Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Strategies and synergies underlying replacement of vestibular function with prosthetic feedback.
This study investigated changes in movement strategies and muscle synergies when bilateral peripheral vestibular loss (BVL) subjects are provided prosthetic feedback of their pelvis sway during stance. Six BVL subjects performed 3, for them, difficult stance tasks: standing eyes closed, on a firm surface, on a foam surface, and standing eyes open on foam. Movement strategies were recorded as roll and pitch ratios of upper and lower body velocities with body-worn gyroscopes. ⋯ This is the first study that demonstrates how vestibular loss subjects achieve a reduction of sway during stance with prosthetic feedback. Unchanged movement strategies with reduced amplitudes are achieved with reduced antagonistic muscle synergies. This study has implications for the choice of feedback parameters (angle or velocity) and patient groups when using prosthetic devices to reduce sway of those with a tendency to fall.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Tongue-operated assistive technology with access to common smartphone applications via Bluetooth link.
Tongue Drive System (TDS) is a wireless and wearable assistive technology (AT) that enables people with severe disabilities to control their computers, wheelchairs, and electronic gadgets using their tongue motion. We developed the TDS to control smartphone's (iPhone/iPod Touch) built-in and downloadable apps with a customized Bluetooth mouse module by emulating finger taps on the touchscreen. ⋯ Preliminary results show that the average completion times of a scenario with touch, mouse, and TDS are 165.6 ± 14.50 s, 186.1 ± 15.37 s, and 651.6 ± 113.4 s, respectively, showing that the TDS is 84.37% and 81.16% slower than touch and mouse for speed of typing with negligible errors. Overall, considering the limited number of commands and unfamiliarity of the subjects with the TDS, we achieved acceptable results for hands-free functionality.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Comparative study between Sample Entropy and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis performance on EEG records under data loss.
This study compares two signal entropy measures, Sample Entropy (SampEn) and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) over real EEG signals after a randomized sample removal. Both measures have demonstrated their ability to discern between, among others: control and pathologic EEG signals, seizure free or not, control and opened eyes EEG, and side of brain signals. Results show that SampEn behaves better when analyzing control signals, while DFA provides better segmentation results between epileptic signals, in the context of sample loss, particularly when discerning between seizure and seizure free signal intervals.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Evaluating the usability of a virtual reality-based Android application in managing the pain experience of wheelchair users.
Pain constitutes an important medical concern that can have severe implications to a wheelchair user's quality of life. Results from studies indicate that pain is a common problem in this group of individuals, having a reported frequency of always (12%) and everyday (33%). ⋯ As a result, in this paper we present an Android application (PainDroid) that has been enhanced with Virtual Reality (VR) technology for the purpose of improving the management of pain. Our evaluation with a group of wheelchair users revealed that PainDroid demonstrated high usability among this population, and is foreseen that it can make an important contribution in research on the assessment and management of pain.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Validation of heart rate extraction using video imaging on a built-in camera system of a smartphone.
As a smartphone is becoming very popular and its performance is being improved fast, a smartphone shows its potential as a low-cost physiological measurement solution which is accurate and can be used beyond the clinical environment. Because cardiac pulse leads the subtle color change of a skin, a pulsatile signal which can be described as photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal can be measured through recording facial video using a digital camera. In this paper, we explore the potential that the reliable heart rate can be measured remotely by the facial video recorded using smartphone camera. ⋯ The heart rate was extracted using frequency analysis of the raw trace signal and the analyzed signal from ICA. The accuracy of the estimated heart rate was evaluated by comparing with the heart rate from reference electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. Finally, we developed FaceBEAT, an iPhone application for remote heart rate measurement, based on this study.