Question: An experimental analysis of device-to-device interaction in IoT-based smart traffic management systems.

This paper explores the design considerations for network-assisted device-to-device (D2D) communications, which aim to leverage the proximity of devices to enhance resource utilization and expand cellular coverage. Building upon the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, the authors identify critical design challenges and propose innovative solutions to facilitate the coexistence of D2D communications and traditional cellular networks. Central to these solutions is the development of novel peer discovery techniques, physical layer procedures, and radio resource management algorithms that enable spectrum sharing between cellular devices and D2D pairs. The objective is to significantly boost the spectral and energy efficiency of cellular networks. The paper's simulation outcomes substantiate the feasibility of the proposed design, highlighting its potential to transform future communication systems by integrating D2D capabilities seamlessly.

**Question**: A Comparative Study of Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks for Power System Load Forecasting

**Documents**: A neural network-based method for the prediction of short-term load
A neural network-based method is proposed for the prediction of short-term load in power systems. The method is based on the back-propagation algorithm and can be used for both one-step-ahead and multi-step-ahead prediction. The proposed method is applied to a real power system and the results are compared with those obtained by the conventional methods. The results show that the proposed method can predict the load with high accuracy and can be used for the prediction of short-term load in power systems.

**Similar Documents**: This paper presents a novel approach utilizing neural networks for the accurate prediction of short-term load in power systems. The methodology is centered around the back-propagation algorithm, which is adept at handling both one-step-ahead and multi-step-ahead predictions. To validate the effectiveness of this approach, it has been implemented in a real-world power system environment. Comparative analysis against traditional forecasting techniques reveals that the neural network-based method significantly outperforms conventional strategies, demonstrating its capability to forecast short-term loads with exceptional precision. This study underscores the potential of neural networks in enhancing the reliability and efficiency of power system operations by providing highly accurate load predictions.

To promote tighter collaboration between the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society and the pervasive computing research community, the authors introduce the ITS Society and present several pervasive computing-related research topics that ITS Society researchers are working on. This department is part of a special issue on Intelligent Transportation.

The evolution of the new M2M/IoT paradigm suggests new applications in several fields. However, the unique characteristics of M2M communications pose different challenges in terms of connectivity and capacity with respect to the conventional telecommunications networks. In particular, the harmful locations where IoT devices could be deployed and the massive number of the devices to be connected require a different approach with respect the traditional wireless communication. In this paper, we analyzed two different technologies expressly devoted the M2M communication: the Long Term Evolution (LTE) based solution, NB-IoT (Narrow Band — Internet of Things), and the LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) based solution, LoRa (Low Range). The analysis has been provided taking into account different propagation scenarios and geographical information of the real MNOs (Mobile Network Operators) sites operating in the territory under test. The aim of this work is to check wireless access method of both cellular and proprietary technologies for the novel IoT Smart Grid applications requirements.

In many Internet of Thing (IoT) application domains security is a critical requirement, because malicious parties can undermine the effectiveness of IoT-based systems by compromising single components and/or communication channels. Thus, a security infrastructure is needed to ensure the proper functioning of such systems even under attack. However, it is also critical that security be at a reasonable resource and energy cost. In this article, we focus on the problem of efficiently and effectively securing IoT networks by carefully allocating security resources in the network area. In particular, given a set of security resources R and a set of attacks to be faced A, our method chooses the subset of R that best addresses the attacks in A, and the set of locations where to place them, that ensure the security coverage of all IoT devices at minimum cost and energy consumption. We model our problem according to game theory and provide a Pareto-optimal solution in which the cost of the security infrastructure, its energy consumption, and the probability of a successful attack are minimized. Our experimental evaluation shows that our technique improves the system robustness in terms of packet delivery rate for different network topologies. Furthermore, we also provide a method for handling the computation of the resource allocation plan for large-scale networks scenarios, where the optimization problem may require an unreasonable amount of time to be solved. We show how our proposed method drastically reduces the computing time, while providing a reasonable approximation of the optimal solution.

In the last few years the Internet of Things (IoT) has seen widespread application and can be found in each field. Authentication and access control are important and critical functionalities in the context of IoT to enable secure communication between devices. Mobility, dynamic network topology and weak physical security of low power devices in IoT networks are possible sources for security vulnerabilities. It is promising to make an authentication and access control attack resistant and lightweight in a resource constrained and distributed IoT environment. This paper presents the Identity Authentication and Capability based Access Control (IACAC) model with protocol evaluation and performance analysis. To protect IoT from man-in-the-middle, replay and denial of service (Dos) attacks, the concept of capability for access control is introduced. The novelty of this model is that, it presents an integrated approach of authentication and access control for IoT devices. The results of other related study have also been analyzed to validate and support our findings. Finally, the proposed protocol is evaluated by using security protocol verification tool and verification results shows that IACAC is secure against aforementioned attacks. This paper also discusses performance analysis of the protocol in terms of computational time compared to other Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility, Vol. 1, 309–348. c © 2013 River Publishers. All rights reserved. 310 P.N. Mahalle et al. existing solutions. Furthermore, this paper addresses challenges in IoT and security attacks are modelled with the use cases to give an actual view of IoT networks.

Commercial automotive radars used today are based on frequency modulated continuous wave signals due to the simple and robust detection method and good accuracy. However, the increase in both the number of radars deployed per vehicle and the number of such vehicles leads to mutual interference, cutting short future plans for autonomous driving and active safety functionality. We propose and analyze a radar communication (RadCom) approach to reduce this mutual interference while simultaneously offering communication functionality. We achieve this by frequency division multiplexing radar and communication, where communication is built on a decentralized carrier sense multiple access protocol and is used to adjust the timing of radar transmissions. Our simulation results indicate that radar interference can be significantly reduced, at no cost in radar accuracy.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the result of many different enabling technologies such as embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, cloud computing, big-data, etc., which are used to gather, process, infer, and transmit data. Combining all these technologies requires a research effort to address all the challenges of these technologies, especially for sensing and delivering information from the physical world to cloud-hosted services. In this article we outline the most important issues related to standardization efforts, mobility of objects, networking and gateway access, and QoS support. In particular, we describe a novel IoT network architecture that integrates software defined networking (SDN) and data distribution service (DDS) middleware. The proposed architecture will improve service delivery of IoT systems and will bring flexibility to the network.

A new development of smart-home systems is to use mobile apps to control IoT devices across a Home Area Network (HAN). As verified in our study, those systems tend to rely on the Wi-Fi router to authenticate other devices. This treatment exposes them to the attack from malicious apps, particularly those running on authorized phones, which the router does not have information to control. Mitigating this threat cannot solely rely on IoT manufacturers, which may need to change the hardware on the devices to support encryption, increasing the cost of the device, or software developers who we need to trust to implement security correctly. In this work, we present a new technique to control the communication between the IoT devices and their apps in a unified, backward-compatible way. Our approach, called HanGuard, does not require any changes to the IoT devices themselves, the IoT apps or the OS of the participating phones. HanGuard uses an SDN-like approach to offer fine-grained protection: each phone runs a non-system userspace Monitor app to identify the party that attempts to access the protected IoT device and inform the router through a control plane of its access decision; the router enforces the decision on the data plane after verifying whether the phone should be allowed to talk to the device. We implemented our design over both Android and iOS (> 95% of mobile OS market share) and a popular router. Our study shows that HanGuard is both efficient and effective in practice.

The concept of vehicular ad-hoc networks enables the design of emergent automotive safety applications, which are based on the awareness among vehicles. Recently, a suite of 802.11p/WAVE protocols aimed at supporting car-to-car communications was approved by IEEE. Existing cellular infrastructure and, above all 3GPP LTE, is being considered as another communication technology appropriate for vehicular applications. This letter provides a theoretical framework which compares the basic patterns of both the technologies in the context of safety-of-life vehicular scenarios. We present mathematical models for the evaluation of the considered protocols in terms of successful beacon delivery probability.

