Gesture recognition for control of rehabilitation robots

This paper describes the development of a control user interface for a wheelchair-mounted manipulator for use by severely disabled persons. It explains the construction of the interface using tasks to define the user interface architecture. The prototype robot used several gesture recognition systems to achieve a level of usability better than other robots used for rehabilitation at the time. The use of neural networks and other procedures is evaluated. It outlines the experiments used to evaluate the user responses and draws conclusions about the effectiveness of the whole system. It demonstrates the possibility of control using a head mouse.

Visual–haptic perception of compliant objects in artificially generated environments

Perception of compliant objects through a human system interface with visual–haptic feedback was investigated. Participants had to explore virtual cubes at different compliances by squeezing them with their fingers and observing them visually and haptically. The cubes were rendered by admittance control. Perception of compliance was analyzed using an adaptive staircase method. Results showed that visual–haptic perception of compliant environments is less accurate than perception of position and force stimuli. Furthermore, due to the important role of the visual feedback cross-modal comparisons are more difficult than bimodal comparisons.

Neuro-cognitively inspired haptic user interfaces

Haptic systems and devices are a recent addition to multimodal systems. These devices have widespread applications such as surgical simulations, medical and procedural training, scientific visualizations, assistive and rehabilitative devices for individuals who have physical or neurological impediments and assistive devices for individuals who are blind. While the potential of haptics in natural human machine interaction is undisputable, the realization of such means is still a long way ahead. There are considerable research challenges to development of natural haptic interfaces. The study of human tactile abilities is a recent endeavor and many of the available systems still do not incorporate the domain knowledge of psychophysics, biomechanics and neurological elements of haptic perception. Development of smart and effective haptic interfaces and devices requires extensive studies that link perceptual phenomena with measurable parameters and incorporation of such domain knowledge in the engineering of haptic interfaces. This paper presents design, development and usability testing of a neuro-cognitively inspired haptic user interface for individuals who are blind. The proposed system design is inspired by neuro-cognitive basis of haptic perception and incorporates the computational aspects and requirements of multimodal information processing system. Usability testing of the system suggests that a biologically inspired haptic user interfaces may form a powerful paradigm for haptic user interface design.

Collaborative Control of the Manus Manipulator

The Manus manipulator is a wheelchair mounted assistive device for severely motor disabled persons. It is a six degrees of freedom rehabilitation robot (excluding external lift and gripper), the control of which can be improved, especially for users with very limited rest functionality. The approach presented in this paper combines autonomous vision based control with direct user control resulting in a collaborative controller. Results of preliminary user trials show that this technique allows severely disabled persons to manipulate objects more easily.

Ant Colony Metaphor Applied in User Interface Recommendation

In this paper web–based system user interface hybrid recommendation method based on the ant colony metaphor is presented. We apply the ontology–based user and user interface modeling. The user model is represented as a tuple and user interface model is represented by a set of connected nodes, what enables suitable user interface design, an interface personalization and recommendation. The recommendation is performed using ant colony metaphor for selection the most optimal path in the user interface graph that specifies the user interface parameters for the specified user.

A unifying framework for robot control with redundant DOFs

Recently, Udwadia (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 2003:1783–1800, 2003) suggested to derive tracking controllers for mechanical systems with redundant degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) using a generalization of Gauss’ principle of least constraint. This method allows reformulating control problems as a special class of optimal controllers. In this paper, we take this line of reasoning one step further and demonstrate that several well-known and also novel nonlinear robot control laws can be derived from this generic methodology. We show experimental verifications on a Sarcos Master Arm robot for some of the derived controllers. The suggested approach offers a promising unification and simplification of nonlinear control law design for robots obeying rigid body dynamics equations, both with or without external constraints, with over-actuation or underactuation, as well as open-chain and closed-chain kinematics.

Validation methods for an accessible user interface for a rehabilitation robot

This paper describes the research methods required for the development and validation of a user interface for a wheelchair mounted manipulator for use by severely disabled persons. It explains the construction of the interface using tasks to define the user interface architecture. It outlines the experiments used to evaluate the user responses and draws conclusions about the effectiveness of the whole system. A systematic procedure is defined to obtain numerical estimates of the effectiveness of task analysis for individual use. This approach marries engineering procedures with a consideration of the human interaction. The prototype robot used several gesture recognition systems to achieve a better level of accessibility and usability than other robots used for rehabilitation at this time. Two different approaches to user interfaces were tested with different input devices.

