A study of applications of microcomputer technology in special education in western Massachusetts schools.

The purpose of this study is to survey microcomputer applications in special education in Western Massachusetts Schools and, in particular, to assess the extent to which special education is moving beyond drill and practice software with special needs students. Data were collected from 185 special education teachers by a questionnaire and follow-up interviews from eleven special education teachers in Western Massachusetts. Results showed that computers and software are generally integrated in special education teachers\u27 curricula. They used the microcomputer as a compensatory tool to sharpen students\u27 mathematics skills, language arts and reading comprehension. Some special education teachers also used computers for language assessment, speech training, eye-hand coordination and communication. Apple computers were the most popular brand used in this study. Adaptive devices such as firmware cards, switches, and speech synthesizers were used to help special needs students access computers. Computer-assisted instruction, word processing and games were the most popular software used. Students worked on computers generally alone, or in a small group, or in combination; the amount of supervision required depended upon students\u27 functioning level and physical limitations. Most special education teachers did not teach and computer language; only a few teachers explored Logo or BASIC with their students. Special education teachers realized that the computer is a good tool to motivate students and to increase self-esteem and attention; they received some inservice training on computer uses, but complained that it was not enough to help their students. Factors making it difficult for special education teachers to use computers were: lack of appropriate software, teachers being behind the trend, not enough class time to use computers, and perceptions of computers as dehumanizing. The study concludes with recommendations for increasing special education teachers\u27 computer training via input from hardware and software experts, and for requiring special education teachers to take introductory computer courses such as Logo, BASIC programming, authoring language systems and software evaluation. Also, it recommends that school administrations give financial and technical support for such training in order to use microcomputers and related devices more effectively

Role of Therapeutic Devices in Enhancing Speech Intelligibility and Vocal Intensity in an Individual with Parkinson’s Disease

The prevailing speech therapy techniques for treating hypokinetic dysarthria in individuals with Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) yields improvements within the clinical setting, however, maintenance and generalization of acquired behaviors continue to be a challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of portable therapeutic devices including Ambulatory Phonation Monitor with biofeedback (APM) and auditory masker in maintenance and carryover of improved speech. Our participant was an individual diagnosed with PD for the past 25 years who continued to display speech disturbances despite undergoing several behavioral speech therapy programs and neurosurgical procedures. Speech intelligibility and average intensity measures under automatic, elicited, and spontaneous speech tasks were recorded pre- and postusage of APM and auditory masker for a period of 1 week each. Preliminary findings showed no significant difference in the measures between means (P\u3e0.05) across all tasks for both the devices. Suggestions for future research on therapeutic devices are discussed

Advanced technological aids for the handicapped

Call number: LD2668 .R4 CMSC 1988 M37Master of ScienceComputing and Information Science

State of the art review on walking support system for visually impaired people

The technology for terrain detection and walking support system for blind people has rapidly been improved the last couple of decades but to assist visually impaired people may have started long ago. Currently, a variety of portable or wearable navigation system is available in the market to help the blind for navigating their way in his local or remote area. The focused category in this work can be subgroups as electronic travel aids (ETAs), electronic orientation aids (EOAs) and position locator devices (PLDs). However, we will focus mainly on electronic travel aids (ETAs). This paper presents a comparative survey among the various portable or wearable walking support systems as well as informative description (a subcategory of ETAs or early stages of ETAs) with its working principal advantages and disadvantages so that the researchers can easily get the current stage of assisting blind technology along with the requirement for optimising the design of walking support system for its users

On the development of a cybernetic prosthetic hand

The human hand is the end organ of the upper limb, which in humans serves the important function of prehension, as well as being an important organ for sensation and communication. It is a marvellous example of how a complex mechanism can be implemented, capable of realizing very complex and useful tasks using a very effective combination of mechanisms, sensing, actuation and control functions. In this thesis, the road towards the realization of a cybernetic hand has been presented. After a detailed analysis of the model, the human hand, a deep review of the state of the art of artificial hands has been carried out. In particular, the performance of prosthetic hands used in clinical practice has been compared with the research prototypes, both for prosthetic and for robotic applications. By following a biomechatronic approach, i.e. by comparing the characteristics of these hands with the natural model, the human hand, the limitations of current artificial devices will be put in evidence, thus outlining the design goals for a new cybernetic device. Three hand prototypes with a high number of degrees of freedom have been realized and tested: the first one uses microactuators embedded inside the structure of the fingers, and the second and third prototypes exploit the concept of microactuation in order to increase the dexterity of the hand while maintaining the simplicity for the control. In particular, a framework for the definition and realization of the closed-loop electromyographic control of these devices has been presented and implemented. The results were quite promising, putting in evidence that, in the future, there could be two different approaches for the realization of artificial devices. On one side there could be the EMG-controlled hands, with compliant fingers but only one active degree of freedom. On the other side, more performing artificial hands could be directly interfaced with the peripheral nervous system, thus establishing a bi-directional communication with the human brain

Investigation into the control of an upper-limb myoelectric prosthesis

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN053608 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Effects of surrogate feedback on the temporal coordination of sequential movements

Bei der Steuerung von Bewegungen verwendet das motorische System verschiedene Arten von Rückmeldungen, um die Präzision zu erhöhen. Dies lässt sich z.B. bei Greif- und Hebe-Bewegungen beobachten, bei denen die taktile Rückmeldung von den Fingerspitzen dazu genutzt wird, die Griffkraft zu regulieren. Dies ist nicht auf gleiche Modalitäten beschränkt -- so können z.B. auditive Rückmeldungen dazu genutzt werden, die Variabilität bei einer Tapping-Aufgabe zu senken. Eine zentrale Fragestellung im Kontext von Assistenzsystemen für Nutzer mit sensomotorischen Defiziten ist, ob künstlich erzeugte sensorische Rückmeldungen ebenfalls dazu genutzt werden können, die Präzision von Bewegungen zu verbessern. In dieser Arbeit wurden verschiedene Aspekte dieser Fragestellung anhand einer Tapping-Aufgabe untersucht. Hierzu wurden mehrere abhängige Variablen genutzt, z.B. globale Maße wie konstanter und variabler Fehler, aber auch Messungen der aufgewandten Kraft bei den Tapping-Bewegungen. Desweiteren wurde ein bekanntes Modell aus der psychologischen Grundlagenforschung eingesetzt: Das Zwei-Ebenen-Modell (WKM) von Wing und Kristofferson (1973b). Das WKM teilt die bei rhytmischen Bewegungen gemessene Variabilität in zwei Komponenten auf: Eine zentralnervöse Zeitgeber-Struktur und die motorischen Umsetzung. Neuere Studien zeigen, dass der zentrale Zeitgeber sensorisches Feedback integriert -- im Gegensatz zu der ursprünglichen Annahme von Wing und Kristofferson, die den Zeitgeber als offenen Regelkreis annahmen. Daher wurde in dieser Arbeit überprüft, ob sich das WKM eignet, um den Einfluss von künstlichen sensorischen Rückmeldungen auf die Variabilität zu modellieren. Experiment 1 zeigte, dass künstliche taktile Rückmeldungen sowohl am Zeigefinger als auch am großen Zeh integriert werden können, mit lediglich geringen Unterschieden. Experiment 2 erweiterte die Befunde, indem gezeigt wurde, dass taktile Rückmeldungen auch bis zu einem gewissen Grad die endogenen taktilen Rückmelddungen kompensieren können, wenn diese reduziert werden. Jedoch gab es in beiden Experimenten unerwartetes Verhalten der Schätzwerte für zentrale und periphere Varianz. In Experiment 2 wurde bestätigt, dass ca. ein Drittel aller Trials nicht die Modellannahmen erfüllten, was der Grund für das unerwartete Verhalten sein könnte. Um Vergleiche mit anderen Studien zu ermöglichen, wurde das Modell dennoch in den verbleibenden Experimenten angewandt. Die verbleibenden drei Experimente befassten sich mit Fragestellungen, die während Experiment 1 und 2 auftauchten. In Experiment 3 wurde untersucht, ob sich die Vertrautheit mit den künstlichen taktilen Rückmeldungen steigern lässt, wenn die Vorgabe der Tapping-Geschwindigkeit nicht durch Töne erfolgt, sondern ebenfalls durch taktile Pulse. Dies war nicht der Fall. Experiment 4 führte eine künstliche, systematisch variierte Verzögerung der künstlichen Rückmeldungen ein. Die Verzögerung war dazu gedacht, die Verlässlichkeit der künstlichen Rückmeldungen zu manipulieren. In den Maßen für zeitliche Präzision hatte dies bereits einen Effekt ab der niedrigsten Verzögerungsstufe. Bei den Kraftmaßen war der Effekt am ausgeprägtesten für mittlere Verzögerungsstufen. Die Verzögerung wurde bei Experiment 5 beibehalten, aber zusätzlich wurde neben den künstlichen taktilen Rückmeldungen auch auditive Rückmeldungen verwendet. Dies führte zu deutlich ausgeprägteren Effekten in sowohl den Zeit- als auch den Kraftmaßen. Außerdem wurden zwei Altersgruppen miteinander verglichen. Ältere Probanden zeigten im Ganzen eine mit den jüngeren Probanden vergleichbare Leistung bei den Maßen für zeitliche Präzision. Bei den Kraftmaßen zeigten sich hingegen klare Unterschiede zwischen beiden Altersgruppen. Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass die Befunde der Experimente in dieser Arbeit zur Literatur passen. Jedoch sprechen die häufigen Verletzungen der Modellannahmen sowie das unverwartete Verhalten der Schätzwerte für zentrale und periphere Varianz gegen die Anwendung des WKM um den Einfluß von künstlichem Feedback zu modellieren. Hierzu erwiesen sich die globalen Maße als geeigneter. Die Kraftmaße erschienen ebenfalls vielversprechend, bedürfen allerdings noch weiterer Erforschung vor einer eventuellen praktischen Anwendung.The human motor system integrates various sources of feedback to increase movement precision. This can be observed, for instance, when lifting an object with the thumb and index finger, where the tactile sensory feedback of the fingertips is being used to control the amount of grip force applied. Other modalities can be used as well (e.g., auditory feedback helps to