35 research outputs found
Virtual environments for stroke rehabilitation: examining a novel technology against end-user, clinical and management demands with reference to UK care provision
In the field of post-stroke rehabilitation, there appears to be growing interest in the use of
virtual reality (VR)-based systems as adjunct technologies to standard therapeutic practices.
The limitations and the potentials of this technology are not, however, generally well
understood. The present study thus seeks to determine the value of the technology with
reference to end-user requirements by surveying and evaluating its application against a
variety of parameters: user focus, clinical effectiveness, marketability and contextual
meaningfulness, etc. A key theme in the research considers how a technology developed
internationally might interface with care provision demands and cultures specific to the United
Kingdom. The barriers to innovation entry in this context are thus examined. Further practical
study has been conducted in the field with a small sample of post-stroke rehabilitation patients.
The data garnered from these enquiries have informed a detailed system analysis, a strategy
for innovation and a broad theoretical discussion as to the effectiveness of the technology in
delivering VR environments by which the patient can undertake âmeaningfulâ therapeutic
activities. The data reveal that there does appear to be clinical value in using this technology,
yet establishing its maximal value necessitates greater integrity among clinicians and
engineers, and the furthering of progressive channels for innovation by public health
administrators
A virtual musical instrument exhibit for a science centre.
Virtual reality is a technology rapidly gaining interest from research and commercial
groups around the world, but it's introduction into New Zealand has been slow. The
majority of the general public have no concept of virtual reality, and only a few research
institutes have begun virtual reality programmes of any sort.
Partially this is due to the high cost of 'off the shelf' virtual reality systems, which
is usually beyond the range of many organisations. Also the complexity of the software
and the knowledge required to create and manipulate this software makes it a daunting
prospect for many.
This work describes the development of an economical system for the demonstration
of virtual reality and some of its concepts and applications to the general public, in
the form of an educational science centre exhibit. The system creates virtual musical
instruments, overlayed onto the real world, and the user experiences these instruments
as if they were in physical existence
The world is what you make it: an application of virtual reality to the tourism industry
The tourism industry is a highly information intensive-industiy. In few other areas of activity are the
generation, gathering, processing, application and communication of information as important for dayto-
day operations as they are for the tourism industry (Buhalis 1994). Traditional sources of tourism
information, images, text, sound, animation and video, provide potential tourists with short and often
rather limited glimpses of tourism destinations which may be inadequate to enable them to make
informed decisions (Cheong 1995). In addition, these sources of tourist information provide only a
passive experience as they often possess little involvement on the part of the potential tourist. Virtual
Reality (VR), on the other hand, enables potential tourists to interact with and experience each tourist
destination in high detail and provides them with enough information to make a well-informed tourist
decision. When considering its application within the tourism industry, VR will offer the ability not only
to view a destination, but also, to participate in the activities offered at the destination. Through VR the
tourist advances from being a passive observer to being an active participant (Williams & Hobson 1994).
This thesis addresses issues associated with the design and evaluation of a VR application to the tourism
industry that provides users with all the traditional types of tourist information along with allowing them
to experience a multi-participant, realistic, interactive and real-time walkthrough of real-life tourist
destinations. In order to develop these walkthroughs, the basic concepts of VR had first to be analysed.
This was achieved by gaining hands-on experience of the different types of VR hardware and software
available in conjunction with an in-depth literature review. Following the completion of this analysis, an
overview of the tourism industry was developed. This overview identified certain properties of the
tourism product that lend themselves readily to the application of VR Once this was completed the final
stage of the research was concerned with the development of the walkthroughs and the elicitation of
knowledge from the development of these walkthroughs.
There were many conclusions uncovered by this research but the most important was that VR can indeed
be applied successfully to the tourism industry. The main areas of application will be in the areas of
tourism policy and planning and the marketing of the tourism product. Another conclusion that was
drawn from this research was that VR applications can help to generate realistic impressions and
expectations of what can be experienced at a tourism location. The final outstanding conclusion drawn
from this research was that potential tourists viewed the VR application as a decision making tool that
increases their desire to actually visit a tourist location and not as a tourism substitute
Closed-loop stimulation for upper limb rehabilitation following spinal cord injury and stroke
PhD ThesisInnovation is required to improve upper limb rehabilitation for neurological conditions such as
stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI). There is growing appreciation of the importance of neural
plasticity in recovery, and how this can be facilitated by synchronous activity in peripheral
neural circuits and central brain areas. However, despite increasing scientific evidence,
technological solutions that exploit associative plasticity have not yet been widely evaluated in
clinical practice.
In this thesis, I report the development and initial evaluation of a novel device which enabled
a reaching and grasping motion in the affected limb by combining assistive functional electrical
stimulation (FES) with inferred voluntary brain activity. The device was designed to enable
translation from laboratory-to-clinic by overcoming common practical barriers to translational
research, such as adaptability and ease of use.
The device was demonstrated to be usable by individuals with either chronic stroke or SCI, and
received positive qualitative feedback. Some participants showed modest improvements on
assessments of upper limb function following a short intervention period.
A study with healthy able-bodied volunteers indicated that after using the device, corticospinal
pathways to the antagonist (flexor) muscle may be facilitated, and this facilitation might be
increased by adjusting the relative timing of stimulation and inferred brain activity.
The device could also deliver alternative stimulation techniques, and an exploratory study into
transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) was conducted with healthy able-bodied
volunteers. It was found that tSCS may activate peripheral and spinal pathways within
acceptable comfort levels, but the parameters used in this study did not to generate functional
contractions. An unexpected oscillatory motor response provided insights into how tSCS acts
upon the motor system.
Prior to a large scale evaluation of clinical effectiveness, further research is required to: further
develop a theoretical basis for the intervention; demonstrate the mechanisms of action; and to
evaluate the efficacy of the device.Wellcome Trust, postgraduate research studentship (2015 to 2018)
âą EPSRC Preparing for GCRF Award (PI: Dr Andrew Jackson) - Low cost
rehabilitation of hand function following stroke (2016 to 2017
Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation
This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any productâs acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion
State-Feedback Controller Based on Pole Placement Technique for Inverted Pendulum System
This paper presents a state space control technique for inverted pendulum system using simulation and real experiment via MATLAB/SIMULINK software. The inverted pendulum is difficult system to control in the field of control engineering. It is also one of the most important classical control system problems because of its nonlinear characteristics and unstable system. It has three main problems that always appear in control application which are nonlinear system, unstable and non-minimumbehavior
phase system. This project will apply state feedback controller based on pole placement technique which is capable in stabilizing the practical based inverted pendulum at vertical position. Desired design specifications which are 4 seconds settling time and 5 % overshoot is needed to apply in full state feedback controller based on pole placement technique. First of all, the mathematical model of an inverted pendulum system is derived to obtain the state space representation of the system. Then, the design phase of the State-Feedback Controller can be conducted after linearization technique is
performed to the nonlinear equation with the aid of mathematical aided software such as Mathcad. After that, the design is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink software. The controller design of the inverted pendulum system is verified using simulation and experiment test. Finally the controller design is compared with PID controller for benchmarking purpose
A Review of Resonant Converter Control Techniques and The Performances
paper first discusses each control technique and then gives experimental results and/or performance to highlights their merits. The resonant converter used as a case study is not specified to just single topology instead it used few topologies such as series-parallel resonant converter (SPRC), LCC resonant converter and parallel resonant converter (PRC). On the other hand, the control techniques presented in this paper are self-sustained phase shift modulation (SSPSM) control, self-oscillating power factor
control, magnetic control and the H-â robust control technique