Search results for: Finger exoskeleton

Authors: Doo W. Lee, Soo J. Lee, Bye R. Yoon, Jae Y. Jho, Kyehan Rhee

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Hand exoskeletons have been developed in order to assist daily activities for disabled and elder people. A figure exoskeleton was developed using ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuators, and the performance of it was evaluated in this study. In order to study dynamic performance of a finger dummy performing pinching motion, force generating characteristics of an IPMC actuator and pinching motion of a thumb and index finger dummy actuated by IMPC actuators were analyzed. The blocking force of 1.54 N was achieved under 4 V of DC. A thumb and index finger dummy, which has one degree of freedom at the proximal joint of each figure, was manufactured by a three dimensional rapid prototyping. Each figure was actuated by an IPMC actuator, and the maximum fingertip force was 1.18 N. Pinching motion of a dummy was analyzed by two video cameras in vertical top and horizontal left end view planes. A figure dummy powered by IPMC actuators could perform flexion and extension motion of an index figure and a thumb.

Keywords: Finger exoskeleton, ionic polymer metal composite, flexion and extension, motion analysis.

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Authors: Tawakal Hasnain Baluch, Adnan Masood, Javaid Iqbal, Umer Izhar, Umar Shahbaz Khan

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This paper will provide the kinematic and dynamic analysis of a lower limb exoskeleton. The forward and inverse kinematics of proposed exoskeleton is performed using Denevit and Hartenberg method. The torques required for the actuators will be calculated using Lagrangian formulation technique. This research can be used to design the control of the proposed exoskeleton.

Keywords: Dynamic Analysis, Exoskeleton, Kinematic Analysis, Lower Limb, Rehabilitation Robotics

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Authors: Yang Li, Xiaorong Guan, Cheng Xu

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In order to design a suitable control scheme for human extremity exoskeleton, the interaction force control scheme with traditional PI controller was presented, and the simulation study of the electromechanical system of the human extremity exoskeleton was carried out by using a MATLAB/Simulink module. By analyzing the simulation calculation results, it was shown that the traditional PI controller is not very suitable for every movement speed of human body. So, at last the fuzzy self-adaptive PI controller was presented to solve this problem. Eventually, the superiority and feasibility of the fuzzy self-adaptive PI controller was proved by the simulation results and experimental results.

Keywords: Human extremity exoskeleton, interaction force control scheme, simulation study, fuzzy self-adaptive pi controller, man-machine coordinated walking, bear payload.

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Authors: N. Z. Azlan, H. Yamaura

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The experimental study of position control of a light weight and small size robotic finger during non-contact motion is presented in this paper. The finger possesses fingertip pinching and self adaptive grasping capabilities, and is made of a seven bar linkage mechanism with a slider in the middle phalanx. The control system is tested under the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control algorithm and Recursive Least Square (RLS) based Feedback Error Learning (FEL) control scheme to overcome the uncertainties present in the plant. The experiments conducted in Matlab Simulink and xPC Target environments show that the overall control strategy is efficient in controlling the finger movement.

Keywords: Anthropomorphic finger, position control, feedback error learning, experimental study

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Authors: Nazim Mir-Nasiri, Hudyjaya Siswoyo Jo

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The paper describes conceptual design, control strategies, and partial simulation for a new fully autonomous lower limb wearable exoskeleton system for human motion enhancement that can support its weight and increase strength and endurance. Various problems still remain to be solved where the most important is the creation of a power and cost efficient system that will allow an exoskeleton to operate for extended period without batteries being frequently recharged. The designed exoskeleton is enabling to decouple the weight/mass carrying function of the system from the forward motion function which reduces the power and size of propulsion motors and thus the overall weight, cost of the system. The decoupling takes place by blocking the motion at knee joint by placing passive air cylinder across the joint. The cylinder is actuated when the knee angle has reached the minimum allowed value to bend. The value of the minimum bending angle depends on usual walk style of the subject. The mechanism of the exoskeleton features a seat to rest the subject’s body weight at the moment of blocking the knee joint motion. The mechanical structure of each leg has six degrees of freedom: four at the hip, one at the knee, and one at the ankle. Exoskeleton legs are attached to subject legs by using flexible cuffs. The operation of all actuators depends on the amount of pressure felt by the feet pressure sensors and knee angle sensor. The sensor readings depend on actual posture of the subject and can be classified in three distinct cases: subject stands on one leg, subject stands still on both legs and subject stands on both legs but transit its weight from one leg to other. This exoskeleton is power efficient because electrical motors are smaller in size and did not participate in supporting the weight like in all other existing exoskeleton designs.

