Scott Davidoff

California Institute of Technology | CIT · Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) is a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence spectrometer mounted on the robotic arm of NASA’s Perseverance rover. PIXL will acquire high spatial resolution observations of rock and soil chemistry, rapidly analyzing the elemental chemistry of a target surface. In 10 seconds, PIXL can use its powerful 120...

Effective data visualization is a key part of the discovery process in the era of big data. It is the bridge between the quantitative content of the data and human intuition, and thus an essential component of the scientific path from data into knowledge and understanding. Visualization is also essential in the data mining process, directing the ch...

While anomaly detection stands among the most important and valuable problems across many scientific domains, anomaly detection research often focuses on AI methods that can lack the nuance and interpretability so critical to conducting scientific inquiry. In this application paper we present the results of utilizing an alternative approach that si...

The many genres of narrative visualization (e.g. data comics, data videos) each offer a unique set of affordances and constraints. To better understand a genre that we call cinematic visualizations-3D visualizations that make highly deliberate use of a camera to convey a narrative-we gathered 50 examples and analyzed their traditional cinematic asp...

Collocated crystal sizes and mineral identities are critical for interpreting textural relationships in rocks and testing geological hypotheses, but it has been previously impossible to unambiguously constrain these properties using in situ instruments on Mars rovers. Here, we demonstrate that diffracted and fluoresced x-rays detected by the PIXL i...

Data visualization frequently provides audiences with novel semantic and computational presentations. How does a multifaceted team expand this scope by harnessing the power of visualization as a tool to think with? The NASA JPL/Caltech/ ArtCenter data visualization program demonstrates how scientific knowledge, shaped from data and theory, is equal...

The geological units on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars, are part of a wider regional stratigraphy of olivine-rich rocks, which extends well beyond the crater. We investigate the petrology of olivine and carbonate-bearing rocks of the Séítah formation in the floor of Jezero. Using multispectral images and x-ray fluorescence data, acquired by the P...

We are now entering the new space age! In 2021, for the first time in history that there is civilian crew in space, demonstrating the next frontier of human space exploration that will not be restricted to highly trained astronauts but will be open to a more general public. However, keeping a human healthy, happy and productive in space is one of t...

Onboard autonomy technologies such as planning and scheduling, identification of scientific targets, and content-based data summarization, will lead to exciting new space science missions. However, the challenge of operating missions with such onboard autonomous capabilities has not been studied to a level of detail sufficient for consideration in...

Onboard autonomy technologies such as planning and scheduling, identification of scientific targets, and content-based data summarization, will lead to exciting new space science missions. However, the challenge of operating missions with such onboard autonomous capabilities has not been studied to a level of detail sufficient for consideration in...

Tactful coordination on earth between hundreds of operators from diverse disciplines and backgrounds is needed to ensure that Martian rovers have a high likelihood of achieving their science goals while enduring the harsh environment of the red planet. The operations team includes many individuals, each with independent and overlapping objectives,...

Tactful coordination on earth between hundreds of operators from diverse disciplines and backgrounds is needed to ensure that Martian rovers have a high likelihood of achieving their science goals while enduring the harsh environment of the red planet. The operations team includes many individuals, each with independent and overlapping objectives,...

NASA JPL scientists working on the micro x-ray fluorescence (microXRF) spectroscopy data collected from Mars surface perform data analysis to look for signs of past microbial life on Mars. Their data analysis workflow mainly involves identifying mineral compounds through the element abundance in spatially distributed data points. Working with the N...

The Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) is a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence spectrometer mounted on the robotic arm of NASA's Perseverance rover. PIXL will acquire high spatial resolution observations of rock and soil chemistry, rapidly analyzing the elemental chemistry of a target surface. In 10 seconds, PIXL can use its powerful...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00801-2

Autonomous multi-robot systems, where a team of robots shares information to perform tasks that are beyond an individual robot's abilities, hold great promise for a number of applications, such as planetary exploration missions. Each robot in a multi-robot system that uses the shared-world coordination paradigm autonomously schedules which robot sh...

The space-based gravitational-wave (henceforth, GW!) observatory LISA (Amaro-Seoane et al., 2017) will o˙er unparalleled science returns, including a view of massive black hole mergers up to high redshifts, precision tests of general relativity and black hole structure, a census of thousands of compact binaries in the Galaxy, and the possibility of...

PIXELATE: novel visualization and computational methods for the analysis of astrobiological spectroscopy data Among the Mars 2020 Rover's primary science objectives is the use of micro-X-ray fluorescence (microXRF) spectroscopy to search for biological mineral indicators. When interpreting microXRF data, astrobiologists must extrapolate mineral com...

Automation is gaining momentum in spacecraft operations, however, at a much slower pace than comparable application domains. The reasons behind slow adoption is (1) the need for high reliability and (2) the limited interaction between human operators and the automated systems. For automated systems to be adopted and trusted by humans, humans need t...

Operations engineering teams interact with complex data systems to make technical decisions that ensure the operational efficacy of their missions. To support these decision-making tasks, which may require elastic prioritization of goals dependent on changing conditions, custom analytics tools are often developed. We were asked to develop such a to...

