Touch Devices Research Articles

SwivelTouch: Boosting Touchscreen Input with 3D Finger Rotation Gesture

Today, touchscreens stand as the most prevalent input devices of mobile computing devices (smartphones, tablets, smartwatches). Yet, compared with desktop or laptop computers, the limited shortcut keys and physical buttons on touchscreen devices, coupled with the fat finger problem, often lead to slower and more error-prone input and navigation, especially when dealing with text editing and other complex interaction tasks. We introduce an innovative gesture set based on finger rotations in the yaw, pitch, and roll directions on a touchscreen, diverging significantly from traditional two-dimensional interactions and promising to expand the gesture library. Despite active research in estimation of finger angles, however, the previous work faces substantial challenges, including significant estimation errors and unstable sequential outputs. Variability in user behavior further complicates the isolation of movements to a single rotational axis, leading to accidental disturbances and screen coordinate shifts that interfere with the existing sliding gestures. Consequently, the direct application of finger angle estimation algorithms for recognizing three-dimensional rotational gestures is impractical. SwivelTouch leverages the analysis of finger movement characteristics on the touchscreen captured through original capacitive image sequences, which aims to rapidly and accurately identify these advanced 3D gestures, clearly differentiating them from conventional touch interactions like tapping and sliding, thus enhancing user interaction with touch devices and meanwhile compatible with existing 2D gestures. User study further confirms that the implementation of SwivelTouch significantly enhances the efficiency of text editing on smartphones.

Inequalities in Uptake and Use of Digital Applications for Home-Monitoring of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration in an Elderly Visually Impaired Population: The MONARCH Study.

To describe inequalities in the Monitoring for Neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration Reactivation at Home (MONARCH) diagnostic test accuracy study for: recruitment; participants' ability to self-test; and adherence to testing using digital applications during follow-up. Home-monitoring vision tests included two tests implemented as software applications (apps: MyVisionTrack and MultiBit) on an iPod Touch device. Patients were provided with all hardware required to participate (iPod and MIFI device) and trained to use the apps. Regression models estimated associations of age, sex, Index of Multiple Deprivation, strata of time since first diagnosis, and baseline visual acuity at study entry on outcomes of willingness to participate, ability to perform tests, and adherence to weekly testing. A minority of patients who were approached were willing-in-principle to participate. Increasing age was associated with being unwilling-in-principle to participate. Patients from the most deprived areas had a 47% decrease in odds of being willing compared to those from the middle quintile deprived areas (odds ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval = 0.32, 0.88). Increasing age and worse deprivation were not consistently associated either with ability to self-monitor with the index tests, or adherence to weekly testing. Associations of increasing age and worse deprivation index were associated with unwillingness-in-principle to participate despite the provision of hardware' highlighting the potential for inequality with interventions of the kind evaluated. The clear evidence of inequalities in participation should prompt future research on ways to encourage adoption of mobile health technologies by underserved populations.

Designing Survey-Based Mobile Interfaces for Rural Patients With Cancer Using Apple's ResearchKit and CareKit: Usability Study.

