Design and assembly of a magneto-inertial wearable device for ecological behavioural analysis of infants

There are recent evidence which show how brain development is strictly linked to the action. Movements shape and are, in turn, shaped by cortical and sub-cortical areas. In particular spontaneous movements of newborn infants matter for developing the capability of generating voluntary skill movements. Therefore studying spontaneous infants’ movements can be useful to understand the main developmental milestones achieved by humans from birth onward. This work focuses on the design and development of a mechatronic wearable device for ecological movement analysis called WAMS (Wrist and Ankle Movement Sensor). The design and assembling of the device is presented, as well as the communication protocol and the synchronization with other marker-based optical movement analysis systems

Proto-type installation of a double-station system for the optical-video-detection and orbital characterisation of a meteor/fireball in South Korea

We give a detailed description of the installation and operation of a double-station meteor detection system which formed part of a research & education project between Korea Astronomy Space Science Institute and Daejeon Science Highschool. A total of six light-sensitive CCD cameras were installed with three cameras at SOAO and three cameras at BOAO observatory. A double-station observation of a meteor event enables the determination of the three-dimensional orbit in space. This project was initiated in response to the Jinju fireball event in March 2014. The cameras were installed in October/November 2014. The two stations are identical in hardware as well as software. Each station employes sensitive Watec-902H2 cameras in combination with relatively fast f/1.2 lenses. Various fields of views were used for measuring differences in detection rates of meteor events. We employed the SonotaCo UFO software suite for meteor detection and their subsequent analysis. The system setup as well as installation/operation experience is described and first results are presented. We also give a brief overview of historic as well as recent meteor (fall) detections in South Korea. For more information please consult http://meteor.kasi.re.kr .Comment: Technical/instrumentation description of a professional meteor detection system, 23 pages, 20 figures (color/monochrome), 5 tables, submitted to the Journal of Korean Astronomical Society (JKAS, http://jkas.kas.org/, http://jkas.kas.org/history.html

Automated single-cell motility analysis on a chip using lensfree microscopy.

Quantitative cell motility studies are necessary for understanding biophysical processes, developing models for cell locomotion and for drug discovery. Such studies are typically performed by controlling environmental conditions around a lens-based microscope, requiring costly instruments while still remaining limited in field-of-view. Here we present a compact cell monitoring platform utilizing a wide-field (24 mm(2)) lensless holographic microscope that enables automated single-cell tracking of large populations that is compatible with a standard laboratory incubator. We used this platform to track NIH 3T3 cells on polyacrylamide gels over 20 hrs. We report that, over an order of magnitude of stiffness values, collagen IV surfaces lead to enhanced motility compared to fibronectin, in agreement with biological uses of these structural proteins. The increased throughput associated with lensfree on-chip imaging enables higher statistical significance in observed cell behavior and may facilitate rapid screening of drugs and genes that affect cell motility

Aggressive Quadrotor Flight through Narrow Gaps with Onboard Sensing and Computing using Active Vision

We address one of the main challenges towards autonomous quadrotor flight in complex environments, which is flight through narrow gaps. While previous works relied on off-board localization systems or on accurate prior knowledge of the gap position and orientation, we rely solely on onboard sensing and computing and estimate the full state by fusing gap detection from a single onboard camera with an IMU. This problem is challenging for two reasons: (i) the quadrotor pose uncertainty with respect to the gap increases quadratically with the distance from the gap; (ii) the quadrotor has to actively control its orientation towards the gap to enable state estimation (i.e., active vision). We solve this problem by generating a trajectory that considers geometric, dynamic, and perception constraints: during the approach maneuver, the quadrotor always faces the gap to allow state estimation, while respecting the vehicle dynamics; during the traverse through the gap, the distance of the quadrotor to the edges of the gap is maximized. Furthermore, we replan the trajectory during its execution to cope with the varying uncertainty of the state estimate. We successfully evaluate and demonstrate the proposed approach in many real experiments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that addresses and achieves autonomous, aggressive flight through narrow gaps using only onboard sensing and computing and without prior knowledge of the pose of the gap

