New easy to use postural assessment method through visual management

Earlier studies have demonstrated the strong relationships between manual assembly work with a high repetition level and the presence of repetitive strain injuries (RSI) or repetitive motion illnesses (RMI). Moreover, recent works have also correlated the high physical load level in assembly lines with an increased number of quality defects in finished products. Thus, the ergo-quality level of a manual workstation needs to be carefully monitored not only to respond to the legislation but first of all to ensure a high system productivity level in the medium-term perspective. The objective of this study was to develop and test a new easy-to-use postural assessment tool and its performance in a car component assembly system. The results show the promising potential of the methodology particularly when compared with the well-known OCRA method.     

Auditory and visual interactions in postural stabilization

Abstract

The interaction and subsequent interpretation of sensory feedback from different modalities are important determinants in the regulation of balance. The importance of sound in this respect is not, as yet, fully understood. The aim of the present study was to determine the interaction of specific auditory frequencies and vision on postural sway behaviour. The frequencies employed represent the geometrical mean of 23 of the 25 critical bandwidths of sound, each presented at two loudness levels (70 and 90 phones). Postural sway was recorded using a biomechanical measuring platform. As expected vision had a highly significant stabilizing effect on most sway parameters. The frequency of the sound, however, appeared to influence the regulation of anteroposterior sway, while increasing loudness tended to increase mediolateral sway. At some frequencies the sound appeared to compensate for the lack of visual feedback. The interaction of sound and vision, particularly in combinations that lead to increased sway behaviour, may have implications in the occurrence, and possible prevention, of industrial accidents.     

Limits of subjective and objective vection for ultra-high frame rate visual displays

Large-field optic flow generates the illusory percept of self-motion, termed ‘vection’. Smoother visual motion displays generate a more compelling subjective sense of vection and objective postural responses, as well as a greater sense of immersiveness for the user observing the visual display. Research suggests that the function linking frame rate and vection asymptotes at 60 frames per second (FPS), but previous studies have used only moderate frame rates that do not approach the limits of human perception. Here, we measure vection using subjective and objective (mean frequency and path length of postural centre-of-pressure (COP) excursions) responses following the presentation of high-contrast optic flow stimuli at slow and fast speeds and low and ultra-high frame rates. We achieve this using a novel rendering method implemented with a projector capable of sub-millisecond temporal resolution in order to simulate refresh rates ranging from very low (15 FPS) to ultra-high frame rates (480 FPS). The results suggest that subjective vection was experienced most strongly at 60 FPS. Below and above 60 FPS, subjective vection is generally weaker, shorter, and starts later, although this pattern varied slightly according to the speed of stimuli. For objective measures, while the frequency of postural sway was unaffected by frame rate, COP path length was greatest for 480 FPS stimuli. Together, our results support diminishing returns for vection above 60 FPS and provide insight into the use of high frame rate for enhancing the user experience in visual displays.     

Vicarious perception of postural discomfort and exertion

Perceived exertion and discomfort have been used extensively in ergonomics practice. Job incumbents typically rate their exertion on scales such as Borg's rated perceived effort (RPE) and their discomfort on scales such as Corlett and Bishop's body part discomfort scales (BPD). This study asks whether exertion and discomfort can be perceived by an external observer, i.e. is vicarious perception possible? Four participants (targets) performed 20 postural holding tasks selected from Ovako Working Posture Analysing System postures and gave RPE and BPD scores for each posture. Video clips of each target in each posture were shown to four expert ergonomists and 23 novices, who also gave RPE and BPD scores. Correlations between targets and observers scores were high, with significance exceeding p = 0.01. Observers were generally conservative, rating easy postures too high and difficult postures too low. All observers rated female targets higher than male targets. Female observers rated all targets higher then male observers. Vicarious perception of discomfort and exertion was possible, but there was not a one-to-one correspondence to ratings given by those experiencing the posture.     

Top-Down modulation of neural responses in visual perception: a computational exploration

Visual perception is typically performed in the context of a task or goal. Nonetheless, visual processing has traditionally been conceptualized in terms of a fixed, task-independent hierarchy of feature detectors. We explore the computational implications of allowing early visual processing to be task modulated. Using artificial neural networks, we show that significant improvements in task accuracy can be obtained by allowing the weights to be modulated by task. The primary benefits are obtained under resource-limited processing. A relatively modest task-based modulation of weights and activities can lead to a large performance boost, suggesting an efficient means of increasing effective cortical capacity.     

