Development of Measurement Method for Temperature and Velocity Field with Optical Fiber Sensor.

We have developed a new method for measuring temperature and velocity at a high spatial resolution (minimum 2.56 mm pitch along an optical fiber). The developed method uses the same principle as a hot wire anemometer, where the velocity perpendicular to an optical fiber is estimated as a function of the cooling curve of a gold-coated layer on the optical fiber Joule-heated intermittently. The developed optical fiber sensor demonstrated the ability to acquire a transient velocity profile in airflow experiments with high repeatability and accuracy. This paper describes optical fiber-based velocity measurement in the velocity range of approximately 0-7 m/s with an error of approximately 10% compared to a hot wire anemometer and a new method for simultaneous temperature and velocity measurements. Applicability to velocity distribution measurements and seconds transient velocity changes are also described.

Investigation into Effect of Thrombomodulin Alfa for Septic Model Rats based on Microcirculation Image Analysis.

Sepsis is life threatening organ dysfunction caused by microcirculatory dysfunction. With progression of sepsis, the patients are likely to develop septic shock which is associated with multi organ dysfunction. To treat sepsis and septic shock, Thrombomodulin alfa (TM alfa) was developed. Direct observation of the microcirculation may provide new and rich information in terms of the effect of TM alfa on sepsis. Thus we conducted rodent experiments in which we observed the microcirculation with a non-contact optical imaging setup and measured lactate value from collected blood. From the acquired motion pictures, we estimated the blood velocity. As a result, from experiments, the sham rats showed no significant change in both lactate value and the blood velocity during the observation. On the other hand, lactate value of the septic model rats increased and the blood velocity of them decreased. Lactate value of the septic model rats treated with TM alfa decreased after showing an increase while the blood velocity of them increased after showing a decrease. These findings suggest that microcirculatory alteration may be a sign of sepsis as well as septic shock progression and that the TM alfa may be effective for the treatment of sepsis and septic shock.

Two-wavelength oximetry of tissue microcirculation based on sidestream dark-field imaging.

Monitoring oxygen saturation (SO2) in microcirculation is effective for understanding disease dynamics. We have developed an SO2 estimation method, sidestream dark-field (SDF) oximetry, based on SDF imaging. SDF imaging is a noninvasive and clinically applicable technique to observe microcirculation. We report the first in vivo experiment observing the changes in SO2 of microcirculation using SDF oximetry. First, heat from the light-emitting diodes used for the SDF imaging might affect hemodynamics in microcirculation, hence, we performed an experiment to evaluate the influence of that on the SDF oximetry. The result suggested that SDF oximetry had enough stability for long-term experiments. Then, to evaluate the sensitivity of SDF oximetry to alterations in the hemodynamics of the microcirculation, we observed the time-lapsed SO2 changes in the dermis microcirculation of rats under hypoxic stimulation. We confirmed that the SO2 estimated by SDF oximetry was in accordance with changes in the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2). Thus, SDF oximetry is considered to be able to observe SO2 changes that occur in accordance with alteration of the microcirculation.

Geometry calibration between X-ray source and detector for tomosynthesis with a portable X-ray system.

PURPOSE: Tomosynthesis is attracting attention as a low-dose tomography technology compared with X-ray CT. However, conventional tomosynthesis imaging devices are large and stationary. Furthermore, there is a limitation in the working range of the X-ray source during image acquisition. We have previously proposed the use of a portable X-ray device for tomosynthesis that can be used for ward rounds and emergency medicine. The weight of this device can be reduced by using a flat panel detector (FPD), and flexibility is realized by the free placement of the X-ray source and FPD. Tomosynthesis using a portable X-ray device requires calibration of the geometry between the X-ray source and detector at each image acquisition. We propose a method for geometry calibration and demonstrate tomosynthesis image reconstruction by this method. METHODS: An image processing-based calibration method using an asymmetric and multilayered calibration object (AMCO) is presented. Since the AMCO is always attached to the X-ray source housing for geometry calibration, the additional setting of a calibration object or marker around or on the patients is not required. The AMCO's multilayer structure improves the calibration accuracy, especially in the out-of-plane direction. RESULTS: Two experiments were conducted. The first was performed to evaluate the calibration accuracy using an XY positioning stage and a gonio stage. As a result, an accuracy of approximately 1 mm was achieved both in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions. An angular accuracy of approximately [Formula: see text] was confirmed. The second experiment was conducted to evaluate the reconstructed image using a foot model phantom. Only the sagittal plane could be clearly observed with the proposed method. CONCLUSION: We proposed a tomosynthesis imaging system using a portable X-ray device. From the experimental results, the proposed method could provide sufficient calibration accuracy and a clear sagittal plane of the reconstructed tomosynthesis image.

