| Simulation of Complex Human Movement Through the Modulation of Observed Motor Tasks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 3-12 | |
| Giuseppe Andreoni; Marco Rabuffetti; Antonio Pedotti | |||
| A method for the simulation of human movements driven by real data and
correlated with modification of constraints in the external environmental is
presented. It was applied to the simulation of the car ingress changing the
configuration of the doorway to check early on in the design the
man-machine-interface requirements for choosing the best ergonomic solution
among different alternative solutions without the physical construction of
prototypes. The method for the simulation of the movement is based on the
modulation of a real measured performance recorded through an opto-electronic
system for motion analysis. The algorithm implements a multifactorial target
function to solve the redundancy problem. The reliability of the method was
tested through the comparison of simulated and real data showing promising
developments in ergonomics. Keywords: movement; simulation; pattern modulation; ergonomics; virtual prototyping | |||
| Simulation of Digital Human Hand Postures of Car Controls Using a Data Based Approach | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 13-22 | |
| Georges Beurier; Nicolas Chevalot; Gilles Monnier; Jules Trasbot; Xuguang Wang | |||
| This paper introduces a data-based approach to simulate with digital human
models hand postures for grasping car control objects, which takes into account
hand anthropometry, grasp type and object size. This paper presents more the
experimental approach part than the simulation part itself. The simulation part
is essentially done by the RPx software. This paper presents mainly a protocol
in order to obtain data for the simulation. Keywords: hand; data based approach; car controls; digital human | |||
| Human Articulation Efforts Estimation in the Automobile Vehicle Accessibility Movement -- A Pilot Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 23-32 | |
| Jean-François Debril; Philippe Pudlo; Mohand Ouidir Ait El Menceur; Philippe Gorce; François Xavier Lepoutre | |||
| To build a criterion of discomfort evaluation, based on the kinematics and
the dynamics of the performed movement, is an expectation of the car
manufacturers. There is no reference concerning the evaluation of the
articulation efforts during the automobile vehicle accessibility movement. On
this point, we propose to give a first reference. Our method and our
computation were verified by a well known movement, the walking. The automobile
vehicle accessibility movement of a young and healthy subject is studied. The
articulation efforts presented are coherent with the produced movement's
analysis. Keywords: Automobile vehicle accessibility; Inverse dynamics; Articulation efforts | |||
| Study on the Appraisal Methods of Hand Fatigue | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 33-41 | |
| Li Ding; Feng Yang; Chunxin Yang; Xiugan Yuan; Yang Li | |||
| Objective: The evaluation methods of hand fatigue are built and the aim is
to provide reference for the numerical human fatigue appraisal.
Method: 12 females and 14 males in two groups participated in the experiments of changeless force fatigue, which included the grip and pinch and screw, and took part in the nondimensional force fatigue. Result: (1) Hand fatigue could be full evaluated basing on grip and pinch and screw. (2) Using stable force could test the fatigue of manual work simply, but it would be largely affected by the characteristic of sex. (3) The nondimensional evaluation can avoid the impact results from the different forces of testees. Conclusion: Hand fatigue could be full evaluated basing on grip and pinch and screw. The nondimensional evaluation is a feasible method to research numerical human manual fatigue. Keywords: Hand performance; Fatigue; Evaluation; Nondimensiona | |||
| Experimental Research on Human Body Motion Simulation Based on the Motion Capture Technology | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 42-47 | |
| Dayong Dong; Lijing Wang; Xiugan Yuan | |||
| Moveable human body model can be built based on human motion data, which is
recorded by the VICON optical motion capture system and imported to the MOTION
BUILDER software. In this experiment, two simulation projects were designed
successfully, and satisfying results were obtained. The first test was an arm
swinging test which simulates the pilot's action of manipulating dashboard. The
other test involved arm swinging, walking and turning in standing mode, focused
on testing the stability of the system in multi-degree-of-freedom complex
motion situation. Keywords: motion capture; VICON; motion simulation; human body model; human factors | |||
| Modeling of Human's Pointing Movement on the Effect of Target Position | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 48-55 | |
| Junmin Du; Haiwen Shi; Xiugan Yuan | |||
| The purpose of this study is to construct a new pointing movement model
considering the effect of target position. A pointing movement experiment was
designed and carried out, and the pointing movement characteristics when human
upper limb touched the targets on front board are studied. The result shows
that the starting point position and target position greatly affect the
movement time. A new pointing movement model is built, in which the effect of
target position is introduced. The new model obtains higher contribution value
and could describe the data better than the conventional models. Keywords: Human upper limb; pointing movement; Mathematic model | |||
| A Modified Particle Swarm Optimizer Using an Adaptive Dynamic Weight Scheme | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 56-65 | |
| Shu-Kai S. Fan; Ju-Ming Chang | |||
| Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a stochastic, population-based
optimization technique that is inspired by the emigrant behavior of a flock of
birds searching for food. In this paper, a nonlinear function of decreasing
inertia weight that adapts to current performance of PSO search is presented.
Meanwhile, a dynamic mechanism to adjust decrease rates is also suggested.
Through the experimental study, the new PSO algorithm with adaptive dynamic
weight scheme is compared to the exiting models in terms of various benchmark
functions. The computational experience shows some great promise. Keywords: particle swarm optimization (PSO); dynamic inertia weight; population-based
optimization technique | |||
| Prediction of Discomfort During Arm Movements | | BIBA | Full-Text | 66-73 | |
| Florian Fritzsche; Heiner Bubb | |||
| On the way to a generalized discomfort model for movements steps are presented that calculate the determining parameters for the model. Discomfort is mainly dependant on posture and relative torque. A multi body system arm model is used to calculate the driving torques of a lifting task using inverse dynamics. A motion analysis of the movement was carried out and the corresponding angles were used to drive the arm model. In order to calculate relative torque a torque velocity relationship according to Hill was implemented in the arm model. | |||
| A Motion Compensated De-interlacing Algorithm for Motive Object Capture | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 74-81 | |
| Lei Gao; Chao Li; Chengjun Zhu; Zhang Xiong | |||
| A motion compensated de-interlacing algorithm is proposed to recover the
defects of interlaced video frame for capturing motion object. In this
algorithm, two anti-noise background fields are formed by analyzing the
temporal correlation of pixels between adjacent same parity fields. To each
field, the subtraction with the corresponding background is used to detect
motion object. To avoid the inaccurate detection caused by the difference
between the spatial scanning positions of odd and even field, the motion
objects are detected with same parity field and background field. Then motion
estimation technology is used to measures the inter-field motion, find out the
motion vector between the odd field and even field. Based on the motion vector,
an interpolation filter is designed to shift the pixels of the motion object in
the two temporally displaced fields to a common point in time. This
de-interlacing algorithm maximizes the vertical resolution of the motion
objects. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm could achieve
higher image quality on motion object, and the computational complexity is
acceptable for consumer computer applications. Keywords: de-interlacing; motion compensation; motion estimation; motion detect;
motion object | |||
| Color 3D Digital Human Modeling and Its Applications to Animation and Anthropometry | | BIBA | Full-Text | 82-91 | |
| Bao-zhen Ge; Qing-guo Tian; K. David Young; Yu-chen Sun | |||
| With the rapid advancement in laser technology, computer vision, and embedded computing, the application of laser scanning to the digitization of three dimensional physical realities has become increasingly widespread. In this paper, we focus on research results embodied in a 3D human body color digitization system developed at Tianjin University, and in collaboration with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In digital human modeling, the first step involves the acquisition of the 3D human body data. We have over the years developed laser scanning technological know-how from first principles to support our research activities on building the first 3D digital human database for ethnic Chinese. The disadvantage of the conventional laser scanning is that surface color information is not contained in the point cloud data. By adding color imaging sensors to the developed multi-axis laser scanner, both the 3D human body coordinate data and the body surface color mapping are acquired. Our latest development is focused on skeleton extraction which is the key step towards human body animation, and applications to dynamic anthropometry. For dynamic anthropometric measurements, we first use an animation algorithm to adjust the 3D digital human to the required standard posture for measurement, and then fix the feature points and feature planes based on human body geometric characteristics. Utilizing the feature points, feature planes, and the extracted human body skeleton, we have measured 40 key sizes for the stand posture, and the squat posture. These experimental results will be given, and the factors that affect the measurement precision are analyzed through qualitative and quantitative analyses. | |||
| Advanced Human Body and Head Shape Representation and Analysis | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 92-100 | |
| Afzal Godil | |||
| The 3D scans of human bodies contain over hundreds of thousand grid points.
To be used effectively for analysis, indexing, searching, clustering and
retrieval, these human bodies requires a compact shape representation. We have
developed compact representations based on human body shape based on lengths
mostly between joints of single large bones and in the second method
silhouettes of the human body are created and then encoded as Fourier shape
descriptors. We also have developed two such compact representations based on
human head shape by applying Principal Component Analysis on the facial surface
and in the second method the whole head is transformed to a spherical
coordinate system expanded in a basis of Spherical Harmonics. Keywords: 3D anthropometry; shape searching; PCA; Spherical Harmonics | |||
| Hand Grasping Motion Simulation for Astronauts Training | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 101-109 | |
| Qiang Guo; Yuqing Liu | |||
| The objective of this paper is to find an appropriate method to realize the
simulation of hand grasping motion for astronauts training. In this paper, on
the basis of analysis and comparison of a variety of methods of hand grasping
motion, we come up with an idea combined interpolation and inverse kinematics
for hand motion simulation. An example demonstrates the method's effectiveness
and practicability. Keywords: Hand motion simulation; Interpolation methods; Inverse kinematics | |||
| Predefined Manikins to Support Consideration of Anthropometric Diversity by Product Designers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 110-119 | |
| Dan Högberg; Keith Case | |||
| The paper discusses the complexity involved in considering targeted product
users' anthropometric variation in multivariate design problems, such as the
design of workplaces or vehicle interiors. The authors argue for the advantages
of offering designers a number of predefined digital human models to
incorporate in the CAD product models. A study has been carried out in order to
illustrate the use of predefined digital human models in vehicle interior
design by using the Digital Human Modelling (DHM) tool RAMSIS. The paper takes
a designer's view of digital human modelling and illustrates how DHM can be of
great value in the design process, but also considers what implications this
has on the functionality and usability of DHM tools. Keywords: Anthropometric Diversity; Digital Human Modelling; Design Process; Product
Design; Ergonomics; Human Factors | |||
| Comparison of Human and Machine Recognition of Everyday Human Actions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 120-129 | |
| Trevor D. Jones; Shaun W. Lawson; David Benyon; Alistair Armitage | |||
| The research presented here makes a contribution to the understanding of the
recognition of biological motion by comparing human recognition of a set of
everyday gestures and motions with machine interpretation of the same dataset.
Our reasoning is that analysis of any differences and/or correlations between
the two could reveal insights into how humans themselves perceive motion and
hint at the most important cues that artificial classifiers should be using to
perform such a task. We captured biological motion data from human participants
engaged in a number of everyday activities, such as walking, running and
waving, and then built two artificial classifiers (a Finite State Machine and a
multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network, ANN) which were capable of
discriminating between activities. We then compared the accuracy of these
classifiers with the abilities of a group of human observers to interpret the
same activities when they were presented as moving light displays (MLDs). Our
results suggest that machine recognition with ANNs is not only comparable to
human levels of recognition but can exceed it in some instances. Keywords: Neural network; finite state machine; moving light display; human biological
motion | |||
| A New Decoding Algorithm in MIMO-ZP-OFDM Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 130-135 | |
| Rui Kang; ChaoXiong Xu; Hao Chen; HongBo Xu | |||
| In order to adapt for a high-rate transmission and improve the performance
of operation, in this paper, a new low complex sphere decoding (SD) algorithm
is proposed in the MIMO-ZP-OFDM systems. It is an approximate optimization
algorithm and can be used in the space-time coding and uncoded multiple-antenna
systems. ML sequence detection compared with SD algorithm the latter can reduce
the complex and keep the performance of systems, especial for high-rate
transmission operation and the occasion of transmit antenna beyond receive
antenna. Simulation results show that the efficiency and superiority of this
algorithm. Keywords: OFDM; MIMO; sphere decoding; ZP | |||
| Computer Graphic Modeling and Simulation of Human Musculoskeletal System for Biomechanical Research | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 136-143 | |
| Yoon Hyuk Kim | |||
| In this paper, the human musculoskeletal model based on the medical images
of the Korean standard male and the computer graphics based simulation
technology with biomechanical analyses are presented. The virtual human model
consists of three components. The model component includes the development of
anatomically accurate geometric models with physiologically relevant material
data. The analysis component includes various types of mechanical. In the
simulation component, task-oriented graphic simulation would be performed for
virtual evaluation, test, measurement, design, and planning. Three
biomechanical analyses with graphic simulation using the virtual Korean model
were performed; the surgical simulation of bone fracture surgery, the
biomechanical evaluation of surgical implant in knee, and the graphic
visualization and simulation of tennis play. In conclusion, the developed
virtual Korean model of the musculoskeletal system would have lots of
potentiality for biomechanical research and development in various fields, such
as medical industry, automobile, ergonomics, or nuclear industry. Keywords: Biomechanics; Human model; Musculoskeletal; Virtual Human | |||
| The Strength Factor in Digital Human Modeling and Simulation: A Case for a New Framework | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 144-146 | |
| Kang Li; Xudong Zhang | |||
| It is not well understood whether strength could ever influence performance
in which only sub-maximal, moderate exertions are needed although strength may
be indicative of the movement performance at or near the maximal level. In this
paper, we present some evidence from two studies suggesting the strength
effects on performance strategies in volitional physical tasks, and based on
the evidence, a new framework was proposed for human movement modeling and
simulation that incorporates the strength factor. Keywords: Strength; Digital human modeling | |||
| The Effects of the False Vocal Fold Gaps in a Model of the Larynx on Pressures Distributions and Flows | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 147-156 | |
| Sheng Li; Mingxi Wan; Supin Wang | |||
| Human phonation does not merely depend upon the vibration of the vocal
folds. The false vocal fold (FVF), as an important laryngeal constriction, has
also been found by more and more research both in clinically and computer
simulations that it plays an important role during phonation and contributes
significantly to the aerodynamics and sound generation processes of human voice
production. Among many parameters which are used to determine and describe the
geometry of the false vocal folds, the false vocal fold gap (GFVF), which means
the minimal distance between the two false vocal folds, is regarded as an
important and dominant parameter. Therefore, this study explores the effects of
the FVF gaps on the intralaryngeal pressure distributions, laryngeal resistance
and flows using both three-dimensional Plexiglas model and commercially
available computational fluid dynamics code.