融合视觉感知特性的场景分类算法

目的 目前对于场景分类问题,由于其内部结构的多样性和复杂性,以及光照和拍摄角度的影响,现有算法大多通过单纯提取特征进行建模,并没有考虑场景图像中事物之间的相互关联,因此,仍然不能达到一个理想的分类效果。本文针对场景分类中存在的重点和难点问题,充分考虑人眼的视觉感知特性,利用显著性检测,并结合传统的视觉词袋模型,提出了一种融合视觉感知特性的场景分类算法。方法 首先,对图像进行多尺度分解,并提取各尺度下的图像特征,接着,检测各尺度下图像的视觉显著区域,最后,将显著区域信息与多尺度特征进行有机融合,构成多尺度融合窗选加权SIFT特征（WSSIFT）,对场景进行分类。结果 为了验证本文算法的有效性,该算法在3个标准数据集SE、LS以及IS上进行测试,并与不同方法进行比较,分类准确率提高了约3%~17%。结论 本文提出的融合视觉感知特性的场景分类算法,有效地改善了单纯特征描述的局限性,并提高了图像的整体表达。实验结果表明,该算法对于多个数据集都具有较好的分类效果,适用于场景分析、理解、分类等机器视觉领域。     

Effect of button location on driver's visual behaviour and safety perception

Although buttons are a frequently used type of control in car interiors, little research has been undertaken on how the usage of buttons affects the visual behaviour of the driver. In this study, the aim was to analyse the effect of push button location and auditory feedback on drivers' visual time off road and safety perception when driving in a real traffic situation. The effect of six button locations (five on the centre stack, one near the gear stick) was tested. Drivers' visual behaviour was studied in real traffic on a motorway. An eye tracking system recorded the visual behaviour of eight drivers who, in 96 repeated trials each, were instructed to press a specific button. Data analysis focused on the drivers' visual time off road and safety perception in relation to the location of the button to be pressed. Auditory feedback did not show a significant effect on visual time off road. The time off road increased significantly as the angle increased between the normal line of sight and button location for the five buttons placed on the centre stack. Results for the button located close to the gear stick, with the highest eccentricity, produced a short time off road. This unexpected finding is discussed in terms of three potential explanations: 1) the role of perceptual discrimination; 2) risk perception; and 3) motor control.     

利用人眼感知视觉模型的车型动态定位

通过对实时汽车图像的大量研究，提出基于人眼感知视觉模型的自适应汽车车体定位算法。在HSI彩色图像空间，根据人眼分辨率的视觉感知模型分别在色度、亮度和饱和度空间进行自适应的边缘检测，将3个空间得到的图像边缘合并以得到整个车体在实际影像序列中的边缘，最后利用投影知识原理，分别利用边缘的垂直投影图和水平投影图来定位车体的左右边界和上下边界。实验结果表明，该算法具有较快的速度和较好的准确性，能满足实时的车型识别系统的要求。     

Effects of frame rate on vection and postural sway

The quality of stereoscopic 3D cinematic content is a major determinant for user experience in immersive cinema in both traditional theatres and cinematic virtual reality. One of the most important parameters is the frame rate of the content which has historically been 24 frames per second for movies, but higher frame rates are being considered for cinema and are standard for virtual reality. A typical behavioural response to immersive stereoscopic 3D content is vection, the visually-induced perception of self-motion elicited by moving scenes. In this work we investigated how participants’ vection varied with simulated virtual camera speed, frame rate, and motion blur produced by the virtual camera’s exposure, while viewing depictions of movement through a realistic virtual environment. We also investigated how their postural sway varied with these parameters and how sway covaried with levels of perceived self-motion. Results show that while average perceived vection significantly increased with 3D content frame rate and motion speed, motion blur had no significant effect on perceived vection. We also found that levels of postural sway induced by vection correlated positively with subjective ratings.     

