Minimalist Design Research Articles

Uncovering Neural Commands from Noisy Dermal Signals—an Experimental Verification of a Minimalistic Robotic Exoskeletal Hand Design for Medical Rehabilitation

Exoskeletal medical rehabilitation devices require the interpretation of neural movement signals via surface electromyographic sensors. In many cases, the signals are imbedded in noise (due to underlying pathologies of the rehab patient) and must be processed such that movement commands can be processed instantly. This paper will report on a prototype design of a device that addresses many of the issues found with previous devices, including the size as well as providing insufficient assistance force, and associated signal processing logic. The prototype addresses these issues by using a tendon drive mechanism actuated by a power screw, which will have the ability to restore mobility to each finger of the user while at the same time providing a low profile and low operating power. The following features were integrated into the system: motor position control and characterization, a LabVIEW controller interface, and an EMG control scheme. The prototype was tested on five healthy participants and a cerebral palsy patient. Conducting computer simulations and testing of a physical prototype reveal that the exoskeleton design is viable. Furthermore, a viable controller was developed for the device and validated experimentally through multiple EMG filtering methods by using discrete wavelet transforms and bandpass filtering. This study also discovered that by using discrete wavelet transforms to filter EMG signals, it is possible for an individual with cerebral palsy to control the device. This paper is an application of data-enabled discovery tools in the field of medical orthotics. It provides guidance to readers relative to the use of signal processing techniques as applied to problems in injury rehabilitation.

Streamlined System for Conducting In Vitro Studies Using Decellularized Kidney Scaffolds.

Kidney regeneration is a complex process that can only be studied in vitro at a limited capacity due to the inherent structural and functional complexity of its tissues. Thus, a suitable platform for conducting cellular response and development should be established from decellularized tissues with intact microarchitecture. In this study, a modular streamlined system was developed to allow manageable handling and setup of in vitro studies using decellularized rat kidneys. The system is composed of commercially available parts that can be reused, interchanged, and reconfigured based on the desired experimental stage and process. Decellularization was confirmed through time-lapse observation, stained tissue sections, genetic material quantification, and protein analysis. The capacity of the bioreactor design to support cell-seeded decellularized kidney constructs was tested by determining viability of seeded podocytes and endothelial cells. Based on the results, decellularized kidneys with renal proteins and intact microstructures can be achieved in relatively shorter periods compared (12 h) to established protocols (96-120 h). The minimalistic kidney bioreactor design not only maintained sterility of decellularized kidney without cells but also permitted manageable maintenance of cell-immobilized constructs for up to 1 week. Through this streamlined system, sustainable and reproducible in vitro experiments for kidney regeneration can be designed and conducted using decellularized kidney as a platform for cell growth and development.

16.02: “La Belle Liégeoise”, the new footbridge in Liège

ABSTRACTThe new footbridge in Liège, known as “La Belle Liégeoise”, was opened on 2 May 2016. Located upstream of the landscape window created by the new Guillemins Esplanade, this bridge provides a connection for soft transport modes from the railway station across the Meuse to La Boverie Park, maintaining clearance for navigation.The site presents a dissymmetry: an urban bank faces a wooded bank. Reflecting this, the structure of the main section on the left bank develops a suspended typology, while the second section on the right bank is supported by struts.The main span over the Meuse is 163 metres for a total length of 294 metres. The 5.5 metre wide decking is positioned laterally to the supporting structure.The footbridge is accessible to “soft” transport modes via the provision of ramps made of variable height steel boxes, supporting the 3.5 metre wide decking of azobé wood. On the right bank, the bridge crosses La Boverie Park through the canopy, offering a new vision of this urban park.The desire to design a thin and elegant structure integrated into the site, combined with the need to restrict navigation on the Meuse as little as possible, led to the obvious use of steel for the main structure.Construction involved 740 tonnes of steel. Structural elements 15 metres long were trucked onto a temporary assembly site. These elements were assembled on the ground in six sections, the largest weighing 400 tonnes for a 150 metre length. These six sections were finally transported by barge, lifted and positioned by three floating cranes. The most impressive section, consisting of the suspended part, was transported horizontally before being re‐erected on site.Finite element analysis was used to determine the reduction elements and check for strength and stability. Funicular geometry tends to maximize the axial forces of elements. For some critical elements (hangers, suspension, pylon, etc.) non‐linear calculations were performed. The same applied for determining the reverse deflection, which reaches 160 cm in the main span.Adopting a minimalist design for the nodes, the hanger connections are welded, meaning the screed or assembly members do not have to be visible.This particularly slender type of structure is sensitive with respect to its vibratory dynamic behaviour. Tuned mass dampers were designed to allow the project to meet the required conditions of comfort.Bureau Greisch, in association with the landscaping architect Corajoud, was responsible for the full architectural and structural design for the footbridge.