Keywords: Energy efficient system, exoskeleton, motion enhancement, robotics.

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Authors: Sepehr Damavandinejadmonfared, Ali Khalili Mobarakeh, Mohsen Pashna, , Jiangping Gou Sayedmehran Mirsafaie Rizi, Saba Nazari, Shadi Mahmoodi Khaniabadi, Mohamad Ali Bagheri

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In this paper a novel algorithm is proposed to merit the accuracy of finger vein recognition. The performances of Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA), and Kernel Entropy Component Analysis (KECA) in this algorithm are validated and compared with each other in order to determine which one is the most appropriate one in terms of finger vein recognition.

Keywords: Biometrics, finger vein recognition, PrincipalComponent Analysis (PCA), Kernel Principal Component Analysis(KPCA), Kernel Entropy Component Analysis (KPCA).

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Authors: Sana Bembli, Nahla Khraief Haddad, Safya Belghith

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This paper deals with a robust model free terminal sliding mode with gravity compensation approach used to control an exoskeleton-upper limb system. The considered system is a 2-DoF robot in interaction with an upper limb used for rehabilitation. The aim of this paper is to control the flexion/extension movement of the shoulder and the elbow joints in presence of matched disturbances. In the first part, we present the exoskeleton-upper limb system modeling. Then, we controlled the considered system by the model free terminal sliding mode with gravity compensation. A stability study is realized. To prove the controller performance, a robustness analysis was needed. Simulation results are provided to confirm the robustness of the gravity compensation combined with to the Model free terminal sliding mode in presence of uncertainties.

Keywords: Exoskeleton-upper limb system, gravity compensation, model free terminal sliding mode, robustness analysis, Monte Carlo, H∞ methods.

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Authors: Matthew Dickinson

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A core/trunk exoskeleton design has been produced that is aimed to assist the raise to stand motion. A 3D model was produced to examine the use of additive manufacturing as a core method for producing structural components for the exoskeleton presented. The two materials that were modelled for this simulation work were Polylatic acid (PLA) and polyethylene terephthalate with carbon (PET-C), and the central spinal cord of the design being Nitrile rubber. The aim of this study was to examine the use of 3D printed materials as the main skeletal structure to support the core of a human when moving raising from a resting position. The objective in this work was to identify if the 3D printable materials could be offered as an equivalent alternative to conventional more expensive materials, thus allow for greater access for production for home maintenance. A maximum load of lift force was calculated, and this was incrementally reduced to study the effects on the material. The results showed a total number of 8 simulations were run to study the core in conditions with no muscular support through to 90% of operational support. The study presents work in the form of a core/trunk exoskeleton that presents 3D printing as a possible alternative to conventional manufacturing.

Keywords: 3D printing, Exo-Skeleton, PLA, PETC.

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Authors: Alexandre Rabaseda, Emelie Seguin, Marc Doumit

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Human mobility exoskeletons have been in development for several years and are becoming increasingly efficient. Unfortunately, user comfort was not always a priority design criterion throughout their development. To further improve this technology, exoskeletons should operate and deliver assistance without causing discomfort to the user. For this, improvements are necessary from an ergonomic point of view. The device’s control method is important when endeavoring to enhance user comfort. Exoskeleton or rehabilitation device controllers use methods of control called interaction controls (admittance and impedance controls). This paper proposes an extended version of an admittance controller to enhance user comfort. The control method used consists of adding an inner loop that is controlled by a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. This allows the interaction force to be kept as close as possible to the desired force trajectory. The force-tracking admittance controller modifies the actuation force of the system in order to follow both the desired motion trajectory and the desired relative force between the user and the exoskeleton.

Keywords: Mobility assistive device, exoskeleton, force-tracking admittance controller, user comfort.

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Authors: Alaoui Hamza, Moutacalli Mohamed Tarik, Chebak Ahmed

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The number of people suffering from hemiplegia is growing each year. This lower limb disability affects all the aspects of their lives by taking away their autonomy. This implicates their close relatives, as well as the health system to provide the necessary care they need. The integration of exoskeletons in the medical field became a promising solution to resolve this issue. This paper presents an exoskeleton designed to help hemiplegic people get back the sensation and ability of normal walking. For this purpose, three step models have been created. The first step allows a simple forward movement of the leg. The second method is designed to overcome some obstacles in the patient path, and finally the third step model gives the patient total control over the device. Each of the control methods was designed to offer a solution to the challenges that the patients may face during the walking process.

