Aiding the Visually Impaired: Developing an efficient Braille Printer

With the large number of partially or completely visually impaired persons in society, their integration as productive, educated and capable members of society is hampered heavily by a pervasively high level of braille illiteracy. This problem is further compounded by the fact that braille printers are prohibitively expensive - generally starting from two thousand US dollars, beyond the reach of the common man. Over the period of a year, the authors have tried to develop a Braille printer which attempts to overcome the problems inherent in commercial printers. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to introduce two prototypes - the first with an emphasis of cost-effectiveness, and the second prototype, which is more experimental and aims to eliminate several demerits of Braille printing. The first prototype has been constructed at a cost significantly less than the existing commercial braille printers. Both the prototypes of the device have been constructed, which will be shown.Comment: 6 pages. IEEE accepted paper (not published yet) International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI-2017

Robust Learning-Based Incipient Slip Detection using the PapillArray Optical Tactile Sensor for Improved Robotic Gripping

The ability to detect slip, particularly incipient slip, enables robotic systems to take corrective measures to prevent a grasped object from being dropped. Therefore, slip detection can enhance the overall security of robotic gripping. However, accurately detecting incipient slip remains a significant challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel learning-based approach to detect incipient slip using the PapillArray (Contactile, Australia) tactile sensor. The resulting model is highly effective in identifying patterns associated with incipient slip, achieving a detection success rate of 95.6% when tested with an offline dataset. Furthermore, we introduce several data augmentation methods to enhance the robustness of our model. When transferring the trained model to a robotic gripping environment distinct from where the training data was collected, our model maintained robust performance, with a success rate of 96.8%, providing timely feedback for stabilizing several practical gripping tasks. Our project website: https://sites.google.com/view/incipient-slip-detection

Integration of Kinesthetic and Tactile Display: A Modular Design Concept

This paper describes the systematic design of a modular setup for several integrated kinesthetic and cutaneous (tactile) display configurations. The proposed modular integration of a kinesthetic display and several tactile displays in serial configuration provides a versatile experimental setup to explore the integration of the kinesthetic and tactile modality of the human perception. The kinesthetic base display is a hyper-redundant device and sufficiently powerful to carry each of the compact tactile displays. In addition to a detailed description of the partly novel displays, a series of preliminary evaluation experiments is presented

Limb ownership and voluntary action: human behavioral and neuroimaging studies

To be able to interact with our surroundings in a goal directed manner, we need to have sense what our body is made up of as well as a sense of being able to control our body. These two experiences, the sense of body ownership and the sense of agency, respectively, are fundamental to our self-perception but have historically not received any notable attention from the scientific community. This lack of interest probably stems from the fact that these experiences are phenomenologically thin in our everyday lives and that we cannot voluntarily turn them off, they are constantly there. However, for patients suffering from disturbances in the processes underlying these experiences, their importance becomes exceedingly clear. Lesions in the frontal, temporal or parietal lobe can lead to patients losing the sense of ownership of their limb (asomatognosia), and sometimes even attributing the limb to someone else (somatoparaphrenia). Similarly, patients suffering from lesions in the frontal lobe, parietal lobe or corpus callosum can experience a lack of control over their own hand (anarchic hand syndrome), while patients suffering from schizophrenia display difficulties in distinguishing self-generated from externally generated actions, implicating disturbances in the processes underlying the sense of agency. With the discovery of body illusions, combined with functional neuroimaging, it became possible to study the perceptual and neural mechanisms of the sense of body ownership in healthy volunteers. Studies using these illusions have elucidated the perceptual rules of body ownership as well as its neural correlates and has given rise to a number of different philosophical, neurocognitive and computational models of the sense of body ownership. Meanwhile, the sense of agency has mostly been studied disconnected from the sense of body ownership, focusing on agency over self-generated external sensory effects such as auditory tones. This thesis sought to bring these two experiences together and advance our knowledge of the perceptual and neural mechanisms underlying the sense of body ownership and the sense of agency as well how these two experiences interact. Studies I & II investigate certain aspects of the sense of body ownership, and in particular its relation to the visuo-proprioceptive recalibration of limb position often seen in bodily illusions. Study III investigated how this visuo-proprioceptive recalibration is related to voluntary, but unconscious movements. Study IV investigated the neural correlates of the sense of body ownership and agency as well as their interaction. In Study I, we present empirical evidence in favor of models where the subjective sense of limb ownership is not reliant on a visuo-proprioceptive recalibration of perceived limb position. In Study II, we show that the subjective sense of limb ownership and the visuo-proprioceptive recalibration of limb position have similar temporal decay curves, suggestive of a causal relationship between them. In Study III, we show that the increase in the recalibration of limb position seen in active movements is not dependent on conscious intention, action awareness or salient error signals, indicative of an unconscious efference copy-based mechanism. Finally, in Study IV, we identify brain regions in the frontal and parietal lobe which are associated with the sense of body ownership, while brain regions in the frontal and temporal lobe are associated with the sense of agency. We show that the sense of agency in the presence of a sense of body ownership (i.e., agency of bodily actions) is associated with increased activity in the primary sensory cortex, whereas the sense of agency in the absence of ownership (i.e., agency of external events) is associated with increased activity in the visual association cortex. Together, these findings shed light on the perceptual and neural mechanisms underlying the sense of body ownership and agency as well as their interaction

