Virtual Reality applied to biomedical engineering

Actualment, la realitat virtual esta sent tendència i s'està expandint a l'àmbit mèdic, fent possible l'aparició de nombroses aplicacions dissenyades per entrenar metges i tractar pacients de forma més eficient, així com optimitzar els processos de planificació quirúrgica. La necessitat mèdica i objectiu d'aquest projecte és fer òptim el procés de planificació quirúrgica per a cardiopaties congènites, que compren la reconstrucció en 3D del cor del pacient i la seva integració en una aplicació de realitat virtual. Seguint aquesta línia s’ha combinat un procés de modelat 3D d’imatges de cors obtinguts gracies al Hospital Sant Joan de Déu i el disseny de l’aplicació mitjançant el software Unity 3D gracies a l’empresa VISYON. S'han aconseguit millores en quant al software emprat per a la segmentació i reconstrucció, i s’han assolit funcionalitats bàsiques a l’aplicació com importar, moure, rotar i fer captures de pantalla en 3D de l'òrgan cardíac i així, entendre millor la cardiopatia que s’ha de tractar. El resultat ha estat la creació d'un procés òptim, en el que la reconstrucció en 3D ha aconseguit ser ràpida i precisa, el mètode d’importació a l’app dissenyada molt senzill, i una aplicació que permet una interacció atractiva i intuïtiva, gracies a una experiència immersiva i realista per ajustar-se als requeriments d'eficiència i precisió exigits en el camp mèdic

Musiquence – Design, Implementation and Validation of a Customizable Music and Reminiscence Cognitive Stimulation Platform for People with Dementia

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of individuals worldwide and is challenging to diagnose as symptoms may only perceivable decades later. The disease leads to a gradual loss of memory, learning, orientation, language, and comprehension skills, which compromises activities of daily living. Health-related costs caused by dementia will continue to increase over the next few years; between the years 2005 and 2009, an increase of 34% (from $315 to$422 billion worldwide) was observed in treating dementia-related issues. Pharmaceutical approaches have been developed to treat dementia symptoms; unfortunately, the risk of side effects is high. For this reason, nonpharmaceutical methods such as music and reminiscence therapies have gained acceptance as patients with dementia positively respond to such approaches even at later stages of the disease. Nevertheless, further research is needed to understand how music and reminiscence therapy should be used and to quantify their impact on individuals with dementia. The development of serious games has gained attention as an alternative approach to stimulate patients. However, the clinical impact that serious games have on individuals with dementia is still unclear. In this dissertation, we contribute with new knowledge regarding the usage of music and reminiscence approaches in people with dementia through a theoretical model. Based on Baddeley’s working memory model, our model aims to explain how the therapeutic properties of music and reminiscence can have a beneficial effect. To test our model, we developed a novel interactive platform called Musiquence, in which healthcare professionals can create music and reminiscence based cognitive activities to stimulate people with dementia. In this dissertation, we present the results from several studies about the usage and effects that music and reminiscence have on such a population. We performed two studies using Musiquence to study the feasibility of a novel learning method based on musical feedback to aid people with dementia during task performance in virtual reality settings. Results show that participants relied more on music-based feedback during the task performance of virtual reality activities than in other forms of feedback. Also, data suggest that the music-based feedback system can improve task performance, compensating for some dementia-related deficits. We also used Musiquence in a longitudinal one-month-long pilot study to assess its efficacy when used for a cognitive stimulation intervention in dementia patients. The results of the study are promising. The 3 participants showed improvements in terms of general cognition, quality of life, mood, and verbal fluency

Complexity in city systems: Understanding, evolution, and design

6.4 Exemplars of complex systems There are many signatures of complexity revealed in the space-time patterning of cities (Batty, 2005) and here we will indicate three rather different but nevertheless linked exemplars. Our first deals with ..

Spartan Daily, October 11, 1978

Volume 71, Issue 27https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6386/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, October 11, 1978

Volume 71, Issue 27https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6386/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, October 11, 1978

Volume 71, Issue 27https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6386/thumbnail.jp