Physical Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Technologies

The book focuses on the diagnosis, evaluation, and assistance of gait disorders; all the papers have been contributed by research groups related to assistive robotics, instrumentations, and augmentative devices

On the Use of Historical Flights for the Urban Growth Analysis of Cities Through Time: The Case Study of Avila (Spain)

17 p.Historical aerial images are a unique and relatively unexplored means of deriving spatio-temporal information for scenes and landscapes. Such historical imagery can be combined with photointerpretation and image-based 3D modelling techniques, providing the fourth dimension of time to 3D geometrical representations. This allows urban planners, historians, and other specialists to identify, describe, and analyse changes in scenes and landscapes. Urban growth has an important impact on the sustainable development of cities. An important step for the analysis of urban growth is the identification of different urban sectors. To this end, this paper proposes a methodology for the 4D urban growth analysis of cities through time using a free and open source software developed by the authors. This approach uses the latest advances in photogrammetry, including the so-called incremental Structure from Motion, to evaluate the urbanistic changes of a city by means of confronting two-point clouds from different eras. The objectives of this paper are twofold: (i) first, the processing of historical aerial images using modern photogrammetric techniques; (ii) second, deriving spatio-temporal information for urban cities, offering a method for researchers to identify changes over time. In order to validate this method, the urban growth of the city of Avila between 1956 and 2017 was assessed taking the historical American flight of 1956 and the digital aerial flight of 2017. The results were statistically assessed according to georeferencing quality, confirming that the approach developed can be used to support urban growth analysis through time and providing relevant data in 2D and 3DS

Experimental Evaluation of the Projection-based Force Reflection Algorithms for Haptic Interaction with Virtual Environment

Haptic interaction with virtual environments is currently a major and growing area of research with a number of emerging applications, particularly in the field of robotics. Digital implementation of the virtual environments, however, introduces errors which may result in instability of the haptic displays. This thesis deals with experimental investigation of the Projection-Based Force Reflection Algorithms (PFRAs) for haptic interaction with virtual environments, focusing on their performance in terms of stability and transparency. Experiments were performed to compare the PFRA in terms of performance for both non-delayed and delayed haptic interactions with more conventional haptic rendering methods, such as the Virtual Coupling (VC) and Wave Variables (WV). The results demonstrated that the PFRA is more stable, guarantees higher levels of transparency, and is less sensitive to decrease in update rates

Augmented reality (AR) for surgical robotic and autonomous systems: State of the art, challenges, and solutions

Despite the substantial progress achieved in the development and integration of augmented reality (AR) in surgical robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), the center of focus in most devices remains on improving end-effector dexterity and precision, as well as improved access to minimally invasive surgeries. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of different types of state-of-the-art surgical robotic platforms while identifying areas for technological improvement. We associate specific control features, such as haptic feedback, sensory stimuli, and human-robot collaboration, with AR technology to perform complex surgical interventions for increased user perception of the augmented world. Current researchers in the field have, for long, faced innumerable issues with low accuracy in tool placement around complex trajectories, pose estimation, and difficulty in depth perception during two-dimensional medical imaging. A number of robots described in this review, such as Novarad and SpineAssist, are analyzed in terms of their hardware features, computer vision systems (such as deep learning algorithms), and the clinical relevance of the literature. We attempt to outline the shortcomings in current optimization algorithms for surgical robots (such as YOLO and LTSM) whilst providing mitigating solutions to internal tool-to-organ collision detection and image reconstruction. The accuracy of results in robot end-effector collisions and reduced occlusion remain promising within the scope of our research, validating the propositions made for the surgical clearance of ever-expanding AR technology in the future

Smart Monitoring and Control in the Future Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) and related technologies have the promise of realizing pervasive and smart applications which, in turn, have the potential of improving the quality of life of people living in a connected world. According to the IoT vision, all things can cooperate amongst themselves and be managed from anywhere via the Internet, allowing tight integration between the physical and cyber worlds and thus improving efficiency, promoting usability, and opening up new application opportunities. Nowadays, IoT technologies have successfully been exploited in several domains, providing both social and economic benefits. The realization of the full potential of the next generation of the Internet of Things still needs further research efforts concerning, for instance, the identification of new architectures, methodologies, and infrastructures dealing with distributed and decentralized IoT systems; the integration of IoT with cognitive and social capabilities; the enhancement of the sensing–analysis–control cycle; the integration of consciousness and awareness in IoT environments; and the design of new algorithms and techniques for managing IoT big data. This Special Issue is devoted to advancements in technologies, methodologies, and applications for IoT, together with emerging standards and research topics which would lead to realization of the future Internet of Things