Keywords: Ability of normal walking, exoskeleton, hemiplegic patients, lower limb motion, mechatronics.

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Authors: Yun-Hsuan Yu, Chi-Shung Tang, Nzar Rauf Abdullah, Vidar Gudmundsson

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Spin-orbit gap feature in energy dispersion of one-dimensional devices is revealed via strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) effects under Zeeman field. We describe the utilization of a finger-gate or a top-gate to control the spin-dependent transport characteristics in the SOI-Zeeman influenced split-gate devices by means of a generalized spin-mixed propagation matrix method. For the finger-gate system, we find a bound state in continuum for incident electrons within the ultra-low energy regime. For the top-gate system, we observe more bound-state features in conductance associated with the formation of spin-associated hole-like or electron-like quasi-bound states around band thresholds, as well as hole bound states around the reverse point of the energy dispersion. We demonstrate that the spin-dependent transport behavior of a top-gate system is similar to that of a finger-gate system only if the top-gate length is less than the effective Fermi wavelength.

Keywords: Spin-orbit, Zeeman, top-gate, finger-gate, bound state.

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Authors: Haruo Okabayashi

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Human biological signals (pulse wave and brain wave, etc.) have a rhythm which shows fluctuations. This study investigates the relationship between fluctuations of biological signals which are shown by a finger plethysmogram (i.e., finger pulse wave) in conversation and anthropophobic tendency, and identifies whether the fluctuation could be an index of mental health. 32 college students participated in the experiment. The finger plethysmogram of each subject was measured in the following conversation situations: Fun memory talking/listening situation and regrettable memory talking/ listening situation for three minutes each. Lyspect 3.5 was used to collect the data of the finger plethysmogram. Since Lyspect calculates the Lyapunov spectrum, it is possible to obtain the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE). LLE is an indicator of the fluctuation and shows the degree to which a measure is going away from close proximity to the track in a dynamical system. Before the finger plethysmogram experiment, each participant took the psychological test questionnaire “Anthropophobic Scale.” The scale measures the social phobia trend close to the consciousness of social phobia. It is revealed that there is a remarkable relationship between the fluctuation of the finger plethysmography and anthropophobic tendency scale in talking about a regrettable story in conversation: The participants (N=15) who have a low anthropophobic tendency show significantly more fluctuation of finger pulse waves than the participants (N=17) who have a high anthropophobic tendency (F (1, 31) =5.66, p<0.05). That is, the participants who have a low anthropophobic tendency make conversation flexibly using large fluctuation of biological signal; on the other hand, the participants who have a high anthropophobic tendency constrain a conversation because of small fluctuation. Therefore, fluctuation is not an error but an important drive to make better relationships with others and go towards the development of interaction. In considering mental health, the fluctuation of biological signals would be an important indicator.

Keywords: Anthropophobic tendency, finger plethymogram, fluctuation of biological signal, LLE.

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Authors: Amir Hajian, Sepehr Damavandinejadmonfared

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In this paper the issue of dimensionality reduction is investigated in finger vein recognition systems using kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA). One aspect of KPCA is to find the most appropriate kernel function on finger vein recognition as there are several kernel functions which can be used within PCA-based algorithms. In this paper, however, another side of PCA-based algorithms -particularly KPCA- is investigated. The aspect of dimension of feature vector in PCA-based algorithms is of importance especially when it comes to the real-world applications and usage of such algorithms. It means that a fixed dimension of feature vector has to be set to reduce the dimension of the input and output data and extract the features from them. Then a classifier is performed to classify the data and make the final decision. We analyze KPCA (Polynomial, Gaussian, and Laplacian) in details in this paper and investigate the optimal feature extraction dimension in finger vein recognition using KPCA.

Keywords: Biometrics, finger vein recognition, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA).