Three glottal angles, divergent 40°, uniform 0°, and convergent -40°were used for this study to explore the effects of FVF gaps, as they represent the basic glottal shapes typically expected in phonation, the angle values also were typically expected for most phonation in modal Register. A wide variety of FVF gaps (GFVF) were parameterized with 12 different values: 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.09, 0.1, 0.11, 0.12, 0.16, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 cm to represent important geometries often appearing within phonatory vibratory cycles. These gaps were used for each glottal angle. The specific design of the FVFs followed prior literature. The minimal glottal diameter (Dg) was constantly at 0.06 cm in this study for each FVF gaps, and the translaryngeal pressure were held constant at 8 cm H2O. A nonvibrating laryngeal airway Plexiglas model, which had linear dimensions 1.732 times of a normal male larynx, was used in this study. In order to measure pressures inside the Plexiglas model, twelve cylindrical ducts were made on the midline of the laryngeal wall of the model. The diameter of each duct was 0.07 cm human size (0.12 cm in the model), so that the connector of an Entran EPE-551 pressure transducer could fit snugly into the holes. The distance between the centers of each hole was 0.14 cm human size. FLUENT (Fluent, Inc., Lebanon, NH), a commercially available computational fluid dynamics code was also used to obtain estimates of the normal wall pressures along the laryngeal surfaces (including the surfaces of vocal folds, ventricles, and false vocal folds) as a function of the FVF gaps and the glottal angles. The code is based on the control-volume technique and was used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations for constant shapes (not for vibrating vocal folds), laminar, incompressible airflow physics occurring inside the symmetric laryngeal geometries. The flow field was assumed to be symmetric across the midline of the glottis in this study, and therefore only the half flow field was modeled. The results suggest that (1) the intralaryngeal pressure was lowest and the flow was highest (least flow resistance) when the FVF gap was 1.5-2 times of Dg, the intralaryngeal pressures decreased and flows increased as smaller FVF gaps increased, and the intralaryngeal pressures increased and flows decreased as larger FVF gaps increased, indicating that the least pressure drop for any given flow (that is, the least flow resistance) was found to correspond to the 1.5-2 times of Dg for different glottal angle. Suggesting that the 1.5-2 times of Dg might be the optimal gap for pressure, and efficient phonation may involve laryngeal shaping of this condition. Therefore, the positioning and existing structure of the FVFs can aid in phonation by reducing energy losses and increasing airflow in the larynx when positioned appropriately; (2) both the pressure and flow were unaffected when the FVF gaps larger than 0.4 cm; (3) the divergent glottal angle gave lower pressure and greater flow than the convergent and uniform glottal angle as no FVF conditions; (4) the present of the FVF decreased the effects of the glottal angle on both the intralaryngeal pressure and flow to some extent, and the smaller the FVF gaps, the smaller this effect. Perhaps more important, (5) the present of the FVF also moving the separation points downstream, straitening the glottal jet for a longer distance, decreasing overall laryngeal resistance, and reducing the energy dissipation, suggesting that the FVF would be of importance to efficient voice production; (6) the empirical pressure distributions were supported by computational results. The results suggest that the intralaryngeal pressure distributions and the laryngeal flow resistance are highly affected by the presence of the FVFs, and the FVFs can aid in phonation when by reducing energy losses positioned appropriately. Therefore, the results might be helpful not only in maintaining healthy vocal habits, but also in exploring surgical and rehabilitative intervention of related voice problem. The results also suggest that they may be incorporated in the phonatory models (physical or computational) for better understanding of vocal mechanics. Keywords: Speech production; false vocal folds; model; pressure distributions | |||
| A Robust Algorithm for a System Identification Approach to Digital Human Modeling: An Application to Multi-fingered Hand Movement | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 157-160 | |
| Kang Li; Sang-Wook Lee; Xudong Zhang | |||
| A recent study [2] proposed a forward bio-dynamic model of multi-fingered
hand movement. The model employed a physics-based heuristic algorithm for
system identification of the model parameters, and succeeded in replicating
measured multi-fingered flexion-extension movement. However, while the model
itself is general and readily applicable to other bodily movements, the
heuristic algorithm required empirical adjustments to initial setups, and was
therefore difficult to generalize. This paper introduces a rigorous and more
robust parameter estimation algorithm to enhance the intended general modeling
approach for digital human movement simulation. The algorithm is demonstrated
by solving the same modeling problem posed in [2]. Keywords: hand movement; system identification; forward dynamics | |||
| Mathematical Methods for Shape Analysis and form Comparison in 3D Anthropometry: A Literature Review | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 161-170 | |
| Jianwei Niu; Zhizhong Li; Gavriel Salvendy | |||
| Form comparison is a fundamental part of many anthropometric, biological,
anthropological, archaeological and botanical researches, etc. In traditional
anthropometric form comparison methods, geometry characteristics and internal
structure of surface points are not adequately considered. Form comparison of
3D anthropometric data can make up the deficiency of traditional methods. In
this paper, methods for analyzing 3D other than 2D objects are highlighted. We
summarize the advance of form comparison techniques in the last decades.
According to whether they are based upon anatomical landmarks, we partition
them into two main categories, landmark-based methods and landmark-free
methods. The former methods are further sub-divided into deformation methods,
superimposition methods, and methods based on linear distances, while the
latter methods are sub-divided into shape statistics-based methods, methods
based on function analysis, view-based methods, topology-based methods, and
hybrid methods. Examples for each method are presented. The discussion about
their advantages and disadvantages are also introduced. Keywords: 3D anthropometry; form comparison | |||
| A Case Study of Multi-resolution Representation of Heads | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 171-178 | |
| Jianwei Niu; Zhizhong Li; Gavriel Salvendy | |||
| A wavelet analysis based multi-resolution representation method is adopted
to establish mathematical description of three-dimensional anthropometric head
data in this paper. This method provides flexible description of shapes at
different resolution levels. Three-dimensional anthropometric data analysis can
then be performed with coarse resolutions, which preserve the major shape
components but ignore micro shape components. In a case study of 510 3D head
scans, quantitative approximation errors, which reflect the approximation of
the low-resolution surface to the original one, have been investigated and
demonstrated with respect to various decomposition levels. Keywords: 3D Anthropometry; wavelet analysis; multi-resolution representation | |||
| The Application of Kane Equation in the Impact Prediction of Human Motion | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 179-188 | |
| Mu Qiao; Chunxin Yang; Xiugan Yuan | |||
| This paper presents a computational procedure for deriving and solving the
governing dynamical equations of multi-body human systems subjected to impact.
The procedure is developed on the basis of the assumption that the duration of
the impact is very short, during which the configuration of the system remain
the same, although the velocities of the system have undergone significant
changes. These assumptions lead to a set of linear algebraic equations for the
velocity increments. These equations may then be solved to obtain initial
conditions for the analysis of the subsequent motion of the multi-body human
system. A calculating task of ejecting seat problem is presented to illustrate
and validate the procedure. Keywords: multi-body; Kane equation; impulse; ejection | |||
| A Fast Motion Estimation Algorithm for H.264 | | BIBA | Full-Text | 189-196 | |
| Jianbin Song; Bo Li; Qing-lei Meng | |||
| Compared with the previous video standard, the performance of H.264 has improved significantly because of multi-block-size motion estimation. However, encoder using above technology is very time-consuming. Making full use of the spatiotemporal correlation of video and similar motion between the different-size block, according to the central-biased characteristic of motion vector, a fast motion estimation algorithm for H.264 is proposed in this paper. By effective prediction of search window center point, adaptive selection of search patterns and termination of the search process, the proposed algorithm speedups 123-186 times than full search algorithm and 4.6-5.9 times than the fast motion estimation algorithm recommended in H.264 while maintains similar rate distortion performance. | |||
| Validating Optical Motion Capture Assessments of the Dynamic Aspects of Work | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 197-204 | |
| Jackie Sutherland; Vincent G. Duffy | |||
| The objective of this study is to validate two three-dimensional motion
systems used capture human movement; the Lumbar Motion Monitor (LMM) and
optical motion capture. Marras et al. captured the accuracy and reliability of
optical motion capture and the LMM in a 1992 validation study, and found
several benefits of using the LMM for ergonomic evaluations. However, since
1992, several advances have been made in the field of digital human modeling
and optical motion capture, and it is believed that a modern validation of the
two systems could serve others in academic and industry alike when choosing a
methodology toward capturing ergonomic data. The purpose of this research is to
validate the methods of collecting dynamic data and predicting injury risk in
humans during lifting procedures. Keywords: optical motion capture; lumbar motion monitor; dynamic lifting; digital
human modeling; ergonomics; validation | |||
| Modeling Human Bipedal Navigation in a Dynamic Three Dimensional Virtual Environment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 205-214 | |
| Mark D. Thomas; Daniel W. Carruth; Bryan Robbins; John A. McGinley; Alexander Morais | |||
| The current research sought to construct a computational model of human
navigation for virtual three dimensional environments. The model was
implemented within the ACT-R cognitive architecture [1]. The navigation model
incorporates visual search, encoding object features and spatial relationships,
motion, obstacle avoidance, and incidental visual memory. Keywords: walking navigation; ACT-R; digital human model; incidental visual memory;
visual search | |||
| A Data-Based Modeling Approach of Reach Capacity and Discomfort for Digital Human Models | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 215-223 | |
| Xuguang Wang; Elodie Chateauroux; Nicolas Chevalot | |||
| In this paper, we have proposed a unified data based approach which aims to
predict both reach envelops and reach discomfort for a digital human model.
Reach envelops can be obtained by applying the existing reach posture data to a
new subject according to simulation scenario. Four reach surfaces are proposed
according to the radial distance from the shoulder. The discomfort of a target
on each surface needs to be defined at first. Then, the discomfort of an
intermediate distance between two reach distances is interpolated. The proposed
approach is illustrated by the data of a previous study. In this study, 38
young and elderly subjects were instructed to reach 94 targets for each from a
seated position, covering a large reachable space. Keywords: Reach; discomfort; digital human modeling; reach posture | |||
| Motion Retrieval Based on Temporal-Spatial Features by Decision Tree | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 224-233 | |
| Jian Xiang; Hongli Zhu | |||
| In order to retrieve similar motion data from Mocap database, each human
joint's motion clip is regarded as a bag, while each of its segments is
regarded as an instance. 3D temporal-spatial features are extracted and data
driven decision trees are automatically constructed to reflect the influence of
each point during the comparison of motion similarity. At last we use the
method of multiple instance retrieval to complete motion retrieval. Experiment
results show that our approaches are effective for motion data retrieval. Keywords: Motion Capture; 3D Temporal-Spatial; Data Driven; Decision Tree; Retrieval | |||
| Motion Retrieval Based on an Efficient Index Method for Large-Scale Mocap Database | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 234-242 | |
| Jian Xiang; Hongli Zhu | |||
| In this paper, a novel approach is presented for motion retrieval based on
double-reference inde (DRI) in Motion Capture (Mocap) database. Due to high
dimensionality of motion's feature, the Isomap nonlinear dimensionality
reduction is used. For handling new motion data, Isomap is generalized based on
the estimation of underlying eigenfunctions. Then DRI is build based on
selecting a small set of representative motion clips in the database. So we can
get candidate set by abandoning most unrelated motion clips to reduce the
number of costly similarity measure significantly. Experimental results show
that our methods are effective for motion data retrieval in large database. Keywords: Motion retrieval; reference index; Isomap; Mocap database | |||
| Modeling of Layered Fuzzy Facial Expression Generation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 243-252 | |
| Yu-Li Xue; Xia Mao; Zheng Li; Wei-He Diao | |||
| This paper proposed a layered fuzzy model of facial expression generation,
in which the layers of physiological model at low level, emotional model at
middle level and social rules at high level determine the fuzzy facial
expression generation. In the layered fuzzy facial expression generation
system, facial expressions of 26 emotions can be fuzzily generated, as well as
social expressions and instinctive expressions. Experiment results indicated
that the model of layered fuzzy facial expression generation works well in
displaying lifelike facial expressions. Keywords: Facial expression generation; fuzzy theory; layered fuzzy model | |||
| An Inverse Dynamical Model for Slip Gait | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 253-258 | |
| Jiankun Yang; Dewen Jin; Linhong Ji; Jichuan Zhang; Rencheng Wang; Xin Fang; Dawei Zhou | |||
| A inverse dynamical model for slip gait developed by using Kane's method of
dynamics is described in this paper. The modeling was based on two separate
sub-systems: anti-slip and anti-fall. Both sub-systems were modeled as an open
kinematic chain and formulated using the same equations, so that the whole slip
and fall process could be simulated using the same equations by switching input
data. In the simulation, only kinematic data need to be input to obtain the
joint moments and horizontal ground reaction force in the whole slip and fall
process. The kinematic input data were acquired from one health male subject
who was asked to perform the normal and slip gait. The anthropometric data for
each body segment in the skeletal model was calculated using the body height,
weight and the national standards on inertia parameters regression equations.
