interview, Hurley noted, “The difference is you’ve got to be very deliberate when you’re putting in input, relative to what you would do with a stick,” he continued. “Because you know, when you’re flying an airplane for example, if I push the stick forward it’s going to go down. I actually have to make a concerted effort to do that with the touchscreen, if that makes sense.” He followed on to say that for the docking process “the touchscreen is gonna provide us that capability just fine.” For future space tourism, this touchscreen will probably become the new normal. 

If you’re interested in trying it out SpaceX made a simulator for the Dragon docking process. The key is patience and remaining calm as you approach the station. The controls are relatively simple and intuitive. Enjoy! 

Source: rocketstem.org

Reliance Jio unveils JioGlass to expand presence in virtual reality space

 Reliance Jio on Wednesday unveiled JioGlass to strengthen its presence in virtual reality space and capitalise on remote working culture triggered by Covid-19 pandemic.

The concept of digital glass and product was started by Google a few years back. The unveiling of Jio Glass coincided with Google's Rs 33,737 crore investments in Jio Platforms for 7.7 per cent stake.

"Jio Glass comes with a convenient cable that you can attach to your phone and thus connect to the internet. It is at cutting edge of the technology that provides best in class mixed reality service," Reliance Jio Infocomm President Kiran M Thomas said at RIL annual general meeting (AGM).

It has an in-built audio system and it can make calls to contact on voice command.

"In times of Covid-19, ways of working and workspace have completely changed and digital collaborations have seen an exponential growth. We can completely imagine this in mixed reality space. With Jio Glass, you could be sitting at home and join a meeting in your office with your colleagues in three dimensions," the presenter said.

While Thomas did not disclose the price of JioGlass, e-commerce platforms show similar digital glass with access to apps and internet in the price range of around Rs 37,000- Rs 40,000 a unit.

"While you are chatting with your colleagues, you can also share presentations that you will be able to view and present on a large virtual screen in any virtual environment you want with the help of JioGlass," he noted.

JioGlass is enabling teachers to conduct hologram class in 3D virtual rooms, Thomas said.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) director Isha Ambani said that Jio is committed to solve the problem being faced in education and health space though.

"With Jio meet you can conduct daily online assemblies for your entire schools and hold full day sessions as there is no limit on number of students or call duration," Isha Ambani said.

The company is also working to resolve the issue of shortage in teachers as well issues around untrained teachers through the "Embibe" platform where students can pick content of any class and improve their learnings, she added.

The company also announced making television watching interactive, as Jio TV plus users can now participate in TV programmes for voting etc in real time.

"We believe interactivity on the TV or two-way communication is the future of consumption," RJIL director Akash Ambani said.

Jio has brought in all the major over-the-top video entertainment apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar etc on its Jio TV plus which users can access through a click of button on the remote doing away with the need for separately logging in to each application.

Source: business-standard

Solar Eclipse - a Celestial 'Ring of Fire' witnessed this year 2020

Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, India and the Far East witnessed a dramatic "ring of fire" solar eclipse Sunday.

So-called annular eclipses occur when the Moon - passing between Earth and the Sun - is not quite close enough to our planet to completely obscure sunlight, leaving a thin ring of the solar disc visible

Solar Eclipse 2020 marked one of only 5 such instances where a maximum solar eclipse was visible from India in a timeframe of the next 100 years. The annular belt of the eclipse in India passed through cities like Joshimath and Dehradun in Uttrakhand, Sirsa in Haryana, parts of Rajasthan, but the eclipse was witnessed from every corner of the country.

India witnessed the magnificent 'Ring of Fire' and saw the skies turn dark as the Moon overshadowed the mighty Sun. Delhites were left disappointed since overcast weather deprived them of the historic sight.

      Partial solar eclipse from Kathmandu, Nepal

What is Solar Eclipse?

A solar eclipse is witnessed when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. During the Surya Grahan phenomenon, the image of the Sun is totally or partly obscured. In the case of an annual solar eclipse, the moon's apparent diameter is smaller than that of the Sun. The phenomenon also blocks most of the sunlight, causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometers wide. 

The silhouette of an aeroplane below the eclipse, Lhasa, Tibet

This was the last annular solar eclipse of the decade. With the next solar eclipse visible in India 11 years away in 2031, this marks a big astronomical event here. The solar eclipse started from around 9 a.m. across the Indian map as the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth came in a straight line, and the country witnessed the 'deepest' annular solar eclipse in over a century and the third eclipse even for this year after first two lunar eclipses took place in January and June.

People view the eclipse from scaffolding in Kuwait

Astrologers said it is a fourth super rare hybrid eclipse which is a mix between an annular and total solar eclipse. Areas like Hyderabad, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Shillong and more witnessed a partial phase of the annular solar eclipse from 9 a.m.

A girl observes the solar eclipse from the Mahanakhon Skywalk glass tray, Bangkok, Thailand

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the apparent size of the moon is only slightly less than the Sun's - or the Moon almost covers the Sun - leaving only the outer rim of the Sun uncovered, and hence giving the appearance of a "ring of fire" or as a necklace of pearls. The ring this time was very thin, as the Moon covered over 98.8 per cent of the Sun, making it the deepest annular eclipse of the century in India. 

Courtesy: theguardian, livemint, indiaTV

Scientists find 2 flies trapped in amber that died while mating 41 million years ago

Scientists have found 2 mating flies trapped in prehistoric amber and it is being estimated that the flies have remained in that position for almost 41 million years now. Yes, you read that right.

The pair of flies was discovered from a haul of unusual fossils recovered from sites across Australia and New Zealand. The findings of the study were recently published.

According to Jeffrey Stilwell, a palaeontologist and the co-author of the paper, the flies were mating when they accidentally got trapped in gluey resin of a tree which eventually hardened over the years.

"I looked at the piece under the microscope, and when I looked at it, I felt it looked really important, because it looked like they're almost attached or something," said Stilwell while speaking about this rare discovery. "I couldn't believe it - it looks like they're mating," he added.

Stilwell calls this "frozen behavior" because according to him, "absolutely nothing happened in the moments between when the flies were living and when they died and became entombed."

Apart from the mating flies, the scientists also discovered ants, spiders, midges, and several other insects trapped in amber.

Source:indiatoday