Despite the increased accessibility and availability of technology in recent years, equality and access to health-related technology remain limited to some demographics. In particular, patients who are older or from rural communities represent a large segment of people who are currently underusing mobile health (mHealth) solutions. System usability continues to hinder mHealth adoption among users with nontraditional digital literacy. This study aims to investigate if state-of-the-art mobile app interfaces from open-source libraries provide sufficient usability for rural patients with cancer, with minimal design changes and forgoing the co-design process. We developed Assuage (Network Reconnaissance Lab) as a research platform for any mHealth study. We conducted a pilot study using Assuage to assess the usability of 4 mobile user interfaces (UIs) based on open-source libraries from Apple's ResearchKit and CareKit. These UIs varied in complexity for reporting distress symptoms. Patients with cancer were recruited at the Markey Cancer Center, and all research procedures were conducted in person. Participants completed the distress assessment using a randomly selected UI in Assuage with little to no assistance. Data were collected on participant age, location, mobile app use, and familiarity with mHealth apps. Participants rated usability with the System Usability Scale (SUS), and usability issues were documented and compared. A one-way ANOVA was used to compare the effect of the UIs on the SUS scores. We recruited 30 current or postsurgery patients with cancer for this pilot study. Most participants were aged >50 years (24/30, 80%), from rural areas (25/30, 83%), had up to a high school education (19/30, 63%), and were unfamiliar with mHealth apps (21/30, 70%). General mobile app use was split, with 43% (14/30) of the patients not regularly using mobile apps. The mean SUS score across the UIs was 75.8 (SD 22.2), with UI 3 and UI 4 achieving an SUS score ≥80, meeting the industry standard for good usability of 80. Critical usability issues were related to data input and navigation with touch devices, such as scale-format questions, vertical scrolling, and traversing multiple screens. The findings from this study show that most patients with cancer (20/30, 67%) who participated in this study rated the different interfaces of Assuage as above-average usability (SUS score >68). This suggests that Apple's ResearchKit and CareKit libraries can provide usable UIs for older and rural users with minimal interface alterations. When resources are limited, the design stage can be simplified by omitting the co-design process while preserving suitable usability for users with nontraditional technical proficiency. Usability comparable to industry standards can be achieved by considering heuristics for interface and electronic survey design, specifically how to segment and navigate surveys, present important interface elements, and signal gestural interactions.

Efficacy and safety of a novel pain management device, AT-04, for endometriosis-related pain: study protocol for a phase III randomized controlled trial

BackgroundEndometriosis-related pain encompassing dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, and chronic pelvic pain, reduces the quality of life in premenopausal women. Although treatment options for endometriosis alleviate this pain, approximately one-third of women still experience pain even after receiving treatment, indicating the need for novel approaches to pain relief in those women. The Angel Touch device (AT-04) is a portable magnetic fields irradiation device that incorporates a combination of mixed alternative magnetic fields at 2 kHz and 83.3 MHz. A phase III trial confirmed the efficacy and safety of AT-02, a prototype of AT-04, for pain relief in patients with fibromyalgia.MethodsThis is a phase III, multicenter, prospective, randomized, sham device-controlled, double-blind, parallel study. The participants will be premenopausal women aged > 18 years who have endometriosis-related pain with at least moderate severity. Considering dropouts, 50 participants have been deemed appropriate. Eligible women will be centrally registered, and the data center will randomly allocate them in a 1:1 ratio to the intervention and control groups. Women in the intervention group will receive electromagnetic wave irradiation generated by AT-04 and those who in the control group will wear a sham device for 16 weeks, and both groups will wear AT-04 for another 4 weeks. The primary outcome measure is the change in the Numeric Rating Scale score at 16 weeks compared with the baseline. Secondary outcome measures are efficacy for pelvic pain including dysmenorrhea and non-menstrual pain, and chronic pelvic pain not related to menstruation, dysmenorrhea, and dyspareunia, and improvement of quality of life during the study period. Safety will be evaluated by device defects and the frequency of adverse events. The study protocol has been approved by the Clinical Study Review Board of Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan, and will be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the Japanese Clinical Trials Act and relevant notifications.DiscussionThis study aims to develop a novel method of managing endometriosis-related pain. The AT-04 is an ultralow-invasive device that can be used without inhibiting ovulation, suggesting potential benefits to women of reproductive-age.Trial registration number Japan Registry of Clinical Trials (jRCTs032230278).

Development and Evaluation of a Learning-based Model for Real-time Haptic Texture Rendering.