Simplified Triped Robot for Analysis of Three-Dimensional Gait Generation

[abstFig src='/00290003/08.jpg' width='230' text='The tripedal robot “Martian petit”' ] Significant efforts to simplify the body structure of multi-legged walking robots have been made over the years. Of these, the Spring-Loaded-Inverted-Pendulum (SLIP) model has been very popular, therefore widely employed in the design of walking robots. In this paper, we develop a SLIP-based tripedal walking robot with a focus on the geometric symmetry of the body structure. The proposed robot possesses a compact, light-weight, and compliant leg modules. These modules are controlled by a distributed control law that consists of decoupled oscillators with only local force feedback. As demonstrated through experiments, the simplified design of the robot makes possible the generation of high-speed dynamic locomotion. Despite the structural simplicity of the proposed model, the generation of several gait-patterns is demonstrated. The proposed minimalistic design approach with radial symmetry simplifies the function of each limb in the three-dimensional gait generation of the robot.

From triboelectric nanogenerator to self-powered smart floor: A minimalist design

Smart flooring systems are important components of intelligent building for purposes such as health care and security. It is finding that its every step more harshly spotlighted than has ever because it is subtle and intimate to people who come into contact with them. Here we presented a floor tracking system using a large-area single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator by simply coupling commercial polyvinyl chloride (PVC) flooring with a thin copper film. The system is not only able to collect and convert ambient mechanical energy to electricity with a power-density of 0.5µA/cm2, but also enables identifying and tracking footstep patterns by analyzing the movement of the users within a specific area. A detailed architecture and implementation of the smart floor is proposed together with an exhaustive test of its multifunction to give a comparison with other solutions already known to the state of art. Besides, the proposed system can also help to make the environment comfortable for high quality of life, as demonstrated by its excellent sterilization and dust removal performance. These multifunctional characteristics making it ideal for many applications including security surveillance, patient monitoring, indoor positioning, asset tracking, and entertainment.

Design and Implementation of a 16-Word by 1-Bit Register File Using Adiabatic Quantum Flux Parametron Logic

We have been developing extremely energy-efficient microprocessors using the adiabatic quantum flux parametron (AQFP) logic. In this study, we designed and fabricated an AQFP register file, which is one of the key building blocks in the microprocessor. The 16-word by 1-bit register file with dual output ports and a single input port was designed by using an AQFP cell library with a minimalist design. The circuit is composed of three decoders and feedback delay latches (D-latches), which are clocked by four-phase excitation currents. The circuits were fabricated using the AIST 10 kA/cm2 Nb process. The total junction number and circuit area are 2544 and 3.1 mm × 5.4 mm, respectively. The estimated energy consumption is 18 aJ per clock cycle for 5 GHz operation. The latency is 1600 ps for 5 GHz operation. In the low-speed test, we confirmed the correct operations across 15 addresses.

