Touch Screen Monitor Research Articles

Beta-band power modulation in the human amygdala differentiates between go/no-go responses in an arm-reaching task

Objective. Traditionally known for its involvement in emotional processing, the amygdala’s involvement in motor control remains relatively unexplored, with sparse investigations into the neural mechanisms governing amygdaloid motor movement and inhibition. This study aimed to characterize the amygdaloid beta-band (13–30 Hz) power between ‘Go’ and ‘No-go’ trials of an arm-reaching task. Approach. Ten participants with drug-resistant epilepsy implanted with stereoelectroencephalographic (SEEG) electrodes in the amygdala were enrolled in this study. SEEG data was recorded throughout discrete phases of a direct reach Go/No-go task, during which participants reached a touchscreen monitor or withheld movement based on a colored cue. Multitaper power analysis along with Wilcoxon signed-rank and Yates-corrected Z tests were used to assess significant modulations of beta power between the Response and fixation (baseline) phases in the ‘Go’ and ‘No-go’ conditions. Main results. In the ‘Go’ condition, nine out of the ten participants showed a significant decrease in relative beta-band power during the Response phase (p ⩽ 0.0499). In the ‘No-go’ condition, eight out of the ten participants presented a statistically significant increase in relative beta-band power during the response phase (p ⩽ 0.0494). Four out of the eight participants with electrodes in the contralateral hemisphere and seven out of the eight participants with electrodes in the ipsilateral hemisphere presented significant modulation in beta-band power in both the ‘Go’ and ‘No-go’ conditions. At the group level, no significant differences were found between the contralateral and ipsilateral sides or between genders. Significance. This study reports beta-band power modulation in the human amygdala during voluntary movement in the setting of motor execution and inhibition. This finding supplements prior research in various brain regions associating beta-band power with motor control. The distinct beta-power modulation observed between these response conditions suggests involvement of amygdaloid oscillations in differentiating between motor inhibition and execution.

Development of a soil electrical conductivity measurement system in paddy fields

This study aims to develop a data collection system for measuring soil electrical conductivity (EC) in Paddy Fields using the Wenner measurement principle, with one electrode configuration based on the Veris 3100 measuring machine, and a second electrode configuration with fixed electrodes. The result is a system that measures soil EC using the fixed electrode configuration for more stable results compared to the coulter electrode configuration on the Veris 3100. This system comprises three main components: a 7-inch industrial touchscreen monitor used for real-time monitoring and storing collected data on external memory, a controller that provides reverse direct current (DC) power supply to the electrodes and measures voltage and current parameters on the electrodes, two mechanical configurations including six electrodes in contact with the soil. The system is developed to operate best after soil preparation and before seed sowing. The collected data is processed and compared to actual measurements using an artificial neural network (ANN), resulting in an R2=0.7449, equivalent to linear regression. The system has been successfully installed and operated on a handheld tractor and tested in Paddy Fields on the outskirts of Can Tho City, Vietnam.

Design and preparation of a thematic showcase on alien species at the Museum of Zoology of the University of Catania (Italy)

As part of the Interreg FAST (Fight Alien Species Transborder) project, in which the Zoology Museum of the University of Catania (Italy) is involved, in the Museum main room a thematic exhibition relating to alien species, also equipped with interactive supports, has been planned. This action is part of the communication strategy of the aforementioned project, providing for the promotion of Citizen Science initiatives that bring all citizens closer to this problem, increasing their awareness and participation. Some of the most representative and iconic animals linked to this issue will be exhibited within this space. Visitors will be able to observe both vertebrates such as the Nutria (Myocastor coypus Molina, 1782) or the American pond turtle (Trachemys scripta Thunberg in Schoepff, 1792), and invertebrates such as the Red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier, 1790) or the Louisiana red crayfish (Procambarus clarkii Girard, 1852). Also, a large poster illustrating all the species of alien birds in Europe will complete the exhibition, which will also be accompanied by information panels in Italian and English regarding not only the animals on display but also the aims and objectives of the FAST project. Adjacent to the exhibition space an 80-inch touch screen monitor will be installed with a software, also for children, for the recognition of native and alien species, accompanied by information collected in a database on alien invasive species present in Sicily and in Malta.

User perception of a developed GCash cash-in and cash-out machine in the Philippines

<span>The use of cashless credits in the Philippines has grown since the pandemic has begun. However, the transitions to these changes using cashless transactions have to be addressed. Kiosks and other machines that offer cash-in have been significant, but a model that does not use transactions through banks can be possible which can offer both cash-in and cash-out transactions. In this paper, a developed machine that caters both GCash cash-in and cash-out has been evaluated based on users’ perception on functionality, acceptability, and usefulness. The machine is built with a graphical user interface (GUI) which is a programmed touch screen monitor, bill acceptor, and bills and coins dispenser. The functionality based on the 50 users’ perceptions resulted in 94% excellent in loading bills, 92% accuracy on receiving the cash-in amount less the charges, 92% in dispensing bills less the charges, and 72% faster than the usual speed of transaction. All the respondents agreed that the machine is very convenient and user-friendly, while 94% said that it is very useful and they wanted it in their area. The results suggest that the machine be deployed for public use and be reproduced.</span>

