Neck mobility measurement by means of the 'Flock of Birds' electromagnetic tracking system

OBJECTIVE: To establish the accuracy and reliability of a six-degrees-of-freedom electromagnetic tracking device, the "Flock of Birds", for measuring neck rotations and to identify the main sources of error. DESIGN: Ten human subjects made the same types of maximal neck rotation, both actively and passively: axial rotation in neutral position, from a flexed position and from an extended position, flexion/extension and lateral flexion. The same movements were mimicked in a 'dummy head' set-up. METHODS: One Flock of Birds receiver was mounted on the thorax, one on the head. By means of a third receiver, mounted on a stylus, bony landmarks on head and thorax were palpated. These served to define two anatomically based local coordinate systems, to which the rotations were referred. RESULTS: Measurements were accurate with a maximal measurement error of 2.5 degrees. No significant difference between active and passive rotation was seen. The intra-subject variation was low within the same session, SD between 2 degrees and 4 degrees. Between sessions the variability was considerable, SD between 5 degrees and 16 degrees. CONCLUSION: The Flock of Birds method is reliable and sufficiently precise. The variability in measured range of motion between sessions is a point of concern in interpreting follow-up studies in patients. RELEVANCE: A reduced range of neck motion is a major complaint in pathologies of the cervical spine or the shoulder. A method is described in which neck rotations are related to well-defined bony landmarks. In combined rotations, e.g. flexion combined with axial rotation, the measured range of motion can sometimes fluctuate strongly (up to 30 degrees ) between measurements, without apparent pathology

Joint prosthesis and method of bone fixation

The invention relates to a joint prosthesis (10), for example, a knee joint or shoulder joint prosthesis comprising a first, socket-holding prosthesis part (11) for attachment to a first bone (12) and a second, ball-holding prosthesis part (13) for attachment to a second bone (14) that intermates with the first prosthesis part, wherein the first bone and the second bone are situated at either side of a joint, and wherein the ball (2) of the second prosthesis part is rotatably received in the socket (5) of the first prosthesis part, wherein the first prosthesis part can be coupled with the first bone by applying tensile strain bearing rods (6), wherein when the mounted prosthesis is in a virtually unloaded condition, there is no significant tensile force in the rods.Aerospace Engineerin

Quantifying Proprioceptive Reflexes During Position Control of the Human Arm

This study aimed to analyse the dynamic properties of the muscle spindle feedback system of shoulder muscles during a posture task. External continuous force disturbances were applied at the hand while subjects had to minimize their hand displacements. The results were analysed using two frequency response functions (FRFs) from which the model parameters were derived, being 1) the mechanical admittance and 2) the reflexive impedance. These FRFs were analysed by a neuromusculoskeletal model that implicitly separates the reflexive feedback properties (position, velocity and acceleration feedback gains) from intrinsic muscle visco-elasticity. The results show substantial changes in estimated reflex gains under conditions of variable bandwidth of the applied force disturbance or variable degrees of external damping. Position and velocity feedback gains were relatively larger when the force disturbance contained only low frequencies. With increasing damping of the environment, acceleration feedback gain decreased, velocity feedback gain remained almost constant and position feedback gain increased. It is concluded that under the aforementioned circumstances, the reflex system increases its gains to maximize the mechanical resistance to external force disturbances while preserving sufficient stability.Biomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

A Task-Specific Analysis of the Benefit of Haptic Shared Control During Tele-Manipulation

Tele-manipulation allows human to perform operations in a remote environment, but performance and required time of tasks is negatively influenced when (haptic) feedback is limited. Improvement of transparency (reflected forces) is an important focus in literature, but despite significant progress, it is still imperfect, with many unresolved issues. An alternative approach to improve tele-operated tasks is presented in this study: offering haptic shared control in which the operator is assisted by guiding forces applied at the master device. It is hypothesized that continuous intuitive interaction between operator and support system will improve required time and accuracy with less control effort; even for imperfect transparency. An experimental study was performed in a hard-contact task environment. The subjects were aided by the designed shared control to perform a simple bolt-spanner task using a planar three degree of freedom tele-operator. Haptic shared control was compared to normal operation for three levels of transparency. The experimental results showed that haptic shared control improves task performance, control effort and operator cognitive workload for the overall bolt-spanner task, for all three transparency levels. Analyses per subtask showed that Free Air Movement benefits most from shared control in terms of time performance, and also shows improved accuracy

The Impact of Haptic Feedback Quality on the Performance of Teleoperated Assembly Tasks

In teleoperation, haptic feedback allows the human operator to touch the remote environment. Yet, it is only partially understood to what extent the quality of haptic feedback contributes to human-in-the-loop task performance. This paper presents a human factors experiment in which teleoperated task performance and control effort are assessed for a typical (dis-)assembly task in a hard-to-hard environment, well known to the operator. Subjects are provided with four levels of haptic feedback quality: no haptic feedback, low-frequency haptic feedback, combined low- and high-frequency haptic feedback, and the best possible—a natural spectrum of haptic feedback in a direct-controlled equivalent of the task. Four generalized fundamental subtasks are identified, namely: 1) free-space movement, 2) contact transition, 3) constrained translational, and 4) constrained rotational tasks. The results show that overall task performance and control effort are primarily improved by providing low-frequency haptic feedback (specifically by improvements in constrained translational and constrained rotational tasks), while further haptic feedback quality improvements yield only marginal performance increases and control effort decreases, even if a full natural spectrum of haptic feedback is provided

Fine specificity of the anti-citrullinated protein antibody response is influenced by the shared epitope alleles

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