NASA And San Francisco Company Partner To Make Smart Glasses For Astronauts
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS-SF) -- NASA is tapping a San Francisco company to help create smart eyeglasses for astronauts.
Osterhout Design Group's computerized glasses project information on the lenses. Directions for ship repairs, experiments or instruction manuals would be accessible hands and computer free.
Engineers hope the additional data to troubleshoot problems remotely will make missions easier and safer. As ships travel farther from earth, communications home become more difficult and in some cases impossible. The less astronauts have to rely on home base for instructions, the better.
The San Francisco Business Journal reports, the South of Market Company, ODG, has been developing the product for the last 6 years at a cost of $60 million dollars. NASA has been developing its own version of smart glasses but started looking for a commercial partner last year. NASA and ODG will co-develop and refine the glasses with both sides sharing the investment and profit going forward.
If testing here on Earth goes well, NASA hopes to put the glasses to real use this fall, on a possible mission to a meteor and to Mars.