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Authors: Brahmi Brahim, Mohammad Habibur Rahman, Maarouf Saad, Cristóbal Ochoa Luna

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A repetitive training movement is an efficient method to improve the ability and movement performance of stroke survivors and help them to recover their lost motor function and acquire new skills. The ETS-MARSE is seven degrees of freedom (DOF) exoskeleton robot developed to be worn on the lateral side of the right upper-extremity to assist and rehabilitate the patients with upper-extremity dysfunction resulting from stroke. Practically, rehabilitation activities are repetitive tasks, which make the assistive/robotic systems to suffer from repetitive/periodic uncertainties and external perturbations induced by the high-order dynamic model (seven DOF) and interaction with human muscle which impact on the tracking performance and even on the stability of the exoskeleton. To ensure the robustness and the stability of the robot, a new nonlinear backstepping control was implemented with designed tests performed by healthy subjects. In order to limit and to reject the periodic/repetitive disturbances, an iterative estimator was integrated into the control of the system. The estimator does not need the precise dynamic model of the exoskeleton. Experimental results confirm the robustness and accuracy of the controller performance to deal with the external perturbation, and the effectiveness of the iterative estimator to reject the repetitive/periodic disturbances.

Keywords: Backstepping control, iterative control, rehabilitation, ETS-MARSE.

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Authors: O. Ejale, N.B. Siddique, R. Seals

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The purpose of this study was to present a reliable mean for human-computer interfacing based on finger gestures made in two dimensions, which could be interpreted and adequately used in controlling a remote robot's movement. The gestures were captured and interpreted using an algorithm based on trigonometric functions, in calculating the angular displacement from one point of touch to another as the user-s finger moved within a time interval; thereby allowing for pattern spotting of the captured gesture. In this paper the design and implementation of such a gesture based user interface was presented, utilizing the aforementioned algorithm. These techniques were then used to control a remote mobile robot's movement. A resistive touch screen was selected as the gesture sensor, then utilizing a programmed microcontroller to interpret them respectively.

Keywords: 2-Dimensional interface, finger gesture, mobile robot control, touch screen.

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Authors: Yang-Keun Ahn, Kwang-Soon Choi, Young-Choong Park, Kwang-Mo Jung

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This paper proposes a method to recognize the tip of a finger and space touch hand gesture using an infrared camera in a smart device environment. The proposed method estimates the tip of a finger with a curvature-based ellipse fitting algorithm, and verifies that the estimated object is indeed a finger with an ellipse fitting rectangular area. The feature extracted from the verified finger tip is used to implement the movement of a mouse and clicking gesture. The proposed algorithm was implemented with an actual smart device to test the proposed method. Empirical parameters were obtained from the keypad software and an image analysis tool for the performance optimization, and a comparative analysis with conventional research showed improved performance with the proposed method.

Keywords: Infrared camera, Hand gesture, Smart device, Space touch.

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Authors: N. B. Mahesh Kumar, K. Premalatha

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The inherent skin patterns created at the joints in the finger exterior are referred as finger knuckle-print. It is exploited to identify a person in a unique manner because the finger knuckle print is greatly affluent in textures. In biometric system, the region of interest is utilized for the feature extraction algorithm. In this paper, local and global features are extracted separately. Fast Discrete Orthonormal Stockwell Transform is exploited to extract the local features. Global feature is attained by escalating the size of Fast Discrete Orthonormal Stockwell Transform to infinity. Two features are fused to increase the recognition accuracy. A matching distance is calculated for both the features individually. Then two distances are merged mutually to acquire the final matching distance. The proposed scheme gives the better performance in terms of equal error rate and correct recognition rate.

Keywords: Hamming distance, Instantaneous phase, Region of Interest, Recognition accuracy.

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Authors: N. Z. Azlan, H. Yamaura

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This paper presents the Function Approximation Technique (FAT) based adaptive impedance control for a robotic finger. The force based impedance control is developed so that the robotic finger tracks the desired force while following the reference position trajectory, under unknown environment position and uncertainties in finger parameters. The control strategy is divided into two phases, which are the free and contact phases. Force error feedback is utilized in updating the uncertain environment position during contact phase. Computer simulations results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

Keywords: Adaptive impedance control, force based impedance control, force control, Function Approximation Technique (FAT), unknown environment position.

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Authors: M.R. Safizadeh, M. Hussein, K. F. Samat, M.S. Che Kob, M.S. Yaacob, M.Z. Md Zain

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The aim of this paper is to present the kinematic analysis and mechanism design of an assistive robotic leg for hemiplegic and hemiparetic patients. In this work, the priority is to design and develop the lightweight, effective and single driver mechanism on the basis of experimental hip and knee angles- data for walking speed of 1 km/h. A mechanism of cam-follower with three links is suggested for this purpose. The kinematic analysis is carried out and analysed using commercialized MATLAB software based on the prototype-s links sizes and kinematic relationships. In order to verify the kinematic analysis of the prototype, kinematic analysis data are compared with the experimental data. A good agreement between them proves that the anthropomorphic design of the lower extremity exoskeleton follows the human walking gait.

