Targeting Tasks Research Articles

Consumer Behaviour and Meta Marketing

Meta Marketing is an online marketing platform designed to help businesses reach their marketing goals. With Meta Marketing, businesses can create and manage their marketing campaigns, analyze their marketing performance, and take advantage of advanced features like automated segmentation and targeted messaging. Meta Marketing helps businesses streamline their marketing efforts by automating campaign setup, segmentation, and targeting tasks. Businesses can also use Meta Marketing to create and manage their campaigns, track and analyze their results, and customize their messaging for each target audience. This article focuses on the impact of Meta marketing on consumer behavior.Purpose: To Study the consumer behavior of meta-marketing. To understand the strategy adopted by meta-marketers in influencing the behavior of the consumer

Mouse Sensitivity in First-Person Targeting Tasks

Mouse Sensitivity in First-Person Targeting Tasks

Effects of the Specific Eye Fixation Training on Fine Visuomotor Coordination in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

This study investigated the effects of quiet eye training (QET) on the neuropsychological functioning and fine motor performance of children with attention deficits. The participant cohort consisted of 106 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) between the ages of 8 and 12 years. The children were assigned to either the QET group (n = 54) or the control group (n = 52). The QET group went through a 5-week intervention in which the performance of blocks of targeting tasks was preceded by watching split-screen video footage featuring the gaze and body movements of a skilled model performing a throwing motion. Both groups underwent pre-test and post-test assessments, which included the reaction test of alertness, go/no-go inhibition test, and motor performance series test. The QET group demonstrated significant improvements in attentional engagement, inhibitory control, and fine motor skills, which require precise and fast visuomotor coordination. These results highlight the potential benefits of QET intervention in ameliorating attention deficits and enhancing fine aiming motor skills in children with ADHD. However, task specificity was evident, indicating that the intervention effects were most pronounced for the hand fine motor aiming tasks requiring both precision and speed.

Locomotion control during curb descent: Bilateral ground reaction variables covary consistently during the double support phase regardless of future foot placement constraints.

During community ambulation, anticipatory adaptations in gait are key for navigating built, populated and natural environments. It has been argued that some instability in gait can be functionally beneficial in situations demanding high maneuverability, and while the mechanisms utilized to maintain locomotor balance are well understood, relatively less is known about how the control of gait stability changes to facilitate upcoming maneuvers in challenging environments. The double support phase may be important in this regard; since both feet can push off the ground simultaneously, there is greater control authority over the body's movement during this phase. Our goal was to identify how this control authority is exploited to prepare for upcoming maneuvers in challenging environments. We used synergy indices to quantify the degree of coordination between the ground reaction forces and moments under the two feet for stabilizing the resultant force and moment on the body during the double support phase of curb descent. In contrast to our expectations, we observed that the kinetic synergy indices during curb descent were minimally influenced by expected foot targeting maneuvers for the subsequent step. Only the resultant moment in the frontal plane showed reduced stability when targeting was required, but the synergy index was still high, indicating that the resultant moment was stable. Furthermore, the synergy indices indicated that the main function of the ground reaction variables is to maintain stability of whole-body rotations during double support, and this prerogative was minimally influenced by the subsequent foot targeting tasks, likely because the cost of losing balance while descending a curb would be higher than the cost of mis-stepping on a visual target. Our work demonstrates the salience of stabilizing body rotations during curb negotiation and improves our understanding of locomotor control in challenging environments.

Manually Acquiring Targets From Multiple Viewpoints Using Video Feedback.