SCBF: Exploiting a Collision for Authentication in Backscatter Networks

Backscatter networks are widely applied in real world such as inventory management, RFID-enabled passport, and access control. The security issues rapidly grow in its importance with the widespread uses. Especially, if the access control application identifies a user using a message from a backscatter device, the message can be used for tracking or replay attacks. However, most of the existing security protocols depending on cryptosystems cannot be applied into the backscatter networks due to the minimalist design of backscatter devices. In order to alleviate the security menaces, we propose a novel concept of authentication scheme for backscatter networks. Our scheme uses an unpredictable collision by applying our own data structure called Shifted Counting Bloom Filter (SCBF) . Based on the SCBF, the scheme can reduce the overhead of backscatter devices required for security. Our performance evaluation shows the information-theoretic secrecy and the reliability of our scheme.

A Study on the Usability of Semiotics in Graphic Design

Currently, the current flat design has become a mainstream approach is widely used in web design, computer and mobile phone systems, interface design. In graphic design, graphic symbol design is increasingly being taken seriously and use minimalist design symbols often appear in print design plane, PPT presentations, public areas, identity-oriented system like. This paper discusses the design of graphical symbols flat in graphic design use need to make the audience cognitive ability, graphic symbols standardized principles, design principles angles for effective information design to achieve efficient information communication. Materialized mostly graphic image symbols, and mostly flat graphic indicator; flat screen symbol by the proposed development materialized symbol interface evolved. Materialized the graphical interface and the graphical interface is flat coexist and cannot replace each other. During the design, the designer should be based on the advantages and disadvantages of the two styles complement each other interfaces, common graphical interface design services.

Toward a More Usable Home-Based Video Telemedicine System: A Heuristic Evaluation of the Clinician User Interfaces of Home-Based Video Telemedicine Systems.

BackgroundTelemedicine is the use of technology to provide and support health care when distance separates the clinical service and the patient. Home-based telemedicine systems involve the use of such technology for medical support and care connecting the patient from the comfort of their homes with the clinician. In order for such a system to be used extensively, it is necessary to understand not only the issues faced by the patients in using them but also the clinician.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to conduct a heuristic evaluation of 4 telemedicine software platforms—Doxy.me, Polycom, Vidyo, and VSee—to assess possible problems and limitations that could affect the usability of the system from the clinician’s perspective.MethodsIt was found that 5 experts individually evaluated all four systems using Nielsen’s list of heuristics, classifying the issues based on a severity rating scale.ResultsA total of 46 unique problems were identified by the experts. The heuristics most frequently violated were visibility of system status and Error prevention amounting to 24% (11/46 issues) each. Esthetic and minimalist design was second contributing to 13% (6/46 issues) of the total errors.ConclusionsHeuristic evaluation coupled with a severity rating scale was found to be an effective method for identifying problems with the systems. Prioritization of these problems based on the rating provides a good starting point for resolving the issues affecting these platforms. There is a need for better transparency and a more streamlined approach for how physicians use telemedicine systems. Visibility of the system status and speaking the users’ language are keys for achieving this.

Minimalist 4-bit Processor Focused on Processors Theory Teaching

Objectives: To design and implement a totally-functional 4-bit didactic processor, in order to be applied as a tool for improving the learning process of students of microprocessors courses, and to be used as a base for future applications. Methods/Analysis: This work was reached through the application of a final course project in microprocessor and digital circuit courses, where it was given to the students via web platform, just the basic block diagram (to use Bottom- Up methodology) and they had to complete or design collaboratively the rest of details or blocks which is necessary to work. This processor was implemented using hardware description languages such as: Very fast speed Hardware Description Language (VHDL) and Verilog, on Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Findings: The present one is used as a teaching tool for digital circuits and microprocessor courses in the Technology Faculty of District University (Bogota, Colombia). This minimalist design of the processor was done to reduce the amount of resultant digital gates, in order to implement inside a small digital programmable device. As a result, it was obtained as a simple processor to start with the basic concepts in the learning process of micro-processors and a little improvement of final exams results due to the involving of students into real problems as collaborative designers. Novelty/ Improvements: Reduced design is capable to implement on small CPLD or to be implemented sometimes on FPGA to do parallel applications. Additionally, its reduced size helps to easily understand it and implementing by the students.