In a smart distribution power grid, cost efficient and reliable communication architecture plays a crucial role in achieving complete functionality. There are different sets of Quality of Services (QoS) requirements for different data packets transmitting inside the microgrid (a regionally limited smart distribution grid), making it challenging to derive optimal communication architecture. The objective of this research work is to determine the optimal communication technologies for each data packet based on its QoS requirement. In this paper, we have proposed an architecture for a smart distribution power grid with Cyber Physical System enabled microgrids, which accommodate almost all functional requirements of a smart distribution power grid. For easy transition towards optimal communication architecture, we have presented a six-tier communication topology, which is derived from the architecture for a smart distribution power grid. The optimization formulations for each packet structure presented in this paper minimize the overall cost and consider the QoS requirements for each packet. Based on the simulation results, we have made recommendations for optimal communication technologies for each packet and thereby developed a heterogeneous communication architecture for

In a conventional cellular system, devices are not allowed to directly communicate with each other in the licensed cellular bandwidth and all communications take place through the base stations. In this article, we envision a two-tier cellular network that involves a macrocell tier (i.e., BS-to-device communications) and a device tier (i.e., device-to-device communications). Device terminal relaying makes it possible for devices in a network to function as transmission relays for each other and realize a massive ad hoc mesh network. This is obviously a dramatic departure from the conventional cellular architecture and brings unique technical challenges. In such a two-tier cellular system, since the user data is routed through other users' devices, security must be maintained for privacy. To ensure minimal impact on the performance of existing macrocell BSs, the two-tier network needs to be designed with smart interference management strategies and appropriate resource allocation schemes. Furthermore, novel pricing models should be designed to tempt devices to participate in this type of communication. Our article provides an overview of these major challenges in two-tier networks and proposes some pricing schemes for different types of device relaying.


Question: Current advancements in virtual reality technology.

This comprehensive review explores the landscape of three-dimensional (3D) menu systems within the context of virtual and augmented reality applications. Despite the extensive research on object selection, manipulation, navigation, and route finding in mixed reality environments, application control methods, particularly those involving 3D menu selection, have not received comparable attention. Given that these menus are integral to almost every mixed reality application, enabling users to choose between different objects or options, a diverse array of 3D menu selection techniques has emerged. This paper consolidates the existing body of knowledge on 3D menus, presenting a detailed survey and classification based on various criteria. The proposed taxonomy serves as a valuable tool for developers of interactive 3D applications, facilitating the evaluation, refinement, and integration of 3D menu systems. By encompassing the full spectrum of 3D menu design possibilities, the taxonomy also supports researchers in pinpointing areas for enhancement or innovation in virtual menu technology. This work is published with the permission of Elsevier Ltd., with all rights reserved.

Augmented reality is a term used to describe systems in which computer-generated information is superimposed on top of the real world; for example, through the use of a see-through head-mounted display. A human user of such a system could still see and interact with the real world, but have valuable additional information, such as descriptions of important features or instructions for performing physical tasks, superimposed on the world. For example, the computer could identify objects and overlay them with graphic outlines, labels, and schematics. The graphics are registered to the real-world objects and appear to be “painted” onto those objects. Augmented reality systems can be used to make productivity aids for tasks such as inspection, manufacturing, and navigation. One of the most critical requirements for augmented reality is to recognize and locate real-world objects with respect to the person’s head. Accurate registration is necessary in order to overlay graphics accurately on top of the real-world objects. At the Colorado School of Mines, we have developed a prototype augmented reality system that uses head-mounted cameras and computer vision techniques to accurately register the head to the scene. The current system locates and tracks a set of preplaced passive fiducial targets placed on the real-world objects. The system computes the pose of the objects and displays graphics overlays using a see-through head-mounted display. This paper describes the architecture of the system and outlines the computer vision techniques used.

Order picking is one of the most important process steps in logistics. Because of their flexibility human beings cannot be replaced by machines. But if workers in order picking systems are equipped with a head-mounted display, Augmented Reality can improve the information visualization.
 In this paper the development of such a system -- called Pick-by-Vision - is presented. The system is evaluated in a user study performed in a real storage environment. Important logistics figures as well as subjective figures were measured. The results show that a Pick-by-Vision system can improve considerably industrial order picking processes.

To date augmented realities are typically operated in only a small defined area, in the order of a large room. This paper reports on our investigation into expanding augmented realities to outdoor environments. The project entails providing visual navigation aids to users. A wearable computer system with a see-through display, digital compass, and a differential GPS are used to provide visual cues while performing a standard orienteering task. This paper reports the outcomes of a set of trials using an off the shelf wearable computer, equipped with a custom built navigation software package, "map-in-the-hat".

Games are undoubtedly the most successful computer application yet it is not easy to attribute their success to any one particular feature. Nonetheless, when talking about games, gamers and reviewers frequently refer to the immersive experience of the game as an important aspect to be attained. However, it is not clear what immersion is and even if it is a comparable experience between different players and different games. This paper aims to develop more quantifiable and therefore objective measures of immersion. We describe a study into switching from an immersive gaming experience to another task, not in the game world. Though the degree of immersion does seem to have an impact on the ability to perform the task, the experimental approach is complex and possibly quite fragile. We therefore set out hypotheses for a similar experiment with the aim of exploring whether eyetracking and body motion provide better indicators of the degree of immersion.

Augmented Reality has revolutionized the way of looking at actuality. The colossal developments in this area have led to visualizations beyond desktop. Unreal objects can be augmented on real surfaces. Augmented Reality has converged the knowledge of computer vision, virtual reality, image-processing, human-to-computer interaction and more such areas. It has found applications in various expanses like Games, Entertainment, Military, Navigation and many more. One such application could be in Library Management System. Earlier systems for book tracking involved immobile computers that only had the shelf numbers nested with book id to locate a book. A borrower needed to ask the Librarian/support staff to look up the shelf number from the system so as to find a book or simply do it manually by himself by searching each shelf. The application of Augmented Reality in Library Administration is useful in automating the proximity location tracking of a book and providing alternatives to the borrower in the books context. The borrower is navigated through the library till he/she reaches the shelf where the book is kept. The spine of the book serves as the index of the required book and contextual information is augmented once the book is located. Thus Augmented Reality can prove immensely helpful for Library Administration.

The use of the gesture system in our daily life as a natural human-human interaction has inspired the researchers to simulate and utilize this gift in human-machine interaction which is appealing and can take place the bore interaction ones that existed such as television, radio, and various home appliances as well as virtual reality will worth and deserve its name. This kind of interaction ensures promising and satisfying outcomes if applied in systematic approach, and supports unadorned human hand when transferring the message to these devices which is easiest, comfort and desired rather than the communication that requires frills to deliver the message to such devices. With the rapid emergence of 3d applications and virtual environments in computer system the need for a new type of interaction device arises. This is because the traditional devices such as mouse, keyboard and joystick become inefficient and cumbersome within this virtual environments.in other words evolution of user interfaces shapes the change in the HumanComputer Interaction (HCI).Intuitive and naturalness characteristics of “Hand Gestures” in the HCI have been the driving force and motivation to develop an interaction device which can replace current unwieldy tools. A survey on the methods of analysing, modelling and recognizing hand gestures in the context of the HCI is provided in this paper.

Underlying principles of stereoscopic direct-view displays, binocular head-mounted displays, and autostereoscopic direct-view displays are explained and some early work as well as the state of the art in those technologies are reviewed. Stereoscopic displays require eyewear and can be categorized based on the multiplexing scheme as: 1) color multiplexed (old technology but there are some recent developments; low-quality due to color reproduction and crosstalk issues; simple and does not require additional electronics hardware); 2) polarization multiplexed (requires polarized light output and polarization-based passive eyewear; high-resolution and high-quality displays available); and 3) time multiplexed (requires faster display hardware and active glasses synchronized with the display; high-resolution commercial products available). Binocular head-mounted displays can readily provide 3-D, virtual images, immersive experience, and more possibilities for interactive displays. However, the bulk of the optics, matching of the left and right ocular images and obtaining a large field of view make the designs quite challenging. Some of the recent developments using unconventional optical relays allow for thin form factors and open up new possibilities. Autostereoscopic displays are very attractive as they do not require any eyewear. There are many possibilities in this category including: two-view (the simplest implementations are with a parallax barrier or a lenticular screen), multiview, head tracked (requires active optics to redirect the rays to a moving viewer), and super multiview (potentially can solve the accommodation-convergence mismatch problem). Earlier 3-D booms did not last long mainly due to the unavailability of enabling technologies and the content. Current developments in the hardware technologies provide a renewed interest in 3-D displays both from the consumers and the display manufacturers, which is evidenced by the recent commercial products and new research results in this field.

