The use of location and location-intensity patterns in electrocutaneous communication Annual report, 1 May 1965 - 30 Apr. 1966

Language communication by electrical stimulation of ski

Sensory navigation device for blind people

[EN] This paper presents a new Electronic Travel Aid (ETA) 'Acoustic Prototype' which is especially suited to facilitate the navigation of visually impaired users. The device consists of a set of 3-Dimensional Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (3-D CMOS) image sensors based on the three-dimensional integration and Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) processing techniques implemented into a pair of glasses, stereo headphones as well as a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) used as processing unit. The device is intended to be used as a complementary device to navigation through both open known and unknown environments. The FPGA and the 3D-CMOS image sensor electronics control object detection. Distance measurement is achieved by using chip-integrated technology based on the Multiple Short Time Integration method. The processed information of the object distance is presented to the user via acoustic sounds through stereophonic headphones. The user interprets the information as an acoustic image of the surrounding environment. The Acoustic Prototype transforms the surface of the objects of the real environment into acoustical sounds. The method used is similar to a bat's acoustic orientation. Having good hearing ability, with few weeks training the users are able to perceive not only the presence of an object but also the object form (that is, if the object is round, if it has corners, if it is a car or a box, if it is a cardboard object or if it is an iron or cement object, a tree, a person, a static or moving object). The information is continuously delivered to the user in a few nanoseconds until the device is shut down, helping the end user to perceive the information in real time.The first author would like to acknowledge that this research was funded through the FP6 European project CASBLiP number 027063 and Project number 2062 of the Programa de Apoyo a la Investigacion y Desarrollo 2011 from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Dunai, L.; Peris Fajarnes, G.; Lluna Gil, E.; Defez Garcia, B. (2013). Sensory navigation device for blind people. Journal of Navigation. 66(3):346-362. doi:10.1017/S0373463312000574S34636266

SELECTED METABOLIC AND HEMODYNAMIC RESPONSES TO REPEATED STEADY-STATE BOUTS OF INDOOR CYCLING, UTILISING MARGINAL INCREASES IN MECHANICAL POWER OUTPUT: CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL COMPETITIVE ROAD CYCLISTS USING A PORTABLE ON-BICYCLE C

Introduction It has been demonstrated by Sanderson, Cavanaugh et a1. (1985), and the authors, (1987 , that impul e and average net power distributions (W) generated about the pedal spindle and crank arms, vary with individual cyclists, either creating a mechanically desirable circular cycling pattern where the impulse is 'smoothed', or a 'butterfly' distribution indicating unequal force distribution(s throughout each pedaling cycle. Based on research performed indoors by Cavanaugh (1985), and Anderson (1986), and this group outdoors at the United States Cycling Federation Camp in Colorado in 1987 and 1988, it appears that techniques employed to reduce the counter-propulsive tangential crank arm forces could possible improve average net power magnitudes produced by individual elite cyclists outdoors during competition, and thus improve their overall time(s) recorded for selected events

Virtual environment navigation with look-around mode to explore new real spaces by people who are blind

Background. This paper examines the ability of people who are blind to construct a mental map and perform orientation tasks in real space by using Nintendo Wii technologies to explore virtual environments. The participant explores new spaces through haptic and auditory feedback triggered by pointing or walking in the virtual environments and later constructs a mental map, which can be used to navigate in real space. Methods. The study included 10 participants who were congenitally or adventitiously blind, divided into experimental and control groups. The research was implemented by using virtual environments exploration and orientation tasks in real spaces, using both qualitative and quantitative methods in its methodology. Results. The results show that the mode of exploration afforded to the experimental group is radically new in orientation and mobility training; as a result 60% of the experimental participants constructed mental maps that were based on map model, compared to only 30% of the control group participants. Conclusion. Using technology that enabled them to explore and to collect spatial information in a way that does not exist in real space influenced the ability of the experimental group to construct a mental map based on the map model

“some kind of thing it aint us but yet its in us”: David Mitchell, Russell Hoban, and metafiction after the millennium

This article appraises the debt that David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas owes to the novels of Russell Hoban, including, but not limited to, Riddley Walker. After clearly mapping a history of Hoban’s philosophical perspectives and Mitchell’s inter-textual genre-impersonation practice, the article assesses the degree to which Mitchell’s metatextual methods indicate a nostalgia for by-gone radical aesthetics rather than reaching for new modes of its own. The article not only proposes several new backdrops against which Mitchell’s novel can be read but also conducts the first in-depth appraisal of Mitchell’s formal linguistic replication of Riddley Walker

Learning new sensorimotor contingencies:Effects of long-term use of sensory augmentation on the brain and conscious perception

Theories of embodied cognition propose that perception is shaped by sensory stimuli and by the actions of the organism. Following sensorimotor contingency theory, the mastery of lawful relations between own behavior and resulting changes in sensory signals, called sensorimotor contingencies, is constitutive of conscious perception. Sensorimotor contingency theory predicts that, after training, knowledge relating to new sensorimotor contingencies develops, leading to changes in the activation of sensorimotor systems, and concomitant changes in perception. In the present study, we spell out this hypothesis in detail and investigate whether it is possible to learn new sensorimotor contingencies by sensory augmentation. Specifically, we designed an fMRI compatible sensory augmentation device, the feelSpace belt, which gives orientation information about the direction of magnetic north via vibrotactile stimulation on the waist of participants. In a longitudinal study, participants trained with this belt for seven weeks in natural environment. Our EEG results indicate that training with the belt leads to changes in sleep architecture early in the training phase, compatible with the consolidation of procedural learning as well as increased sensorimotor processing and motor programming. The fMRI results suggest that training entails activity in sensory as well as higher motor centers and brain areas known to be involved in navigation. These neural changes are accompanied with changes in how space and the belt signal are perceived, as well as with increased trust in navigational ability. Thus, our data on physiological processes and subjective experiences are compatible with the hypothesis that new sensorimotor contingencies can be acquired using sensory augmentation