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Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) has emerged as a powerful tool for assisting disabled people and for augmenting human performance. Up so far, no studies have succeeded in the power augmentation for the multi-DOFs robot based on EEG signals, especially for the complex shoulder joint. In this work, we propose an electromyography (EMG) estimation method based on electroencephalography (EEG) signals to...
Brain-Machine Interface (BMI), has been considered as an effective way to help and support the disabled's daily lives and rehabilitation to use their brain activity information instead of their bodies. As an extension, it is also expected to be used for healthy individuals. In our study, we try to estimate the necessary force/torque information for a subject from his/her EEG signals when using an...
In order to help an attendant who are pushing a conventional commercialized manual wheelchair in which a patient (an elderly or disabled person) is sitting in the wheelchair, in this study, we have been developing a novel power add-on unit (PAU) for attendant propelled wheelchair with sensorless speed control and power assistance. This development is based on the following three concept: to make our...
Brain-Machine Interface (BMI), has been becoming gradually an effective way to help and support the disabled person by using his/her brain activity information. It is also expected to be used for both of the disabled and the healthy people. In this paper, aiming to estimate the force/torque information from brain activity to help and support human's daily life, we estimate the humans muscular activity...
In this paper, at first we briefly present an overview of our developed hybrid walker and wheelchair robot. Then we focus on analysis and investigation of the movement in which the robot starts to ascend/descend a slope, and point out that the user's walking velocity and the robot's velocity are inevitably different. Further, in order to let the user get a smooth load feeling as the user use the robot...
There is strong interest in fast, accurate automated examination and detection of pathologies in vocal-fold function. Such systems could assist in detecting abnormalities during screenings, monitor treatment progress, and compare results after therapy or surgical intervention. It has been shown that analysis of the vocal-fold area as a function of time can be beneficial in the detection and diagnosis...
In the past decade, a lot of invasive BMIs (Brain-Machine Interfaces) directly using nerve action potentials within brain are reported to control external devices such as prostheses and robots. Meanwhile, non-invasive BMIs are developed to provide a communication tools to the external world mostly for the disabled. In our study, we try to establish a BMI technology not only to be used for the disabled...
Analysis of vocal-fold vibration from high speed laryngeal images has been shown to have diagnostic value in the assessment of normal and abnormal voice production. This paper presents a new way to define the boundaries of the vocal-fold opening that is computationally efficient and operates successfully over a range of threshold settings. The area within these boundaries is computed for each image...
In this paper, different from the conventional admittance control, an originally negative admittance control, in which two virtual parameters, virtual damping coefficient and virtual moment of inertia, are negative, is developed to support the movement of human's upper extremity only by agonist's EMG signals. First, we empirically determine two agonists, biceps brachii and clavicular part of deltoid...
In this paper, first we briefly present an overview of our developed electric powered user-propelled hybrid walker and wheelchair robot. Then we focus on analysis and investigation of a movement in which the robot starts to ascend and to descend a slope. We originally point out that in such motion the users walking speed and the robots traveling speed are inevitably different since the robot is undergoing...
The “Nyquist plot” is a visual analytical method we previously developed for identifying various pathological glottal conditions when applied to high-speed digital imaging (HSDI) derived glottal signals and acoustic signals. In this study, we applied the Nyquist plot to acoustic voice output aiming to: 1) identify differences between the properties of five vowel sounds commonly used in human language,...
High-speed digital imaging (HSDI) of the larynx provides important information on the vocal fold vibrations that are closely associated with voice condition. We present an active contour (snake)-based algorithm for the automatic delineation of the glottis within image sequences captured from an HSDI system. The algorithm has three steps: first, a rough segmentation is performed by global thresholding,...
Recently, a lot of BMIs (Brain-Machine Interfaces) using EEG (electroencephalogram) signals are developed to control external devices such as prostheses and robots. In this paper, in order to develop a new BMI for rehabilitation and/or power support, four different tasks corresponding to different brain excitation degrees are designed. Their EEG spectra are analyzed with short-time FFT, and their...
Up to now, many robotic aids for the elderly's walking support or the disabled's walking rehabilitation are reported, and numerous electrical-powered wheelchairs are developed. In this paper, a new kind of omnidirectional wheelchair typed robot is developed. The robot not only can accomplish the walking support or walking rehabilitation as the elderly or the disabled walk, but also can realize the...
In this paper, a new type of omnidirectional mobile robot is developed, that not only can be used for the elderly's walking support, the disabled's walking rehabilitation, but also can be used for a caregiver's power assistance when he/she pushes the robot to move while the elderly or the disabled is sitting in the seat. The omnidirectional mobility of the robot is analyzed, and an admittance based...
Synthetic and genetically encoded optical switch probes and lock-in detection methods provide a means to modulate and isolate fluorescence signals from the optical switch and protein complexes of interest against un-modulated background sources. In this paper we propose an improved method for optical lock-in detection (OLID) fluorescence microscopy that can significantly enhance image contrast of...
In this paper, we proposed a new concept for omnidirectional mobile robot that not only can fulfill the walking support or walking rehabilitation for the elderly or the disabled, but also can realize power assistance for the caregiver when he/she holds the robot handle to move the robot while the elderly or the disabled is sitting in the seat. We postulated four necessary functions the robot should...
High-speed laryngeal imaging (HSLI) is emerging as a new clinical tool for the assessment of voice disorders. The analysis of high temporal resolution images of the vibrating vocal folds may provide new information on the mechanism of voice production and how altered vibratory properties relate to voice pathologies. An essential procedure in the HSLI data processing is tracing the vocal fold edges,...
In this paper, a segmentation scheme that combines thresholding, morphological operation and region growing is proposed for tracing the vocal fold opening region from the high-speed laryngeal image sequences. Specifically, the proposed scheme contains three steps: 1), histogram based global thresholding; 2), morphological operation on the segmented binary output from step 1; 3), region growing process...
In this paper, we present a real-time approach for effective and automatic manipulation and navigation in a virtual laryngeal environment. Efficient algorithms are developed for 1), automatic segmentation, and 2) volume data organization and 3), surface rendering. Finally a virtual laryngoscope is built for the visualization of laryngeal systems and this visualization system is tested using CT volume...
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