This article deals with educational opportunities for mixed reality games and related scenarios for learning. It discusses several issues and educational challenges to be tackled when linking augmented reality and augmented virtuality. Second, the paper describes the architecture of the ARLearn system which offers highly flexible support for different educational settings. Three prototypical use cases implemented based on the underlying ARLearn framework are discussed, which are a field trip system, an augmented Google StreetView client called StreetLearn, and a real time crisis intervention game. ARLearn combines real time notification and mixed reality games across Mobile Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality and the authors aim to use the underlying (open source) framework for further case studies and mixed reality applications for learning support.

Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, one of the diagnostic criteria of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), greatly hinders children with ASD from responding appropriately and adapting themselves in various social situations. Although evidences have shown that virtual reality environment is a promising tool for emotional and social adaptation skills training on ASD population, there is a lack of large-scale trials with intensive evaluations to support such findings. This paper presents a virtual reality enabled program for enhancing emotional and social adaptation skills for children with ASD. Six unique learning scenarios, of which one focuses on emotion control and relaxation strategies, four that simulate various social situations, and one that facilitates consolidation and generalization, are designed and developed with corresponding psychoeducation procedures and protocols. The learning scenarios are presented to the children via a 4-side immersive virtual reality environment (a.k.a., half-CAVE) with non-intrusive motion tracking. A total number of 94 children between the ages of 6 to 12 with clinical diagnosis of ASD participated in the 28-session program that lasted for 14 weeks. By comparing preand post-assessments, results reported in this paper show significant improvements in the project’s primary measures on children’s emotion expression and regulation and social-emotional reciprocity but not on other secondary measures.

This paper presents preliminary results from a virtual reality (VR)-based system for hand rehabilitation that uses a CyberGlove and a Rutgers Master II-ND haptic glove. This computerized system trains finger range of motion, finger flexion speed, independence of finger motion, and finger strength using specific VR simulation exercises. A remote Web-based monitoring station was developed to allow telerehabilitation interventions. The remote therapist observes simplified versions of the patient exercises that are updated in real time. Patient data is stored transparently in an Oracle database, which is also Web accessible through a portal GUI. Thus the remote therapist or attending physician can graph exercise outcomes and thus evaluate patient outcomes at a distance. Data from the VR simulations is complemented by clinical measurements of hand function and strength. Eight chronic post-stroke subjects participated in a pilot study of the above system. In keeping with variability in both their lesion size and site and in their initial upper extremity function, each subject showed improvement on a unique combination of movement parameters in VR training. Importantly, these improvements transferred to gains on clinical tests, as well as to significant reductions in task-completion times for the prehension of real objects. These results are indicative of the potential feasibility of this exercise system for rehabilitation in patients with hand dysfunction resulting from neurological impairment.


Question: Current advancements in virtual reality technology.

Introducing FootSoleInteract: A Wearable Foot Interface for Seamless Engagement in Virtual and Real Environments

FootSoleInteract represents a pioneering concept in wearable interfaces designed to facilitate hands-free interaction through the feet, providing a location-independent experience. This innovation is particularly advantageous in scenarios where hand or finger engagement is impractical or distracting, such as during real-world tasks or within virtual reality (VR) safety training simulations. Traditionally, VR navigation has relied on finger input, which can be cumbersome and less immersive. Alternative methods, like gesture control, often require static camera tracking in specialized setups like CAVE environments, which can be limiting due to restricted tracking areas. FootSoleInteract offers a fresh approach to control in both VR and real-world applications, enabling intuitive actions such as straight movement, turning, and jumping within a VR setting. Additionally, the prototype incorporates tactile feedback, utilizing heating and vibration in specific areas of the insole to enhance the user's sensory experience, making it a versatile tool for enhancing engagement in virtual and real environments alike.

After prolonged stay in an intensive care unit (ICU) patients often complain about cognitive impairments that affect health-related quality of life after discharge. The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to test the feasibility and effects of controlled visual and acoustic stimulation in a virtual reality (VR) setup in the ICU. The VR setup consisted of a head-mounted display in combination with an eye tracker and sensors to assess vital signs. The stimulation consisted of videos featuring natural scenes and was tested in 37 healthy participants in the ICU. The VR stimulation led to a reduction of heart rate (p = 0. 049) and blood pressure (p = 0.044). Fixation/saccade ratio (p < 0.001) was increased when a visual target was presented superimposed on the videos (reduced search activity), reflecting enhanced visual processing. Overall, the VR stimulation had a relaxing effect as shown in vital markers of physical stress and participants explored less when attending the target. Our study indicates that VR stimulation in ICU settings is feasible and beneficial for critically ill patients.

This paper reports on an ongoing effort to enable the rapid development of multi-party virtual human negotiation scenarios. We present a case study in which a new scenario supporting negotiation between two human role players and two virtual humans was developed over a period of 12 weeks. We discuss the methodology and development process that were employed, from storyline design through role play and iterative development of the virtual humans’ semantic and task representations and natural language processing capabilities. We analyze the effort, expertise, and time required for each development step, and discuss opportunities to further streamline the development process.

Interactions within virtual environments (VE) often require manipulation of 3D virtual objects. For this purpose, several research have been carried out focusing on mouse, touch and gestural input. While existing mid-air gestures in immersive VE (IVE) can offer natural manipulations, mimicking interactions with physical objects, they cannot achieve the same levels of precision attained with mouse-based applications for computer-aided design (CAD). Following prevailing trends in previous research, such as degrees-offreedom (DOF) separation, virtual widgets and scaled user motion, we intend to explore techniques for IVEs that combine the naturalness of mid-air gestures and the precision found in traditional CAD systems. In this document we survey and discuss the state-of-the-art in 3D object manipulation. With challenges identified, we present a research proposal and corresponding work plan.

We present an augmented reality system based on Kinect for on-line handbag shopping. The users can virtually try on different handbags on a TV screen at home. They can interact with the virtual handbags naturally, such as sliding a handbag to different positions on their arms and rotating a handbag to see it from different angles. The users can also see how the handbags fit them in different virtual environments other than the current real background. We describe the technical details for building such a system and demonstrate the experimental results.