The kinematic and kinetic results from the simulation are discussed in the
paper which are well consistent with the conclusions in previous studies. Keywords: slip and fall; modeling; human gait; kinetics | |||
| Redundant Muscular Force Analysis of Human Lower Limbs During Rising from a Squat | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 259-267 | |
| Yiyong Yang; Rencheng Wang; Ming Zhang; Dewen Jin; Fangfang Wu | |||
| Muscular coordination analysis of lower limbs during rising from a squat is
one of the important categories in rehabilitation engineering and gymnastic
science. This paper describes an efficient biomechanical model of the human
lower limb with the aim of simulating the real human rising from a squat with
lifting. To understand how intermuscular control coordinates limb muscle
excitations the optimal control technique is used to solve the muscle forces
sharing problem. The validity of the model is assessed comparing the calculated
muscle excitations with the registered surface electromyogramm (EMG) of the
muscles. The results show that synergistic muscles are build up by the neural
control signals using a minimum fatigue criterion during human squat lifting,
with distinct phases that include the acceleration during the initial movement
and the posture at the final specified position. Synergistic muscular groups
can be used to simplify motor control, and are essential to reduce the number
of controlled parameters and amount of information needing to be analyzed in
the performance of any motor act. Keywords: Redundant Muscular force; Neural control analysis; Human squat lifting | |||
| Optimal Control and Synergic Pattern Analysis of Upper Limb Reaching-Grasping Movements | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 268-275 | |
| Yiyong Yang; Rencheng Wang; Ming Zhang; Dewen Jin; Fangfang Wu | |||
| A three-dimension, neuromusculoskeletal model of the human upper limb,
consisting of 30 muscle-tendon systems, was combined with dynamic optimization
theory to simulate reaching-grasping movements. The model was verified using
experimental kinematics, muscle forces, and electromyographic (EMG) data from
volunteer subjects performing reaching-grasping movements. Despite joint
redundancy, the topological invariance was observed in the trajectories of
different task performance, and the linear relationships between joints
covariation were exhibited. Quantitative comparisons of the model predictions
and muscle activations obtained from experiment show that the minimum
torque-change criterion is a valid measure of reaching-grasping performance. Keywords: Synergic Pattern; Optimal Control; Upper limb; Reaching to grasp movements | |||
| Low Cost 3D Shape Acquisition System Using Strip Shifting Pattern | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 276-285 | |
| Li Yao; Lizhuang Ma; Di Wu | |||
| We present a simple and low cost 3D shape acquisition method that can
measure the objects with interreflection and high light. The capture system
employs a projector to project line shifting shadow on the object, and a
digital camera to record videos (image sequence) of the object and the
distorted shadow. A novel spacetime edge finding method is introduced to get
the shadow edge accurately and overcome the interreflection and high light. The
3D data of the object are got by using the spacetime information. A
post-processing 3D filter is proposed to filter the bad data. The 3D filter
makes full use of the neighborhoods' geometric constrains and the view point
constrain. Keywords: 3D scanner; shape recovery; surface reconstruction | |||
| Automatic Joints Extraction of Scanned Human Body | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 286-293 | |
| Yong Yu; Zhaoqi Wang; Shihong Xia; Tianlu Mao | |||
| This paper presents an automatic method to extract joints accurately from
scanned human body shape. Firstly, model is divided into slices by a group of
horizontal parallel planes and primary landmarks are determinated according to
the slices. Additionally, we propose a model intersection method based on
direction of limbs. Model is separated into five segments including torso and
four limbs and approximate direction of each segment can be calculated
according to the primary landmarks. Five groups of parallel planes
perpendicular to corresponding segments are employed to divide each segment
into slices, and contours are calculated by intersection detection between
planes and triangles. Finally, we propose a circularity function
differentiation technique to extract key contours at joints from segments and
the joints can be calculated according to centroids of the key contours. The
experimental results demonstrate that the method has more advantages than the
conventional ones, especially in algorithm's accuracy and robustness. Keywords: Joints Extraction; Virtual Human; Scanned Human Body | |||
| Wavelet Transform and Singular Value Decomposition of EEG Signal for Pattern Recognition of Complicated Hand Activities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 294-303 | |
| Xiaodong Zhang; Weifeng Diao; Zhiqiang Cheng | |||
| Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a useful bioelectrical signal in pattern
recognition of hand activities because of its following characteristics: (1)
patterns of EEG are different when doing diverse movements and mental tasks;
(2) EEG can be real-timely or instantly extracted; (3) the measurement of EEG
can reach an enough precision. A new approach for the pattern recognition of
four complicated hand activities based on EEG is presented in this paper, in
which each piece of raw data sequence for EEG signal is decomposed by wavelet
transform (WT) to form a matrix, and the singular value of the matrix is
extracted by singular value decomposition (SVD). And then the singular value,
as the feature vector, is input to the artificial neural network (ANN) to
discriminate the four hand activities including grasping a football, a small
bar, a cylinder and a hard paper. Finally the research results show the correct
classification rate of 89% was achieved by the approach mentioned above. Keywords: Electroencephalogram; Pattern recognition; Wavelet transform; Singular value
decomposition; Artificial neural network | |||
| Capturing 3D Human Motion from Monocular Images Using Orthogonal Locality Preserving Projection | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 304-313 | |
| Xu Zhao; Yuncai Liu | |||
| In this paper, we present an Orthogonal Locality Preserving Projection based
(OLPP) approach to capture three-dimensional human motion from monocular
images. From the motion capture data residing in high dimension space of human
activities, we extract the motion base space in which human pose can be
described essentially and concisely by more controllable way. This is actually
a dimensionality reduction process completed in the framework of OLPP. And
then, the structure of this space corresponding to special activity such as
walking motion is explored with data clustering. Pose recovering is performed
in the generative framework. For the single image, Gaussian mixture model is
used to generate candidates of the 3D pose. The shape context is the common
descriptor of image silhouette feature and synthetical feature of human model.
We get the shortlist of 3D poses by measuring the shape contexts matching cost
between image features and the synthetical features. In tracking situation, an
AR model trained by the example sequence produces almost accurate pose
predictions. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach works well. Keywords: OLPP; Human Motion Analysis; Monocular Images | |||
| Human Motion Simulation and Action Corpus | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 314-322 | |
| Gang Zheng; Wanqing Li; Philip Ogunbona; Liju Dong; Igor Kharitonenko | |||
| Acquisition of large scale good quality training samples is becoming a major
issue in machine learning based human motion analysis. This paper presents a
method to simulate continuous gross human body motion with the intention to
establish a human motion corpus for learning and recognition. The simulation is
achieved by a temporal-spatialtemporal decomposition of human motion into
actions, joint actions and actionlets based on the human kinematic model. The
actionlet models the primitive moving phase of a joint and represents the
muscle movement governed by kinesiological principles. Joint actions and body
actions are constructed from actionlets through constrained concatenation and
synchronization. Methods for concatenation and synchronization are proposed in
this paper. An action corpus with small number of action vocabularies is
created to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. Keywords: Human Motion; Actions; Simulation; Motion Editing | |||
| User Experience Quality: A Conceptual Framework for Goal Setting and Measurement | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 325-332 | |
| Russell Beauregard; Philip Corriveau | |||
| Although the term 'user experience' has become ubiquitous, variations in its
conceptualization can make design objectives unclear. This paper proposes a
simple framework for conceptualizing the components of user experience in order
to communicate with UX stakeholders and advance goal setting and measurement in
applied settings. A deeper understanding of the components of experience
provide a greater ability to set strategic direction for the user experience,
guide design goals, and assess user experience outcomes. In educating
stakeholders on a more complete view of user experience, UCD practitioners have
the opportunity to play a key role in planning the level of user experience
quality for the product user experience and influencing where user experience
studies will have the most impact on products. Keywords: UX; user experience assessment; experience quality; consumer experience;
perceptual quality; customer emotions | |||
| Integrating Perception, Cognition and Action for Digital Human Modeling | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 333-342 | |
| Daniel W. Carruth; Mark D. Thomas; Bryan Robbins; Alexander Morais | |||
| Computational cognitive models are used to validate psychological theories
of cognition, to formally describe how complex tasks are performed, and to
predict human performance on novel tasks. Most cognitive models have very
limited models of how the body interacts with the environment. The present
research examines a simple human-machine interaction task and a simple object
manipulation task. A cognitive model is integrated with a human avatar within a
virtual environment in order to model both tasks. Keywords: Digital Human Modeling; Cognitive Models; Perception; Cognition; Action | |||
| The Usability of Metaphors with Different Degree of Abstract in Interface Design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 343-352 | |
| Ming-Chuen Chuang; Inglen Lo | |||
| Recently, more and more devices everywhere are getting "smarter" with a
multi-modal hierarchical menu and form interface. One of the main points of the
menu or interface design is to provide users with ease-to-use operation
environment. This make them not only learn efficiently but also feel fun
(interested) in the process of learning. However, there is no one concept of
design suit everyone because the needs and purposes of users are much different
from individuals. To satisfy them, the varied design concepts have been
suggested to fit for their distinct perceptions and experiences. Consequently,
new assessment, called usability, is also required to estimate whether the
design concepts are good or not. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate
into the usability of 3D interface design. For that, 3 types of main menu of
the mobile phone's interface metaphor design were developed as stimuli with
different degree of abstract in this study. Then, a four-phase experiment was
conducted to explore the usability evaluation of 3 types of metaphorical
interface design with different degree of abstract, including: (1) to
investigate users' opinions on a mobile phone's interface design; (2) to verify
whether the simulated graphics and interactions corresponding to the metaphors
intended (pilot study); (3) to measure the usability of 3 types of metaphorical
interface design simulated in this study; (4) to compare the preference for any
one of the 3 types of metaphorical interface design. The experimental
procedures and the results of the analysis would be interpreted respectively
according to different phases. Additionally, the degree of abstract in the
metaphorical interface design was defined by the average ratings in phase 1:
metaphor 3 were regarded as abstract interface design and metaphor 1 and
metaphor 2 were regarded as concrete interface designs, but the degree of
concrete in metaphor 1 was stronger than in metaphor 2. Keywords: Metaphor; interface design; usability; SUS score; preference | |||
| Applications of the Visible Korean Human | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 353-362 | |
| Min Suk Chung; Jin Seo Park | |||
| Visible Korean Human (VKH) consisting of magnetic resonance, computer
tomography, anatomic, and segmented images was created. In the VKH, several
techniques were developed and numerous data were acquired. The VKH techniques
majorly contributed to the generation of advanced segmented images, Visible
Living Human, and Visible Mouse. Also, a software for sectional anatomy, three
dimensional images for virtual dissection and virtual endoscopy, was developed
based on the VKH data distributed worldwide. The VKH technique and data are
expected to promote development of other serially sectioned images and
software, which are helpful in medical education and clinical practice. Keywords: Visible Korean Human; Magnetic resonance images; Anatomic images; Segmented
images; Three dimensional images | |||
| Role of Humans in Complexity of a System-of-Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 363-371 | |
| Daniel DeLaurentis | |||
| This paper pursues three primary objectives. First, a brief introduction to
system-of-systems is presented in order to establish a foundation for
exploration of the role of human system modeling in this context. Second, the
sources of complexity related to human participation in a system-of-systems are
described and categorized. Finally, special attention is placed upon how this
complexity might be better managed by greater involvement of modeling of human
behavior and decision-making. The ultimate objective of the research thrust is
to better enable success in the various system-of-systems that exist in
society. Keywords: system-of-systems; complexity; human behaviors; connectivity | |||
| Digital Human Modeling for Product Lifecycle Management | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 372-381 | |
| H. Onan Demirel; Vincent G. Duffy | |||
| This paper presents the current and probable future applications of Digital
Human Modeling (DHM) in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) implementations. A
Formula 1 race car and a marine vessel were developed by the integration of PLM
and DHM software packages. Dassault Systemes' CATIA V5 PLM solution package was
used for CAD/CAE design/analysis and UGS Tecnomatix JACK software was utilized
for visual/mathematical ergonomics and human analysis. Literature review for
future work, [1] and [2], was discussed to investigate the potentials of DHM in
PLM for simulation of a blast motion in Navy vessels. The results and
observations indicated that integration of DHM and PLM packages have potentials
to improve the product development efforts and offer an enhanced approach for
simulation of complex systems where there is human-machine integration. Keywords: Digital Human Modeling; Advance Manufacturing; Product Development; Human
Factors and Ergonomics; Product Lifecycle Management; Engineering Design;
Motion Capture; Simulation & Modeling | |||
| Bridging the Gap: Exploring Interactions Between Digital Human Models and Cognitive Models | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 382-391 | |
| Robert Feyen | |||
| For years now, most researchers modeling physical and cognitive behavior
have focused on one area or the other, dividing human performance into "neck
up" and "neck down." But the current state of the art in both areas has
advanced to the point that researchers should begin considering how the two
areas interact to produce behaviors. In light of this, some common terms are
defined so researchers working in different disciplines and application areas
can understand each other better. Second, a crude "roadmap" is presented to
suggest areas of interaction where researchers developing digital human form
and other physical performance models might be able to collaborate with
researchers developing cognitive models of human performance in order to
advance the "state-of-the-art" in replicating and predicting human performance. Keywords: Human performance; cognitive models; digital human models | |||
| Translating User Experience to Requirements | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 392-398 | |
| Ji Gao; Glen J. Anderson; Brian W. Bramlett; Ryan Palmer; Delbert Marsh | |||
| In this paper we introduce the Usage-to-Platform Requirements (U2PR) process
in the context of a platform product lifecycle at Intel that involves
challenges beyond the development of an individual product. We describe the
types of research necessary to inform the process, the methods we have evolved
in developing use cases and usage requirements, and the practice used to
communicate the requirements to the right audiences. The U2PR process provides
a practical approach to fill the gap between descriptions of marketing
opportunities and actionable, technology capability definitions and
experience-quality requirements. It demonstrates how one can apply a general
user-centered design process to strategic planning and design. Keywords: platform; user experience; usage model; use case; requirement | |||
| Involving Engineers in User Research and User Experience Design of ICT for China | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 399-408 | |
| Chaoyu Huang; Huogao He | |||
| Chinese culture and consumer patterns are dramatically different from those
in the US and Europe. That greatly impacts the types of products that are
relevant to the Chinese market, the product development life cycle and methods
by which these products are defined and developed for information and
communication technologies (ICT). To address those unique differences, the User