The Qian painterly voice

My research explores my Chinese background experiences of immigration to Australia within the visual domain of Ba-Gua energies dialoguing with selected European painterly influences (especially Jenny Saville) related to Australia, painterly and new ink tradition methods, contemporary Chinese and Chinese-Australian painting unified by Ba-Gua spiritual ideas, through a methodology utilizing impasto and line informed by Chinese and European Romantic opera, all expressed within a contemporary version of Yan Li-ben’s emperor imagery, especially related to Qian or heaven. In this work and others in the folio, I use Chinese Ba-Gua (Qian) and Confucian philosophy to explore Chinese and Western artistic influences and Ba-Gua energies dialoguing with Chinese-Australian visual influences and Peking Opera and contemporary Australian music. I explored the artistic influences that have contributed to the extended sensation or synaesthesia of my painting across the tactile, sonic and optical fields. I drew across sources from ancient Chinese Emperor paintings and ink tradition alongside contemporary British and Australian layered paint and anatomical techniques, as well as draw from Renaissance masters. In addition, this research explores the contemporary themes, which have also influenced my work including intercultural contemporary Australian music. The originality of this approach in my cultural artistic fusion is that the Daoist-like movement of spirit and body (Chou, “Wenren and Culture”2004), expressed within Ba-Gua philosophy, becomes a kinetic unifying factor across a Chinese multi-artform practice. My creative folio included paintings and films which provide evidences for an analysis of both the common point of visual dialogue and cultural realities within these Chinese-Australian confluences towards expression of my artistic identity or voice, which I describe as Qian ‘painterly voice’. This ‘painterly voice’ has five main areas of investigation: firstly, English painter Jenny Saville’s intersection of painterly impasto and Chinese calligraphical line; secondly, the techniques of impasto and line related to Peking opera and Italian lyric opera; thirdly, ancient Chinese painter Yan Li-pen’s iconic emperor series extended to Australia; fourthly, the intersections of the Chinese multi-artform practice where calligraphically line, watercolour suggestiveness, and painterly impasto layering work as synergies and counterpoints to contemporary Australian composition within several music-theatre works; and finally, Ba-Gua ideas into contemporary Chinese artistic ideas in China (Qian and family order within Zhang Xiaogang) and Australia (Chinese-Australian Lindy Lee’s exploration of Zen Buddhism). Ultimately, this research examines how each of these factors culminates in my own personal philosophy and Qian ‘painterly voice’

Educational Technology and Related Education Conferences for June to December 2015

The 33rd edition of the conference list covers selected events that primarily focus on the use of technology in educational settings and on teaching, learning, and educational administration. Only listings until December 2015 are complete as dates, locations, or Internet addresses (URLs) were not available for a number of events held from January 2016 onward. In order to protect the privacy of individuals, only URLs are used in the listing as this enables readers of the list to obtain event information without submitting their e-mail addresses to anyone. A significant challenge during the assembly of this list is incomplete or conflicting information on websites and the lack of a link between conference websites from one year to the next

Sensing Systems for Respiration Monitoring: A Technical Systematic Review

Respiratory monitoring is essential in sleep studies, sport training, patient monitoring, or health at work, among other applications. This paper presents a comprehensive systematic review of respiration sensing systems. After several systematic searches in scientific repositories, the 198 most relevant papers in this field were analyzed in detail. Different items were examined: sensing technique and sensor, respiration parameter, sensor location and size, general system setup, communication protocol, processing station, energy autonomy and power consumption, sensor validation, processing algorithm, performance evaluation, and analysis software. As a result, several trends and the remaining research challenges of respiration sensors were identified. Long-term evaluations and usability tests should be performed. Researchers designed custom experiments to validate the sensing systems, making it difficult to compare results. Therefore, another challenge is to have a common validation framework to fairly compare sensor performance. The implementation of energy-saving strategies, the incorporation of energy harvesting techniques, the calculation of volume parameters of breathing, or the effective integration of respiration sensors into clothing are other remaining research efforts. Addressing these and other challenges outlined in the paper is a required step to obtain a feasible, robust, affordable, and unobtrusive respiration sensing system