JSC provides and applies its preeminent capabilities in science and technology to develop, operate, and integrate human exploration missions. The Center encourages collaboration with aerospace and non-aerospace industries, government agencies, and academia to solve science and technology challenges, while actively striving to maximize technology transfer into the commercial sector.
An active and sustainable science and technology development program is key to ensuring the challenges of human exploration are successfully overcome. The JSC-directed solicitations program enables the Center to invest strategically in high priority areas needed to accomplish future missions as articulated in the NASA Technology Roadmaps and the Space Technology Investment Plan (STIP). It offers the Center the ability to address technology gaps that are beyond the requirements of near-term programs to fund. It also provides a platform to continue to grow and maintain critical skills and innovations needed to ensure future mission success. These solicitations encourage use of collaborations to ensure maximum benefit to both the space program and the nation. As such, external partnerships are highly encouraged not only as a funding leverage but to bring innovative ideas and approaches into human exploration programs.
Selection Process
Typically, JSC solicitations are developed by the JSC CTO and the JSC Technology Working Group (JTWG). The competitive calls are coordinated with JSC Senior Staff and communicated to the JSC workforce via internal email distribution to an R&D community list and through postings on the internal center website and through JSC Today notices.
The JTWG solicits, evaluates and prioritizes all JSC solicitation responses in a two-stage process. The JTWG members review project proposals and work together to down-select to the finalists. The Principal Investigators (PIs) make presentations to the JTWG to provide more in-depth project details. This allows the members to select the finalists to support for the year. Selection criteria and funding vary based on the focus of the solicitation but of primary interest are:
Project Accomplishments
Through the result of research and development, JSC’s IR&D project PIs are making important progress in the advancement of technology needed to enable NASA’s mission of space exploration. In addition, many of the technologies development to meet the challenges of space exploration have great commercialization potential. Each year, many of JSC’s IR&D projects file New Technology Reports (NTRs) through the JSC Tech Transfer Office. Several of these reports have received New Technology Evaluation Patent ratings to pursue patents, while additional ones have been scheduled for success story articles to be written and published.
JSC projects active in FY12 and beyond have been included in TechPort. Through the TechPort tool information on the projects is provided and will be updated by PIs as developments and updates become available. This will offer further knowledge and information sharing between NASA developers, researchers, engineers and scientists and other internal and external stakeholders.
The JSC Chief Technologist Office (CTO) sponsors one or more Independent Research & Development (IR&D) solicitations throughout each year depending on available funds. These local solicitations primarily use a blend of Agency Center Innovation Fund (CIF) and the JSC Center Investment Account (CIA) funds to stimulate and encourage technology development, creativity, and innovation. The objective is to address the technology needs of the Agency as well as the nation. For these reasons, funds distributed to JSC support emerging technologies and creative initiatives that leverage the Center’s talent pool and unique capabilities. Scientists and engineers across the Center lead projects and establish partnerships between other centers, agencies, research laboratories, academic institutions and private industries.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":165,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36649,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: JSC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"JSC CIF"},"description":"Gestures commands allow a human operator to directly interact with a robot without the use of intermediary hand controllers. There are two main types of hand gesture interfaces: data glove-based devices and computer vision techniques. Data glove-based devices are worn by the human and capture hand movements through embedded sensors. Computer vision techniques interpret hand movements by using the video feed from cameras. We will assess the feasibility of using both approaches when the person commanding a robot is wearing EVA gloves. This is because EVA gloves can restrict movements of the hand and affect gesture recognition accuracy and recognition speed. We plan to program a small robot to accept inputs from a data glove inserted into an EVA glove and from computer vision software that can recognize gestures when the user wears an EVA glove. We have a robot, data glove, and computer vision software so the effort will be on integrating these elements for an assessment. If the results of the assessment show an advantage of one technique over another for commanding a robot with EVA gloves, in-depth studies can be proposed to refine and evaluate the technique. Gesture commanding can be applied and evaluated with NASA robot systems. Application of this input modality can improve the way crewmembers interact with robots during EVA. There