Current Virtual Reality (VR) environments lack the haptic signals that humans experience during real-life interactions, such as the sensation of texture during lateral movement on a surface. Adding realistic haptic textures to VR environments requires a model that generalizes to variations of a user's interaction and to the wide variety of existing textures in the world. Current methodologies for haptic texture rendering exist, but they usually develop one model per texture, resulting in low scalability. We present a deep learning-based action-conditional model for haptic texture rendering and evaluate its perceptual performance in rendering realistic texture vibrations through a multi-part human user study. This model is unified over all materials and uses data from a vision-based tactile sensor (GelSight) to render the appropriate surface conditioned on the user's action in real-time. For rendering texture, we use a high-bandwidth vibrotactile transducer attached to a 3D Systems Touch device. The results of our user study shows that our learning-based method creates high-frequency texture renderings with comparable or better quality than state-of-the-art methods without the need to learn a separate model per texture. Furthermore, we show that the method is capable of rendering previously unseen textures using a single GelSight image of their surface.

UbiSurface: A Robotic Touch Surface for Supporting Mid-air Planar Interactions in Room-Scale VR

Room-scale VR has been considered an alternative to physical office workspaces. For office activities, users frequently require planar input methods, such as typing or handwriting, to quickly record annotations to virtual content. However, current off-the-shelf VR HMD setups rely on mid-air interactions, which can cause arm fatigue and decrease input accuracy. To address this issue, we propose UbiSurface, a robotic touch surface that can automatically reposition itself to physically present a virtual planar input surface (VR whiteboard, VR canvas, etc.) to users and to permit them to achieve accurate and fatigue-less input while walking around a virtual room. We design and implement a prototype of UbiSurface that can dynamically change a canvas-sized touch surface's position, height, and pitch and yaw angles to adapt to virtual surfaces spatially arranged at various locations and angles around a virtual room. We then conduct studies to validate its technical performance and examine how UbiSurface facilitates the user's primary mid-air planar interactions, such as painting and writing in a room-scale VR setup. Our results indicate that this system reduces arm fatigue and increases input accuracy, especially for writing tasks. We then discuss the potential benefits and challenges of robotic touch devices for future room-scale VR setups.

Three-Dimensional Touch Device with Two Terminals.

A crossbar array is an essential element that determines the operating position and simplifies the structure of devices. However, in the crossbar array, wiring numerous electrodes to address many positions poses significant challenges. In this study, a method is proposed that utilizes only two electrodes to determine multiple positions. The method significantly simplifies the wiring and device fabrication process. Instead of defining the node location of the crossbar, it is experimentally demonstrated that the x-y-z coordinates can be determined from i) the resistance change as a function of distance, ii) the resistance variation influenced by the electrode composition, and iii) capacitance fluctuation resulting from changes in the dielectric thickness. By employing two-terminal transparent electrodes, a fully functional 3D touch device is successfully fabricated, introducing a groundbreaking approach to simplify input device architectures.

Telepresence for surgical assistance and training using eXtended reality during and after pandemic periods

Existing challenges in surgical education (See one, do one, teach one) as well as the COVID-19 pandemic make it necessary to develop new ways for surgical training. Therefore, this work describes the implementation of a scalable remote solution called "TeleSTAR" using immersive, interactive and augmented reality elements which enhances surgical training in the operating room. The system uses a full digital surgical microscope in the context of Ear-Nose-Throat surgery. The microscope is equipped with a modular software augmented reality interface consisting an interactive annotation mode to mark anatomical landmarks using a touch device, an experimental intraoperative image-based stereo-spectral algorithm unit to measure anatomical details and highlight tissue characteristics. The new educational tool was evaluated and tested during the broadcast of three live XR-based three-dimensional cochlear implant surgeries. The system was able to scale to five different remote locations in parallel with low latency and offering a separate two-dimensional YouTube stream with a higher latency. In total more than 150 persons were trained including healthcare professionals, biomedical engineers and medical students.