Ranking of static non-neutral postures around the joints of the upper extremity and the spine

Constrained body postures are usually cited as the major cause of musculoskeletal static loading. Thus, the main goal of the present study was to develop a ranking system for the stressfulness of the non-neutral static postures around the wrist, elbow, shoulder, neck and lower back. This was based on the ratings of perceived discomfort. Sixteen men participated in the study. The results indicated that static postural stresses yielded varying effects on the discomforting rating levels. On the basis of these preliminary findings, a ranking system was developed for the stressfulness of non-neutral postures around the joints of the upper extremity and the spine.     

虚拟驾驶员视觉感知模型研究

视觉是驾驶员获得驾驶信息的主要通道,虚拟驾驶员的视觉感知模型是驾驶行为建模与仿真的重要内容,直接影响驾驶行为仿真的逼真度。介绍了四种视觉感知建模方法,根据视觉感知系统的反馈性和选择性,建立了视觉感知模型。在模型中,将视觉感知分为感觉和知觉两个过程,并引入了注意力、记忆力、驾驶疲劳和驾驶经验等因素,对每个因素进行分析。通过对虚拟驾驶员视觉感知模型的仿真实验,验证了该模型的可靠性和有效性,为驾驶行为研究提供了基础。     

Joint learning and weighting of visual vocabulary for bag-of-feature based tissue classification

Automated classification of tissue types of Region of Interest (ROI) in medical images has been an important application in Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD). Recently, bag-of-feature methods which treat each ROI as a set of local features have shown their power in this field. Two important issues of bag-of-feature strategy for tissue classification are investigated in this paper: the visual vocabulary learning and weighting, which are always considered independently in traditional methods by neglecting the inner relationship between the visual words and their weights. To overcome this problem, we develop a novel algorithm, Joint-ViVo, which learns the vocabulary and visual word weights jointly. A unified objective function based on large margin is defined for learning of both visual vocabulary and visual word weights, and optimized alternately in the iterative algorithm. We test our algorithm on three tissue classification tasks: classifying breast tissue density in mammograms, classifying lung tissue in High-Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) images, and identifying brain tissue type in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The results show that Joint-ViVo outperforms the state-of-art methods on tissue classification problems.     

Analysis of visual acuity and motion resolvability as measures for optimal visual perception of the workspace

For working tasks with high visual demand, ergonomic design of the working stations requires defining criteria for comparative evaluation and analysis of the visual perceptibility in different regions of the workspace. This paper provides kinematic models of visual acuity and motion resolvability as adopted measures of visual perceptibility of the workspace. The proposed models have been examined through two sets of experiments. The first experiment is designed to compare the models outputs with those from experiments. Time measurements of the participants’ response to visual events are employed for calculation of the perceptibility measures. The overall comparison results show similar patterns and moderate statistical errors of the measured and kinematically modeled values of the parameters. In the second experiment, the proposed set of visual perceptibility measures are examined for a simulated industrial task of inserting electronic chips into slots of a working table, resembling a fine assembly line of transponders manufacturing. The results from ANOVA tests for the visual acuity and the motion resolvability justify the postures adopted by the participants using visual perceptibility measures for completing the insertion tasks.     

A comparison of visual ability and its importance awareness between novice and experienced drivers

The visual ability factors of peripheral perception, visual reaction and visual pursuit ability are important for safe driving. Thus, this study explored the influence of driving experience on these visual ability factors. Sixty-five drivers, including novice and experienced drivers, participated in this study. The visual ability levels of the three factors were measured by the Vienna Test System. In addition, driver's awareness of the three factors' importance for safe driving was measured by questionnaire items. Results showed that out of the three factors, drivers' peripheral perception ability was correlated significantly with their driving experience. Experienced drivers had higher peripheral perception ability than that of novice drivers. In addition, compared with novice drivers, experienced drivers believed that peripheral perception was more important whereas visual reaction was less important. It is suggested that higher attention should be paid to peripheral perception in driving training and novice drivers should increase their importance awareness for this factor.     

