8 research outputs found

    Medical Robotics

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    The first generation of surgical robots are already being installed in a number of operating rooms around the world. Robotics is being introduced to medicine because it allows for unprecedented control and precision of surgical instruments in minimally invasive procedures. So far, robots have been used to position an endoscope, perform gallbladder surgery and correct gastroesophogeal reflux and heartburn. The ultimate goal of the robotic surgery field is to design a robot that can be used to perform closed-chest, beating-heart surgery. The use of robotics in surgery will expand over the next decades without any doubt. Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a revolutionary approach in surgery. In MIS, the operation is performed with instruments and viewing equipment inserted into the body through small incisions created by the surgeon, in contrast to open surgery with large incisions. This minimizes surgical trauma and damage to healthy tissue, resulting in shorter patient recovery time. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the state-of-art, to present new ideas, original results and practical experiences in this expanding area. Nevertheless, many chapters in the book concern advanced research on this growing area. The book provides critical analysis of clinical trials, assessment of the benefits and risks of the application of these technologies. This book is certainly a small sample of the research activity on Medical Robotics going on around the globe as you read it, but it surely covers a good deal of what has been done in the field recently, and as such it works as a valuable source for researchers interested in the involved subjects, whether they are currently “medical roboticists” or not

    The Future of Humanoid Robots

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    This book provides state of the art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the field of humanoid robotics and its applications. It is expected that humanoids will change the way we interact with machines, and will have the ability to blend perfectly into an environment already designed for humans. The book contains chapters that aim to discover the future abilities of humanoid robots by presenting a variety of integrated research in various scientific and engineering fields, such as locomotion, perception, adaptive behavior, human-robot interaction, neuroscience and machine learning. The book is designed to be accessible and practical, with an emphasis on useful information to those working in the fields of robotics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computational methods and other fields of science directly or indirectly related to the development and usage of future humanoid robots. The editor of the book has extensive R&D experience, patents, and publications in the area of humanoid robotics, and his experience is reflected in editing the content of the book

    Experimental Evaluation of Growing and Pruning Hyper Basis Function Neural Networks Trained with Extended Information Filter

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    In this paper we test Extended Information Filter (EIF) for sequential training of Hyper Basis Function Neural Networks with growing and pruning ability (HBF-GP). The HBF neuron allows different scaling of input dimensions to provide better generalization property when dealing with complex nonlinear problems in engineering practice. The main intuition behind HBF is in generalization of Gaussian type of neuron that applies Mahalanobis-like distance as a distance metrics between input training sample and prototype vector. We exploit concept of neuron’s significance and allow growing and pruning of HBF neurons during sequential learning process. From engineer’s perspective, EIF is attractive for training of neural networks because it allows a designer to have scarce initial knowledge of the system/problem. Extensive experimental study shows that HBF neural network trained with EIF achieves same prediction error and compactness of network topology when compared to EKF, but without the need to know initial state uncertainty, which is its main advantage over EKF

    Bioinspired metaheuristic algorithms for global optimization

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    This paper presents concise comparison study of newly developed bioinspired algorithms for global optimization problems. Three different metaheuristic techniques, namely Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO), Firefly Algorithm (FA), and Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) are investigated and implemented in Matlab environment. These methods are compared on four unimodal and multimodal nonlinear functions in order to find global optimum values. Computational results indicate that GWO outperforms other intelligent techniques, and that all aforementioned algorithms can be successfully used for optimization of continuous functions

