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Discussion on: [CodeLand Digital Scavenger Hunt] Question 4

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Nancy Karnes

homas moved up within NASA and served in a position of managing the development of NASA’s image-processing systems for β€œLandsat,” the first satellite to send multi-spectral images to study the Earth's resources from outer space. In 1976, she saw something at a scientific exhibit that would lead her down a path of invention. She saw an illusion of a glowing light bulb that had been unscrewed and removed from a lamp. It had been created using a second bulb pointing downward in a socket beneath the top socket, employing a concave mirror to produce the illusion of the lit bulb. Unlike flat mirrors, which produce images that appear to be inside, or behind the mirror, concave mirrors create images that appear to be real, or in front of the mirror itself.

Thomas was intrigued, and wondered how such an image could be transmitted like other images were at the time. She began experimenting in 1976, setting up equipment to observe the relationship between an object and its real image relative to the positions from concave mirrors. She thought that if it were possible to present and transmit these types of realistic, three-dimensional images, great improvements could be made in video, and even television, in the future.

In 1980, she received a patent for her illusion transmitter, which uses a concave mirror on the transmitting end as well as on the receiving end to produce optical illusion images. NASA uses the technology today, and scientists are currently working on ways to incorporate it into tools for surgeons to look inside the human body, and possibly for television sets and video screens one day.

Thomas continued to work for NASA until her retirement in 1995, serving in such positions as Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN) project manager and most recently associate chief of the Space Science Data Operations Office.