A VE framework to study visual perception and action

In the real world, vision operates in harmony with self-motion yielding the observer to unambiguous perception of the three-dimensional (3D) space. In laboratory conditions, because of technical difficulties, researchers studying 3D perception have often preferred to use the substitute of a stationary observer, somehow neglecting aspects of the action-perception cycle. Recent results in visual psychophysics have proved that self-motion and visual processes interact, leading the moving observer to interpret a 3D virtual scene differently from a stationary observer. In this paper we describe a virtual environment (VE) framework which presents very interesting characteristics for designing experiments in visual perception during action. These characteristics arise in a number of ways from the design of a unique motion capture device. First, its accuracy and the minimal latency in position measurement; second, its ease of use and the adaptability to different display interfaces. Such a VE framework enables the experimenter to recreate stimulation conditions characterised by a degree of sensory coherence typical of the real world. Moreover, because of its accuracy and flexibility, the same device can be used as a measurement tool to perform elementary but essential calibration procedures. The VE framework has been used to conduct two studies which compare the perception of 3D variables of the environment in moving and in stationary observers under monocular vision. The first study concerns the perception of absolute distance, i.e. the distance separating an object and the observer. The second study refers to the perception of the orientation of a surface both in the absence and presence of conflicts between static and dynamic visual cues. In the two cases, the VE framework has enabled the design of optimal experimental conditions, permitting light to be shed on the role of action in 3D visual perception.     

基于视觉相似性的半色调图像评价方法

为衡量半色调图像质量或加网算法的优劣,提出平均亮度相似性误差、平均对比度相似性误差和视觉相似性误差以衡量半色调图像与连续调图像之间的视觉相似性。该方法根据人眼视觉局部适应性特征,把图像划分子区域,利用亮度掩蔽和对比度掩蔽的特征,获得各子区域的亮度相似性误差和对比度相似性误差,最终获得平均亮度相似性误差、平均对比度相似性误差和视觉相似性误差分别评价半色调图像与原连续调图像在亮度和纹理的视觉相似性,及半色调图像中的局部缺陷。分别通过与峰值信噪比(PSNR)和权重信噪比(WSNR)在亮度相似性上进行比较,与全局质量因子(UQI)和图像结构相似(SSIM)在评价纹理相似性上进行比较,发现所提质量评价方法比较接近人眼视觉评价的结果。     

智能视觉感知与理解研究态势分析

智能视觉感知与理解技术是人工智能、智慧城市、智慧交通、智能安防等领域的重要研究内容,具有重要的战略意义。介绍了各国智能视觉感知与理解相关政策规划,统计分析了中国国家自然科学基金相关规划项目;对大范围视频视觉感知与理解领域以及无人平台视觉感知与理解领域的Web of Science数据库收录论文进行了分析,对IBM、Google、华为、百度等领域主要公司相关产品进行了调研;从学术和产业两个角度,分别总结了智能视觉感知与理解的研究热点和发展态势。     

Influence of fatigue time and level on increases in postural sway

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of fatigue time and fatigue level on the increases in postural sway during quiet standing. Centre of pressure-based measures of postural sway were collected both before and after fatiguing participants using three different fatigue levels and two different fatigue times. Results showed increasing fatigue time increased sway velocity and sway area, and increasing fatigue level increased sway velocity. Fatigue time effects are important to consider when applying laboratory-based findings to the field given that the fatigue time can differ substantially between the two. Fatigue level effects imply a dose – response relationship between localized muscle fatigue and risk of falling that can have important implications in work/rest cycle scheduling for occupations at risk of injurious falls.     

Effectiveness of vertical visual reference for reducing postural instability on inclined and compliant surfaces at elevation

Falls from elevation continue to be the most serious hazard for the workers in construction. Simple and cost effective technical approaches to improve workers' balance on sloped roofs and deformable/unstable platforms have potential to reduce the risk of falls. This study evaluated the effectiveness of simple vertical structures as visual references (cue) for balance improvement. Twenty-four construction workers were tested while standing on sloped and deformable surfaces at elevation and performing undemanding visual tasks with vertical structures positioned at different proximal locations. Workers' balance performance was assessed by sway parameters calculated from the center-of-pressure movement collected with a force platform. The study results indicate increased instability on the sloped and deformable surfaces at elevation, and show that a simple vertical structure, e.g., a narrow bar, can serve as a visual cue and assist workers' balance. Workers' balance improved linearly with cue proximity in the tested distance range both on the sloped and the deformable surfaces. At a moment of instability, workers can redirect their attention to a proximal structure, available in the line of sight, to assist balance control. These findings may be useful in modifying elevated work environments and construction procedures to improve workers' postural balance during various construction phases.