Centered Design (UCD) research team at Intel China has developed and refined
techniques for involving engineering staff in the early stages of product
design, namely user research and experience design. This early involvement has
many advantages and improves the overall effectiveness of the product
development team. This article describes the role of the engineers in the early
phases of the user centered process, and the learnings and challenges that come
from this approach. Real-world case studies are used to illustrate the
methodologies. Keywords: ICT; user experience design; user centered design; user centered research;
ethnography; brainstorming; field work | |||
| Shape Analysis of Human Brain with Cognitive Disorders | | BIBA | Full-Text | 409-414 | |
| Tianzi Jiang; Feng Shi; Wanlin Zhu; Shuyu Li; Xiaobo Li | |||
| In this paper, we present some of our current studies on how human brain structures are influenced by cognitive disorders occurred from various neurological and psychiatric diseases based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We first give a brief introduction about computational neuroanatomy, which is the basis of these studies. In Section 2, several novel methods on segmentations of brain tissue and anatomical substructures were presented. Section 3 presented some studies on brain image registration, which plays a core role in computational neuroanatomy. Shape analysis of substructures, cerebral cortical thickness and complexity was presented in Section 4. Finally, some prospects and future research directions in this field are also given. | |||
| Finding Origin Points for New Coordinate System Suitable for Sign Animation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 415-422 | |
| Tomohiro Kuroda; Kazuya Okamoto; Ryo Kitauchi; Tadamasa Takemura; Naoki Ohboshi; Hiroyuki Yoshihara | |||
| This paper proposes new coordinate system suitable for denoting sign
language motion. As the proposed coordinate system consists of polar coordinate
systems whose origins are certain points of human body, postures shown on the
system can be proportional for avatars with any possible shape and fit with
existing subjective sign notation systems. This paper extracted coordinate
origins from Japanese-Japanese Sign Language Dictionary via morphological
analysis. Selected 85 points are successfully mapped on H-ANIM standard
humanoid avatar. Keywords: Japanese Sign Language; Natural Language Processing; Sign Language
Dictionary; Sign Animation | |||
| User Experience Modeling and Enhancement for Virtual Environments That Employ Wide-Field Displays | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 423-433 | |
| James Jeng-Weei Lin; Donald E. Parker | |||
| User experience in virtual environments including presence, enjoyment, and
Simulator Sickness (SS) was modeled based on the effects of field-of-view
(FOV), stereopsis, visual motion frequency, interactivity, and predictability
of motion orientation. We developed an instrument to assess the user experience
using multivariate statistics and Item Response Theory. Results indicated that
(1) presence was increased with a large FOV, stereo display, visual motion in
low frequency ranges (.03 Hz), and high levels of interactivity; (2) more SS
was reported with increasing FOV, stereo display, .05-.08 Hz visual motion
frequency, lack of interactivity and predictability to visual motion; (3)
enjoyment was increased with visual motion in low frequency ranges (.03 Hz) and
high levels of interactivity. The resulting response surface model visualizes
the complex relationships between presence, enjoyment, and SS. Overall,
increasing interactivity was found to be the most profound way to enhance user
experience in virtual environments. Keywords: user experience modeling; virtual environment; presence; simulator sickness;
enjoyment; interactivity | |||
| AIPlayer: A Platform of Intelligent Simulation of Virtual Human in Virtual Environment | | BIBA | Full-Text | 434-442 | |
| JianGuo Liu; YanSheng Lu; JiuYun Chen | |||
| The research of intelligent simulation of virtual human in virtual environment is an interesting direction in the domain of AI after the research of virtual human's behavior simulation. This paper presents a new research platform named AIPlayer in order to promote this work. Virtual environment is come close to the real world. Some characteristic in virtual environment can realistically represent the real world, at the same time it can provide some advantages to science research. This virtual environment may be MMORPG or virtual reality. The motive of the research is to simulate a virtual human who can autonomous live in the virtual environment. We named this research as intelligent simulation of virtual human in virtual environment. First, this paper argues the significance of this research in theory and application, then analyses the demand of the AIPlayer, the characteristic of its living environment, the aim of AIPlayer and some correlative research domain may be involved, then it describes the architecture of AIPlayer and the core of AIPlayer: BSOAA (based smart object agent architecture), at last a prototype of AIPlayer in virtual environment is introduced. | |||
| Understanding RUTH: Creating Believable Behaviors for a Virtual Human Under Uncertainty | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 443-452 | |
| Insuk Oh; Matthew Stone | |||
| In pursuing the ultimate goal of enabling intelligent conversation with a
virtual human, two key challenges are selecting nonverbal behaviors to
implement and realizing those behaviors practically and reliably. In this
paper, we explore the signals interlocutors use to display uncertainty face to
face. Peoples' signals were identified and annotated through systematic coding
and then implemented onto our ECA (Embodied Conversational Agent), RUTH. We
investigated whether RUTH animations were as effective as videos of talking
people in conveying an agent's level of uncertainty to human viewers. Our
results show that people could pick up on different levels of uncertainty not
only with another conversational partner, but also with the simulations on
RUTH. In addition, we used animations containing different subsets of facial
signals to understand in more detail how nonverbal behavior conveys
uncertainty. The findings illustrate the promise of our methodology for
creating specific inventories of fine-grained conversational behaviors from
knowledge and observations of spontaneous human conversation. Keywords: Uncertainty expression; uncertainty recognition; embodied conversational
agent; talking head; RUTH | |||
| Automatic, Body Measurements Based Generation of Individual Avatars Using Highly Adjustable Linear Transformation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 453-459 | |
| Andreas Volz; Rainer Blum; Sascha Häberling; Karim Khakzar | |||
| In this paper part of the work of the research project 'IntExMa' is
presented, that aims at the development of an interactive, in-store sales
support system focusing on the virtual 'try-on' of clothing. Customers are
provided with highly realistic, individualized, three-dimensional virtual
counterparts, derived from a small number of body measurements. The paper
describes in detail the approach followed for the required automatic generation
of avatars. It is based on a sophistication of the well-known concept of
parametric deformation. The solution presented here is characterized by a range
of means that provide highly flexible, fine-grained adjustments of the linear
transformation process leading to precisely controllable results. Keywords: body measurements; parametric deformation; individualized avatars | |||
| A Composite Measure for the Evaluation of Mental Workload | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 460-466 | |
| Lee-ming Wang; Vincent G. Duffy; Yingzi Du | |||
| Physiological measures have found reliable sensitivity to the variation of
mental efforts to tasks of different difficulty levels. The sensitivity needs
to be enhanced for further application. This paper proposed a composite measure
consisting of three physiological measures, facial skin temperature, eye blinks
and pupil dilation. The facial skin temperature will be measured by an infrared
camera. One dimensional iris image will be used for the measurement of eye
activities. All measurement will be done in real-time and unobtrusively. A
preliminary experiment will be conducted for each measure to demonstrate their
sensitivity. The combination then will be accomplished by factor analysis and
regression analysis. Last, the analysis will focus on the improvement in
sensitivity from the combination of individual measures. Keywords: mental workload; facial skin temperature; pupil dilation; thermography; 1D
iris identification | |||
| Brain-Computer Interfaces Based on Attention and Complex Mental Tasks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 467-473 | |
| Jue Wang; Nan Yan; Hailong Liu; Mingyu Liu; Changfeng Tai | |||
| Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology is widely used in rehabilitation
field. There are two main applications of BCI systems in assistive technology:
regain the movements or communications for people with motor disability and
neurofeedback for training the subject to emit a specific brain activity. In
this study, we introduce two typical applications of BCI systems in our lab.
For the first case, the BCI system based on mental tasks classification for
people with motor disability is described. An effective features extraction and
classification methods of EEG signals were proposed. For the second case, a
neurofeedback (NFB) system was established, which utilized Virtual Reality (VR)
to create appropriate feedback information which is more interesting,
imaginative and interactive than traditional graphical presentations. Visual
& auditory (IVA)-continuous performance test (CPT) results show that it can
provide an effective therapy for treating attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) children. Keywords: brain-computer interface; mental tasks; neurofeedback; ADHD rehabilitation | |||
| Fractal Modeling of Human Psychomotor Skills Acquisition Process | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 474-482 | |
| James Wanliss; Dahai Liu; Vadim Uritsky; Michael Wuergler | |||
| Existing research on human skills acquisition studies has shown that
learning follows a non-linear pattern, but the exact form remains unknown due
to the limitation of traditional experimental methods and lack of systematic
modeling of tasks. We applied a non-linear fractal analysis on the time series
data produced by human subjects on target-tracking motor learning tasks.
Tracking of a non-fractal sinusoid-cosinusoid signal was used as the platform.
Our preliminary results suggest that fractal models may prove effective in
investigating details of the human learning process. Keywords: Fractal analysis; human learning; skill acquisition | |||
| Effect of Noise-Enhanced on the Balance Control Ability in Older Adults | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 483-489 | |
| Fangfang Wu; Rencheng Wang; Dewen Jin; Xiao Hu; Yiyong Yang; Jichuan Zhang; Noboru Youshimura | |||
| Somatosensory function declines with age, and such changes have been
associated with diminished motor performance. Noise input can enhance sensory
and motor function. We tested the effects of the vibrating stimulation applied
at the feet on balance control of 6 healthy elderly and 8 young volunteers.
Balance performance was characterized using a FASTRAK System. We calculated
four traditional measures of postural sway parameters and five
stabilogram-diffusion analysis variables. Among the 14 participants,
application of noise resulted in a reduction of seven of nine sway parameters
in young participants and eight of nine sway variables in elderly participants.
The results suggested that the imperceptible noise, when applied to the feet,
could enhance the balance performance of healthy older adults. Therefore, using
the noise-based devices may be an effective way to improve the balance control
of elderly people. Keywords: Older adults; Balance control; Balance ability; Vibration | |||
| Development of the Virtual-Human Santos™ | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 490-499 | |
| Karim Abdel-Malek; Jingzhou Yang; Joo H. Kim; Timothy Marler; Steven Beck; Colby Swan; Laura Frey-Law; Anith Mathai; Chris Murphy; Salam Rahmatallah; Jasbir Arora | |||
| This paper presents the background and history of the virtual human
Santos™ developed by the Virtual Soldier Research (VSR) Program at The
University of Iowa. The early virtual human environment was called Mira™.
This 15-degree-of-freedom (DOF) upper-body model with posture and motion
prediction was funded by John Deere Inc. and US Army TACOM Automotive Research
Center. In 2003 US Army TACOM began funding VSR to develop a new generation of
virtual humans called Santos (109 DOFs), which was to be another generation of
Mira. Later on, Caterpillar Inc., Honda R&D North Americas, Natick Soldier
System Center, and USCAR (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) joined the VSR partnership.
The objective is to develop anew generation of digital humans comprising
realistic human models including anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, and
intelligence in real time, and to test digital mockups of products and systems
before they are built, thus reducing the significant costs and time associated
with making prototypes. The philosophy is based on a novel optimization-based
approach for empowering these digital humans to perform, un-aided, in a
physics-based world. The research thrusts include the following areas: (1)
predictive dynamics, (2) modeling of cloth, (3) hand model, (4) intuitive
interface, (5) motion capture, (6) muscle and physiology modeling, (7) posture
and motion prediction, (8) spine modeling, and (9) real-time simulation and
virtual reality (VR). Currently, the capabilities of Santos include whole-body
posture prediction, advanced inverse kinematics, reach envelope analysis,
workspace zone differentiation, muscle force and stress analysis, muscle
fatigue prediction, simulation of walking and running, dynamic motion
prediction, physiologic assessment, a user-friendly interface, a hand model and
grasping capability, clothing modeling, thermo discomfort assessment, muscle
wrapping and sliding, whole-body vibration analysis, and collision avoidance. Keywords: Virtual humans; predictive dynamics; muscle wrapping | |||
| Validation of Predicted Posture for the Virtual Human Santos™ | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 500-510 | |
| Jingzhou Yang; Salam Rahmatallah; Timothy Marler; Karim Abdel-Malek; Chad Harrison | |||
| Digital human modeling and simulation plays an important role in product
design, prototyping, and manufacturing: it reduces the number of design
iterations and increases the safety and design quality of products. Posture
prediction is one of the key capabilities. It is especially useful in the
design of vehicle interiors for checking the reachability of buttons and
determining comfort levels. This paper presents the validation of predicted
posture for the virtual human Santos. The predicted posture is a physics-based
model and is formulated as a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem. The
hypothesis is that human performance measures (cost functions) govern how
humans move. We chose 12 subjects from four different percentiles, all
Americans (female 5%, female 50%, male 50%, and male 95%). Four realistic
in-vehicle tasks requiring both simple and complex functionality of the human
simulations were chosen: reaching a point at the top of the A-pillar, the radio
tuner button, the glove box handle, and a point on the driver's B-pillar
seatbelt adjuster. The subjects were asked to reach the four target points, and
the joint centers for wrist, elbow, and shoulder and the joint angle of elbow
were recorded using a motion capture system. We used these data to validate our
model. The validation criteria comprise R-square and confidence intervals. The
results show that the predicted postures match well with the experiment
results, and are realistic postures. Keywords: Predicted posture; MOO; human performance measures; validation; virtual
humans | |||
| Modeling of Multi-organization Performance for Emergency Response | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 511-520 | |
| Yufei Shu; Kazuo Furuta | |||
| To response severe disaster, such as hurricane, tsunami, or terrorists
attack, multi-organization, such as government, companies, media, and public
are involved. How to make these inter- or intra dependent organizations
cooperate timely and accurately when they face uncertainty and stressful
situation is the primary concerns. In this paper, we proposed
multi-organization performance model, which introduced organizational factors,
individual factors and focused on communication and collaboration among
different organizations. Based on it we developed multi-agent emergency
response system. This IT solution has capability to integrate drills into
simulated response activities and reproduce the drills. To demonstrate how the
system can be used as a powerful tool for supporting and evaluating the
performance of multi-organization in disaster management and response, the test
simulation is carried out using a scenario extracted from real-life emergency
drills. Keywords: Multi-organization performance; Multi-agent system; Emergency response;
Disaster management | |||
| Estimating Mental Fatigue Based on Multichannel Linear Descriptors Analysis | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 521-529 | |
| Chong Zhang; Chongxun Zheng; Xiao-mei Pei; Xiaolin Yu | |||
| In this paper, two different mental fatigue experiments, sleep deprivation
and prolonged time of work, were designed to investigate their effect on mental
fatigue respectively. Three parameters of multichannel linear descriptors i.e.
Ω, Φ and Σ are used to measure the level of mental fatigue for
the first time. When mental fatigue level increases, the brain neurons are
restrained, this results in the increase of synchrony degree between the
distributed electroencephalogram (EEG). Therefore, spatial complexity Ω,
field strength Σ and field changes Φ of regional brain region would
reduce. The experimental results also show that the average values of Ω,
Φ and Σ of EEG decrease with the prolonging of sleep deprivation and
working time, and then also decrease with the increase of mental fatigue level.
