When planes have a problem, it’s not usually too hard to figure out what went wrong. That’s because every plane has a black box that records exactly what was happening mechanically to the plane at the time. Now, there’s a black box for people. This new device known as crew physiologic observation device, or CPOD, keeps track of biological data, such as changes in heart rate, the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream, and how the person is moving.
CPOD was developed by the NASA/Ames Research Center to make it easier to monitor the vital signs of astronauts in space. Right now, such a process involves hooking the astronauts up with numerous wires to a huge rack of equipment. In some cases, the data are recorded on paper and entered into a laptop by hand. In contrast, the CPOD is a compact, portable wearable device about the size of a computer mouse and is worn around the waist. The device runs on two AAA batteries.