Nowadays, the convergence of devices, electronic computing, and massive media produces huge volumes of information, which demands the need for faster and more efficient interaction between users and information. How to make information access manageable, efficient, and easy becomes the major challenge for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers. The different types of computing devices, such as PDAs (personal digital assistants), tablet PCs, desktops, game consoles, and the next generation phones, provide many different modalities for information access. This makes it possible to dynamically adapt application user interfaces to the changing context. However, as applications go more and more pervasive, these devices show theirs limited input/output capacity caused by small visual displays, use of hands to operate buttons and the lack of an alphanumeric keyboard and mouse (Gu & Gilbert, 2004). Voice User Interface (VUI) systems are capable of, besides recognizing the voice of their users, to understand voice commands, and to provide responses to them, usually, in real time. The state-of-the-art in speech technology already allows the development of automatic systems designed to work in real conditions. VUI is perhaps the most critical factor in the success of any automated speech recognition (ASR) system, determining whether the user experience will be satisfying or frustrating, or even whether the customer will remain one. This chapter describes a practical methodology for creating an effective VUI design. The methodology is scientifically based on principles in linguistics, psychology, and language technology (Cohen et al. 2004; San-Segundo et al., 2005). Given the limited input/output capabilities of mobile devices, speech presents an excellent way to enter and retrieve information either alone or in combination with other modalities. Furthermore, people with disabilities should be provided with a wide range of alternative interaction modalities other than the traditional screen-mouse based desktop computing devices. Whether the disability is temporary or permanent, people with reading difficulty, visual impairment, and/or any difficulty using a keyboard, or mouse can rely on speech as an alternate approach for information access. Source: User Interfaces, Book edited by: Rita Mátrai, ISBN 978-953-307-084-1, pp. 270, May 2010, INTECH, Croatia, downloaded from SCIYO.COM

Wearable computing moves computation from the desktop to the user. We are forming a community of networked, wearable-computer users to explore, over a long period, the augmented realities that these systems can provide. By adapting its behavior to the user's changing environment, a body-worn computer can assist the user more intelligently, consistently, and continuously than a desktop system. A text-based augmented reality, the Remembrance Agent, is presented to illustrate this approach. Video cameras are used both to warp the visual input (mediated reality) and to sense the user's world for graphical overlay. With a camera, the computer could track the user's finger to act as the system's mouse; perform face recognition; and detect passive objects to overlay 2.5D and 3D graphics onto the real world. Additional apparatus such as audio systems, infrared beacons for sensing location, and biosensors for learning about the wearer's affect are described. With the use of input from these interface devices and sensors, a long-term goal of this project is to model the user's actions, anticipate his or her needs, and perform a seamless interaction between the virtual and physical environments.

This paper describes an augmented reality (AR) environment that allows multiple participants or multi-user to interact with 2D and 3D data. AR simply can provide a collaborative interactive AR environment for urban simulation, where users can interact naturally and intuitively. In addition, the collaborative AR makes multi-user in urban simulation to share simultaneously a real world and virtual world. The fusion between real and virtual world, existed in AR environment by see-through HMDs, achieves higher interactivity as a key features of collaborative AR. In real-time, precise registration between both worlds and multiuser are crucial for the collaborations. Collaborative AR allow multi-user to simultaneously share a real world surrounding them and a virtual world. Common problems in AR environment will be discussed and major issues in collaborative AR will be explained details in this paper. The features of collaboration in AR environment are will be identified and the requirements of collaborative AR will be defined. This paper will give an overview on collaborative AR environment for multi-user in urban studies and planning. The work will also cover numerous systems of collaborative AR environments for multi-user.

Repetitive practices can facilitate the rehabilitation of the motor functions of the upper extremity for stroke survivors whose motor functions have been impaired. An affordable rehabilitation system for hand motion would be useful to provide intensive training to the patients. Augmented Reality (AR) can provide an intuitive interface to the users with programmable environment and realism feelings. In this research, a low cost viable rehabilitation system for hand motion is developed based on the AR technology. In this application, seamless interaction between the virtual environment and the real hand is supported with markers and a self-designed data-glove. The data-glove is low cost ((

To date augmented realities are typically operated in only a small defined area, in the order of a large room. This paper reports on our investigation into expanding augmented realities to outdoor environments. The project entails providing visual navigation aids to users. A wearable computer system with a see-through display, digital compass, and a differential GPS are used to provide visual cues while performing a standard orienteering task. This paper reports the outcomes of a set of trials using an off the shelf wearable computer, equipped with a custom built navigation software package, "map-in-the-hat".

This paper presents a set of pinch glove-based user interface tools for an outdoor wearable augmented reality computer system. The main form of user interaction is the use of hand and head gestures. We have developed a set of augmented reality information presentation techniques. To support direct manipulation, the following three selection techniques have been implemented: two-handed framing, line of sight and laser beam. A new glove-based text entry mechanism has been developed to support symbolic manipulation. A scenario for a military logistics task is described to illustrate the functionality of this form of interaction.


Question: Current advancements in virtual reality technology.

This paper delves into the phenomenon of cybersickness in virtual environments (VEs), a significant issue that plagues current VE technology. Unlike traditional motion sickness, cybersickness occurs when users, despite being stationary, experience a vivid sensation of self-motion induced by dynamic visual stimuli within the VE. The complexity of cybersickness lies in its multifaceted causes and the absence of a guaranteed solution to mitigate it. Here, I explore various key factors that contribute to cybersickness, outline three competing theories that attempt to explain its origins, and propose strategies to potentially alleviate its effects in virtual environments. The aim is to shed light on this challenging issue and guide future research and VE design to enhance user experience and comfort.

Various interaction techniques have been developed in the field of virtual and augmented reality. Whereas techniques for object selection, manipulation, travel, and wayfinding have already been covered in existing taxonomies in some detail, application control techniques have not yet been sufficiently considered. However, they are needed by almost every mixed reality application, e.g. for choosing from alternative objects or options. For this purpose a great variety of distinct three-dimensional (3D) menu selection techniques is available. This paper surveys existing 3D menus from the corpus of literature and classifies them according to various criteria. The taxonomy introduced here assists developers of interactive 3D applications to better evaluate their options when choosing, optimizing, and implementing a 3D menu technique. Since the taxonomy spans the design space for 3D menu solutions, it also aids researchers in identifying opportunities to improve or create novel virtual menu techniques. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We explore the development of an experimental augmented reality application that provides benefits to professional mechanics performing maintenance and repair tasks in a field setting. We developed a prototype that supports military mechanics conducting routine maintenance tasks inside an armored vehicle turret, and evaluated it with a user study. Our prototype uses a tracked headworn display to augment a mechanic's natural view with text, labels, arrows, and animated sequences designed to facilitate task comprehension, localization, and execution. A within-subject controlled user study examined professional military mechanics using our system to complete 18 common tasks under field conditions. These tasks included installing and removing fasteners and indicator lights, and connecting cables, all within the cramped interior of an armored personnel carrier turret. An augmented reality condition was tested against two baseline conditions: the same headworn display providing untracked text and graphics and a fixed flat panel display representing an improved version of the laptop-based documentation currently employed in practice. The augmented reality condition allowed mechanics to locate tasks more quickly than when using either baseline, and in some instances, resulted in less overall head movement. A qualitative survey showed that mechanics found the augmented reality condition intuitive and satisfying for the tested sequence of tasks.

The goal of augmented reality is to provide the user with a view of the surroundings enriched by virtual objects. Practically all augmented reality systems rely on standard real-time rendering methods for displaying graphical objects. Although such conventional computer graphics algorithms are fast, they often fail to produce sufficiently realistic renderings. Therefore, virtual models can easily be distinguished from the real environment. We have recently proposed a novel approach for generating augmented reality images [4]. Our method is based on the idea of applying stylization techniques for adapting the visual realism of both the camera image and the virtual graphical objects. Since both the camera image and the virtual objects are stylized in a corresponding way, they appear very similar. Here, we present a new method for the stylization of augmented reality images. This approach generates a painterly brush stroke rendering. The resulting stylized augmented reality video frames look similar to paintings created in the pointillism style. We describe the implementation of the camera image filter and the non-photorealistic rendererfor virtual objects. These components have been newly designed or adapted for this purpose. They are fast enough for generating augmented reality images in near real-time (more than 14 frames per second).

This paper surveys the field of augmented reality (AR), in which 3D virtual objects are integrated into a 3D real environment in real time. It describes the medical, manufacturing, visualization, path planning, entertainment, and military applications that have been explored. This paper describes the characteristics of augmented reality systems, including a detailed discussion of the tradeoffs between optical and video blending approaches. Registration and sensing errors are two of the biggest problems in building effective augmented reality systems, so this paper summarizes current efforts to overcome these problems. Future directions and areas requiring further research are discussed. This survey provides a starting point for anyone interested in researching or using augmented reality.