Keywords: Kinematic analysis, assistive robotic leg, lower extremity exoskeleton, cam-follower mechanism.

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Authors: Anjin Park, Sungju Yun, Jungwhan Kim, Seungk Min, Keechul Jung

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Finger spelling is an art of communicating by signs made with fingers, and has been introduced into sign language to serve as a bridge between the sign language and the verbal language. Previous approaches to finger spelling recognition are classified into two categories: glove-based and vision-based approaches. The glove-based approach is simpler and more accurate recognizing work of hand posture than vision-based, yet the interfaces require the user to wear a cumbersome and carry a load of cables that connected the device to a computer. In contrast, the vision-based approaches provide an attractive alternative to the cumbersome interface, and promise more natural and unobtrusive human-computer interaction. The vision-based approaches generally consist of two steps: hand extraction and recognition, and two steps are processed independently. This paper proposes real-time vision-based Korean finger spelling recognition system by integrating hand extraction into recognition. First, we tentatively detect a hand region using CAMShift algorithm. Then fill factor and aspect ratio estimated by width and height estimated by CAMShift are used to choose candidate from database, which can reduce the number of matching in recognition step. To recognize the finger spelling, we use DTW(dynamic time warping) based on modified chain codes, to be robust to scale and orientation variations. In this procedure, since accurate hand regions, without holes and noises, should be extracted to improve the precision, we use graph cuts algorithm that globally minimize the energy function elegantly expressed by Markov random fields (MRFs). In the experiments, the computational times are less than 130ms, and the times are not related to the number of templates of finger spellings in database, as candidate templates are selected in extraction step.

Keywords: CAMShift, DTW, Graph Cuts, MRF.

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Authors: Nicoletta Adamo-Villani, Joe Kasenga, Tiffany Jen, Bryan Colbourn

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The goal of the study reported in the paper was to determine whether Ambient Occlusion Shading (AOS) has a significant effect on users' perception of American Sign Language (ASL) finger spelling animations. Seventy-one (71) subjects participated in the study; all subjects were fluent in ASL. The participants were asked to watch forty (40) sign language animation clips representing twenty (20) finger spelled words. Twenty (20) clips did not show ambient occlusion, whereas the other twenty (20) were rendered using ambient occlusion shading. After viewing each animation, subjects were asked to type the word being finger-spelled and rate its legibility. Findings show that the presence of AOS had a significant effect on the subjects perception of the signed words. Subjects were able to recognize the animated words rendered with AOS with higher level of accuracy, and the legibility ratings of the animations showing AOS were consistently higher across subjects.

Keywords: Sign Language, Animation, Ambient Occlusion Shading, Deaf Education

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Authors: Yen-Chun Lin, Yen-Ting Chen, Szu-Yin Lin, Jen-Hua Wu

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This paper proposes a location-aware system for household robots which allows users to paste predefined paper tags at different locations according to users- comprehension of the house. In this system a household robot may be aware of its location and the attributes thereof by visually recognizing the tags when the robot is moving. This paper also presents a novel user interface to define a moving path of the robot, which allows users to draw the path in the air with a finger so as to generate commands for following motions.

Keywords: finger tip tracking, household robot, location awareness, tag recognition

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Authors: Yu-Xiang Zhao, Chien-Hsing Chou, Mu-Chun Su, Yi-Zeng Hsieh

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The purpose of this study is to design a portable virtual piano. By utilizing optical fiber gloves and the virtual piano software designed by this study, the user can play the piano anywhere at any time. This virtual piano consists of three major parts: finger tapping identification, hand movement and positioning identification, and MIDI software sound effect simulation. To play the virtual piano, the user wears optical fiber gloves and simulates piano key tapping motions. The finger bending information detected by the optical fiber gloves can tell when piano key tapping motions are made. Images captured by a video camera are analyzed, hand locations and moving directions are positioned, and the corresponding scales are found. The system integrates finger tapping identification with information about hand placement in relation to corresponding piano key positions, and generates MIDI piano sound effects based on this data. This experiment shows that the proposed method achieves an accuracy rate of 95% for determining when a piano key is tapped.

