Gokhan Sengul

Gesture‐based interaction for learning: time to make the dream a reality

Introduction Research studies have shown that individuals who make hand gestures learn better than the ones who do not (eg, Alibali & Goldin-Meadow, 1993; Broaders, Cook, Mitchell & Goldin-Meadow, 2007). For instance, when children use their hands while they are explaining how they solve mathematical equivalence problems (eg, 6 + 4 +5 = _ + 5), they perform better in post-tests (Broaders et al, 2007). Comprehension and, consequently, memory are improved by these acts (Stevanoni & Salmon, 2005). In addition, gestures facilitate deep and long-lasting learning (Cutica & Bucciarelli, 2008).

Construct and face validity of the educational computer-based environment (ECE) assessment scenarios for basic endoneurosurgery skills

BackgroundIn neurosurgery education, there is a paradigm shift from time-based training to criterion-based model for which competency and assessment becomes very critical. Even virtual reality simulators provide alternatives to improve education and assessment in neurosurgery programs and allow for several objective assessment measures, there are not many tools for assessing the overall performance of trainees. This study aims to develop and validate a tool for assessing the overall performance of participants in a simulation-based endoneurosurgery training environment.MethodsA training program was developed in two levels: endoscopy practice and beginning surgical practice based on four scenarios. Then, three experiments were conducted with three corresponding groups of participants (Experiment 1, 45 (32 beginners, 13 experienced), Experiment 2, 53 (40 beginners, 13 experienced), and Experiment 3, 26 (14 novices, 12 intermediate) participants). The results analyzed to understand the common factors among the performance measurements of these experiments. Then, a factor capable of assessing the overall skill levels of surgical residents was extracted. Afterwards, the proposed measure was tested to estimate the experience levels of the participants. Finally, the level of realism of these educational scenarios was assessed.ResultsThe factor formed by time, distance, and accuracy on simulated tasks provided an overall performance indicator. The prediction correctness was very high for the beginners than the one for experienced surgeons in Experiments 1 and 2. When non-dominant hand is used in a surgical procedure-based scenario, skill levels of surgeons can be better predicted. The results indicate that the scenarios in Experiments 1 and 2 can be used as an assessment tool for the beginners, and scenario-2 in Experiment 3 can be used as an assessment tool for intermediate and novice levels. It can be concluded that forming the balance between perceived action capacities and skills is critical for better designing and developing skill assessment surgical simulation tools.

A Study on the Performance of Magnetic Material Identification System by SIFT–BRISK and Neural Network Methods

Industry requires low-cost, low-power consumption, and autonomous remote sensing systems for detecting and identifying magnetic materials. Magnetic anomaly detection is one of the methods that meet these requirements. This paper aims to detect and identify magnetic materials by the use of magnetic anomalies of the Earths magnetic field created by some buried materials. A new measurement system that can determine the images of the upper surfaces of buried magnetic materials is developed. The system consists of a platform whose position is automatically controlled in x-axis and y-axis and a KMZ51 anisotropic magneto-resistive sensor assembly with 24 sensors mounted on the platform. A new identification system based on scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT)-binary robust invariant scalable keypoints (BRISKs) as keypoint and descriptor, respectively, is developed for identification by matching the similar images of magnetic anomalies. The results are compared by the conventional principal component analysis and neural net algorithms. On the six selected samples and the combinations of these samples, 100% correct classification rates were obtained.

An IoT application for locating victims aftermath of an earthquake

This paper presents an Internet of Things (IoT) framework which is specially designed for assisting the research and rescue operations targeted to collapsed buildings aftermath of an earthquake. In general, an IoT network is used to collect and process data from different sources called things. According to the collected data, an IoT system can actuate different mechanisms to react the environment. In the problem at hand, we exploit the IoT capabilities to collect the data about the victims before the building collapses and when it falls down the collected data is processed to generate useful reports which will direct the search and rescue efforts. The proposed framework is tested by a pilot implementation with some simplifications. The initial results and experiences are promising. During the pilot implementation, we observed some issues which are addressed in the proposed IoT framework properly.

A Magnetic Measurement System and Identification Method for Buried Magnetic Materials Within Wet and Dry Soils

In this paper, a new magnetic measurement system is developed to determine upper surfaces of buried magnetic materials, particularly land mines. This measurement system uses the magnetic-anomaly-detection method. It also has intelligent identification software based on an image matching algorithm. It is aimed to determine and identify the buried ferromagnetic materials with minimum energy consumption. It is concentrated on the detection and identification of the shapes of upper surfaces of buried magnetic materials in dry and wet conditions. The effect of humidity in the detection process for detection is tested. In this paper, we used sensor images to identify various ferromagnetic materials and similar objects. Sensor images of soils at various humidities covering the objects were obtained. We used the speeded-up-feature-transform algorithm in the comparison process of the images. Dry soil sample images match with the corresponding wet soil samples with the highest matching rate. The images for different objects can easily be distinguished by the matching process.

The Effect of Split Attention in Surgical Education

Surgical education through simulation is an important area to improve the level of education and to decrease the risks, ethical considerations and cost of the educational environments. In the literature there are several studies conducted to better understand the effect of these simulation environments on learning. However among those studies the human-computer interaction point of view is very limited. Surgeons need to look at radiological images such as magnetic resonance images (MRI) to be sure about the location of the patient’s tumor during a surgical operation. Thus, they go back and forth between physically separated places (e.g. the operating table and light screen display for MRI volume sets). This study is conducted to investigate the effect of presenting different information sources in close proximity on human performance in surgical education. For this purpose, we have developed a surgical education simulation scenario which is controlled by a haptic interface. To better understand the effect of split attention in surgical education, an experimental study is conducted with 27 subjects. The descriptive results of study show that even the integrated group performed the tasks with a higher accuracy level (by traveling less distance, entering less wrong directions and hitting less walls), the results are not statistically significant. Accordingly, even there are some evidences about the effect of split attention on surgical simulation environments, the results of this study need to be validated by controlling students’ skill levels on controlling the haptic devices and 2D/3D space perception skills. The results of this study may guide the system developers to better design the HCI interface of their designs especially for the area of surgical simulation.

Haptic User Interface Integration for 3D Game Engines

Touch and feel senses of human beings provide important information about the environment. When those senses are integrated with the eyesight, we may get all the necessary information about the environment. In terms of human-computer-interaction, the eyesight information is provided by visual displays. On the other hand, touch and feel senses are provided by means of special devices called “haptic” devices. Haptic devices are used in many fields such as computer-aided design, distance-surgery operations, medical simulation environments, training simulators for both military and medical applications, etc. Besides the touch and sense feelings haptic devices also provide force-feedbacks, which allows designing a realistic environment in virtual reality applications.