FMReye is a graph network visualization tool that relies on a technique developed in computer science to support the process of interactive exploration. Using the “brushing” technique, the user can examine the same data from multiple perspectives, and multiple levels of abstraction at the same time. The Web application loads a correlation matrix of...

Evaluation of Data Visualization Software for Large Astronomical Data Sets

Many tasks call for efficient user interaction under time delay—controlling space instruments, piloting remote aircraft and operating search and rescue robots. In this paper we identify an underexplored design opportunity for building robotic teleoperation user interfaces following an evaluation of operator performance during a time-delayed robotic...

NASA's Telexploration Project seeks to make us better explorers by building immersive environments that feel like we are really there. The Mission Operations Innovation Office and its Operations Laboratory at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) founded the Telexploration Project, and is researching how immersive visualization and natural human...

One of the barriers to the success of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) efforts is realizing effective communication of the output diagrams—i.e., modeling views—that address the concerns of, and inform, a broad spectrum of customer stakeholders. Abstracting and implementing the visual presentation of views—as products of very complex system mo...

This article accompanies a fluid dynamics video entered into the Gallery of Fluid Motion of the 66th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics. We report on the outcome of a design-informed visualization project performed by the Caltech/JPL/Art Center Data Visu- alization Summer Internship Program tasked with creating a visualization of...

Designing radically new technology systems that people will want to use is complex. Design teams must draw on knowledge related to people's current values and desires to envision a preferred yet plausible future. However, the introduction of new technology can shape people's values and practices, and what-we-know-now about them does not always tran...

Researchers recently gathered at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, to share their accomplishments at the 13th annual ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. This multidisciplinary conference featured advances in sensing technologies and activity-recognition algorithms, novel applications, and results from end-user evaluations. This department...

The complexities and costs of deploying Ubicomp applications seriously compromise our ability to evaluate such systems in the real world. To simplify Ubicomp deployment we introduce the robotic pseudopod (P.Pod), an actuator that acts on mechanical switches originally designed for human control only. P.Pods enable computational control of devices b...

Part of being a parent is taking responsibility for arranging and supplying transportation of children between various events. Dual-income parents frequently develop routines to help manage transportation with a minimal amount of attention. On days when families deviate from their routines, effective logistics can often depend on knowledge of the r...

Even though the coordination of kids' activities is largely successful, the modern dual income family still regularly experiences breakdowns in their practices. Families often rely on routines to help them coordinate when plans prove less effective. Routines, however, are rarely documented, challenging to express in detail, and frequently evolving,...

Researchers have detailed the importance of routines in how people live and work, while also cautioning system designers about the importance of people's idiosyncratic behavior patterns and the challenges they would present to learning systems. We wish to take up their challenge, and offer a vision of how simple sensing technology could capture and...

In ambient intelligent systems, monitoring of a human could consist of more complex tasks than merely identifying whether a certain value of a sensor is above a certain threshold. Instead, such tasks may involve monitoring of complex dynamic interactions ...

For many years technology researchers have promised a smart home that, through an awareness of people’s activities and intents, will provide the appropriate assistance to improve human experience. However, before people will accept intelligent technology into their homes and their lives, they must feel they have control over it (Norman 1994). To ad...

While the user-centered design methods we bring from human- computer interaction to ubicomp help sketch ideas and refine prototypes, few tools or techniques help explore divergent design concepts, reflect on their merits, and come to a new understanding of design opportunities and ways to address them. We present Speed Dating, a design method for r...

Dual-income families experience stress as they attempt to manage the conflicting responsibilities of work, school, home, and enrichment activities. Opportunities exist for technology to provide support in managing their children's activities, helping parents feel more in control of their lives. In this paper, we explore opportunities to support chi...

Seeking to be sensitive to users, smart home researchers have fo- cused on the concept of control. They attempt to allow users to gain control over their lives by framing the problem as one of end-user programming. But families are not users as we typically conceive them, and a large body of ethno- graphic research shows how their activities and ro...

Much smart home research has produced work that chooses to enhance the home experience by providing more control over domestic devices. Our work with dual-income families suggests that more than devices, families want more control over their lives. We argue that a smart home might help provide that assistance to families in two ways: (1) by helping...

For many years technology researchers have promised a smart home that will provide the appropriate assistance to improve human experience. While technology researchers have focused on how people can control devices in their homes, our ethnographic research and findings by other social scientists have revealed that families want more control over th...

The majority of smart home research has focused on novel technical artifacts, but has overlooked the issues surrounding social relationships in the home. We argue in favor of research that is sensitive to and functions within the social constraints of dual income family homes. This paper describes our grounded contextual fieldwork with real familie...

Researchers developing Ubicomp applications often must make ill-informed but irrevocable decisions early in the design process. While desktop computing researchers have multiple methods at their disposal to manage the risk involved in these decisions, the complexity of Ubicomp research affords few alternatives. We suggest that Ubicomp research face...

Substantial stumbling blocks confront computer-illiterate elders. We introduce a novel user interface technology to lower these start up costs: the book as user interface, or BUI. Book pages contain both step-by-step instructions and tangible controls, turning a complex interaction into a walk-up-and-use scenario. The system expands support past th...