On Green Environmental Protection Idea in the Application of Minimalist Style Home Design

Guided by the concept of sustainable development, China started to abandon the traditional growth pattern in the 20th century through low-carbon economic model and low-carbon way of life to realize the sustainable development of society. The green environmental protection idea in home design arises at the historic moment and gets more and more praise. This paper takes minimalist style home design as an example to analyze green environmental protection idea in the application and development of minimalist style home design.

Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia: Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MIJune 19–October 9, 2016Walker Art Center, MinneapolisOctober 24, 2015–February 28, 2016University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film ArchiveFebruary 8–May 21, 2017CatalogueHippie Modernism: The Struggle for UtopiaEdited by Andrew BlauveltMinneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2015.448 pp.; 200 color and 80 b/w ills.Paper $55ISBN 9781935963097

Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia: Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MIJune 19–October 9, 2016Walker Art Center, MinneapolisOctober 24, 2015–February 28, 2016University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film ArchiveFebruary 8–May 21, 2017Catalogue<i>Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia</i>Edited by Andrew BlauveltMinneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2015.448 pp.; 200 color and 80 b/w ills.Paper $55ISBN 9781935963097

A minimal length rigid helical peptide motif allows rational design of modular surfactants

Extensive work has been invested in the design of bio-inspired peptide emulsifiers. Yet, none of the formulated surfactants were based on the utilization of the robust conformation and self-assembly tendencies presented by the hydrophobins, which exhibited highest surface activity among all known proteins. Here we show that a minimalist design scheme could be employed to fabricate rigid helical peptides to mimic the rigid conformation and the helical amphipathic organization. These designer building blocks, containing natural non-coded α-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib), form superhelical assemblies as confirmed by crystallography and microscopy. The peptide sequence is amenable to structural modularity and provides the highest stable emulsions reported so far for peptide and protein emulsifiers. Moreover, we establish the ability of short peptides to perform the dual functions of emulsifiers and thickeners, a feature that typically requires synergistic effects of surfactants and polysaccharides. This work provides a different paradigm for the molecular engineering of bioemulsifiers.

Phase I correction of skeletal Class III malocclusion with a modified tandem appliance

Skeletal Class III malocclusion is considered a syndrome with presentation differing in phenotype as well as genotype and inheritance. Class III malocclusion with retrognathic maxilla has a good prognosis for early treatment and face mask therapy is the traditional appliance of choice. However, patient compliance is a major deterrent. Modified tandem appliance is an effective alternative to face mask in bringing about the requisite changes along with excellent patient compliance, attributed to its minimalist design.

Motion compensation for robotic lung tumour radiotherapy in remote locations: A personalised medicine approach

The purpose of this work is to integrate the concept of patient-in-the-closed-loop application with tumour treatment of cancer-diagnosed patients in remote areas. The generic closed loop control objective is effective synchronisation of the radiation focus to the movement of a lung tissue tumour during actual breathing of the patient. This is facilitated by accurate repositioning of a robotic arm manipulator, i.e. we emulate the Cyberknife Robotic Radiosurgery system. Predictive control with disturbance filter is used in this application in a minimalistic model design. Performance of the control structure is validated by means of simulation using real recorded breathing patterns from patients measured in 3D space. Latency in communication protocol is taken into account, given telerobotics involve autonomous operation of a robot interacting with a human being in different location. Our results suggest that the proposed closed loop control structure has practical potential to individualise the treatment and improves accuracy by at least 15%.

