Georges Soto-Romero

An Instrumented Glove to Assess Manual Dexterity in Simulation-Based Neurosurgical Education

The traditional neurosurgical apprenticeship scheme includes the assessment of trainee’s manual skills carried out by experienced surgeons. However, the introduction of surgical simulation technology presents a new paradigm where residents can refine surgical techniques on a simulator before putting them into practice in real patients. Unfortunately, in this new scheme, an experienced surgeon will not always be available to evaluate trainee’s performance. For this reason, it is necessary to develop automatic mechanisms to estimate metrics for assessing manual dexterity in a quantitative way. Authors have proposed some hardware-software approaches to evaluate manual dexterity on surgical simulators. This paper presents IGlove, a wearable device that uses inertial sensors embedded on an elastic glove to capture hand movements. Metrics to assess manual dexterity are estimated from sensors signals using data processing and information analysis algorithms. It has been designed to be used with a neurosurgical simulator called Daubara NS Trainer, but can be easily adapted to another benchtop- and manikin-based medical simulators. The system was tested with a sample of 14 volunteers who performed a test that was designed to simultaneously evaluate their fine motor skills and the IGlove’s functionalities. Metrics obtained by each of the participants are presented as results in this work; it is also shown how these metrics are used to automatically evaluate the level of manual dexterity of each volunteer.

Validity, Sensitivity, Reproducibility and Robustness of the Powertap, Stages and Garmin Vector Power Meters in Comparison With the SRM Device

A large number of power meters have been produced on the market for nearly 20 y according to user requirements. PURPOSE To determine the validity, sensitivity, reproducibility, and robustness of the PowerTap (PWT), Stages (STG), and Garmin Vector (VCT) power meters in comparison with the SRM device. METHODS A national-level male competitive cyclist completed 3 laboratory cycling tests: a submaximal incremental test, a submaximal 30-min continuous test, and a sprint test. Two additional tests were performed, the first on vibration exposures in the laboratory and the second in the field. RESULTS The VCT provided a significantly lower 5-s power output (PO) during the sprint test with a low gear ratio than the SRM did (-36.9%). The STG PO was significantly lower than the SRM PO in the heavy-exercise-intensity zone (zone 2, -5.1%) and the low part of the severe-intensity zone (zone 3, -4.9%). The VCT PO was significantly lower than the SRM PO only in zone 2 (-4.5%). The STG PO was significantly lower in standing position than in the seated position (-4.4%). The reproducibility of the PWT, STG, and VCT was similar to that of the SRM system. The STG and VCT PO were significantly decreased from a vibration frequency of 48 Hz and 52 Hz, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The PWT, STG, and VCT systems appear to be reproducible, but the validity, sensitivity, and robustness of the STG and VCT systems should be treated with some caution according to the conditions of measurement.

Virtual firm as a role-playing tool for biomedical education.

The paper describes design of a role-playing tool based on the experience of the practice firm which allows participants to obtain relevant and practical on-the-job experience. The students played the roles of the employees and the applicants for vacant positions at the virtual firm-a small business specialized in biomedical sector-founded to design the demonstration vehicle for a biomedical device. We found that this innovative concept may be used to improve the young engineers performance and to facilitate their post-graduate integration

Instrumented glove for skills assessment in neurosurgical simulation.

Surgeons adverse events may cause severe complications for patients; they are usually caused by the incorrect use of advanced instrumentation, poor training and surgeon fatigue. To avoid them, it is important to evaluate surgeon major variables like: real-time decision making, complex instrument control, manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination and fatigue. In order to provide a more objective assessment of those parameters, this paper presents preliminary results of the implementation of an instrumented glove for the capture of hand gestures. A description of its integration to a previously implemented neurosurgical simulation system is shown. Currently the neurosurgical simulator is able to assess decision making, appropriate use of surgical instruments and also incorporates a pressure sensitive device that gathers ergonomic data for detecting fatigue patterns. Integration of hand gesture information to the neurosurgical simulator can be used to measure fine motor skills parameters such as manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination.

ISIFC - Dual Biomedical Engineering School

The Superior Institute for Biomedical Engineering (ISIFC), created in 2001, is part of the Franche-Comte University and is accredited by the French Ministry of National Education. Its originality lies in its innovative course of studies, which trains engineers in the scientific and medical fields to get both competencies. The Institute therefore collaborates with the University Hospital Centre of Besancon (CHU), biomedical companies and National Research Centres (CNRS and INSERM). The dual expertise trainees will have acquired at the end of their 3 years course covers medical and biological skills, scientific and Technical expertises. ISIFC engineers answer to manufacturer needs for skilled scientific and technical staff in instrumentation and techniques adapted to diagnosis, therapeutics and medical control, as well as the needs of potential users for biomedical devices, whether they are doctors, hospital staff, patients, laboratories, etc... Both the skills and the knowledge acquired by an ISIFC engineer will enable him/her to fulfil functions of study, research and development in the industrial sector.

