While it's not nearly exciting as their Space Cycle (but really, what is?), the subject Space Biomedical double-o Institute's new brain scanner here looks to fill in a niche of its own nonetheless and, if the convention has its way, it could literally find its way into space. Described as a "brain breathalyzer," the device promises to monitor astronauts for signs of brain injury, depression and mental fatigue, which could allow mission control to limit if they're capable of carrying out a mission or not. That's done with the use of an optical scanner that sends weak pulses of near-infrared light into the brain, which gets reflected back to demarcate the amount of oxygen in the blood. While NASA isn't fully sold on the idea just yet, it ostensibly is elaborate enough to shell out $400,000 to further the flowering of the scanner, which it hopes will also eventually be able to monitor other vital signs like blood load and heart rate.