The effect of camera viewpoint was studied when performing visually obstructed psychomotor targeting tasks. Previous research in laparoscopy and robotic teleoperation found that complex perceptual-motor adaptations associated with misaligned viewpoints corresponded to degraded performance in manipulation. Because optimal camera positioning is often unavailable in restricted environments, alternative viewpoints that might mitigate performance effects are not obvious. A virtual keyboard-controlled targeting task was remotely distributed to workers of Amazon Mechanical Turk. The experiment was performed by 192 subjects for a static viewpoint with independent parameters of target direction, Fitts' law index of difficulty, viewpoint azimuthal angle (AA), and viewpoint polar angle (PA). A dynamic viewpoint experiment was also performed by 112 subjects in which the viewpoint AA changed after every trial. AA and target direction had significant effects on performance for the static viewpoint experiment. Movement time and travel distance increased while AA increased until there was a discrete improvement in performance for 180°. Increasing AA from 225° to 315° linearly decreased movement time and distance. There were significant main effects of current AA and magnitude of transition for the dynamic viewpoint experiment. Orthogonal direction and no-change viewpoint transitions least affected performance. Viewpoint selection should aim to minimize associated rotations within the manipulation plane when performing targeting tasks whether implementing a static or dynamic viewing solution. Because PA rotations had negligible performance effects, PA adjustments may extend the space of viable viewpoints. These results can inform viewpoint selection for visual feedback during psychomotor tasks.

Multivariate random forest prediction of poverty and malnutrition prevalence.

Advances in remote sensing and machine learning enable increasingly accurate, inexpensive, and timely estimation of poverty and malnutrition indicators to guide development and humanitarian agencies’ programming. However, state of the art models often rely on proprietary data and/or deep or transfer learning methods whose underlying mechanics may be challenging to interpret. We demonstrate how interpretable random forest models can produce estimates of a set of (potentially correlated) malnutrition and poverty prevalence measures using free, open access, regularly updated, georeferenced data. We demonstrate two use cases: contemporaneous prediction, which might be used for poverty mapping, geographic targeting, or monitoring and evaluation tasks, and a sequential nowcasting task that can inform early warning systems. Applied to data from 11 low and lower-middle income countries, we find predictive accuracy broadly comparable for both tasks to prior studies that use proprietary data and/or deep or transfer learning methods.

Neurophysiological evidence of how quiet eye supports motor performance.

Prolonged quiet eye (QE) duration is associated with greater performance in various types of targeting and interceptive tasks. However, the mechanism by which QE affects performance remains debatable. This study aimed to test the validity of the pre-programming and online control hypotheses using electromyography (EMG), electrooculography (EOG) and electroencephalography (EEG) during a golf putting task. Twenty-one college students were recruited for this study. Each participant performed 100 golf putting trials during which the putting performance, EMG, EOG, and EEG signals were recorded. The QE duration including the pre- and post-movement initiation components, and movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) were analyzed off-line. We found that successful putts were associated with longer QEtotal (the total QE duration from QE onset to QE offset), QEpre (QE occurring before movement initiation), and QEpost (QE occurring after movement initiation) durations than failed putts. Greater cortical activation in the MRCPs was observed within the prefrontal, premotor, and parietal cortices during successful putts compared with failed putts. These findings suggest that QE serves both pre-programming and online control roles in supporting golf putting performance.

Continued Validation of Ultrasound Guidance Targeting Tasks: Relationship with Procedure Performance

To determine if deliberative practice with novel ultrasound guidance targeting tasks improves simulated procedural skill. In a nonrandomized interventional trial first year medical students practiced the previous described dowel and straw targeting tasks 1 hour a week for 4 weeks (training group) or had no training (controls). Afterward, they each performed a simulated amniocentesis (AMN) and chorionic villus sampling (CVS) procedure. Procedures were scored using a global rating scale (GRS) and compared between groups with Mann-Whitney U tests. Two-way random effects intraclass correlation coefficients for the inter- and intra-rater variability were calculated for each item in both GRS's. The training group (n = 22) had higher scores on several aspects and overall performance of AMN compared to controls (n = 15). There were no differences between groups for CVS. The inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the GRS's for both AMN and CVS ranged from 0.16 to 0.89 with most values demonstrating good to excellent agreement. This study demonstrates validity evidence in the content and internal structure domains for the AMN and CVS simulators and their accompanying GRS's. Repetitive practice of the targeting tasks improved student performance in simulated AMN, but modifications are needed for it to be relevant to other procedures such as CVS.