Individuals with and without Visual Impairments Use a Force Feedback Device to Identify the Friction and Hardness of Haptic Surfaces

The general purpose of this study is to promote access to haptic virtual environments. Using a haptic device, people with and without visual impairments (VI) are able to feel different textures and compare these textures based on different surface properties, i.e., friction and hardness. The objectives of this study were to examine the following: (a) whether the variables of friction and hardness were identifiable through the Touch device (Phantom Omni) and could therefore function as 3D haptic variables; (b) if there were differences between people with VI and sighted individuals in terms of their performance; (c) the differences that should exist between the values of each variable so that the virtual surfaces could be identified as different to each other; and (d) if the individual characteristics of participants have an impact on their performance. The results showed that it is necessary to use surfaces which are differentiated based on the degree of friction and hardness because the haptic properties of a virtual object are then better perceived. Individuals with VI need more time and more effort to understand friction and hardness, respectively. With the motivation of increasing access to object perception for people with VI in a virtual environment, accessibility advisors and experts can extract useful information for the development of functional and efficient 3D objects for haptic perception.

How Mobile Touch Devices Foster Cognitive Offloading in the Elderly: The Effects of Input and Feedback

When the elderly have a working memory burden, the cognitive burden can be transferred to mobile touch devices. However, the decline of physical function and cognitive ability affects the ability of the elderly to interact with mobile devices. Optimizing the interaction of mobile touch devices is one of the effective ways to reduce the cognitive burden of the elderly. This study intended to investigate the effects of the input and feedback methods on mobile touch devices on cognitive offloading behaviors in older adults. The experiment adopts a 3 × 3 within-subject design, and the independent variables include 3 input methods (mouse, direct touch, and stylus) and 3 feedback methods (visual feedback, auditory feedback, and combined audiovisual feedback). Thirty elderly participants were invited to complete a visual working memory test and subjective preference questionnaires. The results of the study show that (i) the input methods have a significant effect on the cognitive offloading of the elderly, who, under the stylus condition, have the most offloaded working memory and lower cognitive load; (ii) the feedback methods have a significant effect on the cognitive offloading of the elderly, among which they, under the combined visual and auditory feedback, offload working memory more frequently and have lower cognitive load; and (iii) in terms of subjective evaluation, both the input and feedback methods affect the satisfaction of the elderly: among the 3 input methods, the elderly displayed the highest satisfaction with the stylus, and among the 3 feedback methods, the elderly have the highest satisfaction with the combined audio-visual feedback. Studies have shown that the input and feedback methods of mobile touch devices are important factors affecting the cognitive offloading behavior and subjective evaluation of the elderly. The conclusions of this research provide an important reference for designing interactive methods suitable for the elderly.

Evaluating Accuracy, Completion Time and Usability of Everyday Touch Devices for Contouring

<h3>Purpose/Objective(s)</h3> Adaptive radiation therapy aims to account for patients' continuous anatomical changes and update the treatment plans on a daily basis. Despite the potential benefits, technological limitations hinder clinical adoption: daily re-evaluation of contours associated with adaptive planning is time-intensive and difficult to access, and often requires direct provider input which classically involves visualizing and editing contours on immobile desktop computers. This project evaluated the efficacy of everyday touch devices (i.e., tablet and phone) for contouring using a novel cross-platform interface. <h3>Materials/Methods</h3> Guided by user-centered and iterative design principles, we developed a cross-platform web-based contouring application which facilitates CT image navigation and target delineation. In a within-subject study design, we invited 8 radiation oncology residents to contour a liver using 4 different conditions: Desktop & Mouse, Tablet & Stylus, Tablet & Finger, and Phone & Finger. We compared the time spent contouring and assessed accuracy with Dice Similarity Coefficients (DSC). With each interface we administered a System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire which evaluates perceived ease of use. We incorporated repeated-measure ANOVA to assess differences between groups. <h3>Results</h3> Among the participants, using a Tablet & Finger and Phone & Finger produced the shortest time spent contouring per CT slice (<i>p</i> < .001), while Desktop & Mouse led to the longest time per slice (see Table). When comparing participant contours to a baseline gold standard, results were similar between all devices, though the Desktop & Mouse yielded a slightly lower contouring accuracy, and the most accurate was the Tablet & Stylus (<i>p</i> < .0001). Usability assessment after contouring found that participants scored Tablet & Stylus the highest, followed by Tablet & Finger, Desktop & Mouse, and Phone & Finger (<i>p</i> < .01). <h3>Conclusion</h3> Everyday touch devices (i.e., tablet and phone) not only met the standard contouring efficiency with a Desktop & Mouse, but also exceeded expectations in terms of both time spent and accuracy, especially contouring with a Tablet & Stylus which also received significantly better usability scores. Given the improved mobility with touch devices, these results suggest promising implications in addressing technological challenges associated with adaptive radiation therapy.

