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NASA spin-off technologies are commercial products and services which have been developed with the help of NASA, through research and development contracts (such as SBIR or STTR awards), licensing of NASA patents, use of NASA facilities, technical assistance from NASA personnel, or data from NASA research. Information on new NASA technology that may be useful to industry is available in periodical and website form in "NASA Tech Briefs", while successful examples of commercialization are reported annually in the NASA publication "Spinoffs". In 1979, notable science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein was asked to appear before a joint committee of the House and Senate after recovering from one of the earliest known vascular bypass operations to correct a blocked artery that was causing transient ischemic attacks; in his testimony, reprinted in the book ''Expanded Universe'', he characterized the technology that made the surgery possible as merely one of a long list of spinoff technologies from space development. For more than 50 years, the NASA Technology Transfer Program has connected NASA resources to private industry, referring to the commercial products as spin-offs. Well-known products that NASA claims as spin-offs include memory foam (originally named temper foam), freeze-dried food, firefighting equipment, emergency "space blankets", Dustbusters, cochlear implants, and now Speedo's LZR Racer swimsuits. As of 2012, NASA claims that there are nearly 1,800 other spin-offs in the fields of computer technology, environment and agriculture, health and medicine, public safety, transportation, recreation, and industrial productivity. Contrary to common belief, NASA did not invent Tang, Velcro or Teflon.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Spinoff Frequently Asked Questions )〕 In 2008, NASA announced an interactive Web feature, ''NASA @ Home and City'' which uses Flash animation to show some examples of everyday products claimed to be spin-offs. ==Mistakenly attributed NASA spinoffs== The following is a list of technologies sometimes mistakenly attributed directly to NASA.〔 In many cases, NASA popularized technology or aided its development, which ultimately resulted in the technology's creation. * Barcodes (NASA developed a special type of barcode, but this should not be mistaken for the original one.) * Cordless power tools (The first cordless power tool was unveiled by Black & Decker in 1961. It was used by NASA and a number of spinoff products came out of that.) * Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), best known as a device for body scanning. (NASA contractor JPL developed digital signal processing, which does have applications in medical imaging.) * Quartz clocks (The quartz clock dates back to 1927. However, in the late 1960s, NASA partnered with a company to make a quartz clock that was on the market for a few years.) * Smoke detectors (NASA’s connection to the modern smoke detector is that it made one with adjustable sensitivity as part of the Skylab project.) * Tang juice powder (Tang was developed by General Foods in 1957, and it has been for sale since 1959. It was used in the first orbit missions, which gave awareness to it.) * Teflon (Invented by a DuPont scientist in 1941 and used on frying pans from the 1950s. It has been applied by NASA to heat shields, space suits, and cargo hold liners.) * Velcro (A Swiss invention from the 1940s. Velcro was used during the Apollo missions to anchor equipment for astronauts’ convenience in zero gravity situations.) * Space Pen (A common urban legend states that NASA spent a large amount of money to develop a pen that would write in space (the result purportedly being the Fisher Space Pen), while the Soviets used pencils. While NASA did spend some money to create a pen to work in space, the project was cancelled due to public opposition, and US astronauts used pencils until the 'Fisher' space pen was invented by a third party.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.physics.org/facts/apollo-nasa-pen.asp )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp )〕) * Microchip (The first microchips were developed more than ten years before the first moon landing.)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Teflon myth and other `inventions' from NASA )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「NASA spin-off technologies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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