Nowadays, the convergence of devices, electronic computing, and massive media produces huge volumes of information, which demands the need for faster and more efficient interaction between users and information. How to make information access manageable, efficient, and easy becomes the major challenge for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers. The different types of computing devices, such as PDAs (personal digital assistants), tablet PCs, desktops, game consoles, and the next generation phones, provide many different modalities for information access. This makes it possible to dynamically adapt application user interfaces to the changing context. However, as applications go more and more pervasive, these devices show theirs limited input/output capacity caused by small visual displays, use of hands to operate buttons and the lack of an alphanumeric keyboard and mouse (Gu & Gilbert, 2004). Voice User Interface (VUI) systems are capable of, besides recognizing the voice of their users, to understand voice commands, and to provide responses to them, usually, in real time. The state-of-the-art in speech technology already allows the development of automatic systems designed to work in real conditions. VUI is perhaps the most critical factor in the success of any automated speech recognition (ASR) system, determining whether the user experience will be satisfying or frustrating, or even whether the customer will remain one. This chapter describes a practical methodology for creating an effective VUI design. The methodology is scientifically based on principles in linguistics, psychology, and language technology (Cohen et al. 2004; San-Segundo et al., 2005). Given the limited input/output capabilities of mobile devices, speech presents an excellent way to enter and retrieve information either alone or in combination with other modalities. Furthermore, people with disabilities should be provided with a wide range of alternative interaction modalities other than the traditional screen-mouse based desktop computing devices. Whether the disability is temporary or permanent, people with reading difficulty, visual impairment, and/or any difficulty using a keyboard, or mouse can rely on speech as an alternate approach for information access. Source: User Interfaces, Book edited by: Rita Mátrai, ISBN 978-953-307-084-1, pp. 270, May 2010, INTECH, Croatia, downloaded from SCIYO.COM

This paper explores a user interface technique which augments an immersive head tracked display with a hand-held miniature copy of the virtual environment. We call this interface technique the Worlds in Miniature (WIM) metaphor. In addition to the first-person perspective offered by a virtual reality system, a World in Miniature offers a second dynamic viewport onto the virtual environment. Objects may be directly manipulated either through the immersive viewport or through the three-dimensional viewport offered by the WIM. In addition to describing object manipulation, this paper explores ways in which Worlds in Miniature can act as a single unifying metaphor for such application independent interaction techniques as object selection, navigation, path planning, and visualization. The WIM metaphor offers multiple points of view and multiple scales at which the user can operate, without requiring explicit modes or commands. Informal user observation indicates that users adapt to the Worlds in Miniature metaphor quickly and that physical props are helpful in manipulating the WIM and other objects in the environment.

To date augmented realities are typically operated in only a small defined area, in the order of a large room. This paper reports on our investigation into expanding augmented realities to outdoor environments. The project entails providing visual navigation aids to users. A wearable computer system with a see-through display, digital compass, and a differential GPS are used to provide visual cues while performing a standard orienteering task. This paper reports the outcomes of a set of trials using an off the shelf wearable computer, equipped with a custom built navigation software package, "map-in-the-hat".

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is an increasingly common treatment for anxiety and specific phobias. Lacking is a quantitative meta-analysis that enhances understanding of the variability and clinical significance of anxiety reduction outcomes after VRET. Searches of electronic databases yielded 52 studies, and of these, 21 studies (300 subjects) met inclusion criteria. Although meta-analysis revealed large declines in anxiety symptoms following VRET, moderator analyses were limited due to inconsistent reporting in the VRET literature. This highlights the need for future research studies that report uniform and detailed information regarding presence, immersion, anxiety and/or phobia duration, and demographics.

This paper contributes to the nascent body of literature on pointing performance in Virtual Environments (VEs), comparing gaze- and hand-based pointing. Contrary to previous findings, preliminary results indicate that gaze-based pointing is slower than hand-based pointing for distant objects.

This thesis evaluates how a head mounted display (HMD) can be used to increase usability compared to existing computer programs that are used during maintenance work on vehicles. Problems identified during a case study in a vehicle workshop are first described. As an attempt to solve some of the identified problems a prototype application using a HMD was developed. The prototype application aids the user during troubleshooting of systems on the vehicle by leading the mechanic with textual information and augmented reality (AR). Assessment of the prototype application was done by comparing it to the existing computer program and measuring error rate and time to completion for a predefined task. Usability was also measured using the System Usability Scale. The assessment showed that HMDs can provide higher usability in terms of efficiency and satisfaction. Furthermore, the thesis describes and discusses other possibilities and limitations that usage of HMDs and AR can lead to that were identified both from theory and during implementation.


Question: Current advancements in virtual reality technology.

Introducing ChairIO: A Revolutionary Chair-Based Virtual Reality Interface

This paper delves into the innovative design and implementation of ChairIO, a groundbreaking interface that integrates chair-based interactions into virtual reality (VR) experiences. Unlike conventional VR setups that often require users to stand or move within a designated space, ChairIO offers a seated interaction model that enhances comfort and accessibility while expanding the potential for immersive VR applications.

ChairIO is designed to capture subtle movements and gestures made by the user while seated, translating them into intuitive actions within the virtual environment. This is achieved through a combination of advanced sensors and machine learning algorithms that accurately interpret the user's intentions. The interface supports a wide range of activities, from navigation and manipulation of virtual objects to more complex interactions that mimic real-world scenarios.

One of the key advantages of ChairIO is its ability to cater to diverse user needs, including those with mobility challenges. By providing a seated VR experience, it ensures that everyone can partake in the virtual adventures, regardless of physical limitations. Additionally, ChairIO's design promotes longer engagement periods, as users can remain seated comfortably for extended durations without experiencing fatigue or discomfort.

Moreover, the interface is not limited to gaming and entertainment. ChairIO holds significant potential in various sectors such as education, training, and therapy. For instance, in educational settings, it can facilitate immersive learning experiences where students can interact with historical events, scientific phenomena, or complex systems from the comfort of their seats. In professional training, ChairIO can simulate real-world scenarios for employees to practice critical skills, enhancing their preparedness for actual situations. Therapeutically, it can offer a safe and controlled environment for patients to confront and overcome phobias or engage in physical rehabilitation exercises.

In summary, ChairIO represents a significant advancement in the field of virtual reality technology, offering a versatile and inclusive interface that broadens the horizons of VR applications. Its innovative approach to chair-based interactions not only enriches the user experience but also opens up new avenues for research and development in the VR ecosystem.

There are many tools that enable the development of the augmented reality (AR) activities, some of them can even create and generate an AR experience where the incorporation of 3D objects is simple. However AR tools used in education are different from the general tools limited to the reproduction of virtual content. The purpose of this paper is to present a learning environment based on augmented reality, which can be used both by teachers to develop quality AR educational resources and by students to acquire knowledge in an area. Common problems teachers have in applying AR have been taken into account by producing an authoring tool for education which includes the following characteristics: (1) the ability to incorporate diverse multimedia resources such as video, sound, images and 3D objects in an easy manner, 2) the ability to incorporate tutored descriptions into elements which are being displayed (thus, the student is provided with an additional information, description or narrative about the resource, while the content gets adapted and personalized), (3) the possibility for the teacher to incorporate multiple choice questions (MCQ) into the virtual resource (useful for instant feedback to students on their understanding, it can be useful for the student to know what are the most important points of that issue and for the teacher to assess whether the student distinguishes different concepts) and (4) a library of virtual content where all resources are available in a simple and transparent way for any user. In this study ARLE is used to add AR technologies into notes or books created by the teacher, thereby supplementing both the theoretical and practical content without any programming skills needed on the designers' behalf. In addition to presenting system architecture and the examples of its educational use, a survey concerning use of AR amongst teachers in Spain has been conducted.

Order picking is one of the most important process steps in logistics. Because of their flexibility human beings cannot be replaced by machines. But if workers in order picking systems are equipped with a head-mounted display, Augmented Reality can improve the information visualization.
 In this paper the development of such a system -- called Pick-by-Vision - is presented. The system is evaluated in a user study performed in a real storage environment. Important logistics figures as well as subjective figures were measured. The results show that a Pick-by-Vision system can improve considerably industrial order picking processes.

