Eye-tracking assistive technologies for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS, is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, resulting in the loss of muscle control. For individuals with ALS, where mobility is limited to the movement of the eyes, the use of eye-tracking-based applications can be applied to achieve some basic tasks with certain digital interfaces. This paper presents a review of existing eye-tracking software and hardware through which eye-tracking their application is sketched as an assistive technology to cope with ALS. Eye-tracking also provides a suitable alternative as control of game elements. Furthermore, artificial intelligence has been utilized to improve eye-tracking technology with significant improvement in calibration and accuracy. Gaps in literature are highlighted in the study to offer a direction for future research

Brain-wave measures of workload in advanced cockpits: The transition of technology from laboratory to cockpit simulator, phase 2

The present Phase 2 small business innovation research study was designed to address issues related to scalp-recorded event-related potential (ERP) indices of mental workload and to transition this technology from the laboratory to cockpit simulator environments for use as a systems engineering tool. The project involved five main tasks: (1) Two laboratory studies confirmed the generality of the ERP indices of workload obtained in the Phase 1 study and revealed two additional ERP components related to workload. (2) A task analysis' of flight scenarios and pilot tasks in the Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator (ACFS) defined cockpit events (i.e., displays, messages, alarms) that would be expected to elicit ERPs related to workload. (3) Software was developed to support ERP data analysis. An existing ARD-proprietary package of ERP data analysis routines was upgraded, new graphics routines were developed to enhance interactive data analysis, and routines were developed to compare alternative single-trial analysis techniques using simulated ERP data. (4) Working in conjunction with NASA Langley research scientists and simulator engineers, preparations were made for an ACFS validation study of ERP measures of workload. (5) A design specification was developed for a general purpose, computerized, workload assessment system that can function in simulators such as the ACFS

Auxilio: A Sensor-Based Wireless Head-Mounted Mouse for People with Upper Limb Disability

Upper limb disability may be caused either due to accidents, neurological disorders, or even birth defects, imposing limitations and restrictions on the interaction with a computer for the concerned individuals using a generic optical mouse. Our work proposes the design and development of a working prototype of a sensor-based wireless head-mounted Assistive Mouse Controller (AMC), Auxilio, facilitating interaction with a computer for people with upper limb disability. Combining commercially available, low-cost motion and infrared sensors, Auxilio solely utilizes head and cheek movements for mouse control. Its performance has been juxtaposed with that of a generic optical mouse in different pointing tasks as well as in typing tasks, using a virtual keyboard. Furthermore, our work also analyzes the usability of Auxilio, featuring the System Usability Scale. The results of different experiments reveal the practicality and effectiveness of Auxilio as a head-mounted AMC for empowering the upper limb disabled community.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures, 5 table

The generative routine dynamics of internship/work placements : an exploration of process dynamics facilitating knowledge creating

