Fully exploiting the potential of speech dialog in automotive applications

International audienceToday users are faced with infotainment devices and applications of increasing complexity. The design of easy-to-use and intuitive interfaces becomes a more and more challenging task. Users are usually not aware of the underlying applications and their restrictions when they want to use certain functionalities. Therefore, hierarchical menu structures are difficult to handle especially in situations where eyes and hands are occupied with other tasks, such as driving. For quite a while speech-enabled interfaces have been used to solve this problem since they allow users to control various applications without occupying hands and eyes. However, state-of-the-art multimodal applications often do not exploit the full potential that speech dialog offers simply because this modality is not well integrated with the "traditional" modalities such as graphics and haptics. The resulting speech interfaces do not run smoothly, exhibit plenty of inconsistencies concerning the GUI and are thus more or less tedious to use. Such kind of interfaces result in low acceptance because users do not see the immediate benefit. In this paper we present an approach that develops multimodal interfaces in an integrated way, thus ensuring highly consistent interfaces that closely couple the involved modalities and are thus easier to use

Development of laser diagnostics for in situ measurements of entrained particles in recovery boilers.

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) Industries of the Future (IOF) Forest Products research program, two different laser diagnostic techniques have been implemented in pulp mill recovery boilers to provide important information on entrained particles. One technique, based on single-particle scattering of a low-power, continuous-wave (cw) laser source, measures the velocity, concentration, and size distribution of particles within the furnace flow, over a predetermined range of particle sizes. For application to recovery boilers, this technique was designed to measure the range of particle sizes known as intermediate size particles (ISPs), roughly from 2-100 {micro}m in diameter. The other diagnostic technique, known as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), uses a pulsed, high-power laser beam to create a localized plasma spark in the flow, allowing the measurement of the elemental composition of the entrained particles. This technique is most sensitive for particles less than 10 {micro}m in diameter. Implementing these laser diagnostic techniques in recovery boilers proved to be challenging. For the particle scattering measurement, the use of a narrow aperture for measurement of the forward scattered light was postulated and later confirmed to be effective in minimizing background signals associated with the dense sodium fume in the boilers. For the LIBS measurement, a new water-jacketed optics probe was implemented to allow for measurements with an insertion depth of up to two meters in the furnace. Fume particle deposition on the exposed optics at the end of the LIBS probe was problematic but improved with a redesign of the probe geometry and purge flow. Both diagnostic techniques were employed at two representative recovery boilers. The particle scattering diagnostic demonstrated similar trends in mean ISP concentration, ISP size distribution, and temporal variation of ISP concentration at the two boilers. The LIBS measurements showed the presence of a number of major chemical components as well as trace metal elements in the entrained particles

Reducing Alaska Native paediatric oral health disparities: a systematic review of oral health interventions and a case study on multilevel strategies to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage intake

Background. Tooth decay is the most common paediatric disease and there is a serious paediatric tooth decay epidemic in Alaska Native communities. When untreated, tooth decay can lead to pain, infection, systemic health problems, hospitalisations and in rare cases death, as well as school absenteeism, poor grades and low quality-of-life. The extent to which population-based oral health interventions have been conducted in Alaska Native paediatric populations is unknown. Objective. To conduct a systematic review of oral health interventions aimed at Alaska Native children below age 18 and to present a case study and conceptual model on multilevel intervention strategies aimed at reducing sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake among Alaska Native children. Design. Based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement, the terms “Alaska Native”, “children” and “oral health” were used to search Medline, Embase, Web of Science, GoogleScholar and health foundation websites (1970–2012) for relevant clinical trials and evaluation studies. Results. Eighty-five studies were found in Medline, Embase and Web of Science databases and there were 663 hits in GoogleScholar. A total of 9 publications were included in the qualitative review. These publications describe 3 interventions that focused on: reducing paediatric tooth decay by educating families and communities; providing dental chemotherapeutics to pregnant women; and training mid-level dental care providers. While these approaches have the potential to improve the oral health of Alaska Native children, there are unique challenges regarding intervention acceptability, reach and sustainability. A case study and conceptual model are presented on multilevel strategies to reduce SSB intake among Alaska Native children. Conclusions. Few oral health interventions have been tested within Alaska Native communities. Community-centred multilevel interventions are promising approaches to improve the oral and systemic health of Alaska Native children. Future investigators should evaluate the feasibility of implementing multilevel interventions and policies within Alaska Native communities as a way to reduce children's health disparities

Reverse Parking of a Model Car with Fuzzy Control

. To demonstrate the application of fuzzy control for rapid prototyping and robust performance, we use a 1/10 scaled model car with an onboard microcontroller and sensors for the task of autonomous parking. There is no precise mathematical model of the car's kinematics and the controller has to cope with heavy sensor uncertainty, imprecise actuators, and a very sketchy world model. We deliberately do not use any learning approaches, but express the knowledge on how to park a car in the form of fuzzy rules. To solve the parking problem, the system architecture has to handle the interaction of several fuzzy as well as conventional modules performing various subtasks. 1. Introduction The problem of reverse parking has been the subject of several research projects in the field of classical control as well as Fuzzy Control theory. Classical approaches as in [1], [3] and [6] are based on an exact mathematical model of the system to be controlled, i.e. the car or the truck-trailer combinatio..

Generating Fuzzy Rules for the Acceleration Control of an Adaptive Cruise Control System

A procedure for the data driven generation of fuzzy rules is described, which was used in the development of an adaptive fuzzy controller to assist the driver in vehicle speed and distance control. The driver stays remains in the control loop of the ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) through haptical feedback via the accelerator pedal. Thus, the control of the pedal behavior is crucial for the system’s acceptance by the driver. The Fuzzy-ACC has been installed into a test car and was tested in normal road traffic. 1

Adaptive fuzzy control for driver assistance in car-following

Abstract. An adaptive fuzzy logic controller is described which assists the driver in vehicle speed and distance control by offering a driving strategy via an active accelerator and brake pedal. In order to be accepted by the driver, the behavior of the system called ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) has to meet the expectations of the human driver to a certain degree. The Fuzzy-ACC provides separate controller components for different driving situations. Each of these components covers a variety of behaviors which is used for the driver adaptation. The Fuzzy-ACC has been implemented in an experimental vehicle and was tested in normal road traffic