Repetitive practices can facilitate the rehabilitation of the motor functions of the upper extremity for stroke survivors whose motor functions have been impaired. An affordable rehabilitation system for hand motion would be useful to provide intensive training to the patients. Augmented Reality (AR) can provide an intuitive interface to the users with programmable environment and realism feelings. In this research, a low cost viable rehabilitation system for hand motion is developed based on the AR technology. In this application, seamless interaction between the virtual environment and the real hand is supported with markers and a self-designed data-glove. The data-glove is low cost ((

This paper presents the current status of work-in-progress in developing Ghost Hunters that is targeted to explore the possibilities of incorporating gesture control and ambient lighting in a mobile augmented reality game played with smart glasses. We present the design and implementation of the current prototype, together with a small feasibility evaluation of battery consumption and gesture control.

The use of the commercial video games as rehabilitation tools, such as the Nintendo WiiFit, has recently gained much interest in the physical therapy arena. Motion tracking controllers such as the Nintendo Wiimote are not sensitive enough to accurately measure performance in all components of balance. Additionally, users can figure out how to "cheat" inaccurate trackers by performing minimal movement (e.g. wrist twisting a Wiimote instead of a full arm swing). Physical rehabilitation requires accurate and appropriate tracking and feedback of performance. To this end, we are developing applications that leverage recent advances in commercial video game technology to provide full-body control of animated virtual characters. A key component of our approach is the use of newly available low cost depth sensing camera technology that provides markerless full-body tracking on a conventional PC. The aim of this research was to develop and assess an interactive game-based rehabilitation tool for balance training of adults with neurological injury.

Optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMD) feature an unhindered and instantaneous view of the surgery site and can enable a mixed reality experience for surgeons during procedures. In this paper, we present a systematic approach to identify the criteria for evaluation of OST-HMD technologies for specific clinical scenarios, which benefit from using an object-anchored 2D-display visualizing medical information. Criteria for evaluating the performance of OST-HMDs for visualization of medical information and its usage are identified and proposed. These include text readability, contrast perception, task load, frame rate, and system lag. We choose to compare three commercially available OST-HMDs, which are representatives of currently available head-mounted display technologies. A multi-user study and an offline experiment are conducted to evaluate their performance. Statistical analysis demonstrates that Microsoft HoloLens performs best among the three tested OST-HMDs, in terms of contrast perception, task load, and frame rate, while ODG R-7 offers similar text readability. The integration of indoor localization and fiducial tracking on the HoloLens provides significantly less system lag in a relatively motionless scenario. With ever more OST-HMDs appearing on the market, the proposed criteria could be used in the evaluation of their suitability for mixed reality surgical intervention. Currently, Microsoft HoloLens may be more suitable than ODG R-7 and Epson Moverio BT-200 for clinical usability in terms of the evaluated criteria. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that presents a methodology and conducts experiments to evaluate and compare OST-HMDs for their use as object-anchored 2D-display during interventions.

With the rapid development and wide spread of the virtual reality technology, we can easily find VR systems in various places such as school, library and home. Translation and rotation, the most frequently used gestures for manipulating objects in the real world, need to be implemented in order to make a user feel comfortable while manipulating 3D objects in the systems. In this paper, we propose a set of user-friendly 3D object manipulation gestures and develop a recognizer using Kinect for the VR systems. The usefulness and suitableness of the proposed system is shown from the user study performed.

We propose an intuitive user interaction system with virtual objects by directly using user's hands through a physics simulation. This system aims to provide a more direct way to manipulate and interact with virtual objects and to induce more realistic reactions of the virtual objects in the interaction than the existing methods. The key contribution of this paper is to model the deformations of the user's hands in two ways: global deformation by the hand poses and the local deformation by contacts with objects. By the two deformation models, objects can be manipulated with better stability and robustness without any predefinition of interaction methods depending on the object shapes, by solely using a physics simulation. The experiment shows that the proposed method enables a user to intuitively manipulate virtual object accurately.

This paper presents an augmented reality based system for hand rehabilitation. In this system, digital data gloves are used to detect the movements of the patients' hands and collect the physical information from the patients. Using augmented reality technology, a highly controllable environment with tasks of different levels of difficulty is provided to the patients for them to perform the rehabilitation exercises gradually. The targets of the exercises can be adjusted dynamically with respect to the physical conditions and progress of the patients. Multimodal feedbacks are provided to facilitate and encourage the patients during the rehabilitation sessions.

I ncreasingly powerful integrated circuits are making an entire range of new applications possible. Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors, for example, have made the digital camera a commonplace consumer item. These light-sensitive chips, positioned where film would normally be, capture images as reusable digital files that users can upload to their computer, manipulate with software, and distribute electronically. Recent technological advances are enabling a new generation of smart cameras that represent a quantum leap in sophistication. While today's digital cameras capture images, smart cameras capture high-level descriptions of the scene and analyze what they see. These devices could support a wide variety of applications including human and animal detection, surveillance, motion analysis, and facial identification. Video processing has an insatiable demand for real-time performance. Fortunately, Moore's law provides an increasing pool of available computing power to apply to real-time analysis. Smart cameras leverage very large-scale integration (VLSI) to provide such analysis in a low-cost, low-power system with substantial memory. Moving well beyond pixel processing and compression, these systems run a wide range of algorithms to extract meaning from streaming video. Because they push the design space in so many dimensions, smart cameras are a leading-edge application for embedded system research. has developed a first-generation smart camera system that can detect people and analyze their movement in real time. Although there are many approaches to real-time video analysis, we chose to focus initially on human gesture recognition—identifying whether a subject is walking, standing, waving his arms, and so on. Because much work remains to be done on this problem, we sought to design an embedded system that can incorporate future algorithms as well as use those we created exclusively for this application. As Figure 1 shows, our algorithms use both low-level and high-level processing. The low-level component identifies different body parts and categorizes their movement in simple terms. The high-level component, which is application-dependent, uses this information to recognize each body part's action and the person's overall activity based on scenario parameters. The system captures images from the video input, which can be either uncompressed or compressed (MPEG and motion JPEG), and applies four different algorithms to detect and identify human body parts. Region extraction. The first algorithm transforms the pixels of an image, like that shown in Figure 2a, into an M × N bitmap and eliminates the background. It then detects the body part's skin area using a YUV …


Question: Current advancements in virtual reality technology.

Cone Trees: 3D Animated Visualizations for Navigating Hierarchical Data

The challenge of navigating and managing extensive information spaces is a critical aspect of large-scale cognition. Innovative technologies for three-dimensional visualization and interactive animation present promising solutions to this issue, particularly when the information's underlying structure can be graphically depicted. One such Information Visualization method, the Cone Tree, is designed to facilitate the visualization of hierarchical data structures. By presenting the hierarchy in a three-dimensional format, the Cone Tree optimizes the use of screen real estate, allowing for a comprehensive view of the entire structure. Interactive animation is employed to offload part of the user's cognitive burden onto the human perceptual system, enhancing the user's ability to comprehend and interact with complex information landscapes. This approach not only streamlines data exploration but also leverages the natural human capacity for spatial reasoning to improve understanding and decision-making processes in the context of hierarchical information management.

Head-worn display design is inherently an interdisciplinary subject fusing optical engineering, optical materials, optical coatings, electronics, manufacturing techniques, user interface design, computer science, human perception, and physiology for assessing these displays. This paper summarizes the state-of-the-art in head-worn display design (HWD) and development. This review is focused on the optical engineering aspects, divided into different sections to explore principles and applications. Building on the guiding fundamentals of optical design and engineering, the principles section includes a summary of microdisplay or laser sources, the Lagrange invariant for understanding the trade-offs in optical design of HWDs, modes of image presentation (i.e., monocular, biocular, and stereo) and operational modes such as optical and video see-through. A brief summary of the human visual system pertinent to the design of HWDs is provided. Two optical design forms, namely, pupil forming and non-pupil forming are discussed. We summarize the results from previous design work using aspheric, diffractive, or holographic elements to achieve compact and lightweight systems. The applications section is organized in terms of field of view requirements and presents a reasonable collection of past designs

Although Augmented Reality technology was first developed over forty years ago, there has been little survey work giving an overview of recent research in the field. This paper reviews the ten-year development of the work presented at the ISMAR conference and its predecessors with a particular focus on tracking, interaction and display research. It provides a roadmap for future augmented reality research which will be of great value to this relatively young field, and also for helping researchers decide which topics should be explored when they are beginning their own studies in the area.