The average values of Ω, Φ and Σ of EEG strongly correlate with
mental fatigue. The multichannel linear descriptors of EEG are expected to
serve as the indexes to evaluate mental fatigue level objectively. Keywords: mental fatigue; Electroencephalogram (EEG); multichannel linear descriptors | |||
| Chinese Visible Human Data Sets and Their Applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 530-535 | |
| Shao-Xiang Zhang; Pheng-Ann Heng; Zheng-Jin Liu; Li-Wen Tan; Ming-Guo Qiu; Qi-Yu Li; Rong-Xia Liao; Kai Li; Gao-Yu Cui; Yan-Li Guo; Yong-Ming Xie | |||
| The research on digital visible human is of great significance and
application value. The US VHP created the first digital image data set of
complete human (male and female) in 1995. To promote worldwide
application-oriented VHR, more visible human data sets representative of
different populations of the world are in demand. The Chinese Visible Human
(CVH) male (created in Oct. 2002) and female (created in Feb. 2003) project
achieved greater integrity of images, easier blood vessel identification, and
were free of organic lesion. The most noteworthy technical advance of CVH
Project was construction of a low temperature laboratory, which contributed to
prevention of small structures (including teeth, concha nasalis, and articular
cartilage) from falling off of the milling surface. Thus, better integrity of
images was ensured. So far, we have achieved acquisition of five CVH data sets
and their volume visualization on PC. 3D reconstruction of some organs or
structures has been finished. The work of segmentation of a complete data set
is also under way. Although there is still a distance to go to make visible
human meet the application-oriented needs in various fields, we're taking our
first step toward future application by acquiring new data sets, performing
segmentation and setting up a platform of computer-assisted medicine. Keywords: Chinese Visible Human (CVH); dataset; 3-D reconstruction; digital anatomy;
computer assisted medicine (CAM) | |||
| Visualizing User Experience Through "Perceptual Maps": Concurrent Assessment of Perceived Usability and Subjective Appearance in Car Infotainment Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 536-545 | |
| Xianjun Sam Zheng; James Jeng-Weei Lin; Salome Zapf; Claus Knapheide | |||
| Users' perceptions of the appearance and the usability of an interactive
system are two integral parts that contribute to the users' experience of the
system. "Actual usability" represents a system value that is revealed either
during usability testing and related methods by experts or during use by the
target users. Perceived usability is an assumption about a systems' usability
that has been made prior to, or independent of, its use. The appearance of a
product can inadvertently affect its perceived usability; however, their
relationship has not been systematically explored. We describe an approach that
uses "perceptual maps" to visualize the relationship between perceived
usability and subjective appearance. A group of professional designers rated
representative car infotainment systems for their subjective appearance; a
group of usability experts rated the same models for their perceived usability.
We applied multidimensional scaling (MDS) to project the ratings into the same
Euclidean space. The results show certain overlap between the perceptions of
product appearance and usability. The implications of this approach for
designing interactive systems are discussed. Keywords: User experience; usability; perceived usability; appearance; design;
interactive systems; multidimensional scaling; visualization | |||
| Digital Human Modelling: A Global Vision and a European Perspective | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 549-558 | |
| Gordon Clapworthy; Peter Kohl; Hans Gregerson; S. R. Thomas; Marco Viceconti; D. Rodney Hose; D. Pinney; John Fenner; Keith M. McCormack; Patricia V. Lawford; Serge L. Van Sint Jan; S. Waters; Peter V. Coveney | |||
| The Physiome is an umbrella term that refers to human modelling with
mathematics and computational methods, accommodating cross-disciplinary science
(chemistry, biology, physics) and a breadth of dimensional and temporal scale
(sub-cellular to organs, sub-microsecond to tens-of-years). The Virtual
Physiological Human is a European initiative that is intended to provide a
unifying architecture for the integration and cooperation of multi-scale
physiome models, thereby creating a predictive platform for the description of
human beings in silico. Unlike the Genome, the challenge of the Physiome may be
almost unbounded, as the desire for increased detail imposes a continuing
pressure for ever-finer data granularity, and the necessary Information
Technology (IT) infrastructure spawns innovations that surpass conventional
solutions. It is foreseen that maturing physiome activities will increasingly
influence medicine, biomedical research and commercial developments, and the
central role of IT highlights the need for a specific and robust IT
infrastructure.
The European Commission has experience of supporting challenging technical endeavours through its Framework Programmes of research, and in the forthcoming 7th Framework Programme, it will invite researchers from within and outside Europe to unite in seeking solutions to key issues of the Physiome. The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) investment programme will establish the necessary infrastructure and address the grand technical challenges identified by experts. This paper examines the background to the strategy and the ways in which the programme's structure has been determined. Keywords: Physiome; Virtual Physiological Human; infrastructure; modelling | |||
| ICT Methodologies to Model and Simulate Parts of Human Body for Prosthesis Design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 559-568 | |
| Giorgio Colombo; Stefano Filippi; Paolo Rissone; Caterina Rizzi | |||
| The work presented in this paper refers to the implementation of a product
development process based on the use of virtual model of the human body to
design specific custom-fit product, such as a prosthesis socket (interface
between the residual limb and the mechanical part of the prosthesis). It
considers the integration of advanced ICT tools coming from the reverse
engineering, the physics-based modelling and simulation, and the rapid
prototyping fields. The paper describes problems related to the implementation
of each step within a real socket development process. Keywords: Product customization; Prosthesis design; Physics-based simulation; Human
body modeling | |||
| Simulating Cancer Radiotherapy on a Multi-level Basis: Biology, Oncology and Image Processing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 569-575 | |
| Dimitra D. Dionysiou; Georgios S. Stamatakos; Kostas Marias | |||
| Tumour growth and response to radiotherapeutic schemes is a markedly
multiscale process which by no means can be reduced to only molecular or
cellular events. Within this framework a new scientific area, i.e. in silico
oncology has been proposed in order to address the previously mentioned
hypercomplex process at essentially all levels of biocomplexity. This paper
focuses on the case of imageable glioblastoma mulriforme response to
radiotherapy and presents the basics of an essentially top-down modelling
approach, aiming at an improved understanding of cancer and at a
patient-specific optimization of treatment. Keywords: Radiotherapy; Modelling; Glioblastoma; In silico oncology | |||
| Applied User Performance Modeling in Industry -- A Case Study from Medical Imaging | | BIBA | Full-Text | 576-585 | |
| Marcela Esteves; Tobias Komischke; Salome Zapf; Antje Weiss | |||
| To determine ways of improving a user interface -- so that a person's task produces fewer errors or takes less time -- is a major goal of user interface designers. Usability testing is an established and proven method for revealing these user performance metrics, but is rather time-consuming, resource intensive and requires at least functional prototypes. Therefore, it may not always be the optimal choice during the development of very complex, expensive and context-specific applications like those in medical imaging. A promising alternative is to simulate user performance with computational models based on psychological models. In this paper the Performance Modeling Inventory (PMI), which was developed based on Card, Moran and Newell's (1980) Keystroke Level Model for estimating user performance with medical imaging systems, is introduced for the first time. | |||
| Computer Aided Lumbar Support Design and Application | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 586-594 | |
| Susanne Frohriep; Jan Petzel | |||
| Support properties in the lumbar area have been identified as a major factor
for the comfort impression on automotive seats. However, the relationship of
human body characteristics to specific properties of seats is not clear.
Ongoing research at L&P Automotive Group analyzes seat dimensions and human
body characteristics in order to evaluate the man-machine interface of the
seated human. Computer tools employed are 3D measuring systems, pressure
mapping and subjective comfort assessment. Specific measurement routines have
been developed to allow for correlation of human dimensions and seat
characteristics. Using computer supported methods for measuring, data
collection and data processing in combination with engineering knowledge and
knowledge about other soft facts, comfort assessment processes can be developed
and effectively used in order to obtain better, meaning more comfortable
products. Keywords: lumbar support; comfort assessment; automotive seating; man-machine
interface | |||
| Facilitating Pronunciation Skills for Children with Phonological Disorders Using Human Modelling | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 595-605 | |
| Jennifer George; Paul Gnanayutham | |||
| Children are often forced into mainstream schools while special needs
schools are being shut down. Children with phonological disorders in mainstream
schools go through fear, shame and frustration of not being understood or
misunderstood. The proposed research attempts to address this issue by way of
designing and developing a prototype for an assistive device that would help
special needs children in mainstream education. This will also help children
overcome problems that result from lack of confidence. This work has been very
much a pioneering work and has achieved the target it pursued. Keywords: Phonological disorders; speech disability; pronunciation; interface; sounds
and children | |||
| FPF-SB: A Scalable Algorithm for Microarray Gene Expression Data Clustering | | BIBA | Full-Text | 606-615 | |
| Filippo Geraci; Mauro Leoncini; Manuela Montangero; Marco Pellegrini; M. Elena Renda | |||
| Efficient and effective analysis of large datasets from microarray gene expression data is one of the keys to time-critical personalized medicine. The issue we address here is the scalability of the data processing software for clustering gene expression data into groups with homogeneous expression profile. In this paper we propose FPF-SB, a novel clustering algorithm based on a combination of the Furthest-Point-First (FPF) heuristic for solving the k-center problem and a stability-based method for determining the number of clusters k. Our algorithm improves the state of the art: it is scalable to large datasets without sacrificing output quality. | |||
| A Finite Element 3D Model of in Vivo Human Knee Joint Based on MRI for the Tibiofemoral Joint Contact Analysis | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 616-622 | |
| Zhixiu Hao; Dewen Jin; Yu Zhang; Jichuan Zhang | |||
| The contact behaviors of in vivo knee during weight bearing were quantified
using MRI-based 3D knee model. The model included the cortical and trabecular
bone of the femur and tibia, cartilage of the femoral condyles and tibial
plateau, both the medial and lateral menisci with their horn attachments.
Explicit dynamic nonlinear finite element techniques were discussed to simulate
biomechanical features of tibio-femeral joint under different loads condition,
considering the relative slide and friction existing in the knee. The
simulating results show that the contact area increased while the loads
increased. Both the ratio of the contact area and the ratio of contact force of
medial and laterial tibial plateau were almost constant under the different
loads along the axis of the tibia during the supporting phase in a gait, and
yet the contact points of the compressive force were changed. Keywords: tibiofemoral joint; contact; finite element | |||
| Advances in Visible Human Based Virtual Medicine | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 623-632 | |
| Pheng-Ann Heng | |||
| In this paper, important virtual medicine research related to visible human
data sets would be outlined. In particular, latest visible human related
research carried out in the Visualization, Virtual Reality and Imaging Research
Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) will be discussed in
detail, while related applications such as virtual acupuncture, virtual
anatomy, and virtual orthopedics training briefly shaped our current and future
research and development on visible human-related virtual medicine. Our latest
advancement in segmentation, imaging, user-interface design as well as surgical
education and training will be discussed. Keywords: Visible Human data; visualization; surgical simulation; virtual reality | |||
| Finite Element Analysis of a Six-Component Force Sensor for the Trans-Femoral Prosthesis | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 633-639 | |
| Xiao Hu; Rencheng Wang; Fangfang Wu; Dewen Jin; Xiaohong Jia; Jichuan Zhang; Fuwen Cai; Shuangxi Zheng | |||
| It is significant to detect and analyze its mechanical property for the
design of the artificial knee joint, especially for the design of an
osseointegrated prosthetic limb. Since normal six-component force sensors are
unsuitable for detecting the mechanical property of the lower limb prosthesis,
a novel sensor is presented in this paper. It can be easily fixed between the
artificial knee joint and the stump of the patient to detect the load condition
during walking. The mathematic model of the sensor is analyzed, and strength
check, stiffness design and the linearity of the sensor were studied with FEA.
Finally, the Transmission Matrix is calculated. This kind of sensor can help us
to get academic foundations for the designment and the evaluation of the limb
prosthesis and its performance. Keywords: Six-component force sensor; Prosthesis; FEA | |||
| The Influence of Shoe-Heel Height on Knee Muscle Activity of Transtibial Amputees During Standing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 640-645 | |
| Xiaohong Jia; Jichuan Zhang; Rencheng Wang; Lidan Fang; Dewen Jin; Ming Zhang | |||
| In order to access the effects of shoe-heel height on knee muscle activity
for transtibial amputees during standing, five male subjects volunteered for
the study. Three pairs of shoes with zero, 20 mm and 40 mm heel height were
used during normal standing. Surface EMG of 10 muscles was recorded by the
Noraxon surface EMG collection system. EMG-MAV of the medial and lateral
gastrocnemius of the sound leg almost change double with increase in heel
height from zero to 40 mm, and EMG-MAV of the rectus fomris, vastus lateralis
and vastus medialis of prosthetic side became larger to different extent. The
finding in this paper suggested that an alignment change was necessary to
accommodate the heel height change and the prostheses users should be cautious
to choose shoes in daily life. Keywords: Shoe-heel height; Surface EMG; Prosthesis; Standing | |||
| 3D Modeling of the Vessels from X-Ray Angiography | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 646-654 | |
| Na-Young Lee; Gye-Young Kim; Hyung-Il Choi | |||
| Coronary artery diseases are usually revealed using X-ray angiographies.
Such images are complex to analyze because they provide a 2D projection of a 3D
object. Medical diagnosis suffers from inter- and intra-clinician variability.