Improved Procedure Performance With Practice of Ultrasound Guidance Targeting Tasks

PURPOSE: To determine if repetitive practice of ultrasound guidance targeting tasks improves procedural skill in a simulated setting. BACKGROUND: Due to a decrease in ultrasound guided invasive procedures other training methods are required to insure all MFM fellows graduate with sufficient skill to independently perform these procedures. METHODS: 1st year medical students either practiced the targeting tasks during 4 weekly one hour sessions (training group) or had no training (controls). Afterward all performed a simulated amniocentesis (AC) and chorionic villus sampling (CVS). Procedures were timed and the presence of the following recorded: 1) proper angle of entry, 2) excessive (>0.5 cm) needle movement during aspiration, and 3) critical errors (touching the fetus during AC, touching the opposite uterine wall or amniotic cavity during CVS). RESULTS: There were 22 in the training group and 15 controls. AC completion time was 140±28 seconds (sec) vs. 211±62 sec in the training and control groups, respectively (p (0.0%) vs. 1/15 (6.7%), 3/22 (13.6%) vs. 7/15 (46.7%), and 6/22 27.3%) and 8/15 (53.3%) had improper angles, excessive needle movement (p (9.1%) vs. 10/15 (66.7%), 1/22 (4.5%) vs. 8/15 (53.3%), and 3/22 (13.6%) vs. 9/15 (60.0%) had improper angles, excessive needle movement, and critical errors, respectively (all p<0.05). DISCUSSION: Repetitive practice of the targeting tasks improved student performance in simulated AC and CVS. There appeared to be greater benefit for CVS performance. Regular practice of the targeting tasks will likely benefit MFM fellow training.

Safety-Enhanced Model-Free Visual Servoing for Continuum Tubular Robots Through Singularity Avoidance in Confined Environments

Minimally invasive procedures have gained ever-increasing popularity due to their advantages of smaller incisions, faster recoveries, fewer complications, and reduced scarring to name a few. With the force exertion and curvilinear flexibility at their distal end effectors, the continuum tubular robots have the potential to perform robot-assisted trans-orifice minimally invasive surgery, such as transnasal and transoral operations. During these procedures, it is important and challenging for the continuum tubular robot to automatically adjust its pose according to the target surgical sites and compensate for undesired disturbance, such as respiratory motions. In this paper, a singularity-avoidance visual servoing algorithm based on Jacobian Optimization has been proposed to improve safety and control continuum tubular robots based on intra-operative visual feedback in confined environments. Without the prior knowledge of robot kinematics or hand-eye calibration between the robot and the endoscope, the proposed model-free eye-in-hand visual servoing technique is capable of accomplishing the targeting tasks by adopting the safety-enhanced singularity avoidance mechanism and an efficient image-processing algorithm. The multiple experiments, including simulations, experiments conducted in a confined environment, and cadaveric studies, have been implemented and demonstrated to illustrate the superiority of the proposed singularity-avoidance visual servoing method.

Continued Validation of Ultrasound Guidance Targeting Tasks: Assessment of Internal Structure

We previously demonstrated validity evidence for our novel ultrasound-guided invasive procedure targeting tasks in the content, response process, relations with other variables, and consequences validity domains. Here, we investigate their internal structure by assessing their interrater, intrarater, and test-retest reliability. In this Institutional Review Board approved nonrandomized interventional trial first year medical students performed our previously described dowel and straw ultrasound guidance targeting tasks as a pretest. Afterward, the training group had four weekly 1-hour training sessions. The control group had no further training. Both groups then had a posttest for both tasks. The training group was re-evaluated 2 and 5 months later. Completion time in seconds, errors, and error adjusted time (5 seconds penalty/error) were recorded. Pretest and posttest performance was compared within groups, and the amount of improvement from pretest to posttest was compared between groups. Interrater, intrarater, and test-retest interclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated. Although some improvements from pretest to posttest were seen in both groups, greater improvements were seen in the training group. This skill was retained for at least several months. The interrater and intrarater ICCs were excellent (range 0.83-0.93). The test-retest ICCs were good to excellent in all but one performance measure (0.50-0.78). Student performance on the targeting tasks improved markedly after training and persisted for several months. The interrater and intrarater reliability were excellent, while the test-retest reliability was good. This provides additional validity evidence for our novel ultrasound-guided invasive procedure targeting curriculum.

