Virtual sculpting and 3D printing for young people with disabilities

In this paper, we present the SHIVA project which was designed to provide virtual sculpting tools for young people with complex disabilities, to allow them to engage with artistic and creative activities that they might otherwise never be able to access. Modern 3D printing then allows us to physically build their creations. To achieve this, we combined our expertise in education, accessible technology, user interfaces and geometric modelling. We built a generic accessible graphical user interface (GUI) and a suitable geometric modelling system and used these to produce two prototype modelling exercises. These tools were deployed in a school for students with complex disabilities and are now being used for a variety of educational and developmental purposes. In this paper, we present the project's motivations, approach and implementation details together with initial results, including 3D printed objects designed by young people who have disabilties

Developing an Accessible 3D Printing Pipeline

Digital technology provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to be involved in artistic activities, such as virtual sculpting whose output can be fabricated using 3D printing. Existing accessible solutions, however, present mainly a set of separate tools rather than a whole cohesive production pipeline which takes into an account the specific needs of the user group. Challenges include accessible user interfaces for all pipeline steps, suitable shape modelling operations, ”3D Print” button and model data formats that require no post-processing or clean-up operations for the Direct Fabrication step. In this paper we discuss an accessible pipeline which includes 3D modelling and 3D printing, providing an example of a 3D modelling system with developed special-purpose applications allowing children with complex disabilities to participate in sculpting activities through accessible interfaces such as eye-gaze control

SHIVA: Virtual sculpting and 3D printing for disabled children.

In this paper we present the SHIVA project which was designed to provide virtual sculpting tools for children with complex disabilities, to allow them to engage with artistic and creative activities that they might otherwise never be able to access. Modern 3D printing then allows us to physically build their creations. To achieve this, we combined our expertise in education, accessible technology, user interfaces and geometric modelling. We built a generic accessible graphical user interface (GUI), a suitable geometric modelling system and used these to produce two prototype modelling systems. These tools were deployed in a school for students with disabilities and are being used for a variety of educational purposes. In this paper, we present the project's motivations, approach and implementation details together with initial results, including 3D printed objects designed by children with disabilities

Screwing assembly oriented interactive model segmentation in HMD VR environment

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Although different approaches of segmenting and assembling geometric models for 3D printing have been proposed, it is difficult to find any research studies, which investigate model segmentation and assembly in head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) environments for 3D printing. In this work, we propose a novel and interactive segmentation method for screwing assembly in the environments to tackle this problem. Our approach divides a large model into semantic parts with a screwing interface for repeated tight assembly. Specifically, after a user places the cutting interface, our algorithm computes the bounding box of the current part automatically for subsequent multicomponent semantic Boolean segmentations. Afterwards, the bolt is positioned with an improved K3M image thinning algorithm and is used for merging paired components with union and subtraction Boolean operations respectively. Moreover, we introduce a swept Boolean-based rotation collision detection and location method to guarantee a collision-free screwing assembly. Experiments show that our approach provides a new interactive multicomponent semantic segmentation tool that supports not only repeated installation and disassembly but also tight and aligned assembly

Promoting Skills in Children and Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder through Play and Steam

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a low employment rate. This is caused by a lack of support from employment resources and the negative stigma associated with common characteristics associated with ASD. With limited career-building activities and events, it is difficult for individuals with ASD to identify their skills, strengths, and career opportunities. Parental support is crucial when seeking employment opportunities for their children. Through the use of play, children with ASD engaged and explored their skills with science, technology, engineering, arts, and math-centered activities. This paper highlights the events and shows the proposed redesign for an additional workshop

Brush2Model: Convolution surface-based brushes for 3D modelling in head-mounted display-based virtual environments

Easy and efficient 3D modelling in virtual environments is an important and unsolved topic. This paper proposes a new modelling approach to tackle this issue. It invents convolution surface-based brushes to directly draw 3D models in head-mounted display-based virtual environments. In order to maximize the efficiency, flexibility, and capacity of our proposed modelling approach, we propose three different skeleton-based convolution surfaces to tackle different modelling tasks: point skeleton-based convolution surfaces for metaball shapes, line skeleton-based convolution surfaces for cylindrical shapes, and polygon skeleton-based convolution surfaces for planar surfaces. Their combination makes 3D modelling more flexible and powerful. The high efficiency is further raised by our developed closed-form solutions for point skeletons, ends of line skeletons, and edges of polygonal skeletons. Different user-friendly sweeping schemes are provided to facilitate intuitive inputs for various complex shape generation. Unlike Google's Tilt Brush, which is used to create disconnected sheet-like surfaces only, our proposed convolution surface-based brushes can produce smoothly blended manifold surfaces, and novice users can easily learn and use them to create various interesting 3D models efficiently