Therefore, reliable software for the 3D modeling of the coronary tree is
strongly desired. This paper focuses on the automatic 3D modeling of the
vessels from X-ray angiography. Our approach is based on a 3D model of standard
vessels. The model is projected because it is difficult to suitably transform
standard into individual vessels on 3D space. The modeling process is carried
out in two steps. The first step consists of selecting automatically two sets
of corresponding control points between standard and individual vessels. In the
second step, 3D model of individual vessels is performed by warping with
corresponding control points. Accurate descriptions of 3D model would be useful
for quantitative diagnosis of atherosclerosis, for surgical or treatment
planning, for monitoring disease progress or remission, and for comparing
efficacies of treatments. Keywords: Coronary Angiography, Control point, Image Transformation, 3D Modeling | |||
| Finite Element Modeling to Aid in Refining the Rehabilitation of Amputees Using Osseointegrated Prostheses | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 655-658 | |
| Winson Lee; Laurent Frossard; Nicola Cairns; Rickard Branemark; John Evans; Clayton Adam; Mark Pearcy | |||
| The direct anchorage of a lower-limb prosthesis to the bone has been shown
to be an excellent alternative for amputees experiencing complications in using
a conventional prosthetic socket. After surgical implantation, amputees have to
go through a weight bearing exercise program to prepare the bone to tolerate
forces and promote bone-remodeling. Currently, the load magnitude prescribed by
the clinician is measured by a weight scale which reports only the axial force
in the limb. Previous study using a load transducer revealed that in addition
to the axial force there were other forces and moments. This study develops a
FE model and utilizes our load data to investigate the stress distribution at
the bone-implant interface. The model shows that the stress distribution could
be highly non-uniform during the exercise. Bone-implant interface stress has
certain implications in pain adaptation and bone-remodeling, and a good
understanding of it can assist in future attempts to refine and shorten the
period of rehabilitation exercise. Keywords: transfemoral amputation; bone anchorage prosthetics; osseointegration;
weight bearing exercise; finite element modeling | |||
| Actions of an External Electrical Shock on Human Atrial Excitation -- A Computer Model Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 659-667 | |
| Jihong Liu; Arun V. Holden; Henggui Zhang | |||
| Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common cardiac diseases that
cause morbidity and mortality. One of the most frequently used clinical
treatments of AF is to use a large and brief external electrical shock to reset
atrial tissue from a disordered fibrillation state to a quiescent state, then
the pacemaker of the heart resumes its control of atrial excitation rhythm and
thus a defibrillation is achieved. Though widely used in practice, the
mechanisms underlying the success of an electrical shock in defibrillation is
incompletely understood. In this study, we developed a computer model of human
atrial tissue to investigate the actions of an external electrical shock on
atrial excitations. Using the model, we computed the defibrillation threshold
of the human atrium. We found that due to the supernormal excitability of human
atrium, the computed successful defibrillation threshold is much less than the
excitation threshold of human atrium in resting state. This study provides some
new insights to understand the mechanisms underlying AF defibrillation. Keywords: External electrical stimulation; defibrillation threshold; bi-domain model
of cardiac tissue; reentrant excitation | |||
| Study and Application of Medical Image Visualization Technology | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 668-677 | |
| Jihong Liu; Weina Ma; Fei Liu; Ying Hu; Jinzhu Yang; Xinhe Xu | |||
| In medical imaging, many applications require visualization and analysis of
three-dimensional (3D) objects. Visualization is the process of exploring,
transforming, and view data as images to gain understanding and insight into
the data, which requires fast interactive speed and high image quality. In this
paper, we describe the key techniques in medical image visualization. In order
to improve ray casting rendering speed, a synthetically accelerated algorithm
is proposed. Firstly, rendering algorithms are fully studied and compared.
Secondly, proximity clouds algorithm has been selected and extended to
continuous ray casting. Finally, the accelerated algorithm based on ray
coherence has been realized. The experimental results on 3D medical image
reconstruction are given, which show the medical image visualization technology
has provided a powerful technology base for computer-aided diagnosis, virtual
surgery and e-learning in medicine field. Keywords: Visualization; 3D reconstruction; Proximity Clouds; Volume Rendering | |||
| A Method for Gene Identification by Dynamic Feature Choosing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 678-683 | |
| Jiawei Luo; Li Yang; Xizhen Zhang | |||
| With growth of sequenced genome, a number of algorithms for gene
identification were created. These algorithms use fixed gene features which are
chosen based on observation or experience. These features may not be major
features of a genome. In this paper, we illustrate several candidate features
and propose a dynamic feature choosing algorithm to determine the major
features. We describe nucleotide sequence by feature vector and use
Discriminant analysis to them to make decision on coding/non-coding. To test
the algorithm, we apply the algorithm to the S.cerevisiae genome and achieve
accuracy of above 98%. Keywords: Gene identification; Discriminant analysis; three cross-validation tests | |||
| Latest Development of an Interventional Radiology Training Simulation System: NeuroCath | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 684-693 | |
| Xin Ma | |||
| We describe the latest development of a computer-based virtual reality
environment for training interventional neuroradiology procedures. The system,
NeuroCath (Neuroradiology Catheterization Simulator), includes extraction and
construction of a vascular model from different imaging modalities that
represents the anatomy of patient in a computationally efficient manner, and a
finite element method (FEM) based physical model that simulates the interaction
between the devices and neuro-vasculature. A realistic visual interface with
multiple, synchronized windows and plenty of video control functions are
developed. The latest version is also equipped with haptic feedback module that
gives the sense of touch in real-time, and customizable vascular model so that
trainer can understand the importance of vascular variations and practice.
According to the validation in several clinical centers, 70%-75% of training
features have been realized which makes the system well suitable for training
of interventional neuroradiologists. Keywords: interventional neuroradiology; simulation; augmented reality; modeling | |||
| Methodologies to Evaluate Simulations of Cardiac Tissue Abnormalities at a Cellular Level | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 694-702 | |
| Nicos Maglaveras; Ioanna Chouvarda | |||
| Computer Simulations of cardiac wave propagation may be used as a tool
towards understanding the mechanisms of cardiac conduction, the nature of
various heart diseases, as well as the effect of drugs in cardiac function.
Such simulations depend on the ionuc current model adopted, and various such
models have been proposed. The exact propagation wavefront thus depends on the
ionic model and the tissue properties, being homogeneous or heterogeneous. The
latter case, which corresponds to infracted cardiac tissue, is the focus in
this work. The ionic current properties and the sodium kinetics on a
two-dimensional grid where wavefront rotations around barriers at bifurcation
sites take place, are examined in detail and differences in propagation
characteristics elicited by using fast or slow fast inward current kinetics
such as can be found in the Beeler-Reuter, Luo-Rudy and Ebihara-Johnson models
are elaborated. Keywords: ionic current models; cardiac propagation; conduction abnormalities | |||
| Multi-level Analysis and Information Extraction Considerations for Validating 4D Models of Human Function | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 703-709 | |
| Kostas Marias; Dimitra D. Dionysiou; Georgios S. Stamatakos; Fotini Zacharopoulou; Eleni Ch. Georgiadi; Thanasis Margaritis; Thomas G. Maris; Ioannis G. Tollis | |||
| Recent research trends focus on how multiscale biomedical information can be
modeled and transformed into knowledge, in order to lead to a less interfering
but also more individualized diagnosis and therapy. In order to assess the
clinical importance of models of human pathology (e.g. cancer), it is necessary
to validate them with prior and post treatment clinical data which in turn
requires the determination of the tumor size and shape with high resolution,
accuracy and precision, as well as structural and physiological information.
This paper discusses some of the most important image analysis challenges in
order to define an optimal method for extracting more accurate and precise
anatomical and functional information related to the underlying pathology,
which can be used for initializing and validating models of pathophysiology as
well as simulations/predictions of the response to therapeutical regimes. Keywords: Virtual Physiological Human; biomedical data analysis; modeling | |||
| Clinical Patient Safety -- Achieving High Reliability in a Complex System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 710-716 | |
| Kathryn Rapala; Julie Cowan Novak | |||
| Since the 2001 Institute of Medicine Report which estimated that 44,000 to
98,000 patients die each year as a result of healthcare error. This report in
effect launched a global patient safety movement, with many proposed
regulatory, research and administrative solutions. Patient safety areas of
focus such as work complexity, teamwork and communication, technology, and
evidence based practice provide a basis for understanding healthcare error.
Reliability concepts are the goal of healthcare organizations; and applications
such as simulation theory provide means to achieve this status. The translation
of research into practice is the foundation of organizational patient safety.
Understanding and awareness of patient safety issues has increased; however,
significant work to improve patient care outcomes remains. Keywords: patient safety; culture; work complexity; human factors; education; root
cause analysis; failure mode event analysis; simulation; high reliability
organization | |||
| Novel Methods for Human-Computer Interaction in Multimodal and Multidimensional Noninvasive Medical Imaging | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 717-726 | |
| Tomasz Soltysinski | |||
| The newly developed method for medical noisy data segmentation for the
purpose of presentation and supporting the diagnostics is introduced. It also
allows for morphometry and visualization of medical multimodal and dynamical
data. A general mathematical framework is presented and characterized together
with numerous applications. As this tool is designed to support human-computer
interaction by means of involving the sense of sight, and suspected to be
worthy in the virtual environment sensitive to the sense of touch, the
discussion is supported with numerous examples of visualizations and multimodal
and multidimensional applications of proposed method. Keywords: Digital human modeling; Bayesian inference; spectral method;
multidimensional imaging; ultrasound; CT; MRI; PET; histopathology | |||
| A Hybrid AB-RBF Classifier for Surface Electromyography Classification | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 727-735 | |
| Rencheng Wang; Yiyong Yang; Xiao Hu; Fangfang Wu; Dewen Jin; Xiaohong Jia; Fang Li; Jichuan Zhang | |||
| In this paper, we aim to classify surface electromyography (sEMG) by using
Attribute Bagging-Radial Basis Function (AB-RBF) hybrid classifier. Eight
normally-limbed individuals were recruited to participate in the experiments.
Each subject was instructed to perform six kinds of finger movements and each
movement was repeated 50 times. Features were extracted using wavelet transform
and used to train the RBF classifier and the AB-RBF hybrid classifier. The
experiment results showed that AB-RBF hybrid classifier achieved higher
discrimination accuracy and stability than single RBF classifier. It proves
that integrating classifiers using random feature subsets is an effective
method to improve the performance of the pattern recognition system. Keywords: Attribute Bagging Algorithm; RBFN; sEMG; Prosthesis control | |||
| An Epileptic Seizure Prediction Algorithm from Scalp EEG Based on Morphological Filter and Kolmogorov Complexity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 736-746 | |
| Guanghua Xu; Jing Wang; Qing Zhang; Junming Zhu | |||
| Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder in the world, second only
to stroke. There are nearly 15 million patients suffer from refractory
epilepsy, with no available therapy. Although most seizures are not life
threatening, they are an unpredictable source of annoyance and embarrassment,
which will result in unconfident and fear. Prediction of epileptic seizures has
a profound effect in understanding the mechanism of seizure, improving the
rehabilitation possibilities and thereby the quality of life for epilepsy
patients. A seizure prediction system can help refractory patients rehabilitate
psychologically. In this paper, we introduce an epilepsy seizure prediction
algorithm from scalp EEG based on morphological filter and Kolmogorov
complexity. Firstly, a complex filter is constructed to remove the artifacts in
scalp EEG, in which a morphological filter with optimized structure elements is
proposed to eliminate the ocular artifact. Then, the improved Kolmogorov
complexity is applied to describe the non-linear dynamic transition of brains.
Results show that only the Kolmogorov complexity of electrodes near the
epileptogenic focus reduces significantly before seizures. Through the analysis
of 7 long-term scalp EEG recordings from 5 epilepsy patients, the average
prediction time is 8.5 minutes, the mean sensitivity is 74.0% and specificity
is 33.6%. Keywords: Scalp EEG; Epileptic seizure prediction; Kolmogorov complexity;
Morphological filter; Artifact removal | |||
| A New Virtual Dynamic Dentomaxillofacial System for Analyzing Mandibular Movement, Occlusal Contact, and TMJ Condition | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 747-756 | |
| Chi Zhang; Lei Chen; Fengjun Zhang; Hao Zhang; Hailan Feng; Guozhong Dai | |||
| This paper describes a new virtual dynamic dentomaxillofacial system.
Mechanical articulators have been used to reproduce mandibular movements and
analyze occlusal contacts. With the help of VR and visualization technologies,
virtual articulator systems can provide dynamic simulation and quantitative
information visualization, enhance the functionality, and extend the system to
additional application areas. We integrate mandibular movement simulation,
occlusal analysis and TMJ analysis into our system, and design new algorithms
to improve the results of analysis. This system is helpful to the education,
the research, and the clinic in dentistry. An evaluation is conducted to prove
the functionality and usability of the system. Keywords: Visualization; Movement Simulation; Occlusion; Inter-articular Space | |||
| Mechanism of Bifurcation-Dependent Coherence Resonance of Excitable Neuron Model | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 757-766 | |
| Guang-Jun Zhang; Jue Wang; Jian-Xue Xu; Xiang-Bo Wang; Hong Yao | |||
| In contrast to the previous studies that have dealt with phenomenon of
coherence resonance induced by external noise in excitable neuron model, in
this paper the mechanism of bifurcation-dependent coherence resonance (CR) of
excitable neuron model is investigated by researching the random transitions of
system motion between attractors in the two sides of bifurcation point. The
results of research show: For two excitable neuron model, FHN neuron model and
HR neuron model, There exist different attractors in two sides of the two
excitable neuron model Hopf bifurcation point, at the presence of internal or
external noise the system motion may transit between attractors in two sides of
bifurcation point; mechanism of bifurcation-dependent CR of excitable neuron
model is related to this kind of random transitions, the frequency of
transitions tend towards a certain frequency for a certain optimal noise
intensity, and the signal-noise-ratio of system response evaluated at this
certain frequency is maximal at the optimal noise intensity, CR occurs. Keywords: coherence resonance; attractor; transition; bifurcation point | |||
| An Integrated Approach for Reconstructing Surface Models of the Proximal Femur from Sparse Input Data for Surgical Navigation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 767-775 | |
| Guoyan Zheng; Miguel Ángel González Ballester | |||
| A patient-specific surface model of the proximal femur plays an important
role in planning and supporting various computer-assisted surgical procedures
including total hip replacement, hip resurfacing, and osteotomy of the proximal
femur. The common approach to derive 3D models of the proximal femur is to use
imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI). However, the high logistic effort, the extra radiation
(CT-imaging), and the large quantity of data to be acquired and processed make
them less functional. In this paper, we present an integrated approach using a
multi-level point distribution model (ML-PDM) to reconstruct a patient-specific
model of the proximal femur from intra-operatively available sparse data.