Continued Validation for a Task Trainer and Targeting Curriculum for Ultrasound Guided Invasive Procedures

PURPOSE: To assess the effect of training and the inter- and intra-rater variability of a targeting curriculum for ultrasound guided invasive procedures. BACKGROUND: We previously demonstrated the content, face, and construct validity of our curriculum. Here we assess its inter- and intra-rater reliability. METHODS: Echogenic targets (wooden dowels, plastic straws, and wooden balls) were placed in water filled buckets covered with simulated skin (ballistic gelatin). We assessed 23 1st year medical students performing two targeting tasks (guiding the needle to multiple targets in a random sequence), held 4 weekly one hour training sessions, and reassessed their performance. Completion time in seconds, errors (as recorded by multiple assessors), and error adjusted time (5 sec penalty/error) were recorded. These measures were compared before and after training using a repeated measures t-test. Inter- and intra-rater inter-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated. RESULTS: Completion time, errors, and error adjusted time on the dowel tasks were 176±70, 7.4±, 213±95, respectively before training, and 95±61, 2.7±3.4, and 109±74, respectively after training (all P<.0001). The completion time, errors, and error adjusted time on the straw task were 319±98, 9.4±4.6, and 366±114, respectively before training, and 179±57, 3.1±3.2, and 195±67, respectively after training (all P<.0001). The inter-rater ICC for the dowel and straw tasks were 0.83 and 0.91, respectively. The intra-rater ICCs were 0.93 and 0.90, respectively. DISCUSSION: Conclusions: Student performance on the targeting tasks improved markedly after 4 weekly training sessions. The inter- and intra-rater reliability was excellent. This provides additional validity evidence for our novel ultrasound guided invasive procedure task targeting curriculum.

Evolution of upper limb kinematics four years after subacute robot-assisted rehabilitation in stroke patients

ABSTRACTPurpose: To assess functional status and robot-based kinematic measures four years after subacute robot-assisted rehabilitation in hemiparesis.Materials and methods: Twenty-two patients with stroke-induced hemiparesis underwent a ≥3-month upper limb combined program of robot-assisted and occupational therapy from two months post-stroke, and received community-based therapy after discharge. Four years later, 19 (86%) participated in this follow-up study. Assessments 2, 5 and 54 months post-stroke included Fugl-Meyer (FM), Modified Frenchay Scale (MFS, at Month 54) and robot-based kinematic measures of targeting tasks in three directions, north, paretic and non-paretic: distance covered, velocity, accuracy (root mean square (RMS) error from straight line) and smoothness (number of velocity peaks; upward changes in accuracy and smoothness represent worsening). Analysis was stratified by FM score at two months: ≥17 (Group 1) or <17 (Group 2). Correlation between impairment (FM) and function (MFS) was explored at 54 months.Results: FM scores were stable from 5 to 54 months (+1[−2;4], median [1st; 3rd quartiles], ns). Kinematic changes (three directions pooled) were: distance −1[−17;2]% (ns); velocity, −8[−32;28]% (ns); accuracy, +6[−13;98]% (ns); smoothness, +44[−6;126]% (p < 0.05). Group 2 showed decline vs. Group 1 (p < 0.001) in FM (Group 1, +3[1;5], p < 0.01; Group 2, −7[−11;−1], ns) and accuracy (Group 1, −3[−27;38]%, ns; Group 2, +29[17;140]%, p < 0.001). At 54 months, FM and MFS were highly correlated (Pearson's rho = 0.89; p < 0.001).Conclusions: While impairment appeared stable four years after robot-assisted upper limb training during subacute post-stroke phase, movement kinematics deteriorated despite community-based therapy, especially in more severely impaired patients.Trial registration: EudraCT 2016-005121-36. Registration: 2016-12-20. Date of enrolment of the first participant to the trial: 2009-11-24.

