Fallout 4: NASA Challenge Participants Outdo Everyone With Functional Pip-Boy

The International Space Apps Challenge is a two-day hackfest hosted by NASA that hopes to bring into existence relevant solutions that will address global needs, all through the collaborative efforts of folks that come from different backgrounds of technical expertise, none of them being astronauts. One of the 2014 challenges asked participants to come up with wearable technology that can assist people with tasks as complex as facility maintenance or something as simple as general living. Now, why does that sound familiar?

That sounds a bit like the Pip-Boy 3000, and Team Reno thought so, too. They decided to create a legit Pip-Boy with the goal of bringing environmental sensors into an easy-to-use cuff device that would help the wearer determine if their environment is safe.

They went ahead and threw in a Sensor HUD that displays relative humidity, altitude/latitude/longitude, atmospheric pressure, ambient temperature, object temperature (using infrared thermometer), and radiation readings. It also has real-time mapping built into the iOS app, and all of this information gets sent to a Web HQ. Have we mentioned that they did all of this in 48 hours?

But that isn’t enough! Only so much can be done in two days, after all. Moving forward, the team plans to add heart rate and other vital metrics to the HUD, as well as some form of communication feature that will allow Web HQ to push messages to the wearer. Form and function make for a great combination with this project and it will undoubtedly be useful, but if you’re more interested in a slightly-less-intense version of the Pip-Boy 3000, check out this fan-made beauty.

Space Apps Reno: Pip-Boy 3000 from Pip Boy on Vimeo.