The senses we call upon when interacting with technology are very restricted. We mostly rely on vision and audition, increasingly harnessing touch, whilst taste and smell remain largely underexploited. In spite of our current knowledge about sensory systems and sensory devices, the biggest stumbling block for progress concerns the need for a deeper understanding of people's multisensory experiences in HCI. It is essential to determine what tactile, gustatory, and olfactory experiences we can design for, and how we can meaningfully stimulate such experiences when interacting with technology. Importantly, we need to determine the contribution of the different senses along with their interactions in order to design more effective and engaging digital multisensory experiences. Finally, it is vital to understand what the limitations are that come into play when users need to monitor more than one sense at a time. The aim of this workshop is to deepen and expand the discussion on touch, taste, and smell within the CHI community and promote the relevance of multisensory experience design and research in HCI.

In this paper we present a markerless augmented reality (MAR) approach based on real-time 3D reconstruction using a low-cost depth camera, the Kinect. We intend to use this MAR approach for 3D medical visualization. In the actual state of developing, our approach is based on the KinectFusion algorithm with some minor adaptations, as long as our goal is not reconstruct scenes but use the reconstructed model as a reference to MAR. Keywords-Augmented Reality; 3D Reconstruction; Kinect;

Order picking is one of the most important process steps in logistics. Because of their flexibility human beings cannot be replaced by machines. But if workers in order picking systems are equipped with a head-mounted display, Augmented Reality can improve the information visualization.
 In this paper the development of such a system -- called Pick-by-Vision - is presented. The system is evaluated in a user study performed in a real storage environment. Important logistics figures as well as subjective figures were measured. The results show that a Pick-by-Vision system can improve considerably industrial order picking processes.

Done properly by experienced therapists, re-exposure to memories of traumatic events via imaginal exposure therapy can lead to a reduction of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Exposure helps the patient process and habituate to memories and strong emotions associated with the traumatic event: memories and emotions they have been carefully avoiding. But many patients are unwilling or unable to self-generate and re-experience painful emotional images. The present case study describes the treatment of a survivor of the World Trade Center (WTC) attack of 9-11-01 who had developed acute PTSD. After she failed to improve with traditional imaginal exposure therapy, we sought to increase emotional engagement and treatment success using virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy. Over the course of six 1-h VR exposure therapy sessions, we gradually and systematically exposed the PTSD patient to virtual planes flying over the World Trade Center, jets crashing into the World Trade Center with animated explosions and sound effects, virtual people jumping to their deaths from the burning buildings, towers collapsing, and dust clouds. VR graded exposure therapy was successful for reducing acute PTSD symptoms. Depression and PTSD symptoms as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory and the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale indicated a large (83%) reduction in depression, and large (90%) reduction in PTSD symptoms after completing VR exposure therapy. Although case reports are scientifically inconclusive by nature, these strong preliminary results suggest that VR exposure therapy is a promising new medium for treating acute PTSD. This study may be examined in more detail at www.vrpain.com.

Affective computing is currently one of the most active research topics, furthermore, having increasingly intensive attention. This strong interest is driven by a wide spectrum of promising applications in many areas such as virtual reality, smart surveillance, perceptual interface, etc. Affective computing concerns multidisciplinary knowledge background such as psychology, cognitive, physiology and computer sciences. The paper is emphasized on the several issues involved implicitly in the whole interactive feedback loop. Various methods for each issue are discussed in order to examine the state of the art. Finally, some research challenges and future directions are also discussed.

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology is one of the most rapidly developing areas of modern science; it has created numerous significant crossroads between Neuroscience and Computer Science. The goal of BCI technology is to provide a direct link between the human brain and a computerized environment. The objective of recent BCI approaches and applications have been designed to provide the information flow from the brain to the computerized periphery. The opposite or alternative direction of the flow of information (computer to brain interface, or CBI) remains almost undeveloped. The BrainPort is a CBI that offers a complementary technology designed to support a direct link from a computerized environment to the human brain - and to do so non-invasively. Currently, BrainPort research is pursuing two primary goals. One is the delivery of missing sensory information critical for normal human behavior through an additional artificial sensory channel around the damaged or malfunctioning natural sensory system. The other is to decrease the risk of sensory overload in human-machine interactions by providing a parallel and supplemental channel for information flow to the brain. In contrast, conventional CBI strategies (e.g., Virtual Reality), are usually designed to provide additional or substitution information through pre-existing sensory channels, and unintentionally aggravate the brain overload problem.

The use of the commercial video games as rehabilitation tools, such as the Nintendo WiiFit, has recently gained much interest in the physical therapy arena. Motion tracking controllers such as the Nintendo Wiimote are not sensitive enough to accurately measure performance in all components of balance. Additionally, users can figure out how to "cheat" inaccurate trackers by performing minimal movement (e.g. wrist twisting a Wiimote instead of a full arm swing). Physical rehabilitation requires accurate and appropriate tracking and feedback of performance. To this end, we are developing applications that leverage recent advances in commercial video game technology to provide full-body control of animated virtual characters. A key component of our approach is the use of newly available low cost depth sensing camera technology that provides markerless full-body tracking on a conventional PC. The aim of this research was to develop and assess an interactive game-based rehabilitation tool for balance training of adults with neurological injury.

Optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMD) feature an unhindered and instantaneous view of the surgery site and can enable a mixed reality experience for surgeons during procedures. In this paper, we present a systematic approach to identify the criteria for evaluation of OST-HMD technologies for specific clinical scenarios, which benefit from using an object-anchored 2D-display visualizing medical information. Criteria for evaluating the performance of OST-HMDs for visualization of medical information and its usage are identified and proposed. These include text readability, contrast perception, task load, frame rate, and system lag. We choose to compare three commercially available OST-HMDs, which are representatives of currently available head-mounted display technologies. A multi-user study and an offline experiment are conducted to evaluate their performance. Statistical analysis demonstrates that Microsoft HoloLens performs best among the three tested OST-HMDs, in terms of contrast perception, task load, and frame rate, while ODG R-7 offers similar text readability. The integration of indoor localization and fiducial tracking on the HoloLens provides significantly less system lag in a relatively motionless scenario. With ever more OST-HMDs appearing on the market, the proposed criteria could be used in the evaluation of their suitability for mixed reality surgical intervention. Currently, Microsoft HoloLens may be more suitable than ODG R-7 and Epson Moverio BT-200 for clinical usability in terms of the evaluated criteria. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that presents a methodology and conducts experiments to evaluate and compare OST-HMDs for their use as object-anchored 2D-display during interventions.


Question: A wavelet neural network approach for computer-aided detection of breast cancer on mammograms, optimized by swarm intelligence.

A Novel Swarm Intelligence Optimized Wavelet Neural Network for Breast Cancer Detection in Mammograms

This article presents a pioneering technique for the computer-aided detection of breast cancer in mammograms, utilizing a wavelet neural network (WNN) optimized by swarm intelligence. The WNN, a variant of fixed-grid networks, is designed without the necessity for training. Following the construction of the wavelet lattice, the shift and scale parameters of the wavelets are determined through a dual-stage screening process. This ensures the selection of the most impactful wavelets, after which the orthogonal least squares algorithm is applied to ascertain the network weights and refine the network's structure. The dual screening stages enhance the wavelet lattice's global coverage and offer a more accurate estimation of the function, particularly for larger scales. For mammogram analysis, the R, G, and B color values are fed into the WNN as inputs, guiding the formation of the network structure. Subsequently, the mammogram is segmented, and the precise boundaries of any potential cancerous lesions are delineated. The proposed segmentation algorithm was tested on a set of 30 mammograms and assessed using 11 distinct metrics, with the segmentation outcomes from a seasoned pathologist serving as the benchmark. Comparative analysis with contemporary methods that have proven effective in various medical imaging contexts demonstrates the superior efficacy of our WNN approach in breast cancer detection on mammograms.