is a need to assess the feasibility of using both approaches when the person commanding a robot is wearing EVA gloves.","benefits":"Technology developed will support the needs of the Human Research Program's Directed Research Project on Human-Robot Interaction. Future studies will be proposed to refine and evaluate the gesture commanding method more thoroughly and develop a full gesture vocabulary. ","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","viewCount":543,"destinationType":[],"trlBegin":3,"trlCurrent":5,"trlEnd":5,"lastUpdated":"12/18/25","favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"projectContacts":[{"contactId":353709,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Neta","lastName":"Ezer","fullName":"Neta Ezer","fullNameInverted":"Ezer, Neta","email":"neta.ezer@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","projectContactRole":"Principal_Investigator","projectContactId":541411,"projectId":12425,"programContactRolePretty":"","projectContactRolePretty":"Principal Investigator"},{"contactId":25354,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Aniko","lastName":"Sandor","fullName":"Aniko Sandor","fullNameInverted":"Sandor, Aniko","email":"aniko.sandor-1@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","projectContactRole":"Co_Investigator","projectContactId":541412,"projectId":12425,"programContactRolePretty":"","projectContactRolePretty":"Co-Investigator"}],"programContacts":[],"leadOrganization":{"organizationId":4853,"organizationName":"Johnson Space Center","acronym":"JSC","organizationType":"NASA_Center","city":"Houston","stateTerritoryId":29,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"TX","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Texas","stateTerritoryId":29,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"77058","projectId":12425,"projectOrganizationId":569197,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Center"},"otherOrganizations":[{"organizationId":4853,"organizationName":"Johnson Space Center","acronym":"JSC","organizationType":"NASA_Center","city":"Houston","stateTerritoryId":29,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"TX","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Texas","stateTerritoryId":29,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"77058","projectId":12425,"projectOrganizationId":569197,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Center"}],"technologyOutcomes":[{"technologyOutcomeId":92730,"projectId":12425,"project":{"projectId":12425,"title":"Gesture Commanding of a Robot with EVA Gloves","startDate":"2012-05-01","startYear":2012,"startMonth":5,"endDate":"2012-08-01","endYear":2012,"endMonth":8,"programId":165,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"JSC CIF","isActive":true,"description":"
JSC provides and applies its preeminent capabilities in science and technology to develop, operate, and integrate human exploration missions. The Center encourages collaboration with aerospace and non-aerospace industries, government agencies, and academia to solve science and technology challenges, while actively striving to maximize technology transfer into the commercial sector.
An active and sustainable science and technology development program is key to ensuring the challenges of human exploration are successfully overcome. The JSC-directed solicitations program enables the Center to invest strategically in high priority areas needed to accomplish future missions as articulated in the NASA Technology Roadmaps and the Space Technology Investment Plan (STIP). It offers the Center the ability to address technology gaps that are beyond the requirements of near-term programs to fund. It also provides a platform to continue to grow and maintain critical skills and innovations needed to ensure future mission success. These solicitations encourage use of collaborations to ensure maximum benefit to both the space program and the nation. As such, external partnerships are highly encouraged not only as a funding leverage but to bring innovative ideas and approaches into human exploration programs.
Selection Process
Typically, JSC solicitations are developed by the JSC CTO and the JSC Technology Working Group (JTWG). The competitive calls are coordinated with JSC Senior Staff and communicated to the JSC workforce via internal email distribution to an R&D community list and through postings on the internal center website and through JSC Today notices.
The JTWG solicits, evaluates and prioritizes all JSC solicitation responses in a two-stage process. The JTWG members review project proposals and work together to down-select to the finalists. The Principal Investigators (PIs) make presentations to the JTWG to provide more in-depth project details. This allows the members to select the finalists to support for the year. Selection criteria and funding vary based on the focus of the solicitation but of primary interest are:
Project Accomplishments
Through the result of research and development, JSC’s IR&D project PIs are making important progress in the advancement of technology needed to enable NASA’s mission of space exploration. In addition, many of the technologies development to meet the challenges of space exploration have great commercialization potential. Each year, many of JSC’s IR&D projects file New Technology Reports (NTRs) through the JSC Tech Transfer Office. Several of these reports have received New Technology Evaluation Patent ratings to pursue patents, while additional ones have been scheduled for success story articles to be written and published.