Evaluation of a Home Biomonitoring Autonomous Mobile Robot.

Increasing population age demands more services in healthcare domain. It has been shown that mobile robots could be a potential solution to home biomonitoring for the elderly. Through our previous studies, a mobile robot system that is able to track a subject and identify his daily living activities has been developed. However, the system has not been tested in any home living scenarios. In this study we did a series of experiments to investigate the accuracy of activity recognition of the mobile robot in a home living scenario. The daily activities tested in the evaluation experiment include watching TV and sleeping. A dataset recorded by a distributed distance-measuring sensor network was used as a reference to the activity recognition results. It was shown that the accuracy is not consistent for all the activities; that is, mobile robot could achieve a high success rate in some activities but a poor success rate in others. It was found that the observation position of the mobile robot and subject surroundings have high impact on the accuracy of the activity recognition, due to the variability of the home living daily activities and their transitional process. The possibility of improvement of recognition accuracy has been shown too.

Designing and testing lightweight shoulder prostheses with hybrid actuators for movements involved in typical activities of daily living and impact absorption.

Unlike forearm amputees, transhumeral amputees have residual stumps that are too small to provide a sufficient range of operation for their prosthetic parts to perform usual activities of daily living. Furthermore, it is difficult for small residual stumps to provide sufficient impact absorption for safe manipulation in daily living, as intact arms do. Therefore, substitution of upper limb function in transhumeral amputees requires a sufficient range of motion and sufficient viscoelasticity for shoulder prostheses under critical weight and dimension constraints. We propose the use of two different types of actuators, ie, pneumatic elastic actuators (PEAs) and servo motors. PEAs offer high power-to-weight performance and have intrinsic viscoelasticity in comparison with motors or standard industrial pneumatic cylinder actuators. However, the usefulness of PEAs in large working spaces is limited because of their short strokes. Servo motors, in contrast, can be used to achieve large ranges of motion. In this study, the relationship between the force and stroke of PEAs was investigated. The impact absorption of both types of actuators was measured using a single degree-of-freedom prototype to evaluate actuator compliance for safety purposes. Based on the fundamental properties of the actuators identified, a four degree-of-freedom robotic arm is proposed for prosthetic use. The configuration of the actuators and functional parts was designed to achieve a specified range of motion and torque calculated from the results of a simulation of typical movements performed in usual activities of daily living. Our experimental results showed that the requirements for the shoulder prostheses could be satisfied.

Ergonomic design and evaluation of new surgical scissors.

The purpose of this study is to design a new surgical scissors handle and determine its effectiveness with various usability indices. A new scissors handle was designed that retains the professional grip but has the shapes of the eye rings modified to fit the thumb and ring finger and finger rests for the index and little finger. The newly designed scissors and traditional scissors were compared by electromyography, subjective evaluation and task performance in experiments using cutting and peeling tasks. The newly designed scissors reduced muscle load in both hand during cutting by the closing action, and reduced the muscle load in the left hand during peeling by the opening action through active use of the right hand. In evaluation by surgeons, task performance improved in addition to the decrease in muscle load. The newly designed scissors used in this study demonstrated high usability. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: A new scissors handle was designed that has the eye rings modified to fit the thumb and ring finger. The newly designed scissors reduced muscle load and enabled active use of the right hand. In evaluation by surgeons, task performance improved in addition to the decrease in muscle load.

Development of robust behaviour recognition for an at-home biomonitoring robot with assistance of subject localization and enhanced visual tracking.

Our research is focused on the development of an at-home health care biomonitoring mobile robot for the people in demand. Main task of the robot is to detect and track a designated subject while recognizing his/her activity for analysis and to provide warning in an emergency. In order to push forward the system towards its real application, in this study, we tested the robustness of the robot system with several major environment changes, control parameter changes, and subject variation. First, an improved color tracker was analyzed to find out the limitations and constraints of the robot visual tracking considering the suitable illumination values and tracking distance intervals. Then, regarding subject safety and continuous robot based subject tracking, various control parameters were tested on different layouts in a room. Finally, the main objective of the system is to find out walking activities for different patterns for further analysis. Therefore, we proposed a fast, simple, and person specific new activity recognition model by making full use of localization information, which is robust to partial occlusion. The proposed activity recognition algorithm was tested on different walking patterns with different subjects, and the results showed high recognition accuracy.

Development of a small sucker manipulator for underwater surgery support.

