Picture your self on a future mission to Mars. You’re floating in zero gravity, instruments strapped to your go well with, when a crewmate slices open their arm whereas repairing gear. On Earth, you’d dial 911. In orbit, you’d radio Houston. But on Mars, assistance is tens of millions of miles away. The sign takes greater than 20 minutes to journey a technique, after which one other 20 minutes for mission management to reply. Nearly an hour may cross earlier than you hear again. That’s time you merely don’t have when an astronaut is injured.
That state of affairs may sound like science fiction, but it surely’s the form of downside NASA is planning for proper now. Astronauts are educated to deal with fundamental medical points, however they’re not surgeons, and a disaster may demand greater than their coaching covers. What they want is the equal of a health care provider at the prepared, one who can information them step-by-step by means of any emergency.
At Arizona State University, a crew of laptop scientists believes they’ve the reply. Backed by new funding from NASA, Hasti Seifi and Pooyan Fazli are creating a light-weight, augmented actuality headset that may function a just-in-time medical assistant.
Seifi, an assistant professor of laptop science and engineering in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, a part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU, says the new venture builds on previous profitable work.
“We realized our research on question-answering systems could be incredibly useful in space medicine,” Seifi says. “If something happens mid-procedure, nonmedical experts need quick, accurate answers. Waiting 20 minutes is simply not practical.”
Smart glasses with solutions on demand
The gadget itself is deliberate to look extra like a classy pair of sun shades than the conventional digital actuality headsets most individuals image.
When worn by an astronaut, the glasses will seize what the wearer sees, hear for spoken questions and immediately present a solution drawn from a rigorously vetted medical information base.
That reply arrives as each sound and sight. A relaxed voice may speak the person by means of bandaging a wound or stabilizing a fracture. At the identical time, visible overlays seem immediately in the astronaut’s subject of view, highlighting the proper spot to apply stress or taking part in a brief video clip displaying the subsequent step.
Fazli, an assistant professor in The GAME School, factors out that this venture builds on years of labor making use of AI to accessibility. He has led groups which have designed question-answering methods and assistive robotics for blind and low-vision customers, in addition to older adults. Now, he and Seifi are taking that experience to the most unforgiving setting conceivable: deep space.
Perhaps most significantly, the headset doesn’t require web entry. Every a part of the system runs offline, a necessity for space exploration, but additionally a possible sport changer for communities on Earth.
The researchers count on to have their first prototype prepared in December. In the months that comply with, they’ll check it on simulated accidents in the lab, together with experiments with medical mannequins. If profitable, astronauts could in the future trial the system inside NASA’s coaching facilities, refining it additional earlier than it ever leaves the planet.
From orbit to Arizona: rural purposes
As thrilling as the space utility is, the researchers are simply as obsessed with how the know-how may change lives nearer to residence. Arizona’s rural communities face persistent shortages of docs and nurses. In some areas, sufferers could wait hours for skilled medical care. These delays can show deadly in emergencies.
“We’re already working on adapting this AR system for rural areas in Arizona,” Fazli says. “Community health workers, family caregivers or even nonexperts could use it to handle simple procedures until help arrives. That’s not feasible right now when the nearest professional care might be hours away.”
Because the headset is designed to work with out web connectivity, it supplies step-by-step medical steerage in locations the place broadband is unreliable or nonexistent.
From distant ranches to tribal lands, the glasses may act as a lifeline, providing directions in these essential moments earlier than educated medical personnel arrive.
The crew is making ready plans for Arizona stakeholders to develop testing in native communities, with the hope that what begins as a NASA experiment will quickly profit individuals in our personal state.
A confirmed observe report of innovation
This shouldn’t be the first time Seifi and Fazli have pushed know-how into new frontiers. Seifi, an professional in haptics, was awarded a 2024 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation, or NSF, for her work on programmable contact applied sciences. Her lab explores how vibrations, drive and friction could make digital instruments extra accessible, with purposes ranging from medical units to safer navigation methods in vehicles. She has lengthy been centered on designing interfaces that really feel pure and inclusive.
Fazli, in the meantime, focuses on human-robot interplay, imaginative and prescient and language, multimodal studying and video understanding. His analysis explores how AI can collaborate with individuals in significant methods to advance social good. He has obtained main funding from the National Institutes of Health, the NSF and Google, and has co-led outreach packages like AI+X, which inspires underserved Arizona college students to discover careers in synthetic intelligence.
Together, they create a mix of technical experience and a dedication to human-centered design. If their AR medical assistant might help an astronaut in orbit carry out a process beneath stress, it may additionally assist a rancher in northern Arizona care for a neighbor whereas ready for an ambulance or medical helicopter.
The months forward promise to be busy. The ASU crew will work with NASA program managers to decide which medical eventualities needs to be prioritized, from wound care to extra advanced procedures. By December, they count on to have a working prototype prepared for demonstrations, with additional growth and testing to comply with in 2026.
“The exciting thing is that it works in both directions,” Seifi says. “The challenges of space pushed us to innovate, but the benefits come right back to Earth.”
Tomorrow’s emergency room, right now
Space medication may appear to be a distinct segment concern, however the options it evokes have far-reaching implications. But by placing an AI-powered medical assistant inside a pair of glasses, ASU researchers are making a instrument that may information anybody, from astronauts to rural group employees, by means of lifesaving steps when each second counts.
If the venture succeeds, the identical gadget that retains astronauts alive tens of millions of miles from residence could in the future save lives in distant Arizona.
That’s the extraordinary promise of analysis that bridges the ultimate frontier and the open frontier.