Unmanned air vehicles for targeting tasks

Unmanned aerial vehicle in surveillance and reconnaissance operations are well known with its flight operations confining to the lateral and longitudinal plane where the altitude is maintained constant. The objective in these operations is to have a wide field of view when camera is mounted underneath the aircraft. However, in obstacle detection algorithms as well as in weapon-target assignments by an unmanned combat air vehicle, the sensors such as cameras and radars are mounted along the X direction of the body fixed frame. The unmanned vehicles with such sensor locations are expected to offer obstacle-camera and weapon-target line-of-sight engagements. These operations by the unmanned vehicles are referred as targeting tasks. In this paper, a procedure to use unmanned vehicles as targeting systems in pitch plane is presented with respect to a fixed order controller at the inner loop. The remote pilot's inputs at the outer loop is disengaged and to mimic these inputs, various flight path angles are scheduled thus depicting autonomous characteristics. Illustrations to depict targeting tasks are provided.

Distributed Control for Groups of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Performing Surveillance Missions and Providing Relay Communication Network Services

This article presents the development of an autonomous and distributed movement coordination algorithm for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) swarms used in communication relay networks and in exploratory area surveillance missions. This work studies the performance of a hybrid algorithm combining pheromone maps, market auction paradigms and proactive link maintenance mechanisms to create a self-organizing flying network capable of providing network support for the UAV nodes already engaged in exploration and targeting tasks in the surveillance missions. In order to validate the proposal, simulations were performed assessing the desired performance aspects related to the target allocation and network connectivity. The acquired results provide evidence that the proposed solution is able to maintain the balance between the performance goals.

Validation of Ultrasound Guidance Targeting Tasks: Relationship of Performance and Clinical Experience.

To assess whether health care provider performance on a novel task trainer and a set of newly created ultrasound guidance targeting tasks relates with their level of clinical experience. In a prospective cohort study, two assessment sessions were carried out in which inexperienced (n=21 and n=15) and experienced (n=14 and n=10) health care providers completed five previously described ultrasound guidance targeting tasks. Raw completion time, number of targeting errors, and error-adjusted completion time for each task were compared between groups with a t test for independent measures. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed to estimate whether error-adjusted completion time or number of errors could accurately differentiate between groups. Raw completion time was similar between groups. The number of errors and error-adjusted completion time were significantly lower in the experienced health care providers in all but the out-of-plane dowel task. The receiver operating characteristic analyses of number of errors demonstrated very high areas under the curve (0.93-0.98), sensitivities (100%), specificities (76-86%), positive likelihood ratios (4.2-7.0), and negative likelihood ratios (<0.001) indicating excellent differentiation between experienced and inexperienced health care providers. These values were notably lower in the receiver operating characteristic analyses of error-adjusted completion times. Task performance related well with a health care provider's level of clinical experience providing evidence of construct validity. For each task, we were able to determine a cutoff for number of errors that categorized experienced and inexperienced health care providers with very favorable sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratios, and negative likelihood ratios. Our findings suggest it may be possible to use these cutoffs to objectively classify trainees as competent or not competent.

Design and evaluation of an augmented reality simulator using leap motion.

Advances in virtual and augmented reality (AR) are having an impact on the medical field in areas such as surgical simulation. Improvements to surgical simulation will provide students and residents with additional training and evaluation methods. This is particularly important for procedures such as the endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), which residents perform regularly. Simulators such as NeuroTouch, have been designed to aid in training associated with this procedure. The authors have designed an affordable and easily accessible ETV simulator, and compare it with the existing NeuroTouch for its usability and training effectiveness. This simulator was developed using Unity, Vuforia and the leap motion (LM) for an AR environment. The participants, 16 novices and two expert neurosurgeons, were asked to complete 40 targeting tasks. Participants used the NeuroTouch tool or a virtual hand controlled by the LM to select the position and orientation for these tasks. The length of time to complete each task was recorded and the trajectory log files were used to calculate performance. The resulting data from the novices' and experts' speed and accuracy are compared, and they discuss the objective performance of training in terms of the speed and accuracy of targeting accuracy for each system.

