NASA Daily News Summary

For Release: May 4, 1999

Media Advisory m99-089

Summary:

-- NASA Working to Improve Crime-Scene Technologies

-- Video File for May 4, 1999

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NASA WORKING TO IMPROVE CRIME-SCENE TECHNOLOGIES

Watch out, America's most wanted. NASA scientists are

developing promising new software technologies and instruments to
help law enforcement agencies catch criminals by improving the
analysis of crime-scene evidence. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, AL, has demonstrated software that enhances and improves
dark, blurry videotape -- technology used by law enforcement to study
video of the bombing at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. And NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, is working with the
National Institute of Justice to develop remote crime-scene
analysis.

Contact at NASA Headquarters: Michael Braukus, 202/358-1979;

Contact at NASA Marshall: Ed Medal, 256/544-0034;
Contact at NASA Goddard: Lynn Jenner, 301/286-0045;
Contact at Department of Justice: Doug Johnson, 202/307-0703.

Full text of the release:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-054.txt

If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will

e-mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.

Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html

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Video File for May 4, 1999

ITEM 1 STS-96 B-ROLL (TRT 15:09)

ITEM 2 STARSHINE: STS-96 STUDENT PROJECT
ITEM 3 NASA FIGHTS CRIME
ITEM 4 TELEMEDICINE: IMPROVING HEALTH FROM A DISTANCE
(REPLAY)
(TRT 7:52)
ITEM 5 NASA STUDENT INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM WINNERS (REPLAY)

Item 1 STS-96 B-Roll

STS-96, a 10-day flight, will take four men, three women and more
than 5,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station. While
docked with the station, the astronauts will conduct a spacewalk to
attach a crane to the station for future assembly missions. The crew
also will install equipment needed before the arrival of the crew living
quarters, to be launched by Russia later this year. Footage includes
International Space Station animation, STS-96 crew training and EVA
preparation, STS-96 mission animation and Starshine animation.

Contact at NASA Headquarters: Dwayne Brown, 202/358-1726;

Contact at NASA Johnson: Eileen Hawley, 281/483-5111.

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Item 2 Starshine: STS-96 Student Project

Item 2A Starshine Animation

Starshine is an international, educational satellite that will
be launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery during upcoming STS-96
mission. This twinkling spacecraft will be visible to the naked eye
during morning and evening twilight periods, giving students around the
world an opportunity to make measurements and perform experiments by
tracking the satellite.

Item 2B A World Class Project: Student B-roll

Students have voluntarily machined, sanded, polished and inspected
878 tiny aluminum mirrors that comprise the surface of Starshine. B-roll
shows careful processing of the pieces by students from Edgar Allen Poe
Middle School.

Item 2C Entering the Clean Room at Goddard

Students from St. Michael the Arc Angel School in Baltimore, MD don
"bunny suits" and enter the clean room at NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center where Starshine is prepared for shipment. B-roll includes a view
of the Starshine spacecraft spinning.

Item 2D Integration of Starshine

Starshine is placed into its canister before being shipped to
Kennedy Space Center, FL. Close inspection reveals the ejection system
that will send Starshine into space.
Item 2E Interview: Gil Moore, Director of Project Starshine, NASA
Goddard

Item 2F Interview: Patrick Kilroy, Implementation and Test Manager for

Project Starshine, NASA Goddard

Contact at NASA Goddard: Nancy Neal, 301/286-0039.

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Item 3 NASA Fights Crime
NASA scientists at the Marshall and Goddard Space Flight Centers
are providing new software technology and instruments that may help law
enforcement agencies catch criminals by improving the quality of crime
scene evidence.

Item 3A Crime Scene Investigation B-roll

B-roll from the Forensic Investigation Center Crime Laboratory in
Albany, NY. Video courtesy NASA and New York State Police

Item 3B Interview: Dr. Jacob Trombkam, Astrophysicist Laboratory for

Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA Goddard

Item 3C Interview: Dr. Timothy McClanahan, Mathematician

Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA Goddard

Item 3D Lab B-roll

Dr. Sam Floyd, Applied physicist in the Lab for Extraterrestrial
Physics, explains the steps for identifying gunpowder and primer residue
at a crime scene test site. A study will use portable x-ray fluorescence
analysis and fluoroscopy systems to aid scientists in remote detection.

Contact at NASA Headquarters: Michael Braukus, 202/358-1979;

Contact at NASA Goddard: Lynn Jenner 301/286-0045.

Item 3E Video Enhancing

Video Image Stabilization and Registration technology developed by
NASA researchers helps police identify moving objects by stabilizing a
videotaped image through a post production process. B-roll shows a side-
by-side view of the original and enhanced images, as well as brightening
a scene with VISAR stabilization.

Item 3F Inventors at Work

Two NASA scientists have invented new computer software technology
that may help law enforcement agencies catch criminals by improving the
quality of video recorded at crime scenes. B-roll shows the two Marshall
Space Flight Center scientists at work.

Item 3G Interview: Dr. David Hathaway, NASA researcher, NASA Marshall

Dr. Hathaway discusses the origins of the VISAR technology and how
the computer software works.

Item 3H Interview: Dr. Paul Meyer, NASA researcher, NASA Marshall

Dr. Meyer discusses the use and capabilities of VISAR technology.

Contact at NASA Headquarters: Michael Braukus 202/358-1979;

Contact at NASA Marshall: Ed Medal 256/544-0034.

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Item 4 Telemedicine: Improving Health From a Distance (replay)
Doctors at five distant sites in the United States today will
demonstrate how to use NASA telemedicine to diagnose patients, practice
operations and train, using 3-D medical images carried by a high-
capacity computer network. This technology has application for
spacecraft crews traveling to the International Space Station, Mars or
other planets, where specialists may not be available.

Item 4A Telemedicine Demonstration

Footage from Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital shows (a) patient
whose case will be presented during a Virtual Collaborative Clinic
demonstration and (b) a general cardiac unit sequence.

Item 4B Rotating 3-D images: Heart and Jaw

Animation shows rotating 3-D reconstruction of patient's heart and
demonstration of cyber scalpel cutting 3-D reconstruction of a patient's
jaw.

Item 4C Interview: Dr. Muriel Ross, Manager, Center for

Bioinformatics, NASA Ames Research Center

Item 4D Virtual Collaborative Clinic Sites

Map shows the clinics involved in the virtual testing. B-roll
shows footage of the various participants: NASA Ames Research Center,
Stanford University Medical Center, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital,
the University of California/Santa Cruz, NASA Glenn Research Center, and
the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Item 4E Virtual Clinic site animation

Animation shows the flow of information among the participants
involved in the Virtual Collaborative Clinics.
Contact at NASA Headquarters: Renee Juhans, 202/358-1712;
Contact at Ames Research Center: John Bluck, 650/604-5026;
Contact at Glenn Research Center: Kathleen A. Zona/Lori J. Rachul ,
216/433-2901.

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Item 5 NASA Student Involvement Program (replay)
Forty high school students and their teachers from around the
country earned all-expense-paid trips to Washington, DC, last week
for winning the NASA Student Involvement Program's academic competition.
The students presented their winning projects on Saturday, May 1, at
the Hotel Washington, Washington, DC. Seven regional high school winners
in each of the three categories -- "Designing a Mission to Mars,"
"Watching Earth Change" and "Aeronautics and Space Science Journalism"
-- presented their proposals. The competition is designed to increase
student literacy in science, critical and creative thinking, mathematics
and technology.

Contact at NASA Headquarters: Beth Schmid, 202/358-1760.

***********************************************************

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end of daily news summary