NASA to pay $1500 to developer who builds smartwatch app for astronauts

NASA is offering prize money of $1,500 to any person who is passionate about space with a savvy programmer mind and can develop a smartwatch app enabling Astronauts residing on the International Space Station to conveniently access data by September 9, 2015.

In a post on the Freelancer website, NASA says, “We (NASA) are concerned in the emerging world of smartwatch technology and are seeing to leverage this technology to create a smartwatch app that could be useful to astronauts. The challenge is to design the common user interface for smartwatch applications for use on the International Space Station. “

Currently, Astronauts utilizes manual-wind Omega Speedmaster watches that have stopwatch as well as counter functions.

Requirements and Guidelines for designing Smartwatch App

• Use the Samsung Gear 2 as a hardware allusion for your design.
  Design should be for a simple app with multiple functions (not separate apps).
• The design must be efficient and eligible to deliver straight attention to the proper information for a task.
• Provide appropriate feedbacks to actions.

The design will be used for some of the following application:

1. Crew Timeline Application: Will display an agenda view of the timeline as well as a way to easily navigate to next day in the past or future, currently viewed on iPad or Laptop.
2. Caution & Warnings Application: Will display color coded cautions and warnings.
3. Communication Status Application: Should display whether or not the vehicle is currently able to communicate with the ground (Earth) either via voice or video.
4. Timers Application: Will be able to set timers for actions or until next activity.

These functions have to be able to guide an astronaut to the data they require to boost efficiency, deliver data for the astronaut’s actions and also be accommodated in a tiny smartwatch-sized screen.

Participates do not have to create app software. They need to come up with the app’s user interface along with giving image files as deliverables.

NASA intends to sign up freelancers across the world for its smartwatch app. The contest was kicked off on Freelancer.com a prominent website where freelancers are matched with contracts and engage in negotiations and gigs.

NASA Challenge is the perfect opportunity and platform for people who harbored any dreams to design stuff for NASA. However a significant question and tricky problem is how astronauts will use touch screen controls while having bulky space gloves on their hands.