Evaluation of the HoloLens for Medical Applications Using 5G-connected Mobile Devices

The updated range of models of smart glasses has expanded the availability of augmented reality (AR) technology in a way that opens them up to several applications. The first prototypes have been replaced by new models and vendors offer off-the-shelf solutions. E-health and medical applications have been in focus from the start. Furthermore, the roll-out of 5G technology would enable almost real-time, high-speed and low-latency communication, which would expand the potential uses and ideas. This paper gives a short overview of the current state, focusing on medical applications using smart glasses. The HoloLens glasses were evaluated regarding latency and data rates by using WiFi and the 5G campus network of the university. Results show that the HoloLens may be used in education, training and teleassistance; however, assisting latency-sensitive tasks that require a reliable network connection, ergonomic design, and privacy issues still remain a problem

Evaluation of a Matlab-based Virtual Audio Simulator with HRTF-Synthesis and Headphone Equalization

Presented at the 18th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2012) on June 18-21, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.Reprinted by permission of the International Community for Auditory Display, http://www.icad.org.Virtual audio simulators are the basic tools for localization experiments focusing on the parameters of the applied HRTFs. This paper presents a software solution capable of playback monotic wave files, setting the individual ITD information based on head-diameter data, HRTF filtering in 1-degree spatial resolution for static and dynamic sound sources and record output stereo wave files for headphone playback. Furthermore, a headphone equalization tool is implemented based on measured and averaged transfer functions. Based on this, generated IIR or FIR equalization filters can be applied on the sound data for scientific purposes.Universitas-Győr Alapítván

A survey on hardware and software solutions for multimodal wearable assistive devices targeting the visually impaired

The market penetration of user-centric assistive devices has rapidly increased in the past decades. Growth in computational power, accessibility, and cognitive device capabilities have been accompanied by significant reductions in weight, size, and price, as a result of which mobile and wearable equipment are becoming part of our everyday life. In this context, a key focus of development has been on rehabilitation engineering and on developing assistive technologies targeting people with various disabilities, including hearing loss, visual impairments and others. Applications range from simple health monitoring such as sport activity trackers, through medical applications including sensory (e.g. hearing) aids and real-time monitoring of life functions, to task-oriented tools such as navigational devices for the blind. This paper provides an overview of recent trends in software and hardware-based signal processing relevant to the development of wearable assistive solutions

Szabad és virtuális hangterű lokalizációs feladatok: látók és látássérültek képességeinek összehasonlító vizsgálata

Jelen tanulmány látó és látássérült személyek hanglokalizációs képességeire fókuszál. Minta: n = 59 (50 látó és 9 látássérült) személy, s 30 személy a virtuális hangtér vizsgálatának esetében. Módszer: visszhangmentes szobában Leybold 58707 piezo hangforrást használtunk, virtuális hangtér szimuláció esetében az Alice szoftvert alkalmaztuk a hanglokalizáció vizsgálatakor. Eredmény: szabad hangtérben nincs különbség a látók és a látás- sérültek hanglokalizációs teljesítménye között. A lokalizációs bizonytalanság nagyobb a virtuális valóság szimulátor alkalmazásakor

Cost-effective 3D scanning and printing technologies for outer ear reconstruction: Current status

Current 3D scanning and printing technologies offer not only state-of-the-art developments in the field of medical imaging and bio-engineering, but also cost and time effective solutions for surgical reconstruction procedures. Besides tissue engineering, where living cells are used, bio-compatible polymers or synthetic resin can be applied. The combination of 3D handheld scanning devices or volumetric imaging, (open-source) image processing packages, and 3D printers form a complete workflow chain that is capable of effective rapid prototyping of outer ear replicas. This paper reviews current possibilities and latest use cases for 3D-scanning, data processing and printing of outer ear replicas with a focus on low-cost solutions for rehabilitation engineering

Evaluation of reaction times to sound stimuli on mobile devices

Presented at the 21st International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2015), July 6-10, 2015, Graz, Styria, Austria.When developing new devices for assistive technology, it is important to consider auditory response times to different kinds of warning and navigational sounds. Perception, processing and action following the presentation of auditory stimuli depends on several parameters, the most important being the stimuli themselves and the method used for providing feedback. With the growing market penetration of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc.) and increasing popularity of crowdsourced solutions, we have chosen to develop a mobile application for the measurement of reaction times with respect to a wide range of stimuli, including sine tones, speech and various kinds of clicks and noises. During tests, participants are asked to indicate the direction of sound samples by pressing the appropriate button on the touch screen. Stereo panning can be used up to five directions. In this paper, our goal is to demonstrate the viability of this approach through a set of basic (at this time, not yet crowdsourced) tests performed using the application. A rudimentary statistical evaluation of measured response times and success rates was performed. Results were compared to an earlier study using similar categories of stimuli. As in that study, some relative differences between the stimuli types were found, i.e. the 1 kHz panned sine and pink noise categories were shown to be somewhat more favorable than speech and click-trains. Future enhancements to the application will include tilt-based input control – allowing for the participation of visually impaired test subjects who cannot see the response buttons – as well as extensions allowing for the logging and analysis of large-scale crowdsourced test results

Current Use and Future Perspectives of Spatial Audio Technologies in Electronic Travel Aids

Electronic travel aids (ETAs) have been in focus since technology allowed designing relatively small, light, and mobile devices for assisting the visually impaired. Since visually impaired persons rely on spatial audio cues as their primary sense of orientation, providing an accurate virtual auditory representation of the environment is essential. This paper gives an overview of the current state of spatial audio technologies that can be incorporated in ETAs, with a focus on user requirements. Most currently available ETAs either fail to address user requirements or underestimate the potential of spatial sound itself, which may explain, among other reasons, why no single ETA has gained a widespread acceptance in the blind community. We believe there is ample space for applying the technologies presented in this paper, with the aim of progressively bridging the gap between accessibility and accuracy of spatial audio in ETAs.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement no. 643636.Peer Reviewe

Usability and Effectiveness of Auditory Sensory Substitution Models for the Visually Impaired

This paper focuses on auditory sensory substitution for providing visually impaired users with suitable information in both static scene recognition and dynamic obstacle avoidance. We introduce three different sonification models together with three temporal presentation schemes, i.e., ways of temporally organizing the sonic events in order to provide suitable information. Following an overview of the motivation and challenges behind each of the solutions, we describe their implementation and an evaluation of their relative strengths and weaknesses based on a set of experiments in a virtual environment

A survey of assistive technologies and applications for blind users on mobile platforms: a review and foundation for research

This paper summarizes recent developments in audio and tactile feedback based assistive technologies targeting the blind community. Current technology allows applications to be efficiently distributed and run on mobile and handheld devices, even in cases where computational requirements are significant. As a result, electronic travel aids, navigational assistance modules, text-to-speech applications, as well as virtual audio displays which combine audio with haptic channels are becoming integrated into standard mobile devices. This trend, combined with the appearance of increasingly user- friendly interfaces and modes of interaction has opened a variety of new perspectives for the rehabilitation and training of users with visual impairments. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of these developments based on recent advances in basic research and application development. Using this overview as a foundation, an agenda is outlined for future research in mobile interaction design with respect to users with special needs, as well as ultimately in relation to sensor-bridging applications in genera