Development and Assessment of a Novel Task Trainer and Targeting Tasks for Ultrasound-guided Invasive Procedures

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) recommends that all providers performing ultrasound-guided invasive procedures be competent in a core set of guidance skills common to all ultrasound-guided procedures, including in-plane and out-of-plane needle guidance and needle imaging optimization techniques such as probe translation, rotation, and heel-toe standoff. To allow for the practice and assessment of these core skills, we have created a novel task trainer and set of targeting tasks, and sought to obtain validity evidence in the content and response process domains for this training and assessment system according to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. We have constructed an ultrasound-guided invasive procedure training system and five targeting tasks that focused on the needle guidance skills outlined by the AIUM. All tasks were performed by obstetrics and gynecology or maternal-fetal medicine physicians with and without experience in ultrasound-guided invasive procedures during a series of simulation workshops. All participants completed a survey regarding the trainer's and the tasks' usefulness in the training of inexperienced physicians. The physicians who completed the tasks had favorable views of task trainer and curriculum. The targeting curriculum was felt to allow practice of all of the core guidance skills outlined by the AIUM. The average response provided for all of the tasks was 4.0 or greater, with half of the items having an average response of 4.5 or higher. We have constructed a task trainer that incorporates all of the core skills outlined by the AIUM. All five tasks received very favorable reviews from both experienced and inexperienced providers. Taken together, our findings suggest they have strong content and response process validity evidence.

Is an external focus of attention more beneficial than an internal focus to ball catching in children?

The performance benefits of adopting an external relative to an internal focus of attention have been demonstrated for many different targeting and balance tasks. No study has examined attentional focus effects for interceptive motor skills. Also, the majority of studies have used adult participants. In this study, children (mean age: 8.75 years, SD=0.79; 15 girls, 9 boys) were required to catch tennis balls in the frontal plane under the external focus (EF), internal focus (IF), and control (Cont) conditions. Participants were asked to stand behind a yellow line (2 × 100 cm), 15 m apart from a tennis ball throwing machine. In a within-participant design, participants performed 10 trials under each IF (“concentrate on your hands”), EF (“concentrate on the ball”), or Cont (no focus instructions) conditions. The order of conditions was counterbalanced. Performance data were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures on attentional focus conditions (internal, external, and control) (alpha=.05). Catching performance was significantly different&amp;nbsp;and more effective in the EF (M=1.53, SD=0.25) than in the IF (M=1.39, SD=0.35) condition, while both EF and IF were not significantly different from the Cont (M=1.49, SD=0.28) condition. The current findings suggest that the external focus of attention is more beneficial, compared to the internal focus, to motor performance of an interceptive skill in children.

Gesteme-free context-aware adaptation of robot behavior in human-robot cooperation.

Cooperative robotics is receiving greater acceptance because the typical advantages provided by manipulators are combined with an intuitive usage. In particular, hands-on robotics may benefit from the adaptation of the assistant behavior with respect to the activity currently performed by the user. A fast and reliable classification of human activities is required, as well as strategies to smoothly modify the control of the manipulator. In this scenario, gesteme-based motion classification is inadequate because it needs the observation of a wide signal percentage and the definition of a rich vocabulary. In this work, a system able to recognize the user's current activity without a vocabulary of gestemes, and to accordingly adapt the manipulator's dynamic behavior is presented. An underlying stochastic model fits variations in the user's guidance forces and the resulting trajectories of the manipulator's end-effector with a set of Gaussian distribution. The high-level switching between these distributions is captured with hidden Markov models. The dynamic of the KUKA light-weight robot, a torque-controlled manipulator, is modified with respect to the classified activity using sigmoidal-shaped functions. The presented system is validated over a pool of 12 näive users in a scenario that addresses surgical targeting tasks on soft tissue. The robot's assistance is adapted in order to obtain a stiff behavior during activities that require critical accuracy constraint, and higher compliance during wide movements. Both the ability to provide the correct classification at each moment (sample accuracy) and the capability of correctly identify the correct sequence of activity (sequence accuracy) were evaluated. The proposed classifier is fast and accurate in all the experiments conducted (80% sample accuracy after the observation of ∼450ms of signal). Moreover, the ability of recognize the correct sequence of activities, without unwanted transitions is guaranteed (sequence accuracy ∼90% when computed far away from user desired transitions). Finally, the proposed activity-based adaptation of the robot's dynamic does not lead to a not smooth behavior (high smoothness, i.e. normalized jerk score <0.01). The provided system is able to dynamic assist the operator during cooperation in the presented scenario.