Structural, optical, and electrical characterizations of silver nanowire/single-layer graphene oxide composite film

Transparent conductive electrodes have been widely used in optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, displays, and touch devices. Although graphene oxide and silver nanowires have attracted considerable attention, novel transparent conductive materials with effective integrated electrical and optical properties are required. However, there are several drawbacks, including the high oxidation instability and interfacial bonding to substrates, which should be overcome for the wide use of metallic nanowires in transparent conductive electrodes. This study demonstrates a simple solution-based method for fabrication of hybrid transparent conducting electrodes based on silver nanowires/single-layer graphene oxide (AgNWs/SLGO). The resulting embedded electrode has a transparency of 91 % in the ultraviolet–visible spectrum region at 550 nm and low sheet resistance of 11 Ω/sq, without degradation after two months at room temperature and ambient air. The thermal stability under an environment with high temperature and humidity was tested. The excellent environmental and thermal stability of the AgNWs/SLGO composite films may facilitate their use in the next generations of optoelectronic devices.

MALDI-TOFMS ile iki türdeş (Leiurus abdullahbayrami; Buthidae) akrep zehirindeki peptit ve proteinlerin karşılaştırmalı analizi

In this study, two Leiurus abdullahbayrami scorpion venoms were analyzed wif MALDI-TOFMS for teh first time and their peptide and protein distributions were compared. Teh total protein amount of teh venoms was measured wif teh Nano Ready Touch device at a wavelength of 280 and was prepared to be equal to 2mg/mL concentration. Afterwards, teh supernatants were separated by centrifugation at +4 ºC for 15 minutes at 15,000 rpm, and 250 µL of matrix solution (18 mg/mL α-CHCA, 1:1; v/v) was added and scorpion venom matrix (AVMx) samples were added. has been prepared. For analysis wif MALDI-TOFMS (Microflex-LT), parallel spots (1µL) from AVMx samples of both scorpion venoms were placed on teh steel plate, and loaded into teh device after drying at room temperature. Teh system was operated in linear positive ion mode in teh mass range of 1-50 kDa, and a 60 Hz nitrogen laser at 337 nm was used as teh ion source. Mass spectra were generated using teh flexAnalysis software (version 3.4). All data were generated virtual gel images containing teh projection of teh peaks in teh venom spectra using teh filo-proteomic TEMPprincipal component analysis (PCA) method supported by teh built-in MATLAB software integrated into teh MALDI Biotyper software (version 3.1). As a result, it has been experimentally determined dat teh relative ratios of peptide and protein molecules and venoms may vary in scorpions belonging to teh same species. On teh other hand, it has been observed dat some basic peptide structures (3555; 3772, 3996, 6780, 6820 Da; m/z) of these creatures, which preserve their species characteristics against evolution, remain teh same.

Can I touch the clothes on the screen? The mental simulation for touch in online fashion shopping