WaFLES (Water-Filled LaparoEndoscopic Surgery) is an operative method suggested by Igarashi et al., which has several advantages, such as, preventing the drying of inner organs, and being able to use ultrasound devices for real time monitoring. However, grasping of inner organs with usual forceps for move and incision purpose is difficult. Therefore our ultimate goal is to develop a small sucker manipulator for WaFLES support. Experiments were conducted to explore suitable suction cups for underwater application, and suitable structure (cup-to-cup distance, elasticity of binding material, layouts of multiple cups) for a multiple-cup assembly, in terms of adsorption force and tolerance to sideslip. Experiment results showed that 1) the shape of each single suction cup for the underwater application was identified; 2) the structure of the multiple-cup assembly affects the adsorption force and tolerance to sideslip.

Designing and testing a hybrid lightweight shoulder prosthesis.

Lightweight prostheses are preferred in terms of usability in daily living. However, this is not a property easy to realize, especially for shoulder prostheses. High portability, multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs) with an appropriate ROM (range of motion), sufficient end-effector power, and suitable viscoelasticity for the safe use in daily living, usually result in a heavy weight. In this paper, a hybrid shoulder prosthesis that combined servo motors and pneumatic elastic actuators, with a weight distribution scheme, was designed to meet the requirements. The prosthetic system was preliminarily tested by comparing its ADL (activities of daily living) motion data with that of an intact arm. The experiment results showed that the shoulder prosthesis could reproduce the motion of an intact arm, thus demonstrate its usability in daily living.

Psycho-physiological assessment of a prosthetic hand sensory feedback system based on an auditory display: a preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Prosthetic hand users have to rely extensively on visual feedback, which seems to lead to a high conscious burden for the users, in order to manipulate their prosthetic devices. Indirect methods (electro-cutaneous, vibrotactile, auditory cues) have been used to convey information from the artificial limb to the amputee, but the usability and advantages of these feedback methods were explored mainly by looking at the performance results, not taking into account measurements of the user's mental effort, attention, and emotions. The main objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using psycho-physiological measurements to assess cognitive effort when manipulating a robot hand with and without the usage of a sensory substitution system based on auditory feedback, and how these psycho-physiological recordings relate to temporal and grasping performance in a static setting. METHODS: 10 male subjects (26+/-years old), participated in this study and were asked to come for 2 consecutive days. On the first day the experiment objective, tasks, and experiment setting was explained. Then, they completed a 30 minutes guided training. On the second day each subject was tested in 3 different modalities: Auditory Feedback only control (AF), Visual Feedback only control (VF), and Audiovisual Feedback control (AVF). For each modality they were asked to perform 10 trials. At the end of each test, the subject had to answer the NASA TLX questionnaire. Also, during the test the subject's EEG, ECG, electro-dermal activity (EDA), and respiration rate were measured. RESULTS: The results show that a higher mental effort is needed when the subjects rely only on their vision, and that this effort seems to be reduced when auditory feedback is added to the human-machine interaction (multimodal feedback). Furthermore, better temporal performance and better grasping performance was obtained in the audiovisual modality. CONCLUSIONS: The performance improvements when using auditory cues, along with vision (multimodal feedback), can be attributed to a reduced attentional demand during the task, which can be attributed to a visual "pop-out" or enhance effect. Also, the NASA TLX, the EEG's Alpha and Beta band, and the Heart Rate could be used to further evaluate sensory feedback systems in prosthetic applications.

Auditory display as a prosthetic hand sensory feedback for reaching and grasping tasks.

Upper limb amputees have to rely extensively on visual feedback in order to monitor and manipulate successfully their prosthetic device. This situation leads to high consciousness burden, which generates fatigue and frustration. Therefore, in order to enhance motor-sensory performance and awareness, an auditory display was used as a sensory feedback system for the prosthetic hand's spatio-temporal and force information in a complete reaching and grasping setting. The main objective of this study was to explore the effects of using the auditory display to monitor the prosthetic hand during a complete reaching and grasping motion. The results presented in this paper point out that the usage of an auditory display to monitor and control a robot hand improves the temporal and grasping performance greatly, while reducing mental effort and improving their confidence.

Designing shoulder prostheses with a small pneumatic actuator driven parallel mechanism for spatial accessibility in daily living use.

In this study, several indexes for spatial accessibility were proposed for evaluating the shoulder prosthesis with a small pneumatic actuator driven parallel mechanism in daily living use. Using the spatial accessibility indexes and manipulability indexes, the configuration of the parallel mechanism was optimized. Especially, the effect of biasing spacer and trunk motions on spatial accessibility were taken into consideration. The results showed that biasing spacers could improve the spatial accessibility by moving the center of the working space of the shoulder prosthesis towards the center of two specified spatial regions, which correspond to the expected frequently accessed area and the reachable area for an individual user's upper limb in daily living. And trunk motions could enlarge the working space thus further improve the spatial accessibility.