Results of experiments performed on dry cadaveric bones using dozens of 3D
points are presented, as well as experiments using a limited number of 2D X-ray
images, which demonstrate promising accuracy of the present approach. Keywords: surface reconstruction; surgical navigation; X-ray; point distribution
model; statistical shape analysis | |||
| Future Applications of DHM in Ergonomic Design | | BIBA | Full-Text | 779-793 | |
| Heiner Bubb | |||
| Until now DHMs are especially used to design the dimensions of products and production assembly according to anthropometric demands. Recently DHMs are additionally equipped with strengths simulation so that also the dimensioning of reaction forces is possible. First steps are done to describe and evaluate the contact between human body and environment. Some examples will be shown. However in this area further important steps are necessary. Especially the self paced calculation of posture depending on this contact is to be realized. Some proposals exist for the contact of seat and body. Also first basic research is done in order to simulate motion behavior. Especially the detection of "leading body elements" as basic idea for this simulation can be seen as an initial step to generate modeling of cognitive human properties. However, in order to realize it the simulation of the properties of sense organs is necessary. Certain properties of the eyes can be simulated rather simple. Meanwhile some experience exits to understand the glance behavior depending on specific tasks (e.g. car driving). That can serve as basic for input to cognitive models. The output of these can be the track in space of the leading body element. On the other hand sensor organs properties in the field of hearing and climate are possible. In both cases the more difficult problem is to simulate the properties of the environment. General application field of these future development is the computer aided ergonomic design of workplaces in production lines and of products especially vehicles already in the definition and development phase. In this connection is to be considered that in future especially the design of information flow in these areas becomes dominant. An example is the growing development of assistance systems in cars. The application of DHMs will allow achieving the connection between information design and the necessary geometric design of the equipment. | |||
| The Design and Exploitation of Visual Feedback System for Rowing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 794-802 | |
| Chunmei Cao; Chuncai Wang; Linhong Ji; Zixi Wang; Xiaoping Chen | |||
| Based on Neural Mechanism theory of short-term memory, a predigested model
was established. It demonstrated learning, establishment and strengthening
process concerning with the motor pattern domination of high-level nerve center
system. According to the model three feedback loops and their dialectic
correlation were synthetically analyzed during rowing athletes studied the
technique in training. The analyzed results provided the technical requests and
measuring parameters of the system, then, a visual feedback system for rowing
was designed and developed. This system has been primarily used in the national
rowing team. Keywords: visual feedback; Neural Mechanism; rowing | |||
| A Method for Garment Pattern Generation by Flattening 3D Body Scan Data | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 803-812 | |
| Young Lim Choi; Yunja Nam; Kueng Mi Choi; Ming Hai Cui | |||
| The purposes of this study are to manufacture a flat pattern according to
silhouettes through the Surface Flattening process of a triangle by the grid
method, and to verify the result to present the method for manufacturing
patterns according to designs. Based on the data measured by Size Korea, this
study modeled a representative figure ranging from 18 year-old to 24 year-old
female, modified the modeled body shapes to a semi-fit silhouette and loose-fit
silhouette and did the surface flattening development. We manufactured patterns
according to silhouettes and analyzed the area differences between 3D-piece and
flat patterns and the deviation between a muslin scan data manufactured by a
flat pattern and modeled data. The result of the surface flattening development
by the method can be utilized for manufacturing garment patterns by converting
a 3D scan data into 2D pattern and proved to be excellent at piece re-creating
because the result did not show a big difference from a modeled silhouette. Keywords: 3D scan data; apparel pattern; flattening; grid method; silhouette | |||
| Human Body Modeling for Riding Comfort Simulation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 813-823 | |
| Hyung Yun Choi; Kyung Min Kim; Jiwon Han; Sungjin Sah; Seok-Hwan Kim; Su-Hwan Hwang; Kwang No Lee; Jong-Kweon Pyun; Nicole Montmayeur; Christian Marca; Eberhard Haug; Inhyeok Lee | |||
| In order to assess the seating and riding comfort design of a vehicle seat
in an objective manner, finite element occupant models with anatomically
precise features have been developed. The human body models are incorporated
into Pam-Comfort, a tool for automotive seat design and analysis, as parts of
occupant surrogates that also include HPM I and II. In this paper, the detailed
process of FE human body modeling including an effort on the implementation of
new anthropometry will be introduced. The validation of some features of human
body models in seating and riding comfort simulation against human experiments
will be also presented. Keywords: Seating and riding comfort; Pam-Comfort; Finite element human body model;
Anthropometry | |||
| Applications of Digital Human Modeling in Industry | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 824-832 | |
| H. Onan Demirel; Vincent G. Duffy | |||
| This paper represents current and probable applications of Digital Human
Modeling (DHM) in different industries. Three real-world challenges, Cummins
Inc. (New Product Launches), NASA (Ground Operations), Purdue University (DHM
in Curriculum), are investigated for current/probable benefits of DHM. Direct
contacts with company representatives and academic faculty were established to
understand the current challenges and probable demands of tasks/operations in
industry where DHM tools can be utilized. Dassault Systemes' CATIA V5 PLM
solution package and UGS Tecnomatix JACK DHM software was utilized to offer a
resolution for industrial (Cummins Inc. and NASA) challenges and a software
manual (JACK) is developed to enhance the engineering curriculum at Purdue
University. The results indicated that DHM tools have potential to improve the
product development challenges and provides control of the entire process of
designing and analyzing a product before it's ever launched. DHM in engineering
curriculum would also increase the integration/adaptation of DHM tools in
industry. Keywords: Digital Human Modeling (DHM); Digital Manufacturing; Computer Aided Design
(CAD); Product Development; Human Factors and Ergonomics; Product Lifecycle
Management; Engineering Design; Motion Capture | |||
| A Computer-Aided Ergonomic Assessment and Product Design System Using Digital Hands | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 833-842 | |
| Yui Endo; Satoshi Kanai; Takeshi Kishinami; Natsuki Miyata; Makiko Kouchi; Masaaki Mochimaru | |||
| The purpose of this research is to develop a system for computer-aided
ergonomic assessment of products without real subjects and physical mockups by
integrating a digital hand model with a product model. In previous work, we
developed functions of a semi-automatic grasp planning for the digital hand and
of quantitatively evaluating the grasp stability of the product based on the
force-closure and the grasp quality in our system. We also confirmed the
validity of the results of these functions by comparing them with the real
grasp postures. In this paper, we propose a new function of evaluating "ease of
grasping (EOG)" for the grasp posture based on EOG-map constructed from
principal component analysis for finger joint angles in real subjects' grasps. Keywords: Digital Human; Digital Hand; Computer Mannequin; Ease of Grasp; Principal
Component Analysis | |||
| Human Age and Vehicle Speeds Affect on Vehicle Ingress Motion Pattern | | BIBA | Full-Text | 843-846 | |
| Lars Hanson; Yong Li; Torbjörn Falkmer | |||
| The vehicle ingress and egress are important issues for the automotive industry, both for minimizing assembly work load and for maximizing end-users' comfort. Digital human modeling tools are used for evaluating and visualizing these issues. The assembler and end-user are more or less performing the very same entering task if the vehicles have identical geometrical prerequisites. The major difference is the vehicle speed; an assembler is entering a vehicle slightly moving forward on the assembly line with a speed of 5 meter/minute whereas the end user's vehicle is standing still. The human motion when entering a car is a complex biomechanical process, which affects many different body parts. Car ingress techniques, such as flopper, swiveler, and glider vary among humans; for which humans' agility may be one affecting factor. Agility is affected by joint diseases, which is more frequent among older people. There are several studies regarding ingress motion patterns[1,2], but studies on the differences in car ingress motion between car assemblers and end-users, or older and younger people are rare. Thus the purpose of the present study was to compare the ingress motion between younger versus older persons, and assemblers versus end-users. | |||
| Digital Human Model Based Participatory Design Method to Improve Work Tasks and Workplaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 847-855 | |
| Kaj Helin; Juhani Viitaniemi; Jari Montonen; Susanna Aromaa; Timo Määttä | |||
| The objective of this research project was to improve manual work tasks and
workplace design with a new digital human model based design method. The idea
of the method was to make the design and analyze of work and workplaces easy
for floor level development case. It also should to be exploitable in the
context of participatory design approach. The developed method was implemented
on a production design simulation platform. It was designed to be used in
design of human factors, performance and functionality of a production
concurrently. The implemented tool includes basic human motions which exploit
real human motion data, effective work design features to easily generate
variational solutions, embedded ergonomic analyses and checklists to help
analyzing different work environment solutions, and to document the design
outcome. Four industrial case studies were completed with the tool. The results
show that the tool is feasible for individual and group design work, and has
positive impacts on the design process and on the way how individuals can
influence on her or his future work in production system. Keywords: Computer aided ergonomics; workplace design; ergonomic analyses;
participatory design; posture; motion analysis; digital human model | |||
| Investigation on Ergonomics Characteristics of Protective Clothing Based on Capture of Three-Dimensional Body Movements | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 856-864 | |
| Huimin Hu; Li Ding; Chunxin Yang; Xiugan Yuan | |||
| The objective of this investigation is to measure and document any
significant difference in motion performance between the partial pressure suit
(PPS) and the common clothing (CC), and therefore to explore the ergonomics
evaluation indexes and appraisal methods of protective clothing (PC). This
paper presents the results of three human mechanics tests and two operational
performance tests conducted on nine male subjects which made possible the
comparative evaluation under these two different situations. The human
mechanics tests included a range of motion (ROM) test, a grip strength test,
and a torque test while the operational performance tests included a
target-aiming test and a screwing nuts test. Significant difference was found
between the two suits in the ROM test, the grip strength test as well as the
target-aiming test. This study demonstrates that motion performances vary
significantly between the two suits and ROM together with grip strength can
serve as ergonomics evaluation indexes of PC. Keywords: motion performance; ergonomics evaluation; range of motion (ROM); partial
pressure suit (PPS); protective clothing (PC) | |||
| Strategy to Operate Cylindrical Interface-Operation Difference According to the Dimension of the Cylinder and That of the Hand | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 865-873 | |
| Ohki Kanezashi; Natsuki Miyata; Jun Ota | |||
| In this article, we study how users determine the way to operate cylindrical
interfaces (lever, switch, etc.) according to their dimensions, shape, and the
user's hand dimensions. With a target of avoiding control failure, it is
important to estimate user's intuitive operation of a given interface from
design. Eight subjects were observed operating different cylinders with various
height and diameter. The boundary between the tilting operation and other
operations was found to be related to an aspect ratio; the ratio of the
diameter to the height. The boundary between the sliding operation and rests
was determined by a comparison of hand width with cylinder height. The boundary
between the pushing and rotating operations was thought to be related to the
length of the distal phalanxes of the fingers. Keywords: Interface-design; Human-Model; Affordance; Ergonomics | |||
| Modeling of Human Head for Custom Wig Production | | BIBA | Full-Text | 874-883 | |
| Youngjun Kim; Jungbum Cho; Bohyun Kim; Kunwoo Lee | |||
| We propose an innovative 3D wig designing system which would replace the traditional manual method. The customer's head is scanned by a 3D head scanner and the whole design process is computerized. After sending the design data to the wig-making factory through the internet, the data are reproduced by an NC milling machine to make a wig pattern. To realize our integrated 3D wig designing system, various CAD technologies are implemented: 3D scanning, triangular mesh generation, texture mapping, mesh smoothing, mesh splitting, mesh offsetting, 3D sketch using NURBS curve, tool-path generation, etc. | |||
| Evaluation of Navy Shipboard Habitability for a Warship Design Using Human Model | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 884-893 | |
| Hongtae Kim; Jin H. Park; Hojin Hwang; Chang-Min Lee | |||
| Recently, ergonomic design is a key issue in the warship design. Ergonomic
ship design aims to improve the safety and convenience of crew and passengers.
In this paper, as a basis of analyzing and evaluating ergonomic design criteria
and evaluation methods for a warship, existing military design guidelines and
navy criteria in the fields of ergonomics were surveyed. Also, the methodology
including an ergonomic human model is introduced. Finally, it is shown that the
ergonomics evaluation of a design can be performed at the early stage of
warship design using Navy Ergonomic Human Model based on Delmia's ERGO. Keywords: Shipboard habitability; Human model; Warship design | |||
| Two Vibration Modes of a Human Body Sitting on a Car Seat -- The Relationship Between Riding Discomfort Affected by the Material Properties of the Seat Cushion and the Two Vibration Modes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 894-903 | |
| Mitsunori Kubo; Fumio Terauchi; Hiroyuki Aoki | |||
| The relationship between the properties of flexible polyurethane foam
composing seat cushions for standard cars and the riding discomfort evaluated
by subjects who sat on the seat were investigated. The properties of five kinds
of polyurethane foam were measured using the DMA to define dynamical
properties. Riding discomfort was subjectively evaluated by 17 subjects at four
frequencies, and the correlation coefficients between the material properties
and riding discomfort were analyzed. The results suggested that there were two
relationships between material properties and riding discomfort, and that these
relationships strongly relied on frequency. Furthermore, a digital human model
was created to confirm the influence of frequency on these relationships, which
suggested that the relationships affected sensitivity by the change in the
vibration mode of the human body-seat vibration system. Keywords: Riding Discomfort; Vibration Mode; Human Model | |||
| The Effects of Human Interaction on Biometric System Performance | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 904-914 | |
| Eric P. Kukula; Stephen J. Elliott; Vincent G. Duffy | |||
| This paper discusses the impact of human interaction with biometric devices
and its relationship to biometric performance. The authors propose a model
outlining the Human-Biometric Sensor Interaction and discuss its necessity
through case studies in fingerprint recognition, hand geometry, and dynamic
signature verification to further understand the human-sensor interaction
issues and underlying problems that they present to the biometric system. Human
factors, human-computer interaction and digital human modeling are considered
in the context of current and future biometric research and development. Keywords: human-computer interaction (HCI); biometrics; human-biometric sensor
interaction (HBSI); digital human modeling (DHM) | |||
| Design and Realization of Synthesis Assessment System for Cockpit Ergonomics | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 915-922 | |
| Yinxia Li; Kaiying La; Xiugan Yuan | |||
| This paper emphasized on how to construct one kind of assessment system
based on the standards and specifications for cockpit ergonomic synthesis
assessment, and the knowledge of the aviation experts and the experienced
pilots. It analyzed the necessity of developing the assessment system, and then
presented the basic principal and the function demand of the assessment system.