La fabricación digital en la educación inclusiva para estudiantes con discapacidad visual. Análisis literario y bibliométrico

Technology integration in teaching people with disabilities is essential and has generated the so-called assistive technologies. Among them, digital manufacturing technologies, considered transformative, have made personalization faster and access easier and more affordable, mainly for the visually impaired. This research combines a literature review with bibliometrics to evaluate the application of digital fabrication technologies in the learning process of students with visual disabilities. Likewise, it analyzes its contribution to implementing explicit instruction, a fundamental and transversal methodology for teaching people with and without visual disabilities. It offers a multisensory educational experience and can potentially increase the number of inclusive educational spaces.La integración de la tecnología en los procesos de enseñanza de las personas con discapacidad es primordial y ha generado las denominadas tecnologías de asistencia. Entre ellas, las tecnologías de fabricación digital, consideradas transformadoras, vienen acelerando su personalización, facilitando el acceso y asequibilidad principalmente para la población con discapacidad visual. La presente investigación combina la técnica de revisión de literatura con la bibliométrica para evaluar la aplicación de las tecnologías de fabricación digital en el proceso de aprendizaje de estudiantes con discapacidad visual. Asimismo, analiza su aporte en la implementación de la instrucción explícita, una metodología de enseñanza fundamental y transversal a la enseñanza de personas con y sin discapacidad visual, que ofrece una experiencia educativa multisensorial, teniendo potencial para fungir de catalizadora en el incremento de espacios educativos inclusivos

Connection Magazine, Fall 2019

https://surface.syr.edu/connection/1045/thumbnail.jp

The development of assistive technology to reveal knowledge of physical world concepts in young people who have profound motor impairments.

Cognitively able children and young people who have profound motor impairments and complex communication needs (the target group or TG) face many barriers to learning, communication, personal development, physical interaction and play experiences, compared to their typically developing peers. Physical interaction (and play) are known to be important components of child development, but this group currently has few suitable ways in which to participate in these activities. Furthermore, the TG may have knowledge about real world physical concepts despite having limited physical interaction experiences but it can be difficult to reveal this knowledge and conventional assessment techniques are not suitable for this group, largely due to accessibility issues. This work presents a pilot study involving a robotics-based system intervention which enabled members of the TG to experience simulated physical interaction and was designed to identify and develop the knowledge and abilities of the TG relating to physical concepts involving temporal, spatial or movement elements. The intervention involved the participants using an eye gaze controlled robotic arm with a custom made haptic feedback device to complete a set of tasks. To address issues with assessing the TG, two new digital Assistive Technology (AT) accessible assessments were created for this research, one using static images, the other video clips. Two participants belonging to the TG took part in the study. The outcomes indicated a high level of capability in performing the tasks, with the participants exhibiting a level of knowledge and ability which was much higher than anticipated. One explanation for this finding could be that they have acquired this knowledge through past experiences and ‘observational learning’. The custom haptic device was found to be useful for assessing the participants’ sense of ‘touch’ in a way which is less invasive than conventional ‘pin-prick’ techniques. The new digital AT accessible assessments seemed especially suitable for one participant, while results were mixed for the other. This suggests that a combination of ‘traditional’ assessment and a ‘practical’ intervention assessment approach may help to provide a clearer, more rounded understanding of individuals within the TG. The work makes contributions to knowledge in the field of disability and Assistive Technology, specifically regarding: AT accessible assessments; haptic device design for the TG; the combination of robotics, haptics and eye gaze for use by the TG to interact with the physical world; a deeper understanding of the TG in general; insights into designing for and working with the TG. The work and information gathered can help therapists and education staff to identify strengths and gaps in knowledge and skills, to focus learning and therapy activities appropriately, and to change the perceptions of those who work with this group, encouraging them to broaden their expectations of the TG