Validity and Reliability of the 3D Motion Analyzer in Comparison with the Vicon Device for Biomechanical Pedalling Analysis

The present work aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the 3D motion analyzer (Shimano Dynamics Lab, Sittard, Netherland) during laboratory cycling tests in comparison with the Vicon device (Vicon Motion Systems Ltd. Oxford, UK). Three cyclists were required to complete one laboratory cycling test at three different pedalling cadence and at a constant power output. Kinematic measurements were collected simultaneously from 3D motion analyzer and Vicon devices and performed five times for each pedalling cadence. The two systems showed a high reliability with excellent intraclass correlation coefficients for most kinematic variables. Moreover, this system was considered as valid by considering the error due to the initial markers placement. Experts and scientists should use the Vicon system for the purpose of research whereas the 3D motion analyzer could be used for bike fitting.

Preliminary study: A new method to assess the effective frontal area of cyclists

The present work aimed to assess the effective frontal area (AC d , m 2) of a cyclist using both 3D scanning and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation and compare the results with wind tunnel and field measurements. One elite cyclist was recruited to complete a 3D scanning, a wind tunnel test and a field test. The 3D scanning was analyzed using CFD simulation to determine the AC d of the cyclist. The CFD AC d was compared to those measured in both wind tunnel and field tests. The 3D scanning method provides useful data for cycling science and TT position or equipment optimization, by using iterative approach. Indeed, the AC d obtained after CFD simulation was in accordance with those obtained in both wind tunnel and field testing sessions. Resolution, scanning time and post processing are compatible with an extensive use in real conditions and with a larger number of cyclists.

Preliminary study: IMU system validation for real-time feedback on swimming technique

The use of Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) for sport performance monitoring has grown in the previous decade due to its ease of use and the growth of private market applications. In swimming monitoring, it has been highlighted (Dadashi et al. 2012; Callaway et al. 2015) that measuring performance with traditional 2D and 3D video-based systems have many downsides (light refraction, bubbles, time-consuming). Other alternative methods are also mentioned such as speed measurement using a tighten cord, but they disturb the swimmer’s technique and only provides feedback on the forward speed. The main problem of those solutions is that the data must be post processed and they do not provide an instant feedback to the swimmer. In this context, IMUs appear to be a low-cost solution, easy to use and not interfering with the swimmer’s technique, even if its data analysis requires a complex data mining process. Such real-time feedback for gesture and sport training is a solution that has been used many times: for instance karate training (Takahata et al. 2004), and various other sports (Spelmezan et al. 2008; Drobny et al. 2009). It has been shown (Zatoń et al. 2014) that an immediate feedback can improve swimming technique. Measuring the performance is something much in demand for sportsmen to be able to keep track of their progress. For swimming, the most common performance criterion tends to be stroke length, stroke count and lap count (Dadashi et al. 2012), which are often summarized by coaches as the ‘Swim Golf ’ (SWOLF) criteria (Perego et al. 2015). Those have been used in several scientific publications as references of the swimmer’s level (Peregoet al. 2015; Lemkaddem et al. 2016), but it also has been shown (Cardelli et al. 2000) that there is a significant correlation between the breathing characteristics and the swimmer’s skills plus the stroke characteristics. From this statement we wanted to validate an IMU devices mounted on the head of a swimmer to measure its breathing characteristics, and experiment on an instant feedback to correct those movements. The tested device is a Swimbot (Meudon, France), based on Newton 2 smart watch core (Ingenic, Beijing) including a 1.2 GhZ M200 CPU running a custom Android 5.1 with a 16 bits 9 axis IMU (MPU-9250 (InvenSense, San Jose, California) embedded, using the Android sensors fusion algorithm to provide a rotation quaternion at a sampling rate of 50 Hz. The other data provided are: accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope and two software sensors provided by Android: linear acceleration (without the gravity) and quaternion orientation. The device is placed under the swimming cap at the back of the head and also includes two bone conduction headphones placed just behind the ears for instant feedback under water, with an on-board memory of 2 Gb of data to store logs and data.

Embedded Sensors System Applied to Wearable Motion Analysis in Sports

This paper presents two different wearable motion capture systems for motion analysis in sports, based on inertial measurement units (IMU). One system, called centralized processing, is based on FPGA + microcontroller architecture while the other, called distributed processing, is based on multiple microcontrollers + wireless communication architecture. These architectures are designed to target multisports capabilities, beginning with tri-athlete equipment and thus have to be non-invasive and integrated in sportswear, be waterproofed and autonomous in energy. To characterize them, the systems are compared to lab quality references.

An Instrumented Glove for Swimming Performance Monitoring

This paper presents a project of wearable motion capture system for motion analysis in swimming. Two versions of this system have already been designed, one with a wired structure, based on a microcontroller and an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and the other with a distributed architecture, based on a wireless communication and another IMU. This system has been initially designed to target tri-athletes population, but this study only presents the considerations concerning the swimming application.