The role of knowledge in organisations has tended to be considered in the context of its transfer and to a lesser extent its creation. The university-industry relationship is predominantly relied on as an appropriate context for these discussions. However little by way of scholarly attention has focused on the concept of 'knowledge creating' per se or addresses the research question "how can organisational processes facilitate knowledge creating over time?" This research introduces and explores the concept of 'knowledge creating' within an often ignored and under researched theory-practice context - the internship/work placement. Routines theory, and its generative claim, is relied on here to address the processual attribute associated with 'knowledge creating'. Dialogicality has also been identified as an attribute of 'knowledge creating'. This is understood as a sensitivity to otherness that leads to social interaction within dialogical exchanges. Consequently, the objective of this study becomes a question of unpacking process dynamics or generative routine dynamics by using a dialogical theory for knowledge creation. Dialogical exchanges that facilitate continuous articulations and productive relational engagement are assessed with dynamic aspects of routines. By combining routines theory with dialogicality a novel and robust conceptual lens guiding data collection and analysis is provided. Data was collected over four separate internship/placement cycles in Ireland's largest business school during the financial crisis from 2008 to 2014. A plurality of methods was employed for data collection; which included over 60 interviews, 18 hours of direct observation, and 50 separated documentary artifacts. Combined these minimise fragmented descriptions of the internship/placement, while highlighting novel processual dynamics that have previously been overlooked in empirical routines research. The empirical findings highlight three interlinked dualities which contribute to a nuanced understanding of generative routine dynamics; the presence/absence duality; the centrality/peripherality duality and the evaluating/quality duality. When combined these dualities reveal how dialogical exchanges can lead to continuous articulations, which in turn become productive when resulting in action. From this we gain an insight in what we understand as knowledge creating.The role of knowledge in organisations has tended to be considered in the context of its transfer and to a lesser extent its creation. The university-industry relationship is predominantly relied on as an appropriate context for these discussions. However little by way of scholarly attention has focused on the concept of 'knowledge creating' per se or addresses the research question "how can organisational processes facilitate knowledge creating over time?" This research introduces and explores the concept of 'knowledge creating' within an often ignored and under researched theory-practice context - the internship/work placement. Routines theory, and its generative claim, is relied on here to address the processual attribute associated with 'knowledge creating'. Dialogicality has also been identified as an attribute of 'knowledge creating'. This is understood as a sensitivity to otherness that leads to social interaction within dialogical exchanges. Consequently, the objective of this study becomes a question of unpacking process dynamics or generative routine dynamics by using a dialogical theory for knowledge creation. Dialogical exchanges that facilitate continuous articulations and productive relational engagement are assessed with dynamic aspects of routines. By combining routines theory with dialogicality a novel and robust conceptual lens guiding data collection and analysis is provided. Data was collected over four separate internship/placement cycles in Ireland's largest business school during the financial crisis from 2008 to 2014. A plurality of methods was employed for data collection; which included over 60 interviews, 18 hours of direct observation, and 50 separated documentary artifacts. Combined these minimise fragmented descriptions of the internship/placement, while highlighting novel processual dynamics that have previously been overlooked in empirical routines research. The empirical findings highlight three interlinked dualities which contribute to a nuanced understanding of generative routine dynamics; the presence/absence duality; the centrality/peripherality duality and the evaluating/quality duality. When combined these dualities reveal how dialogical exchanges can lead to continuous articulations, which in turn become productive when resulting in action. From this we gain an insight in what we understand as knowledge creating

Increased spontaneous MEG signal diversity for psychoactive doses of ketamine, LSD and psilocybin

What is the level of consciousness of the psychedelic state? Empirically, measures of neural signal diversity such as entropy and Lempel-Ziv (LZ) complexity score higher for wakeful rest than for states with lower conscious level like propofol-induced anesthesia. Here we compute these measures for spontaneous magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals from humans during altered states of consciousness induced by three psychedelic substances: psilocybin, ketamine and LSD. For all three, we find reliably higher spontaneous signal diversity, even when controlling for spectral changes. This increase is most pronounced for the single-channel LZ complexity measure, and hence for temporal, as opposed to spatial, signal diversity. We also uncover selective correlations between changes in signal diversity and phenomenological reports of the intensity of psychedelic experience. This is the first time that these measures have been applied to the psychedelic state and, crucially, that they have yielded values exceeding those of normal waking consciousness. These findings suggest that the sustained occurrence of psychedelic phenomenology constitutes an elevated level of consciousness - as measured by neural signal diversity

Sleep-related breathing disorders in obese patients presenting with acute respiratory failure

SummaryIntroduction: The study was conducted to assess the clinical and polysomnographic characteristics of patients with sleep-related breathing disorders who presented to the intensive care unit (ICU) with acute respiratory failure and the practicability of performing polysomnography for such patients.Material and methods: We analyzed clinical presentation, cause of admission to the ICU, ICU course and outcome of 11 subjects with acute respiratory failure who were diagnosed to have sleep disordered breathing based on polysomnography between October 1999 and January 2003. Subjects were compared to 11 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome matched to each subject using body mass index, age and apnea hypopnea index measured at the time of diagnosis (matched comparison group). Repeated arterial blood gases and polysomnography were done for 8 subjects compliant to treatment 6–8 months after discharge from ICU.Results: The reason for ICU admission for all subjects was hypercapnic respiratory failure. pH and daytime PaO2 were significantly lower in studied subjects compared to the matched comparison group while awake daytime PaCO2 was significantly higher. Subjects had frequent episodes of hypoventilation. Follow up arterial blood gases and polysomnography 6–8 months after treatment (non-invasive ventilation) in compliant subjects showed significant improvement in all blood gases parameters.Conclusions: Early polysomnography (or portable cardio-respiratory monitoring) allows accurate diagnosis and institution of the appropriate ventilation method Further studies should assess the evolution of respiratory drive in patients with sleep disordered breathing and hypercapnia under therapy (non-invasive ventilation)

Listening to their voices: what and why are rural teen males reading?