PurposeThis study aims to explore consumers' vicarious experience of touch, namely, mental simulation for touch, through product pictures as visual stimuli and the use of touch devices as motion stimuli in the context of online fashion shopping.Design/methodology/approachParticipants were randomly exposed to one of the two texture conditions (weak vs strong tactile sensitivity). The responses from the participants who used a laptop as a non-touch device and a touch device were considered in the analysis. A total of 179 responses were analyzed with analysis of variance and the PROCESS procedure for path analysis using SPSS 20.0.FindingsThe interaction effects of tactile sensitivity and device types on mental simulation for touch were significant; seeing a less tactile-sensitive product facilitated a greater mental simulation for touch when using a touch device; however, seeing a tactile-sensitive product produced a similar mental simulation for touch, regardless of device types. Furthermore, browsing a less tactile-sensitive product using a touch device increased favorable product attitudes, fully mediated by mental simulation for touch.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on online shopping behaviors of fashion consumers by showing the role of mental simulation for touch that is shaped by the tactile qualities of products and device types. Exploration of this topic can contribute significantly to online fashion retailers because studies on consumers' mental simulation for touch are limited.

Conveying Emotions Through Device-Initiated Touch

Humans have the ability to convey an array of emotions through complex and rich touch gestures. However, it is not clear how these touch gestures can be reproduced through interactive systems and devices in a remote mediated communication context. In this article, we explore the design space of device-initiated touch for conveying emotions with an interactive system reproducing a collection of human touch characteristics. For this purpose, we control a robotic arm to touch the forearm of participants with different force, velocity and amplitude characteristics to simulate human touch. In view of adding touch as an emotional modality in human-machine interaction, we have conducted two studies. After designing the touch device, we explore touch in a context-free setup and then in a controlled context defined by textual scenarios and emotional facial expressions of a virtual agent. Our results suggest that certain combinations of touch characteristics are associated with the perception of different degrees of valence and of arousal. Moreover, in the case of non-congruent mixed signals (touch, facial expression, textual scenario) not conveying a priori the same emotion, the message conveyed by touch seems to prevail over the ones displayed by the visual and textual signals.

17‐1: Self‐Capacitive Touch Sensor Design for OLED On‐Cell Touch

In this work, we propose a self‐capacitive touch sensor for OLED On‐Cell touch. Using self‐capacitive On‐Cell touch sensor, we improve the touch performance including thin cover thickness and large touch area in LGM (Low Ground Mode), miss‐touch issue with multi‐fingers operation and water proof (touch with wet fingers) in traditional mutual‐capacitive OLED On‐Cell touch device. We also reduce the Cs loading of self‐capacitive pattern design in OLED On‐Cell touch structure to get better signal by ratio Δ Cs/Cs. In order to integrate self‐capacitive touch IC and OLED driver IC, we propose a creative OLED TDDI (Touch and Display Driver Integration), which is called NT38770.

Usability of the Virtual Supermarket Test for Older Adults with and without Cognitive Impairment.

This study conducted a preliminary usability assessment of the Virtual Supermarket Test (VST), a serious game-based self-administered cognitive screening test for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Twenty-four healthy older adults with subjective cognitive decline and 33 patients with MCI self-administered the VST and then completed the System Usability Scale (SUS). The average SUS score was 83.11 (SD = 14.6). The SUS score was unaffected by age, education, touch device familiarity, and diagnosis of MCI. SUS score correlated with VST performance (r = –0.496, p = 0.000). Results of this study indicate good usability of the VST.

Evaluating performance on a bespoke maths game with children with Down syndrome

AbstractBackgroundDespite the interest and potential of multi touch devices, there are limited published studies researching their effectiveness and usability specifically with children with Down syndrome, one of the most common groups of children with an intellectual disability. This is particularly true for mathematical learning, an area in which many experience particular difficulty.ObjectivesThe study set out to evaluate a bespoke digital game in which children learned to select which was “more,” a foundational skill for understanding magnitude.MethodsA mixed methods approach was adopted with eight single case studies of children aged 9–14 years. Probes (untaught examples) were introduced to examine progress and the impact on performance in non‐digital contexts.ResultsFive pupils improved their performance on the digital games and this was sustained at the time of the delayed post‐test. Four pupils showed improved performance in non‐taught, non‐digital contexts for both taught and untaught ratios. Disaggregated data reveals the variability in performance, with peak performances occurring at different points of the intervention. The introduction of a two‐player version improved performance for five pupils through promoting sustained attention and strategic responses to winning. One child performed at chance level on the digital game throughout but made gains in non‐digital settings.ConclusionsBespoke learning tools have good potential to promote attention to numerosity. However, progress in digital contexts does not automatically transfer to non‐digital contexts. The study reveals the individual nature of the learning affordances of different pedagogic tools and the place of bespoke games within teachers' repertoires.

