The application of engineering measurement and three-dimensional (3D) computer aided engineering techniques to the study of medieval period European swords

This thesis details the programme of research undertaken by the author to investigate the use of engineering measurement and computer-aided engineering techniques for the modelling and analysis of medieval period ‘knightly’ swords. The sword has an iconic cultural status that transcends its primary purpose as a tool of war, featuring frequently and extensively in art and literature from early human mythology through to contemporary film and digital media. In Europe, the sword was arguably at its most influential, both practically and culturally, during the mid-late medieval period, and yet there has been limited understanding and a misinformed mythology around the iconic knightly sword that proliferated during this period. A resurgent interest, and associated research, in historical European martial arts has started to address this gap in understanding, and the use of engineering measurement and analysis techniques to inform historical research has been growing more generally in recent years. There is a clear benefit that such techniques can bring to create a more complete picture of historical artefacts in terms of their design, construction, and performance, and that was the focus of this research programme. Of course, surviving medieval swords are, relatively speaking, rare, valuable, and often fragile, and these factors presented some specific challenges when trying to access and study them. The original contribution of this work has been to overcome these challenges to develop and demonstrate a robust methodology for creating and analysing 3-dimensional models that accurately recreate the geometry and mass properties of historical artefacts. During the programme, consideration has been given to accuracy, repeatability, ease of acquisition and the constraints associated with this type of artefact, such that the methodology might be used beyond this specific programme of work. Having created these digital models, specific features have been analysed and simulated, and this approach has been applied to eight original medieval swords, providing new and interesting insights into their features, design, and original performance characteristics

Design of Improved Surgical Scalpel Handles with Optimized Grips

Current designs of scalpel handles are not ideal for hand ergonomics and can lead to difficulties for certain cutting motions or slipping of the tool. A new design was created by Dr. Raymond Dunn at UMass Medical, to improve the shape of the handle as well as adding a rubber material grip portion. The goal of this project is to address the need to limit slipping while taking into consideration comfort and mobility of the instrument. The addition of a texture pattern and choice of material was utilized to increase the friction between the surgical glove and the grip portion of the tool. Testing protocols were created to determine which surface textures provided the highest coefficient of friction, as well as which prototypes were comparable to the precision of the original scalpel design

Involving users in the design process: the role of product representations in co-designing

Allowing users to be part of shaping change in new product development can contribute to more successful products. Advances in recent years in digital product representations (such as CAD and rapid prototyping) can potentially offer economic and time-saving benefits to this process. The research in this thesis has generated guidelines to support co-designing activity by exploring the issues of user involvement in the design process, paying particular attention to the use of digital (computer-based) and non-digital product representations to facilitate understanding and communication. The guidelines emerged through empirical research. The first stage of the research explored users' perceptions of physical and emotional product properties through digital and rapid prototyped representations: initial guidelines for Including product representations in co-designing were generated. An Interview study was then conducted to examine the wider issues of user involvement in designing and the use of digital and non-digital product representations from the standpoint of ten practicing - designers. Challenges and barriers to user Involvement were perceived but designers were open-minded to the Idea of digital co-designing. In parallel an audit was undertaken to evaluate product representation technologies for their ability to facilitate co-designing: traditional non-digital methods of sketching and hand-made models were used to develop criteria for this benchmarking. Limitations were found with existing technology and it was apparent that traditional methods (e. g. hand-drawn sketches and models) were better able to facilitate co-designing at this time than digital methods. These findings led to recommendations for future co-designing tools. Co-designing processes were then explored through six practical studies conducted with individuals and small groups of users. Users experimented with designing and making improved handles for a small gardening tool through sketching and day modelling. Design concepts were then taken further into digital media, through 3D scanning, digital CAD images and rapid prototyping and presented back to users for evaluation. Co-designing was also explored through a commercial context with an international packaging manufacturer. Ten users communicated design ideas for improved packaging by triangulation of notes, sketches, discussion and modelling activity. This produced user-led design criteria and commercially valuable concept designs. Important insights were gained into how codesigning may be facilitated within a commercial context and the experiences of the stakeholders. Several pertinent ethical issues such as ownership of ideas, incentives and rewards for user involvement were raised. The thesis concludes with guidelines and recommendations for co-designing, particularly regarding the role of product representations