The primary purpose of the study was to examine the reading habits, preferences and motivation for reading from a representative sample of high school males in rural North Carolina. Much research gives voice to what elementary students are reading, but less has been done with adolescents, one of the hardest demographics for librarians and teachers to reach. The study used mixed methods, both qualitative and quantitative. The quantitative portions included the collection of End of Grade reading test data and an adaptation of a Motivation for Reading Questionnaire. Qualitative portions included reading journals kept by the participants and interviews. Guiding questions for the study included--Why do teen boys read--or not read? What doe they read? Do they read for information, for academic gain, for entertainment? How much time do they spend reading for various purposes? Do they prefer to read in print or from digital sources? Given an expanded definition of reading, some of the young men who conceived of themselves as nonreaders were surprised to realize how much they did read. Students offered advice for parents, teachers and librarians to help young men read that was surprisingly reflective of the research literature. A significant relationship between scores on tests of reading achievement and subsequent reading behavior was found. Self-efficacy and feelings of personal competence were the most powerful motivators for the group as a whole. The complexity of the material was not an issue if students were interested in the topic. Personal reading was usually reflective of hobbies and current interests. The study found a direct link between reading behavior and the presence of male role models who read. Reading done for school purposes was primarily in print, but extended reading for personal pleasure or information was more often in digital format

INVESTIGATION, DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE BASED DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING METHODS FOR ENHANCING HUMAN EEGsJ

This thesis details the development of new and reliable techniques for enhancing the human Electroencephalogram {EEGI. This development has involved the incorporation of adaptive signal processing (ASP) techniques, within an artificial intelligence (Al) paradigm, more closely matching the implicit signal analysis capabilities of the EEG expert. The need for EEG enhancement, by removal of ocular artefact (OA) , is widely recognised. However, conventional ASP techniques for OA removal fail to differentiate between OAs and some abnormal cerebral waveforms, such as frontal slow waves. OA removal often results in the corruption of these diagnostically important cerebral waveforms. However, the experienced EEG expert is often able to differentiate between OA and abnormal slow waveforms, and between different types of OA. This EEG expert knowledge is integrated with selectable adaptive filters in an intelligent OA removal system (tOARS). The EEG is enhanced by only removing OA when OA is identified, and by applying the OA removal algorithm pre-set for the specific OA type. Extensive EEG data acquisition has provided a database of abnormal EEG recordings from over 50 patients, exhibiting a variety of cerebral abnormalities. Structured knowledge elicitation has provided over 60 production rules for OA identification in the presence of abnormal frontal slow waveforms, and for distinguishing between OA types. The lOARS was implemented on personal computer (PCI based hardware in PROLOG and C software languages. 2-second, 18-channel, EEG signal segments are subjected to digital signal processing, to extract salient features from time, frequency, and contextual domains. OA is identified using a forward/backward hybrid inference engine, with uncertainty management, using the elicited expert rules and extracted signal features. Evaluation of the system has been carried out using both normal and abnormal patient EEGs, and this shows a high agreement (82.7%) in OA identification between the lOARS and an EEG expert. This novel development provides a significant improvement in OA removal, and EEG signal enhancement, and will allow more reliable automated EEG analysis. The investigation detailed in this thesis has led to 4 papers, including one in a special proceedings of the lEE, and been subject to several review articles.Department of Neurophysiology, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devo

Shoulder-Surfing Resistant Authentication for Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) are increasingly used in industry to digitize processes and enhance user experience by enabling real-time interaction with both physical and virtual objects. In this context, HMD provide access to sensitive data and applications which demand authenticating users before granting access. Furthermore, these devices are often used in shared spaces. Thus, shoulder-surfing attacks need to be addressed. As users can remember pictures more easily than text, we applied the recognition-based graphical password scheme “Things” from previous work on an AR HMD while placing the pictures for each authentication attempt in a random order. We implemented this scheme for the HMD Microsoft HoloLens and conducted a user study evaluating Things\u27s usability. All participants could be successfully authenticated and the System Usability Scale (SUS) score is with 74 categorized as above average. We discuss as future work how to improve the SUS scores, e.g., by using different grid designs and input methods