Edgard Lamounier

The Development of a Virtual Myoelectric Prosthesis Controlled by an EMG Pattern Recognition System Based on Neural Networks

One of the major difficulties faced by those who are fitted with prosthetic devices is the great mental effort needed during the first stages of training. When working with myoelectric prosthesis, that effort increases dramatically. In this sense, the authors decided to devise a mechanism to help patients during the learning stages, without actually having to wear the prosthesis. The system is based on a real hardware and software for detecting and processing electromyografic (EMG) signals. The association of autoregressive (AR) models and a neural network is used for EMG pattern discrimination. The outputs of the neural network are then used to control the movements of a virtual prosthesis that mimics what the real limb should be doing. This strategy resulted in rates of success of 100% when discriminating EMG signals collected from the upper arm muscle groups. The results show a very easy-to-use system that can greatly reduce the duration of the training stages.

On the use of Augmented Reality techniques in learning and interpretation of cardiologic data

Augmented Reality is a technology which provides people with more intuitive ways of interaction and visualization, close to those in real world. The amount of applications using Augmented Reality is growing every day, and results can be already seen in several fields such as Education, Training, Entertainment and Medicine. The system proposed in this article intends to provide a friendly and intuitive interface based on Augmented Reality for heart beating evaluation and visualization. Cardiologic data is loaded from several distinct sources: simple standards of heart beating frequencies (for example situations like running or sleeping), files of heart beating signals, scanned electrocardiographs and real time data acquisition of patients heart beating. All this data is processed to produce visualization within Augmented Reality environments. The results obtained in this research have shown that the developed system is able to simplify the understanding of concepts about heart beating and its functioning. Furthermore, the system can help health professionals in the task of retrieving, processing and converting data from all the sources handled by the system, with the support of an edition and visualization mode.

Classification of EMG signals using artificial neural networks for virtual hand prosthesis control

Computer-based training systems have been widely studied in the field of human rehabilitation. In health applications, Virtual Reality presents itself as an appropriate tool to simulate training environments without exposing the patients to risks. In particular, virtual prosthetic devices have been used to reduce the great mental effort needed by patients fitted with myoelectric prosthesis, during the training stage. In this paper, the application of Virtual Reality in a hand prosthesis training system is presented. To achieve this, the possibility of exploring Neural Networks in a real-time classification system is discussed. The classification technique used in this work resulted in a 95% success rate when discriminating 4 different hand movements.

On the use of Virtual and Augmented Reality for upper limb prostheses training and simulation

Accidents happen and unfortunately people may loose part of their body members. Studies have shown that in this case, most individuals suffer physically and psychologically. For this reason, actions to restore the patients freedom and mobility are imperative. Traditional solutions require ways to adapt the individual to prosthetic devices. This idea is also applied to patients who have congenital limitations. However, one of the major difficulties faced by those who are fitted with these devices is the great mental effort needed during first stages of training. As a result, a meaningful number of patients give up the use of theses devices very soon. Thus, this article reports on a solution designed by the authors to help patients during the learning phases, without actually having to wear the prosthesis. This solution considers Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) techniques to mimic the prosthesis natural counterparts. Thus, it is expected that problems such as weight, heat and pain should not contribute to an already hard task.

VRCEMIG: A virtual reality system for real time control of electric substations

This research demonstration presents an integrated hardware and software platform developed for controlling electric substations, through a virtual environment. Each 3D substation is integrated with the supervision, data acquisition and control center of a real electric energy company. Today, this is pursued on a 2D diagram, lacking intuitiveness. VRCEMIG explores techniques to provide deeper immersion and intuitive interactions in order to support not only training for future employees, but also real time operation. During the demonstration visitors will be able to use different devices such as joystick, gamepad and VR glasses to navigate and operate an electric substation (for training purposes only). This substation belongs to the Brazilian company CEMIG, a research partner.