Real-TIme and Networked Displays: Data Streams in Art Applications

In a world that has become vastly more complicated, multi-layered information systems have an increasingly compelling impact. Access to complex, interactive data is necessary to informed thought and global action. Utilizing computer modeling, aesthetically-driven prototypes for displaying numerical data provide fresh viewpoints, promoting deeper awareness of living institutions and developing trends. Visually compelling information lends clarity to the grand cycles of nature and human creativity, while revealing intimate perspectives on daily life. This versatile project emphasizes artistically sophisticated live data streams. Evolving artworks allow for a multitude of display options; images can be projected onto architectural or sculptural forms, displayed in buildings, terminals, and offices, and accessed via PDA\u27s and the web. Artists, scientists, and other experts will research data to be utilized in the creation of responsive visualizations. The displays seek to provide the technological infrastructure to 1) sustain the ability for creation of evolving information forms as modes of presentation advance 2) allow for live visualization of dynamic data streams relevant on local, regional and global levels, and 3) open up the possibility for imaginative uses of data to experts pursuing different methodologies. A robust, scalable framework for adapting data visualizations to various platforms will be implemented through utilization of open, standards-based software libraries. A central server will aggregate public syndication feeds of data related to pertinent subject areas. Through a web syndication protocol, streaming information will be used as the source of data for display. Server resources open to the public as well as research communities can aid in the study of current issues through artistically and contextually accurate visualization. The project will help detect long-term patterns in the global environment! , enhance sensitivity to the quietly functioning aspects of our surroundings, and open expanded avenues for collaboration between the arts and sciences

Standard methods for Apis mellifera anatomy and dissection

An understanding of the anatomy and functions of internal and external structures is fundamental to many studies on the honey bee Apis mellifera. Similarly, proficiency in dissection techniques is vital for many more complex procedures. In this paper, which is a prelude to the other papers of the COLOSS BEEBOOK, we outline basic honey bee anatomy and basic dissection techniques

Wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand: taxonomy, review and perspectives

In the last decade, we have witnessed a drastic change in the form factor of audio and vision technologies, from heavy and grounded machines to lightweight devices that naturally fit our bodies. However, only recently, haptic systems have started to be designed with wearability in mind. The wearability of haptic systems enables novel forms of communication, cooperation, and integration between humans and machines. Wearable haptic interfaces are capable of communicating with the human wearers during their interaction with the environment they share, in a natural and yet private way. This paper presents a taxonomy and review of wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand, focusing on those systems directly addressing wearability challenges. The paper also discusses the main technological and design challenges for the development of wearable haptic interfaces, and it reports on the future perspectives of the field. Finally, the paper includes two tables summarizing the characteristics and features of the most representative wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand