A pilot study using tactile cueing for gait rehabilitation following stroke

Recovery of walking function is a vital goal of post-stroke rehabilitation. Cueing using audio metronomes has been shown to improve gait, but can be impractical when interacting with others, particularly outdoors where awareness of vehicles and bicycles is essential. Audio is also unsuitable in environments with high background noise, or for those with a hearing impairment. If successful, lightweight portable tactile cueing has the potential to take the benefits of cueing out of the laboratory and into everyday life. The Haptic Bracelets are lightweight wireless devices containing a computer, accelerometers and low-latency vibrotactiles with a wide dynamic range. In this paper we review gait rehabilitation problems and existing solutions, and present an early pilot in which the Haptic Bracelets were applied to post-stroke gait rehabilitation. Tactile cueing during walking was well received in the pilot, and analysis of motion capture data showed immediate improvements in gait

Master of Science

thesisThe drywall trade is the 4th most hazardous in the construction industry, with a worker injury rate 4 times that of the industry average. On a daily basis, workers are exposed to slips, falls, and falling objects, in addition to the large and awkward loads they must carry. Drywall sheets can weigh more than 100 lb and be catastrophic to the health of the installer's shoulders and lower back. For this study, an unpowered lift assist device was developed to carry the load of a drywall sheet during the installation process. The device takes the form of a polar robot similar to a camera jib and allows the installer to move sheets effortlessly through the workspace. Initial calculations indicated a nearly 63% reduced weight in the user's hands. A testing regimen was developed to simulate a drywall installer's most hazardous lifting motions. These lifting motions were repeated both with and without the device for comparison. During these lifting motions, test subjects were fitted with electromyography (EMG) sensors on four lumbar muscles to measure muscle activation. Mean, peak, and effort data for the lifting exercises were extracted and compared to the unassisted lift. Test data revealed overall muscle activation across all four muscle groups on both lifting motions was reduced by 69%. These data support the effectiveness of the device and warrant future development of such a device

Prappctices in Physics For Engineering Students

[EN] Digital technologies are changing our communication way and are crucial and essential in our everyday lives, entertainment, study, and work. The educational sector incorporates more and more Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to create a more creative, participatory and socialising learning environment. In this challenging context, some prAPPactices with embedded use of apps have been introduced in our Physics laboratory as part of the new active teaching strategies to increase student satisfaction and motivation. We present three examples of the most representative newly introduced prAPPctices regarding acoustics, lighting and elasticity in our subjects in two different degrees (building engineering and mechanical engineering). Students become main actors in a smarter, portable, reproducible, and more exciting learning environment and the teacher role is set on a second layer. Creating a new, more exciting, personal and customised working and learning environment has improved student¿s engagement and satisfaction and the quality of the laboratory reports with direct and positive consequences on the grades.Salandin, A. (2020). Prappctices in Physics For Engineering Students. Studies in Educational Management (SEM). 8:1-9. https://doi.org/10.32038/sem.2020.08.0119

Make the smell dancing : designing an experimental interactive purifying device near an open fire for frequent users in Finnish Lapland

In Finnish Lapland, a “laavu” is a lean-to structure that is used by the Finnish people in the open air to get warmth and rest. It is a cultural heritage that evokes the positive feeling of relaxing in a safe place and enjoying nature with family and friends. Often people who use the laavu do not mind the smell of the smoke even though there are a few airborne pollutants generated by burning logs. In my research, I am approaching the dilemma of the cultural and simultaneously pollutant phenomenon of smoke by designing an interactive purifying device using negative ionization technology to cluster the pollutant to the ground for the benefit of the users and the environment. Besides, previous studies show that applying a negative ionizer has a positive effect on depression and stress. The thermoelectric effect is used to power the device as a clean energy source. The research methods are Design-Based Research, Service Design and the Agile process method, and Art-Based Action Research. The data was collected on site by questionnaires and the researcher’s observation diary, and from interviews in the University of Lapland. The artistic production as the result of the research project is presented by several interactive prototypes, the structure of which aims to integrate modern technology and interactive art into the traditional experience of using a laavu. The comparison and conflict between the diverse individual feelings towards fire, smoke, and artistic technology applied to nature and the environment is also probed and discussed