Keywords: virtual piano, portable, identification, optical fibergloves.

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Authors: T. Patcharawit, C. Kansomket, N. Wongnaree, W. Kritsrikan, T. Yingnakorn, S. Khumkoa

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Recovery of pure copper and silver from end-of-life photovoltaic (PV) panels was investigated in this paper using an effective hybrid pyro-hydrometallurgical process. In the first step of waste treatment, solar panel waste was first dismantled to obtain a PV sheet to be cut and calcined at 500 °C, to separate out PV ribbon from glass cullet, ash, and volatile while the silicon wafer containing silver finger was collected for recovery. In the second step of metal recovery, copper recovery from PV ribbon was via 1-3 M HCl leaching with SnCl₂ and H₂O₂ additions in order to remove the tin-lead coating on the ribbon. The leached copper band was cleaned and subsequently melted as an anode for the next step of electrorefining. Stainless steel was set as the cathode with CuSO₄ as an electrolyte, and at a potential of 0.2 V, high purity copper of 99.93% was obtained at 96.11% recovery after 24 hours. For silver recovery, the silicon wafer containing silver finger was leached using HNO₃ at 1-4 M in an ultrasonic bath. In the next step of precipitation, silver chloride was then obtained and subsequently reduced by sucrose and NaOH to give silver powder prior to oxy-acetylene melting to finally obtain pure silver metal. The integrated recycling process is considered to be economical, providing effective recovery of high purity metals such as copper and silver while other materials such as aluminum, copper wire, glass cullet can also be recovered to be reused commercially. Compounds such as PbCl₂ and SnO₂ obtained can also be recovered to enter the market.

Keywords: Electrorefining, leaching, calcination, PV ribbon, silver finger, solar panel.

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Authors: Mohamed Mounir Tellache, Hiroyuki Kambara, Yasuharu Koike, Makoto Miyakoshi, Natsue Yoshimura

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This study explores the practicality of using electroencephalographic (EEG) independent components to predict eight-direction finger movements in pseudo-real-time. Six healthy participants with individual-head MRI images performed finger movements in eight directions with two different arm configurations. The analysis was performed in two stages. The first stage consisted of using independent component analysis (ICA) to separate the signals representing brain activity from non-brain activity signals and to obtain the unmixing matrix. The resulting independent components (ICs) were checked, and those reflecting brain-activity were selected. Finally, the time series of the selected ICs were used to predict eight finger-movement directions using Sparse Logistic Regression (SLR). The second stage consisted of using the previously obtained unmixing matrix, the selected ICs, and the model obtained by applying SLR to classify a different EEG dataset. This method was applied to two different settings, namely the single-participant level and the group-level. For the single-participant level, the EEG dataset used in the first stage and the EEG dataset used in the second stage originated from the same participant. For the group-level, the EEG datasets used in the first stage were constructed by temporally concatenating each combination without repetition of the EEG datasets of five participants out of six, whereas the EEG dataset used in the second stage originated from the remaining participants. The average test classification results across datasets (mean ± S.D.) were 38.62 ± 8.36% for the single-participant, which was significantly higher than the chance level (12.50 ± 0.01%), and 27.26 ± 4.39% for the group-level which was also significantly higher than the chance level (12.49% ± 0.01%). The classification accuracy within [–45°, 45°] of the true direction is 70.03 ± 8.14% for single-participant and 62.63 ± 6.07% for group-level which may be promising for some real-life applications. Clustering and contribution analyses further revealed the brain regions involved in finger movement and the temporal aspect of their contribution to the classification. These results showed the possibility of using the ICA-based method in combination with other methods to build a real-time system to control prostheses.

Keywords: Brain-computer interface, BCI, electroencephalography, EEG, finger motion decoding, independent component analysis, pseudo-real-time motion decoding.

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Authors: Zulhisyam Salleh, Fizatul Aini Patakor, Rosilah Wahab, Awangku Khairul Ridzwan Awangku Jaya

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Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. Most of these children have difficulty with fine motor skills which typically struggle with handwriting and fine activities in their routine life such as getting dressed and controlled use of the everyday tool. Because fine motor activities encompass so many routine functions, a fine motor delay can have a measurable negative impact on a person's ability to handle daily practical tasks. This project proposed a simple fine motor exercise aid plus the game (exergame) for autistic children who discover from fine motor difficulties. The proposed exergame will be blinking randomly and user needs to bend their finger accordingly. It will notify the user, whether they bend the right finger or not. The system is realized using Arduino, which is programmed to control all the operated circuit. The feasibility studies with six autistic children were conducted and found the child interested in using exergame and could quickly get used to it. This study provides important guidance for future investigations of the exergame potential for accessing and improving fine motor skill among autistic children.