To drain or not to drain an inflatable penile prosthesis implantation? A multi-institutional experience tracking scrotal hematoma and infection occurrence

ABSTRACT Introduction Although the placement of a drain after inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP) implantation has become a current recommendation by many surgeons, some institutions still disagree believing drainage to be a potential source of infection. Objectives We hereby present our data to defy this belief and to add to the body of evidence supporting postoperative (PO) drainage. Furthermore, we attempt to define the optimal duration for drainage. Methods Our subjects underwent IPP implantation by three European high volume surgeons. All implantations were performed via the penoscrotal access using the Coloplast Titan Touch device. Only patients without a previous penile implantation were included. We divided our patients into 3 groups: Group 1: no-drain (n=60), Group 2: 24-hour drain (n=60) and Group 3: 72-hour drain (n=60). All patients received similar perioperative antibiotics accordingly to clinical guidelines. Surgical outcomes such as presence or absence of PO scrotal hematoma and infection were evaluated and compared between the 3 groups. We defined hematoma as a scrotal swelling correlated with evidence of scrotal free floating fluid on ultrasound examination. The ultrasound was done after 24 hours and on the 3rd and 10th PO days. Overall PO follow up was for 80 days. Results There were no significant differences in age, BMI, operative time, medical comorbidities among our study groups. The patients from Group 3 developed significantly less hematoma compared to Groups 1 and 2. The exact distribution of hematoma incidence was greatest in Group 1: n=12 (20%, p=0.005) followed by Group 2: n=8 (13.3%, p=0.05) and least in Group 3: n=1 (1.7%, p=0.002). Four patients in the no-drain group (6.7% p=0.005) developed IPP associated infection requiring device removal. All four had a hematoma prior to the infection. Groups 2 and 3 were infection-free. Conclusion Prolonged drainage up to 72 hours after virgin IPP implantation significantly reduces hematoma rates without the increased risk of drain-associated infections. Moreover, we believe that the development of a scrotal hematoma, by itself, may be a potential cause for surgical site infection. Disclosure Work supported by industry: no. A consultant, employee (part time or full time) or shareholder is among the authors (Coloplast).

Security provision for protecting intelligent sensors and zero touch devices by using blockchain method for the smart cities

Internet of Things (IoT) networks has gained popularity due to their amazing and cost-effective services and one of the main areas in smart cities. The stability of these networks is based on stable and secure data transmission without any vulnerabilities present used devices. Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks have brought critical interruptions in IoT services and significantly damage the network. In DDoS attacks, attackers utilize botnets, with the capability of frequently exploiting the millions of IoT devices around the globe. After the source code of Mirai malware is loaded on GitHub, the threats are significantly increased. Manufacturer Usage Description (MUD) is an embedded software standard for IoT device makers to advertise device specifications, including the intended communication patterns when it connects to the network. Even though the MUD mechanism is promising exertion, still there is a need for evaluating its viability, recognize its limits, and upgrade its architecture to reduce shortcomings in its architecture as well as to increase its effectiveness. This standard neither identifies the vulnerability path before the creation of the MUD profile. Thus, it is possible to exploit an IoT device even after the MUD profile is issued to the device by manipulating the vulnerabilities in the device. By keeping in mind this situation, this paper discusses the limitations of MUD in detail and proposed a framework to identify the patch and default vulnerabilities by using blockchain method before the generation/creation of MUD profiles. The proposed framework can also mitigate open ports, DDoS attacks, and Brute force attacks. The experiment results show the identification, elimination, and sharing of vulnerability report with vendors and significantly minimized the risk of IoT device exploitation.