JSC projects active in FY12 and beyond have been included in TechPort. Through the TechPort tool information on the projects is provided and will be updated by PIs as developments and updates become available. This will offer further knowledge and information sharing between NASA developers, researchers, engineers and scientists and other internal and external stakeholders.
The JSC Chief Technologist Office (CTO) sponsors one or more Independent Research & Development (IR&D) solicitations throughout each year depending on available funds. These local solicitations primarily use a blend of Agency Center Innovation Fund (CIF) and the JSC Center Investment Account (CIA) funds to stimulate and encourage technology development, creativity, and innovation. The objective is to address the technology needs of the Agency as well as the nation. For these reasons, funds distributed to JSC support emerging technologies and creative initiatives that leverage the Center’s talent pool and unique capabilities. Scientists and engineers across the Center lead projects and establish partnerships between other centers, agencies, research laboratories, academic institutions and private industries.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"CIF","isActive":true,"description":"Through the Center Innovation Fund, the Space Technology Mission Directorate allocates a small portion of the NASA workforce and procurement budget to internal research and development to feed early stage innovation in technology and exploration. Activities with in the Center Innovation Fund are proposed and led by NASA scientists and engineers. These activities and creative initiatives pursue emerging technologies that leverage talent and capabilities at the NASA Centers.
","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":64,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"stockImageFileId":36643,"title":"Center Innovation Fund","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"CIF"},"parentProgramId":64,"programId":165,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36649,"title":"Center Innovation Fund: JSC CIF","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"JSC CIF"},"description":"Gestures commands allow a human operator to directly interact with a robot without the use of intermediary hand controllers. There are two main types of hand gesture interfaces: data glove-based devices and computer vision techniques. Data glove-based devices are worn by the human and capture hand movements through embedded sensors. Computer vision techniques interpret hand movements by using the video feed from cameras. We will assess the feasibility of using both approaches when the person commanding a robot is wearing EVA gloves. This is because EVA gloves can restrict movements of the hand and affect gesture recognition accuracy and recognition speed. We plan to program a small robot to accept inputs from a data glove inserted into an EVA glove and from computer vision software that can recognize gestures when the user wears an EVA glove. We have a robot, data glove, and computer vision software so the effort will be on integrating these elements for an assessment. If the results of the assessment show an advantage of one technique over another for commanding a robot with EVA gloves, in-depth studies can be proposed to refine and evaluate the technique. Gesture commanding can be applied and evaluated with NASA robot systems. Application of this input modality can improve the way crewmembers interact with robots during EVA. There is a need to assess the feasibility of using both approaches when the person commanding a robot is wearing EVA gloves.","benefits":"Technology developed will support the needs of the Human Research Program's Directed Research Project on Human-Robot Interaction. Future studies will be proposed to refine and evaluate the gesture commanding method more thoroughly and develop a full gesture vocabulary. ","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","destinationType":[],"trlBegin":3,"trlCurrent":5,"trlEnd":5,"favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"programContacts":[],"endDateString":"Aug 2012","startDateString":"May 2012"},"technologyOutcomeDate":"2012-08-01","technologyOutcomePath":"Closed_Out","infoText":"Closed out","infoTextExtra":"Project closed out","isIndirect":false,"infusionPretty":"","isBiDirectional":false,"technologyOutcomeDateString":"Aug 2012","technologyOutcomeDateFullString":"August 2012","technologyOutcomePartnerPretty":"","technologyOutcomePathPretty":"Closed Out","technologyOutcomeRationalePretty":""}],"libraryItems":[],"states":[{"abbreviation":"TX","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Texas","stateTerritoryId":29,"isTerritory":false}],"endDateString":"Aug 2012","startDateString":"May 2012"}}