    Perceptually Optimized Visualization on Autostereoscopic 3D Displays

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    The family of displays, which aims to visualize a 3D scene with realistic depth, are known as "3D displays". Due to technical limitations and design decisions, such displays create visible distortions, which are interpreted by the human vision as artefacts. In absence of visual reference (e.g. the original scene is not available for comparison) one can improve the perceived quality of the representations by making the distortions less visible. This thesis proposes a number of signal processing techniques for decreasing the visibility of artefacts on 3D displays. The visual perception of depth is discussed, and the properties (depth cues) of a scene which the brain uses for assessing an image in 3D are identified. Following the physiology of vision, a taxonomy of 3D artefacts is proposed. The taxonomy classifies the artefacts based on their origin and on the way they are interpreted by the human visual system. The principles of operation of the most popular types of 3D displays are explained. Based on the display operation principles, 3D displays are modelled as a signal processing channel. The model is used to explain the process of introducing distortions. It also allows one to identify which optical properties of a display are most relevant to the creation of artefacts. A set of optical properties for dual-view and multiview 3D displays are identified, and a methodology for measuring them is introduced. The measurement methodology allows one to derive the angular visibility and crosstalk of each display element without the need for precision measurement equipment. Based on the measurements, a methodology for creating a quality profile of 3D displays is proposed. The quality profile can be either simulated using the angular brightness function or directly measured from a series of photographs. A comparative study introducing the measurement results on the visual quality and position of the sweet-spots of eleven 3D displays of different types is presented. Knowing the sweet-spot position and the quality profile allows for easy comparison between 3D displays. The shape and size of the passband allows depth and textures of a 3D content to be optimized for a given 3D display. Based on knowledge of 3D artefact visibility and an understanding of distortions introduced by 3D displays, a number of signal processing techniques for artefact mitigation are created. A methodology for creating anti-aliasing filters for 3D displays is proposed. For multiview displays, the methodology is extended towards so-called passband optimization which addresses Moiré, fixed-pattern-noise and ghosting artefacts, which are characteristic for such displays. Additionally, design of tuneable anti-aliasing filters is presented, along with a framework which allows the user to select the so-called 3d sharpness parameter according to his or her preferences. Finally, a set of real-time algorithms for view-point-based optimization are presented. These algorithms require active user-tracking, which is implemented as a combination of face and eye-tracking. Once the observer position is known, the image on a stereoscopic display is optimised for the derived observation angle and distance. For multiview displays, the combination of precise light re-direction and less-precise face-tracking is used for extending the head parallax. For some user-tracking algorithms, implementation details are given, regarding execution of the algorithm on a mobile device or on desktop computer with graphical accelerator

    Old Meets New: Media in Education – Proceedings of the 61st International Council for Educational Media and the XIII International Symposium on Computers in Education (ICEM&SIIE'2011) Joint Conference

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    A conferência ICEM&SIIE'2011 foi organizada pela Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal) – membro do European Consortium of Innovative Universities – e pretendeu reunir investigadores, professores e outros profissionais, a nível nacional e internacional, em torno de um tema aglutinador que pretendeu despoletar e colocar a tónica da discussão na dualidade ―old/new‖, ou seja, os participantes foram convidados a discutir: - os media na educação em ambas as perspetivas, mais tradicionais ou modernas, com incidência numas ou noutras ou, ainda, numa perspetiva comparativa; - a conjugação, adaptação e adoção dos media consoante os contextos e objetivos de utilização; - o que os media implicam em termos de tecnologia, barreiras profissionais e /ou sociais; - a relação custo-benefício da utilização dos media em contexto de aprendizagem; - os media em função dos diversos contextos educativos e dos perfis de aprendizagem dos alunos. Para a conferência foram selecionados 76 artigos organizados em 15 sessões paralelas, 13 posters e 9 workshops. A conferência caracterizou-se pelo caráter internacional dos contributos, reunindo 38 artigos em português, 32 em língua inglesa e 6 em espanhol. Estas atas encontram-se organizadas de acordo com o programa da conferência. Em primeiro lugar incluem-se os artigos (full paper e short paper) por sessão, seguem-se os posters e, finalmente, o resumo relativo aos workshops.The ICEM&SIIE'2011 conference was organised by the University of Aveiro (Portugal) – a member of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities – and aimed at gathering researchers, teachers and other professionals, at national and international level, around a focal topic that might trigger and centre the discussion on the ―old/new‖ duality of media in education. Participants were invited to discuss: - old and new media in education, in isolation or comparatively; - how old and new media in education can be combined, adopted and adapted; - what old and new media in education imply in terms of technological, professional and social barriers; - what cost-benefit relationships old and new media in education entail; - how to compare old and new media in education given their particular educational contexts and the students' learning profiles. 76 papers were selected and organised in 15 paralel sessions, 13 posters and 9 workshops. The conference is characterized by the international character of contributions, gathering 38 papers in Portuguese, 32 in English and 6 in Spanish. These procedings are organised according to the programme of the conference. First we find the full and short papers, per session, then posters and finally the abstracts for the workshops
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