Keywords: Autism children, Arduino project, fine motor skill, finger exergame.

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Authors: M. Amlie A. Kasim, Ahsana Aqilah, Ahmed Jaffar, Cheng Yee Low, Roseleena Jaafar, M. Saiful Bahari, Armansyah

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The study of human hand morphology reveals that developing an artificial hand with the capabilities of human hand is an extremely challenging task. This paper presents the development of a robotic prosthetic hand focusing on the improvement of a tendon driven mechanism towards a biomimetic prosthetic hand. The design of this prosthesis hand is geared towards achieving high level of dexterity and anthropomorphism by means of a new hybrid mechanism that integrates a miniature motor driven actuation mechanism, a Shape Memory Alloy actuated mechanism and a passive mechanical linkage. The synergy of these actuators enables the flexion-extension movement at each of the finger joints within a limited size, shape and weight constraints. Tactile sensors are integrated on the finger tips and the finger phalanges area. This prosthesis hand is developed with an exact size ratio that mimics a biological hand. Its behavior resembles the human counterpart in terms of working envelope, speed and torque, and thus resembles both the key physical features and the grasping functionality of an adult hand.

Keywords: Prosthetic hand, Biomimetic actuation, Shape Memory Alloy, Tactile sensing.

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Authors: V.Ashok, A.Nirmalkumar, N.Jeyashanthi

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A method and apparatus for noninvasive measurement of blood glucose concentration based on transilluminated laser beam via the Index Finger has been reported in this paper. This method depends on atomic gas (He-Ne) laser operating at 632.8nm wavelength. During measurement, the index finger is inserted into the glucose sensing unit, the transilluminated optical signal is converted into an electrical signal, compared with the reference electrical signal, and the obtained difference signal is processed by signal processing unit which presents the results in the form of blood glucose concentration. This method would enable the monitoring blood glucose level of the diabetic patient continuously, safely and noninvasively.

Keywords: Anisotropy factor, Blood glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Noninvasive method, Photo detectors.

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Authors: Nicoletta Adamo-Villani

Abstract:

In this paper we report a study aimed at determining the most effective animation technique for representing ASL (American Sign Language) finger-spelling. Specifically, in the study we compare two commonly used 3D computer animation methods (keyframe animation and motion capture) in order to ascertain which technique produces the most 'accurate', 'readable', and 'close to actual signing' (i.e. realistic) rendering of ASL finger-spelling. To accomplish this goal we have developed 20 animated clips of fingerspelled words and we have designed an experiment consisting of a web survey with rating questions. 71 subjects ages 19-45 participated in the study. Results showed that recognition of the words was correlated with the method used to animate the signs. In particular, keyframe technique produced the most accurate representation of the signs (i.e., participants were more likely to identify the words correctly in keyframed sequences rather than in motion captured ones). Further, findings showed that the animation method had an effect on the reported scores for readability and closeness to actual signing; the estimated marginal mean readability and closeness was greater for keyframed signs than for motion captured signs. To our knowledge, this is the first study aimed at measuring and comparing accuracy, readability and realism of ASL animations produced with different techniques.

Keywords: 3D Animation, American Sign Language, DeafEducation, Motion Capture.

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Authors: S. Parasuraman, Ler Shiaw Pei

Abstract:

In this paper, the bio-mechanical analysis of human joints is carried out and the study is extended to the robot manipulator. This study will first focus on the kinematics of human arm which include the movement of each joint in shoulder, wrist, elbow and finger complexes. Those analyses are then extended to the design of a human robot manipulator. A simulator is built for Direct Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics of human arm. In the simulation of Direct Kinematics, the human joint angles can be inserted, while the position and orientation of each finger tips (end-effector) are shown. Inverse Kinematics does the reverse of the Direct Kinematics. Based on previous materials obtained from kinematics analysis, the human manipulator joints can be designed to follow prescribed position trajectories.

Keywords: Kinematics, Human Joints, Robotics, Robot Dynamics, Manipulators.

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