produce more regular intervals in a tapping task). In the context of an assistance system for users with sensorimotor deficits, a general question is whether artificially generated sensory feedback can be used as surrogate sensory feedback to enhance movement precision. This thesis examined several aspects of this question by means of a tapping task. Several methods were chosen to evaluate whether the feedback was integrated. Global measures of timing precision (viz., constant and variable error), as well as measurement of the applied force at the tapping movements during the continuation phase were employed. Furthermore, a well-known model from basic psychological research, the two-level timing model for interresponse intervals by Wing and Kristofferson (1973b), was applied. The two-level timing model distinguishes a central timing structure and the motor implementation processes by partitioning the observed global interresponse interval variance into a central and a peripheral variance component. Recent studies showed that the central timing structure seems to integrate sensory feedback—despite that it was originally assumed as an open loop process. Therefore, it was assessed whether the two-level timing model is also suited to model the influence of surrogate sensory feedback on the timing of movements, and how the variance components are influenced under such circumstances. Experiment 1 showed that surrogate tactile feedback could be integrated when applied on both the finger and the hallux (big toe) with little differences. Experiment 2 extended the findings, showing that the surrogate tactile feedback could compensate for missing sensory reafferences to some extent. However, in both experiments, the estimators of the two-level timing model also showed unexpected behavior, such as an increase of the peripheral variance with target interval. In Experiment 2, it was confirmed that about a third of all trials did not met the model assumptions, which may be the cause for the unexpected behavior. To maintain comparability with a number of studies, the remaining experiments continued to apply the variance decomposition, despite the unmet assumptions. The remaining three experiments addressed questions which arose during Experiments 1 and 2. Experiment 3 investigated whether the pacing modality could increase the familiarity with the surrogate tactile feedback, if the tapping speed was also given using tactile pacing stimuli instead of audio stimuli. This was not the case. Experiment 4 introduced a systematically varied delay of the surrogate feedback signal in order to manipulate the perceived reliability. The delay manifested in the temporal measures already at the lowest level of delay. Furthermore, the force measures (e.g., amplitudes) indicated that the force regulation was most economic for mid-range values of the delay. Experiment 5 compared the influence of two different modalities (tactile vs. audio) across systematically varied delays. The effects of audio feedback were much more pronounced, on both the temporal and force measures. Furthermore, two different age groups were compared. The older adults generally performed comparable to the younger adults at the temporal measures. The force measures instead showed clear differences between both age groups in general but also regarding the integration of surrogate feedback in particular. To conclude, the effects found were generally in line with the literature. However, the problematic behavior of the estimators as well as the frequently unmet model assumptions oppose the application of the two-level timing model in this context. For evaluating the effect of surrogate sensory feedback, the global measures of timing precision performed better. Force measures also seemed promising, but require further research to increase understanding prior to application in a practical context

Integration of Assistive Technologies into 3D Simulations: Exploratory Studies

Virtual worlds and environments have many purposes, ranging from games to scientific research. However, universal accessibility features in such virtual environments are limited. As the impairment prevalence rate increases yearly, so does the research interests in the field of assistive technologies. This work introduces research in assistive technologies and presents three software developments that explore the integration of assistive technologies within virtual environments, with a strong focus on Brain-Computer Interfaces. An accessible gaming system, a hands-free navigation software system, and a Brain-Computer Interaction plugin have been developed to study the capabilities of accessibility features within virtual 3D environments. Details of the specification, design, and implementation of these software applications are presented in the thesis. Observations and preliminary results as well as directions of future work are also included