A novel robotic platform to assist, train, and study head-neck movement

Moving the head-neck freely is an everyday task that a healthy person takes for granted. Such a simple movement, however, may be very challenging for individuals with neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. These individuals often do not have enough neck muscle strength to stabilize the head at the upright neutral or to move it in a controlled manner. Static braces are commonly prescribed to these patients. However, these braces often fix the head at a single configuration, which makes them uncomfortable to wear for an extended period of time. In this thesis, a robotic neck brace is developed. It accommodates three rotations and covers roughly 70% range of motion of the head-neck of a typical able-bodied adult. The hardware is lightweight (1.5 kilogram) and wearable, with a pair of pads and a soft band attached to the shoulders and the forehead, respectively. A parallel mechanism connecting the shoulder pads and the headband was designed to meet the empirical human movement data. This design choice is novel where the parasitic motion (translation of the head) was parameterized and optimized to address misalignment between the robot and the user's head. A user can control this neck brace to assist intended head-neck movement through input devices, including hand-held joysticks, keyboards, and eye-trackers. This provides a potential solution to remediate head drop. Additionally, this robotic brace is developed into a versatile platform to train and study head-neck movements. The robot was designed to be highly transparent to the user and features different force controllers. Therefore, it can be used to assess the free movement of the head-neck and mimic different interactions between a therapist and a patient. The modalities of this neck brace have been validated with different users. To the best of our knowledge, this robotic neck brace is the first in the literature to assist, train, and study head-neck movements

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Haptics Rendering and Applications

There has been significant progress in haptic technologies but the incorporation of haptics into virtual environments is still in its infancy. A wide range of the new society's human activities including communication, education, art, entertainment, commerce and science would forever change if we learned how to capture, manipulate and reproduce haptic sensory stimuli that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. For the field to move forward, many commercial and technological barriers need to be overcome. By rendering how objects feel through haptic technology, we communicate information that might reflect a desire to speak a physically- based language that has never been explored before. Due to constant improvement in haptics technology and increasing levels of research into and development of haptics-related algorithms, protocols and devices, there is a belief that haptics technology has a promising future

Combining physical constraints with geometric constraint-based modeling for virtual assembly

The research presented in this dissertation aims to create a virtual assembly environment capable of simulating the constant and subtle interactions (hand-part, part-part) that occur during manual assembly, and providing appropriate feedback to the user in real-time. A virtual assembly system called SHARP System for Haptic Assembly and Realistic Prototyping is created, which utilizes simulated physical constraints for part placement during assembly.;The first approach taken in this research attempt utilized Voxmap Point Shell (VPS) software for implementing collision detection and physics-based modeling in SHARP. A volumetric approach, where complex CAD models were represented by numerous small cubic-voxel elements was used to obtain fast physics update rates (500--1000 Hz). A novel dual-handed haptic interface was developed and integrated into the system allowing the user to simultaneously manipulate parts with both hands. However, coarse model approximations used for collision detection and physics-based modeling only allowed assembly when minimum clearance was limited to ∼8-10%.;To provide a solution to the low clearance assembly problem, the second effort focused on importing accurate parametric CAD data (B-Rep) models into SHARP. These accurate B-Rep representations are used for collision detection as well as for simulating physical contacts more accurately. A new hybrid approach is presented, which combines the simulated physical constraints with geometric constraints which can be defined at runtime. Different case studies are used to identify the suitable combination of methods (collision detection, physical constraints, geometric constraints) capable of best simulating intricate interactions and environment behavior during manual assembly. An innovative automatic constraint recognition algorithm is created and integrated into SHARP. The feature-based approach utilized for the algorithm design, facilitates faster identification of potential geometric constraints that need to be defined. This approach results in optimized system performance while providing a more natural user experience for assembly