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A user experience-based approach to home atmosphere control

The complex control problem of creating home atmospheres using light, music, and projected wall-art can be reduced by focusing on desired experience, rather than product functions and features. A case study is described in which subjective interpretations of living room atmospheres were measured and embedded into a prototype display system. A personalization mechanism is proposed to manage individual differences in atmosphere ratings, enabling a user model to evolve over time. To create a meaningful and simple control mechanism for a wide range of users, three interfaces were developed and studied, ranging from concrete to abstract control and from structured to exploratory navigation.

Methods for quantitative usability requirements: a case study on the development of the user interface of a mobile phone

Quantitative usability requirements are a critical but challenging, and hence an often neglected aspect of a usability engineering process. A case study is described where quantitative usability requirements played a key role in the development of a new user interface of a mobile phone. Within the practical constraints of the project, existing methods for determining usability requirements and evaluating the extent to which these are met, could not be applied as such, therefore tailored methods had to be developed. These methods and their applications are discussed.

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COMUNICAR: designing a multimedia, context-aware human-machine interface for cars

The European Union co-funded COMUNICAR (communication multimedia unit inside car) project designed and developed an integrated multimedia human–machine interface (HMI) able to manage a wide variety of driver information systems (from entertainment to safety). COMUNICAR proposed an innovative information provision paradigm, in which the on-vehicle HMI is able to tailor the delivery of the information in real time according to the actual driving context and the drivers workload. COMUNICAR adopted a user-centred design process involving an iterative development based on extensive user tests since the early phases of the project. This approach was particularly useful to define and improve the layout of the user interface and specify the rules that decide the scheduling and the modalities of the delivery of the information messages to the driver. This paper introduces the COMUNICAR concept and the user-centred flow of design. Then, a concrete case of user-test driven, iterative improvement of a systems functionality is presented. We also briefly describe two software tools that we have designed to enhance the development process in a user-centred perspective. Finally, the future evolution of the concept of smart and safe information scheduling is sketched and discussed.

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Haptic two-finger contact with textiles

Real-time cloth simulation involves many computational challenges to be solved, particularly in the context of haptic applications, where high frame rates are necessary for obtaining a satisfying experience. In this paper, we present an interactive cloth simulation system that offers a compromise between a realistic physics-based simulation of fabrics and a haptic application meeting high requirements in terms of computation speed. Our system allows the user to interact with the fabric using two fingers. The required performance of the system is achieved by introducing an intermediate layer responsible for the simulation of the small part of the surface being in contact with the fingers. Additionally we separate the possible contact situations into different cases, each being individually handled by a specialised contact algorithm.

Model-based control architecture for attentive robots in rescue scenarios

In this paper we present a control architecture for an autonomous rescue robot specialized in victim finding in an unknown and unstructured environment. The reference domain for rescue robots is the rescue-world arenas purposefully arranged for the Robocup competitions. The main task of a rescue mobile robot is to explore the environment and report to the rescue-operators the map of visited areas annotated with its finding. In this context all the attentional activities play a major role in decision processes: salient elements in the environment yield utilities and objectives. A model-based executive controller is proposed to coordinate, integrate, and monitor the distributed decisions and initiatives emerging from the modules involved in the control loop. We show how this architecture integrates the reactive model-based control of a rescue mission, with an attentive perceptual activity processing the sensor and visual stimuli. The architecture has been implemented and tested in real-world experiments by comparing the performances of metric exploration and attentive exploration. The results obtained demonstrate that the attentive behavior significantly focus the exploration time in salient areas enhancing the overall victim finding effectiveness.

A mobile platform for haptic grasping in large environments

This paper presents methodologies and technologies that are exploited to design and implement the mobile haptic grasper (MHG), i.e. an integrated system consisting of a mobile robot and two grounded haptic devices (HD) fixed on it. This system features two-point contact kinaesthetic interactions while guaranteeing full user’s locomotion in large virtual environment. The workspace of haptic interaction is indefinitely extended, and this is extremely relevant for applications such as virtual grasping, where the global workspace is typically reduced with respect to those of the single-point contact devices. Regarding software architecture, we present the Haptik Library, an open source library developed at the University of Siena which allows to uniformly access HD, that has been used to implement the MHG software.