Ambientes Educacionais Colaborativos com Realidade Aumentada

A aprendizagem colaborativa presencial e remota vem sendo usada cada vez mais como uma abordagem educacional eficiente. A evolucao tecnologica permite, atualmente, replicar e, ate mesmo, amplificar caracteristicas da comunicacao interpessoal, mas o problema da manipulacao remota de objetos continua sendo dificil de ser resolvido. No entanto, a Realidade Virtual e Realidade Aumentada permitem a manipulacao de objetos virtuais de maneira parecida com as situacoes reais. Assim, este trabalho discute essas questoes e apresenta solucoes para a interacao em ambientes colaborativos presenciais e remotos, usando recursos para a comunicacao interpessoal (chat, audio e video-conferencia) e Realidade Aumentada.

Using Augmented Reality Techniques to Simulate Myoelectric Upper Limb Prostheses

This article proposes the use of Augmented Reality (AR) techniques for control and simulation of myoelectric prostheses. The system has been designed so that it is able to reproduce the operation of a real prosthesis in an immersive AR environment, using a virtual device that operates in similar fashion to the real one, resulting in a training environment for users and therapists. Motion and posture of the virtual prosthesis is controlled by EMG signals collected via surface electrodes and classified into four classes of movements. The results of tests with non-amputee volunteers show that the system is capable of generating the correct prosthesis motion and posture in the AR environment, in real time.

A Virtual Reality Based Approach to Improve Human Performance and to Minimize Safety Risks When Operating Power Electric Systems

Power systems require continuous operation for reasons of public safety, emergency management, national security and business continuity. Companies today control an electric system by means of 2D line diagrams, whereas a substation in the field is a 3D space. There exist situations where new control center operators have never been immersed into a real substation environment. When these operators visit a real electric substation, the environment is at minimum ‘strange’. This fact unquestionably reduces human performance when it comes to operating the electrical system, since a great deal of mental effort is required by the operator to associate both 2D and 3D worlds. There are situations where some modifications and replacements have to be executed within the real substation environment. Hence, to design such procedures on the 2D line diagram does not adequately reflect the reality of the field. For example, it is impossible, in this 2D scenario, to design the route taken by a truck carrying a huge electric component. In this case, safety factors also arise and need to be given due attention. It is important to seek new alternatives to ensure that systems are designed in a manner as to optimize human performance and minimizes risks, thus producing higher productivity, health and safety in the work place and safety in work processes. On the other hand, Virtual Reality (VR) is known as providing “the feeling of being there”. With the features provided by VR, it is possible to simulate all real operations of an electric substation with such precision that it has bearing on real world environments. For this reason, this paper proposes a Virtual Reality approach for the simulation, training and control of electric substations. In this approach, a virtual substation is realistically replicated according to its dimensions, using electric component data sheets, pictures, videos and floor plans. This is relevant as safety rules state that the distance between electrical components must be taken into account. Next, by means of a web service, data from a supervisory system is allocated to each component in the virtual substation, so the operator can attain access to all the information required for possible intervention, as is the case in real life. It is believed that all the features explored in this work have the capacity to increase human performance when operating a power electric substation.

An middleware for motion capture devices applied to virtual rehab

This demonstration allows the visitors to use assorted technologies to motion capture devices for uses in virtual rehabilitation. We presented the MixCap Middleware, developed to blend different types of motion capture technologies and to accomplish in one data format for biomechanical analysis. The Middleware, together with the associated prototypes were developed for use by health professionals who have low cost tracking movement equipment.

Virtual Environment Manipulated by Recognition of Poses Using Kinect: A Study to Help Blind Locomotion in Unfamiliar Surroundings

This paper proposes a method to aid blind persons in skill development to walk in unfamiliar environments. The method aims to use the human ability in construct of spatial cognitive maps. Thus, we developed a system that uses the Virtual Reality and Kinect®. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional virtual environments modeling are allowed. It is possible to reproduce real environments such as schools, universities and other places of interest. The interaction with the virtual environment works with pose recognition. Recognized poses are interpreted as an action such as left and right turn or walk. Experiments were carried out to verify the pose recognition algorithms and to identify the optimal parameters. The results were satisfactory and demonstrated that the proposed method can be quite promising. Thus, it can be indicated as an aid to skill development of locomotion in real environments.