In addition, the key technologies for developing this assessment system were
discussed in detail utilizing Visual FoxPro 6.0. This assessment system
transforms the assessment model and process into the computer program by the
mathematical model, enables the assessment process truly to be operational, and
also can reduce the assessment cycle. Keywords: Cockpit; Ergonomics; Human factors; Human engineering; Fuzzy | |||
| Development of a Test-Bed for Synthetical Ergonomics Evaluation of Pilot | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 923-928 | |
| Wei Liu; Xiu-gan Yuan; Zhong-qi Liu; Rui Ma; Wei-yong Kang | |||
| The study of pilot perception has evolved from examining simple tasks
executed in reduced laboratory conditions to the examination of complex,
real-world behaviors. A test-bed for evaluating models of pilot behavior in
which a set of infrared video-based eyetrackers to monitor subjects' eye
movements while they perform a range of complex tasks such as driving, and
manual tasks requiring careful eye-hand coordination was developed. The real
cockpit platform is provided to subjects as they pilot in a virtual scene; a
dual-haptic interface consisting of two touch-screen display devices and a
shift allows free control within the cockpit. Keywords: test-bed; eye tracking; haptic interface; ergonomics | |||
| Experimental Research of Evaluation of Temperature Ergonomics of EVA Spacesuit Glove | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 929-938 | |
| Han Longzhu; Xiu-gan Yuan | |||
| The EVA spacesuit glove is one of the key components which can assure
astronauts to achieve EVA tasks in security. Astronauts are subjected to the
influence of low temperature when they are performing tasks outside the
spaceship. To establish the standard of the ergonomics of the temperature of
the glove work is very important. This paper studies the influence of low
temperature on the ergonomics of the glove work when the skin surface
temperature of the middle fingertip is at normal temperature, 15.60C and 100C
respectively, in which the strength, fatigue, sensibility and flexibility are
made as evaluation targets. The experiment indicates: the influence on the
ergonomics of glove is not obvious when the temperature is controlled at
15.60C. Therefore the temperature of the middle fingertip skin should be
controlled above 15.60C in glove design; the influence to the ergonomics of
glove is relatively obvious when the temperature is about 100C. The influence
on sensibility is the most obvious, and then the influence on fatigue, strength
and flexibility is in descending order. The temperature standards of EVA
spacesuit glove have practical meaning to design EVA spacesuit. Keywords: hand; EVA spacesuit glove; ergonomics; low temperature | |||
| Digital Humans for Virtual Assembly Evaluation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 939-948 | |
| Dimitris Mavrikios; Menelaos Pappas; Marios Kotsonis; Vassiliki Karabatsou; George Chryssolouris | |||
| This paper studies the use of Virtual Reality and Human Simulation for the
ergonomic evaluation of manual assembly processes. A virtual environment has
been developed to represent the actual workspace where the assembly task took
place. Into the virtual workspace, a digital human /mannequin was imported and
programmed to simulate the task, in the same manner as it would be done by the
actual worker. Based on the posture-based ergonomics analysis, each posture of
the digital human has been "translated" into comfort scores, resulting in
conclusions, related to the ergonomic efficiency of the process and in the
design of the workstation. The conclusions that have been reached identify the
critical points, during the assembly task, and lead to the necessary re-design
actions in order for the worker's fatigue as well as the task's execution time
to be reduced. A real-life assembly task of a commercial refrigerator has been
implemented in order for the capabilities of the proposed process design
evaluation method to be demonstrated. Keywords: Virtual Reality; Digital Humans; Virtual Assembly; Process Design
Evaluation; Ergonomics Analysis | |||
| Foot Digitalization for Last Design and Individual Awareness of Personal Foot Characteristics | | BIBA | Full-Text | 949-958 | |
| Paolo Olivato; Manuela Morricone; Enrica Fubini; Alessandra Re | |||
| The aim of the present work was to gather data concerning the measurements and the shape of individuals' feet of Italians, to design more ergonomic shoe lasts. The unloaded feet of a sample of 316 participants of Italian ethnicity of 20 different towns located in northern, central, and southern Italy and the Italian islands were digitalized. Results showed significant differences by gender, age, and geographical area. The sample's degree of awareness concerning some of their own foot characteristics and interaction with footwear were also investigated. These findings will be used to design footwear that can provide a good fit for the feet of Italians and, consequently, a greater degree of comfort. | |||
| Can We Use Technology to Train Inspectors to Be More Systematic? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 959-968 | |
| Sajay Sadasivan; Anand K. Gramopadhye | |||
| Inspection quality is dependent on the ability of inspectors to weed out
defective items. When inspection is visual in nature, humans play a critical
role in ensuring inspection quality with training identified as the primary
intervention strategy for improving inspection performance. However, for this
strategy to be successful, inspectors must be provided with the needed tools to
enhance their inspection skills. In this article we outline efforts pursued at
Clemson University, focusing on the development of computer-based training
systems for inspection training and discuss the results of some of the research
briefly. Keywords: Computer Based Training; Visual Inspection; Search Strategy | |||
| Enhancing Sense of Reality by Efficient and Precise Collision Detection in Virtual Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 969-978 | |
| Chuan-Jun Su | |||
| As the foundation of user-system interaction in virtual environments,
collision detection is a time-consuming process and few real-time interactive
algorithms for general objects developed. Most of the existing methods aim for
reducing the computation time for some special cases. Collision detection
algorithms developed are either not fast enough for practical applications or
restricted to a class of specific model. In fact, a general analysis of the
performance of collision detection algorithms is extremely difficult because
performance is situation specific. The motivation of this work is to satisfy
the real-time interaction and high precision requirements of a Virtual
Environment (VE) for applications such as virtual design, virtual assembly,
virtual training for manufacturing operations and maintenance. Keywords: Collision Detection; Virtual Environment; virtual reality | |||
| Dynamic Generation of Human-Populated VR Models for Workspace Ergonomic Evaluation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 979-987 | |
| Tien-Lung Sun; Wen-Yang Feng; Chin-Jung Chao | |||
| Human-populated VR models have been employed by many researchers to evaluate
workspace occupational health and safety (OHS) problems. Previous researches in
VR-based ergonomic evaluation have taken a model-based, quantitative approach
where human posture data are extracted from virtual space and sent to ergonomic
models to calculate numeric results. Such model-based approach requires the VR
model to be integrated with complex human models and ergonomic evaluation
models. Construction of the virtual workspace thus becomes complicated and
difficult, which often stops industrial adoption of the VR technology in
ergonomic evaluation. To address this problem, this paper presents an
easy-to-construct human-populated VR model to support visualization-based,
qualitative workspace OHS evaluation. Details of the workspace layout design
and the operation procedure design, and the dynamic VRML modeling to support
the workspace design are discussed. Based on the proposed method, a
human-populated virtual workspace is implemented to evaluate OHS problem
associated with the design of a ship operation room. Keywords: Virtual reality; VRML; virtual prototype; digital human; occupational health
and safety | |||
| Effecting Validity of Ergonomics Analysis During Virtual Interactive Design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 988-997 | |
| Renran Tian; Vincent G. Duffy; John McGinley | |||
| This paper focuses on validating the performance of virtual interactive
design (VID) environment with dynamic ergonomics analysis. Previous studies
have only validated VID for posture-based static ergonomics analysis, and
applied the methodology on several studies. While since dynamic information is
important for ergonomics analysis, this study will investigate the performance
of VID environment for ergonomics analysis considering dynamic information such
as velocity, which uses motion instead of posture as analysis target. Keywords: virtual interactive design; ergonomics analysis | |||
| Advanced Technology Training for Operating the Microlithography Panel Printer | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 998-1007 | |
| Bharat Upadrasta; Mohammad T. Khasawneh; Sarah S. Lam | |||
| Electronics packaging plays a crucial role in the manufacturing of advanced
microelectronics, with an increased interest in technology that produces
greater power functionality in smaller spaces. The recent advances in this
field have led to advanced manufacturing techniques, with the insertion of
components in the micro- and nano-scales. In particular, the microlithography
panel printer uses photolithography to create fine image patterns through
reticles on substrate boards. The need for advanced features, updated software
skills, and the high cost of human error places an increasing requirement for
more efficient operator training at a reduced financial investment. Therefore,
this research demonstrates the usefulness of virtual reality in modeling the
microlithography machine using high fidelity simulations for training purposes.
The development process and the structure of the training simulator is
presented, with an outline of its effectiveness in supporting training needs,
and a description of its reliability assessment through validation and testing. Keywords: Virtual reality; electronics packaging; training; modeling; simulation | |||
| Ramsis -- The Leading Cad Tool for Ergonomic Analysis of Vehicles | | BIBA | Full-Text | 1008-1017 | |
| Peter van der Meulen; Andreas Seidl | |||
| Early integration of ergonomics in the vehicle design process requires appropriate CAD tools. 15 years ago, the German car industry developed a new, three-dimensional tool for computer-aided ergonomics and occupant packaging, called RAMSIS. Its goal was to overcome the limitations of two-dimensional human templates, as well as to provide methods for predicting driver postures and comfort. The core of RAMSIS is a highly accurate three-dimensional human model that can be made to simulate occupants with a large variety of body dimensions and based on anthropometry databases from around the world. Extensive research was conducted on driver postures and comfort, which resulted in a probability-based posture prediction model. No subjective manikin manipulation by the user is necessary, so that fast, realistic and consistent analysis results are ensured at all times. An assessment of comfort allows designers to optimize packages with respect to driver comfort early in the design process. RAMSIS offers a number of other analysis tools, for example for vision, reach, force and seat belt studies. Over the years, new research projects have resulted in more sophisticated RAMSIS functions, such as a force-based posture and comfort prediction model, seat belt certification, compatibility with full body laser scanners, simulation of the interaction between seat and occupant and simulation of ingress and egress. | |||
| Using Multimodal Technologies to Enhance Aviation Maintenance Inspection Training | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1018-1026 | |
| Carl Washburn; Paris Stringfellow; Anand K. Gramopadhye | |||
| Recent collaborative efforts between Greenville Technical College's Aviation
Maintenance Technology (Greenville, South Carolina, USA) training facility and
Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina, USA) have lead to significant
improvements in Aviation Maintenance Technician training through the use of
advanced computer technology. Such applications included: 2.5D and 3D virtual
environments of a large-bodied aircraft cargo bay with interaction modalities
ranging from fully immersive (using a head-mounted display and 6
degrees-of-freedom mouse) to semi-immersive (using a spatially-tracked
suspended, touch-sensitive window display) to non-immersive (using a basic
desktop computer and mouse); and 3D virtual environments of turbine engine
blades where nondestructive inspection methods (e.g. borescoping) could be
practiced. This paper discusses the integration of these technologies into an
existing educational curriculum and provides insight as to how such programs
might be implemented and evaluated. Keywords: Education; Virtual Reality; Computer-Based-Training; Aviation Maintenance;
Multimodal Instruction | |||
| Colored Petri Net Based Formal Airport Control Model for Simulation and Analysis of Airport Control Processes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1027-1036 | |
| Bernd Werther; Christoph Möhlenbrink; Michael Rudolph | |||
| The development of the experimental Remote Tower Operation Human Machine
Interface and the new Remote-Controller work position is supported by a
cognitive work and task analysis (CWA) of the presently existing work
environment and decision processes at airport Leipzig. This paper presents a
formal approach for the description of the whole Human Machine System. It is
shown how the results of a cognitive work analysis on a medium size airport are
transferred into a formal executable human machine model for simulating the
controllers work processes in relation to the airport processes. The model is
implemented with Colored Petri Nets. The mathematical basis of Petri Nets
allows a formal analysis of whole systems. Critical system states and
inconsistencies in the human machine system are identified through comparison
of knowledge states of the controllers with process states of the airport
system by using State Space analysis. The represented formal work process model
provides a valuable support for the communication between domain experts and
system developers. Keywords: Airport control model; Human Machine System; Colored Petri Net; State Space;
Cognitive work analysis | |||
| Research on Modeling of Complicate Traffic Simulation System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1037-1046 | |
| Jiankun Wu; Linpeng Huang; Jian Cao; Minglu Li; Dejun Wang; Mingwen Wang | |||
| With the increasing of traffic complexity, traffic simulation becomes an
important approach to deal with the complicated traffic problems; meanwhile,
system modeling plays a more and more important role in the simulation systems.
Cellular automata provide a simple discrete deterministic mathematical model
for physical, biological, and computational systems and are shown to be capable
of complicated behavior and generate complex and random patterns, which are
very suitable for the description of complicate traffic environment [7]. A
simulation model based on agent technology, HLA/RTI technology and expanded
cellular automaton is presented in this paper. The simulation model makes the
platform expandable and flexible, at the same time, it can provide high-capable
computing resources to solve the complex traffic issues. In the traffic entity
model aspects, the expanded cellular automata and agent technology were adopted
to model the behaviors of passengers, vehicles, traffic signal lights and so
on. The optimal scheme for evacuation of traffic disaster, superintendence of
large scale activities and design of traffic environment will be obtained
through the simulation model. Keywords: Traffic simulation; Agent; HLA/RTI; Complexity system; Cellular automata | |||
| Design and Implementation of Ergonomics Evaluation System of 3D Airplane Cockpit | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1047-1055 | |
| Libo Zhang; Xiugan Yuan; Lijing Wang; Dayong Dong | |||
| According to ergonomics factors referred by airplane design department and
corresponding standards, structure and function of ergonomics evaluation system
of 3D cockpit was designed. Digital human model, based on anthropometry
database, comprises 66 segments, 65 joints and 131 degree of freedom. The
ergonomics design of man-machine interface can be evaluated in terms of vision,
reach and working posture comfort analysis methods and evaluation rules.
Interior and exterior visual field of pilot can be achieved with the aid of
vision analysis. The comfort of working posture and joints motion can be
assessed by reference to joint angles for any selected posture. The details
regarding system implementation with technology of OpenGL are discussed at
last. The system can be computer-aided tool for airplane designer considering
its convenience in using excellent model data interface with other 3D software. Keywords: 3D airplane cockpit; Digital human model; Ergonomics; Working postural;
Comfort | |||
| A Novel Method for Cloth-Body Collision Detection | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1056-1063 | |
| Xiaolong Zhu; Shihong Xia; Yong Yu; Tianlu Mao | |||
| This paper presents a novel cloth-body collision detection method by using
the generalized cross-sectional contour technique, which has two main steps.
During preprocessing step, the so-called skin hierarchical structure (Skin-H)
of the body is constructed by using the improved generalized cross-sectional
contour technique, which doesn't need to be updated in subsequent step. During
runtime step, the cloth vertices are projected onto Skin-H structure
efficiently, and then the exact collision detection can be done by a
ray-triangle test technique at the lowest level of the structure. The
simulation result demonstrates that the proposed method has some advantages in
algorithm's efficiency, accuracy as well as practicability. Keywords: Collision Detection; Hierarchical Approaches; Image-Based Methods; Cloth
Simulation; Animation | |||