Socializing artifacts as a half mirror of the mind

In the near future, our life will normally be surrounded with fairly complicated artifacts, enabled by the autonomous robot and brain–machine interface technologies. In this paper, we argue that what we call the responsibility flaw problem and the inappropriate use problem need to be overcome in order for us to benefit from complicated artifacts. In order to solve these problems, we propose an approach to endowing artifacts with an ability of socially communicating with other agents based on the artifact-as-a-half-mirror metaphor. The idea is to have future artifacts behave according to the hybrid intention composed of the owner’s intention and the social rules. We outline the approach and discuss its feasibility together with preliminary work.

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Perception-based lossy haptic compression considerations for velocity-based interactions

The ability of technology to transmit multi-media is very dependent on compression techniques. In particular lossy compression has been used in image compression (jpeg) audio compression (mp3) and video compression (mpg) to allow the transmission of audio and video over broadband network connections. Recently the sense of touch or haptics is becoming more important with its addition in computer games or in cruder applications such as vibrations in a cell phone. As haptic technology improves the ability to transmit compressed force sensations becomes more critical. Most lossy audio and visual compression techniques rely on the lack of sensitivity in humans to pick up detailed information in certain scenarios. Similarly limitations in the sensitivity of human touch could be exploited to create haptic models with much less detail and thus requiring smaller bandwidth. The focus of this paper is on the force thresholds of the human haptic system that can be used in a psychophysically motivated lossy haptic (force) compression technique. Most of the research in this field has measured the just noticeable difference (JND) of the human haptic system with a human user in static interaction with a stationary rigid object. In this paper our focus involves cases where the human user or the object are in relative motion. An example of such an application would be the haptic rendering of the user’s hand in contact with of a high-viscous material or interacting with a highly deformable object. Thus an approach is presented to measure the force threshold based on the velocity of the user’s hand motion. Two experiments are conducted to detect the absolute force threshold (AFT) of the human haptic system using methodologies from the field of psychophysics. The AFTs are detected for three different ranges of velocity of the user’s hand motion. This study implies that when a user’s hand is in motion fewer haptic details are required to be stored calculated or transmitted. Finally the implications of this study on a more complete future study will be discussed.

Device Management in the IMS

IMS is the only standardized way to offer IP based services that are enabled by one common core and all types of access networks and devices. The management of devices can benefit services enabling and improve user experience. This paper presents the device management issues in the IMS. Requirements of device management are presented and a management architecture is proposed to satisfy the requirements. The architecture utilizes distributed design by separating management and executing functionalities and provides service provisioning and tracing functionalities to application servers utilizing some IMS capabilities. Some approaches to integrate more IMS capabilities in device management architecture are discussed. A possible evaluation model for quality of device management from the perspective of user and management authority is proposed.

LuxTrace: indoor positioning using building illumination

Tracking location is challenging due to the numerous constraints of practical systems including, but not limited to global cost, device volume and weight, scalability and accuracy; these constraints are typically more severe for systems that should be wearable and used indoors. We investigate the use of wearable solar cells to track changing light conditions (a concept that we named LuxTrace) as a source of user displacement and activity data. We evaluate constraints of this approach and present results from an experimental validation of displacement and activity estimation. The results indicate that a distance estimation accuracy of 21 cm (80% quantile) can be achieved. A simple method to combine LuxTrace with complementary absolute location estimation methods is also presented. We apply carpet-like distributed RFID tags to demonstrate online learning of new lighting environments.

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A dynamically reconfigurable stereoscopic/panoramic vision mobile robot head controlled from a virtual environment

We have built a mobile robotic platform that features an Active Robotic Head (ARH) with two high-resolution cameras that can be switched during robot operation between two configurations that produce respectively panoramic and stereoscopic images. Image disparity is used for improving the quality of the texture. The robot head switches dynamically, based on robot operation between the stereoscopic configuration and the panoramic configuration.