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationVirtual environments provide a consistent and relatively inexpensive method of training individuals. They often include haptic feedback in the form of forces applied to a manipulandum or thimble to provide a more immersive and educational experience. However, the limited haptic feedback provided in these systems tends to be restrictive and frustrating to use. Providing tactile feedback in addition to this kinesthetic feedback can enhance the user's ability to manipulate and interact with virtual objects while providing a greater level of immersion. This dissertation advances the state-of-the-art by providing a better understanding of tactile feedback and advancing combined tactilekinesthetic systems. The tactile feedback described within this dissertation is provided by a finger-mounted device called the contact location display (CLD). Rather than displaying the entire contact surface, the device displays (feeds back) information only about the center of contact between the user's finger and a virtual surface. In prior work, the CLD used specialized two-dimensional environments to provide smooth tactile feedback. Using polygonal environments would greatly enhance the device's usefulness. However, the surface discontinuities created by the facets on these models are rendered through the CLD, regardless of traditional force shading algorithms. To address this issue, a haptic shading algorithm was developed to provide smooth tactile and kinesthetic interaction with general polygonal models. Two experiments were used to evaluate the shading algorithm. iv To better understand the design requirements of tactile devices, three separate experiments were run to evaluate the perception thresholds for cue localization, backlash, and system delay. These experiments establish quantitative design criteria for tactile devices. These results can serve as the maximum (i.e., most demanding) device specifications for tactile-kinesthetic haptic systems where the user experiences tactile feedback as a function of his/her limb motions. Lastly, a revision of the CLD was constructed and evaluated. By taking the newly evaluated design criteria into account, the CLD device became smaller and lighter weight, while providing a full two degree-of-freedom workspace that covers the bottom hemisphere of the finger. Two simple manipulation experiments were used to evaluate the new CLD device

Designing Accessible Nonvisual Maps

Access to nonvisual maps has long required special equipment and training to use; Google Maps, ESRI, and other commonly used digital maps are completely visual and thus inaccessible to people with visual impairments. This project presents the design and evaluation of an easy to use digital auditory map and 3D model interactive map. A co-design was also undertaken to discover tools for an ideal nonvisual navigational experience. Baseline results of both studies are presented so future work can improve on the designs. The user evaluation revealed that both prototypes were moderately easy to use. An ideal nonvisual navigational experience, according to these participants, consists of both an accurate turn by turn navigational system, and an interactive map. Future work needs to focus on the development of appropriate tools to enable this ideal experience

Smooth zooming

Chapter 2 showed that current maps on the Internet are composed of the discrete set of LODs/scale pyramids with big changes of map content and representations. This can lead to confusion for the users when they navigate in the map. Therefore, a conceptual model (SSC) was proposed, see Chapter 3. We believe that, by capturing the whole generalization process in small smooth incremental changes, it is possible to achieve a better user experience e. g. when the user zooms in and out. To verify this hypothesis it is necessary: (1) generate a SSC dataset (2) develop a software prototype where a dataset can be used in its full potential and (3) perform usability test. Hence this chapter will describe the benefits of such as smooth representation in more detail. Section 6.1 gives an introduction to the problem and it suggests our solution. Section 6.2 covers the theoretical background, principle and example of smooth zooming. Section 6.3 presents possible conversion strategies to smooth representation. Section 6.4 explains the software prototype for possible usability testing. This is followed by our initial usability test, which was carry out addition to our plans. More specific, Section 6.5 defines all elements of the testing. Section 6.6 presents preliminary results, and Section 6.7 describes gained experiences. Then, Section 6.8 summarizes possible improvements for the future

Modeling and Animating Human Figures in a CAD Environment

With the widespread acceptance of three-dimensional modeling techniques, high-speed hardware, and relatively low-cost computation, modeling and animating one or more human figures for the purposes of design assessment, human factors, task simulation, and human movement understanding has become feasible outside the animation production house environment. This tutorial will address the state-of-the-art in human figure geometric modeling, figure positioning, figure animation, and task simulation

Teaching Space Syntax Through Reflective Practice

12-15 June 200

Algorithms for a multi-projector CAVE system

With regards to facilitating development of VR applications, the main pur- pose of ALIVE is to reduce the amount of attention that the application developer has to dedicate to the issues that were described previously. In this project we aim to abstract the user from dealing with: Input devices. Display number and layout. De nition of the virtual cameras. Synchronization issues between cluster nodes. Notably missing from the list are 3D sound rendering and synchroniza- tion for non-deterministic algorithms. These problems are out of the scope of this project and will be addressed in the future. Summarizing the objectives of this project, we list: Provide an abstraction API, that facilitates development and deploy- ment of VR applications. Create a polygon renderer application based on the proposed API

Room of Errors - Feasibility and Design of a Simulation Training Concept in VR with Intentional Simulation Errors

In 2020, 13.1 percent of somatic hospital stays in Norway led to hospital-acquired complications or injuries. One way of working to prevent these events may be found in the education of health personnel. Nursing study programs have seen increased use of simulation training and Virtual Reality (VR). One method for simulation training is the “Room of Errors,” which asks participants to look for pre-established errors. Implementing this concept in VR introduces additional challenges: How should such an application be designed so that users recognize and accept the errors as part of the simulation and do not see them as the result of a faulty application? Previous studies have not considered cooperative Room of Errors simulation training in VR, which has added benefits in non-VR simulations. How feasible is it to support multiple concurrent users? This thesis addresses these questions by developing a VR Room of Errors application. Nine lecturers for Nurse Anesthetist, Intensive Care Nursing, and Operating Room Nursing study programs evaluated the application. They confirm its usability and that they would consider using the application as part of their simulation-based education. Importantly, the virtual environment is accepted by users, including intended and unintended simulation errors. Evaluations with two cooperating participants shows an added layer of communication and confirms the feasibility of multiple concurrent users. The concept is viable in VR, and development is practically and financially feasible.Masteroppgave i Programutvikling samarbeid med HVLPROG399MAMN-PRO