Directional Singularity-Robust Torque Control for Gyroscopic Actuators

Gyroscopic actuation is appealing for wearable applications due to its ability to impart free moments on a body without exoskeletal structures on the joints. We recently proposed an unobtrusive balancing aid consisting of multiple parallel-mounted control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) contained within a backpack-like orthopedic corset. Using conventional CMG control techniques, geometric singularities result in a number of performance issues, including either unintended oscillations or freezing of the gimbals at certain alignments, which are typically mitigated by the addition of redundant actuators or by allowing errors in the generated moment; however, because of the minimalistic design of the proposed device and focus on accurate moment tracking, a new methodology is required. In this paper, a control scheme is proposed for nonredundant CMG systems in which oscillations at saturated states are avoided and all remaining singularities are efficiently escaped by exploiting the system geometry; due to its use of classification-specific singularity proximity measures that account for the command moment orientation, it is named the directional singularity-robust control law. The performance of this control law is assessed in both simulations and hardware testing. The proposed method is suitable for a wide range of CMG systems, including both balancing and aerospace applications.

Single actuator wave-like robot (SAW): design, modeling, and experiments**This research was partially supported by the Helmsley Charitable Trust through the Agricultural, Biological and Cognitive Robotics Initiative of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

In this paper, we present a single actuator wave-like robot, a novel bioinspired robot which can move forward or backward by producing a continuously advancing wave. The robot has a unique minimalistic mechanical design and produces an advancing sine wave, with a large amplitude, using only a single motor but with no internal straight spine. Over horizontal surfaces, the robot does not slide relative to the surface and its direction of locomotion is determined by the direction of rotation of the motor. We developed a kinematic model of the robot that accounts for the two-dimensional mechanics of motion and yields the speed of the links relative to the motor. Based on the optimization of the kinematic model, and accounting for the mechanical constraints, we have designed and built multiple versions of the robot with different sizes and experimentally tested them (see movie). The experimental results were within a few percentages of the expectations. The larger version attained a top speed of 57 cm s−1 over a horizontal surface and is capable of climbing vertically when placed between two walls. By optimizing the parameters, we succeeded in making the robot travel by 13% faster than its own wave speed.

ColectoR, a digital field notebook for voucher specimen collection for smartphones.

Premise of the study:ColectoR was developed to aid botanists in the collection of data for voucher specimens using smartphones, accelerating the process of data capture in situ and its subsequent organization.Methods and Results:ColectoR features a minimalist design that uses an intuitive iconic interface. The integration of external application programming interfaces (APIs) and an automated spreadsheet extends its functionality and increases the information and tools available to the user. This app is currently supported by any Android device.Conclusions:ColectoR provides an efficient method for capturing data in the field while also serving to organize the information into a coherent database, thereby greatly reducing the time required for postcapture data organization and label printing.

Exploring the usability of the central library websites of medical sciences universities

This research aims to determine the usability of the central library websites of medical sciences universities in Iran. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study which employed a heuristic evaluation method to evaluate the usability of the websites. Three trained evaluators independently examined the 12 library websites from 11 July to 10 September 2013 using Nielsen’s usability heuristics. A list of usability problems was obtained and the severity of identified problems was determined. We identified 668 usability problems. The highest number of problems concerned ‘aesthetic and minimalist design’ (27.1%) and the lowest number concerned the ‘help and documentation’ heuristic (1%). Since the importance of libraries’ websites cannot be understated, the websites should consider the identified problems and attempt to address them.

스마트폰 기반 영어 어휘 상황학습 에이전트 개발

Recently, mobile application for english vocabulary learning is being developed actively. However, most mobile English vocabulary learning applications did not effectively connected with the technical advantages of mobile learning. Also,the study of mobile english vocabulary learning app are still insufficient. Therefore, this paper development a english vocabulary context-learning Agent that can practice context learning more reasonably using a location-based service, a character recognition technology and augmented reality technology based on smart phones. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed agent, we have measured the precision and usability. As results of experiments, the precision of learning vocabulary is 89% and 'Match between system and the real world', 'User control and freedom', 'Recognition rather than recall', 'Aesthetic and minimalist design' appeared to be respectively 3.91, 3.80, 3.85, 4.01 in evaluation of usability. It were obtained significant results.