Review of machine-vision based methodologies for displacement measurement in civil structures

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Vision-based systems are promising tools for displacement measurement in civil structures, possessing advantages over traditional displacement sensors in instrumentation cost, installation efforts and measurement capacity in terms of frequency range and spatial resolution. Approximately one hundred papers to date have appeared on this subject, investigating topics like: system development and improvement, the viability on field applications and the potential for structural condition assessment. The main contribution of this paper is to present a literature review of vision-based displacement measurement, from the perspectives of methodologies and applications. Video processing procedures in this paper are summarised as a three-component framework, camera calibration, target tracking and structural displacement calculation. Methods for each component are presented in principle, with discussions about the relative advantages and limitations. Applications in the two most active fields: bridge deformation and cable vibration measurement are examined followed by a summary of field challenges observed in monitoring tests. Important gaps requiring further investigation are presented e.g. robust tracking methods, non-contact sensing and measurement accuracy evaluation in field conditions

Non-contact vision-based deformation monitoring on bridge structures

Information on deformation is an important metric for bridge condition and performance assessment, e.g. identifying abnormal events, calibrating bridge models and estimating load carrying capacities, etc. However, accurate measurement of bridge deformation, especially for long-span bridges remains as a challenging task. The major aim of this research is to develop practical and cost-effective techniques for accurate deformation monitoring on bridge structures. Vision-based systems are taken as the study focus due to a few reasons: low cost, easy installation, desired sample rates, remote and distributed sensing, etc. This research proposes an custom-developed vision-based system for bridge deformation monitoring. The system supports either consumer-grade or professional cameras and incorporates four advanced video tracking methods to adapt to different test situations. The sensing accuracy is firstly quantified in laboratory conditions. The working performance in field testing is evaluated on one short-span and one long-span bridge examples considering several influential factors i.e. long-range sensing, low-contrast target patterns, pattern changes and lighting changes. Through case studies, some suggestions about tracking method selection are summarised for field testing. Possible limitations of vision-based systems are illustrated as well. To overcome observed limitations of vision-based systems, this research further proposes a mixed system combining cameras with accelerometers for accurate deformation measurement. To integrate displacement with acceleration data autonomously, a novel data fusion method based on Kalman filter and maximum likelihood estimation is proposed. Through field test validation, the method is effective for improving displacement accuracy and widening frequency bandwidth. The mixed system based on data fusion is implemented on field testing of a railway bridge considering undesired test conditions (e.g. low-contrast target patterns and camera shake). Analysis results indicate that the system offers higher accuracy than using a camera alone and is viable for bridge influence line estimation. With considerable accuracy and resolution in time and frequency domains, the potential of vision-based measurement for vibration monitoring is investigated. The proposed vision-based system is applied on a cable-stayed footbridge for deck deformation and cable vibration measurement under pedestrian loading. Analysis results indicate that the measured data enables accurate estimation of modal frequencies and could be used to investigate variations of modal frequencies under varying pedestrian loads. The vision-based system in this application is used for multi-point vibration measurement and provides results comparable to those obtained using an array of accelerometers

A multi-projector CAVE system with commodity hardware and gesture-based interaction

Spatially-immersive systems such as CAVEs provide users with surrounding worlds by projecting 3D models on multiple screens around the viewer. Compared to alternative immersive systems such as HMDs, CAVE systems are a powerful tool for collaborative inspection of virtual environments due to better use of peripheral vision, less sensitivity to tracking errors, and higher communication possibilities among users. Unfortunately, traditional CAVE setups require sophisticated equipment including stereo-ready projectors and tracking systems with high acquisition and maintenance costs. In this paper we present the design and construction of a passive-stereo, four-wall CAVE system based on commodity hardware. Our system works with any mix of a wide range of projector models that can be replaced independently at any time, and achieves high resolution and brightness at a minimum cost. The key ingredients of our CAVE are a self-calibration approach that guarantees continuity across the screen, as well as a gesture-based interaction approach based on a clever combination of skeletal data from multiple Kinect sensors.Preprin