Early residential fire detection is important for prompt extinguishing and reducing damages and life losses. To detect fire, one or a combination of sensors and a detection algorithm are needed. The sensors might be part of a wireless sensor network (WSN) or work independently. The previous research in the area of fire detection using WSN has paid little or no attention to investigate the optimal set of sensors as well as use of learning mechanisms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. They have only made some assumptions on what might be considered as appropriate sensor or an arbitrary AI technique has been used. By closing the gap between traditional fire detection techniques and modern wireless sensor network capabilities, in this paper we present a guideline on choosing the most optimal sensor combinations for accurate residential fire detection. Additionally, applicability of a feed forward neural network (FFNN) and Naïve Bayes Classifier is investigated and results in terms of detection rate and computational complexity are analyzed.

This paper presents a novel technique for hand gesture recognition through human–computer interaction based on shape analysis. The main objective of this effort is to explore the utility of a neural network-based approach to the recognition of the hand gestures. A unique multi-layer perception of neural network is built for classification by using backpropagation learning algorithm. The goal of static hand gesture recognition is to classify the given hand gesture data represented by some features into some predefined finite number of gesture classes. The proposed system presents a recognition algorithm to recognize a set of six specific static hand gestures, namely: Open, Close, Cut, Paste, Maximize, and Minimize. The hand gesture image is passed through three stages, preprocessing, feature extraction, and classification. In preprocessing stage some operations are applied to extract the hand gesture from its background and prepare the hand gesture image for the feature extraction stage. In the first method, the hand contour is used as a feature which treats scaling and translation of problems (in some cases). The complex moment algorithm is, however, used to describe the hand gesture and treat the rotation problem in addition to the scaling and translation. The algorithm used in a multi-layer neural network classifier which uses back-propagation learning algorithm. The results show that the first method has a performance of 70.83% recognition, while the second method, proposed in this article, has a better performance of 86.38% recognition rate.

The back propagation neural network (BPNN) can easily fall into the local minimum point in time series forecasting. A hybrid approach that combines the adaptive differential evolution (ADE) algorithm with BPNN, called ADE–BPNN, is designed to improve the forecasting accuracy of BPNN. ADE is first applied to search for the global initial connection weights and thresholds of BPNN. Then, BPNN is employed to thoroughly search for the optimal weights and thresholds. Two comparative real-life series data sets are used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the hybrid method. The proposed ADE–BPNN can effectively improve forecasting accuracy relative to basic BPNN, autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA), and other hybrid models. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this paper, we present the swarm intelligence (SI) concept and mention some metaheuristics belonging to the SI. We present the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and the ant colony optimization (ACO) method as the representatives of the SI approach. In recent years, researchers are eager to develop and apply a variety of these two methods, despite the development of many other newer methods as Bat or FireFly algorithms. Presenting the PSO and ACO we put their pseudocode, their properties, and intuition lying behind them. Next, we focus on their real-life applications, indicating many papers presented varieties of basic algorithms and the areas of their applications.

This paper presents a systematic approach for earlier diagnosis of Thyroid disease using back propagation algorithm used in neural network. Back propagation algorithm is a widely used algorithm in this field. ANN has been developed based on back propagation of error used for earlier prediction of disease. ANN was subsequently trained with experimental data and testing is carried out using data that was not used during training process. Results show that outcome of ANN is in good agreement with experimental data; this indicates that developed neural network can be used as an alternative for earlier prediction of a disease. Keywords—Back propagation, decision tree, gradient descent, prediction, Supervised Learning

We investigate a parallel structure of cat swarm optimization (CSO) in this paper, and we call it parallel cat swarm optimization (PCSO). In the experiments, we compare particle swarm optimization (PSO) with CSO and PCSO. The experimental results indicate that both CSO and PCSO perform well. Moreover, PCSO is an effective scheme to improve the convergent speed of cat swarm optimization in case the population size is small and the whole iteration is less.

The diagnosis of diseases is a crucial and difficult job in medicine. The recognition of heart disease from diverse features or signs is a multi-layered problem that is not free from false assumptions and is frequently accompanied by hasty effects [1]. Thus an attempt to exploit knowledge and experience of several specialists and clinical screening data of patients composed in databases to assist the diagnosis procedure is regarded as a great challenge. The healthcare industry gathers enormous amounts of heart disease data that unfortunately, are not mined to determine concealed information for effective diagnosing [2]. In this paper, an efficient approach for the intelligent heart disease prediction based on Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) technique is proposed. Initially, the data set containing 13 medical attributes were obtained from the Cleveland heart disease database. The dataset is clustered with the aid of k-means clustering algorithm. The PNN with radial basis function is trained using the selected data sets. The comparison between existing approaches and proposed approach with respect to accuracy of prediction, sensitivity and specificity is recorded in this paper. The results from experiments returned with diminishing fact that there is considerable improvement in classification and prediction. The proposed PNN works as promising tool for prediction of heart disease.

An in-depth analysis of signals from horn antennas used in breast cancer detection research has been carried out. It was found that following the excitation signal, both the double-ridged and the quad-ridged ultra-wideband horn antennas radiate additional unwanted signals that persistently oscillate. Undesirable signal oscillations sources were identified as the horn antenna cavity resonance and inherent antenna LC resonance. These signals interfere with the tumor’s signal response and need to be eliminated for successful detection of the cancerous growth. This paper proposes solutions to remove or minimize these signals without affecting antenna parameters such as bandwidth, gain, ports isolation, and polarization isolation. Modification of the antenna cavity successfully suppressed the unwanted cavity oscillation. Modification of the antenna waveguide reduced inductance and consequently mitigated LC oscillation. The resulting time and frequency domain horn antenna signals demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Finally, a breast phantom with a tumor is simulated using signals from the original and a modified horn antenna. The delay and sum method is used to create images. The breast images demonstrate enhanced image quality through the reduction of clutter using the proposed techniques. The signal-to-clutter ratios are 0.448 and 1.6823 dB for the images produced by using the original and modified antennas, respectively.

A general-purpose, fully interconnected neural-net chip was used to perform computationally intensive tasks for handwritten digit recognition. The chip has nearly 3000 programmable connections, which can be set for template matching. The templates can be reprogrammed as needed during the recognition sequence. The recognition process proceeds in four major steps. First, the image is captured using a TV camera and a digital framegrab. This image is converted, using a digital computer, to either black or white pixels and scaled to fill a 16*16-pixel frame. Next, using the neural-net chip, the image is skeletonized, i.e. the image is thinned to a backbone one pixel wide. Then, the chip is programmed, and a feature map is created by template-matching stored primitive patterns on the chip with regions on the skeletonized image. Finally, recognition, based on the feature map, is achieved using any one of a variety of statistical and heuristic techniques on a digital computer. Best scores range between 90% and 99% correct classification, depending on the quality of the original handwritten digits.<<ETX>>

In wireless communication, network coding is one of the intelligent approaches to process the packets before transmitting for efficient information exchange. The goal of this work is to enhance throughput by using the intelligent technique, which may give comparatively better optimization. This paper introduces a biologically-inspired coding approach called Artificial Bee Colony Network Coding (ABC-NC), a modification in the COPE framework. The existing COPE and its variant are probabilistic approaches, which may not give good results in all of the real-time scenarios. Therefore, it needs some intelligent technique to find better packet combinations at intermediate nodes before forwarding to optimize the energy and maximize the throughput in wireless networks. This paper proposes ABC-NC over the existing COPE framework for the wireless environment.