#4753 TELEDIALYSIS: THE FIRST NORTHEAST ITALY EXPERIENCE OF TELEHEALTH IN PERITONEAL DIALYIS PATIENTS

Abstract Background and Aims During Covid19 epidemic, International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis recommend “ People on PD should stay at home. Hospital visits should be minimized for only urgent indications. Consultations should otherwise be conducted by telehealth”. In 2021 in Italy Government enforce plan to develop Telehealth and to create a new Nephrology home model to provide better oversight of care with remote monitoring.Telehealth has been used to manage patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and demonstrated equal outcomes in CKD care by either in-person or virtual visits. Telehealth also help facilitate patient education about home dialysis modalities and self-care, especially in peritoneal dialysis setting (PD). We report the first experience in the Northeast of Italy with Teledialysis, a combination of PD technique and new technology devices that we used together to overcome clinical, social and psychological barriers to PD. Method In our pilot study, we enrolled 12 consecutive Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD) patients from our Nephrology program in “San Bassiano Hospital”, Bassano del Grappa, Vi, Italy. Teledialysis was perform with the combination of two systems: 1- A Web platform Sharesource (Baxter Renal care ®) that with a mod-M added to APD device supports remote patient management through secure communication with can allows details of the home dialysis treatment and provide to the clinician the ability to act on that assessment by updating the patient device setting to the cycler. 2-Totem eVISUS System (TesiSquare®) that is a plug and play system consisting of two units: a) a transportable remote station at the patient's home (Totem) equipped with high performance camera, touchscreen monitor, speaker microphone hand free and computers, internet routers for fixed and mobile phone, wireless access point and remote control to answer calls remotely and b) a Control Station (in our Hospital) that by a simple use of a mouse form our healthcare personnel can connect to one or more patients at the same time and check the Totem Camera. (Figure 1) Figure 1:The Teledialysis System: 1) Sharesource for remote control; 2) Totem at home access point with remote control. 3) Central station in the hospital for virtual evaluation. We control day by day PD sessions by sharesource and we provide virtual support to our patients for medications of catheter exit-site and catheter exit-site monitoring and instructions for PD training; we also perform clinical evaluation status, we check PD effluent color and we aid patients and care givers for PD session management. Results During an observation period of 11 months we enrolled 12 consecutive patients (4m/8F) with an average age of 73 yrs; cognitive impairment, diabetes, hypertension, chronic heart failure and peripheral vascular disease (PVD) were common comorbidities (see Figure 2). Figure 2:Characteristcs of the patients. We perform 60 teledialysis sessions with an average duration of 26’ minutes. We don’t detect any exit Site Infection (ESI), Tunnel infection or Peritonits in our population; none of our patients require urgently hospital or emergency room admission. Only once we suggest access to our department for fever and dyspnea and the patient require a one week hospitalization for acute bacterial pneumonia. (Table 1) Conclusion Our preliminary results shown that Teledialysis is a safe, reliable, flexible and effective system and is easy to use for our patients; we assert that technology really can help nephrologist to improve PD program and aid patients to overcome barriers to select PD and avoid fear of the failure. Teledialysis promote a real integration between Hospital and our territory by a new care pathway.

Peri-hand space: A helping hand for faster object recognition in children.

Visual processing is altered for stimuli located near the hands, in what is termed peri-hand space, but it is unclear whether peri-hand effects are stable across the lifespan. To investigate this, adults and 5- to 8-year-old children completed a naturalistic visual search task on a touchscreen monitor while wearing eye-tracking glasses. Upon recognizing a previously specified target image in a 12-image array, they released a pushbutton with their left index finger in order to reach out and touch the target. Participants completed the task twice, once with their right hand positioned on the monitor beside the visual array and once with their right hand positioned in their lap. Both children and adults were faster at recognizing the target when their right hand was near the array, but the magnitude of this peri-hand effect was greater in children than adults. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that object recognition may be facilitated within peri-hand space to a greater extent during childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Feasibility of measuring eye–hand coordination in children with developmental delay using Sanet Vision Integrator

Eye–hand coordination is a visuomotor task that enables one to look, localize, and touch objects. Eye–hand coordination is known to be poor in children with developmental delay. In this study, we assessed the feasibility of measuring eye–hand coordination task in children with developmental delay using Sanet Vision Integrator (SVI), a commercially available device. Children (age: 3–16 years) with developmental delay and their age-similar typically developing peers were enrolled. White circles (5.5°) on a black background were presented on the SVI touch screen monitor. Participants popped these circles by touching it. Reaction time, accuracy, and an overall performance score were computed. Participants could perform the task from 4 years of age and with visual acuity 20/400 (6/120) or better. This resulted in 85% (17/20) of children with developmental delay and 95% (19/20) of typically developing children completing the task. Children with developmental delay were significantly ( p < .001) less accurate (56%) and took longer (2.63 s) to complete the task when compared with their peers (accuracy = 93%, reaction time = 1.46 s). The overall performance score of children with developmental delay was also lower than their peers by a factor of 3.3. Eye–hand coordination performance can be measured and quantified with SVI. The quantification of speed and accuracy is possible and a unitary measure combining speed-accuracy can be computed. The task can be performed both by typically developing children and by children with developmental delay. Thus, it is feasible to measure eye–hand coordination using SVI. Such quantification will be useful for children undergoing interdisciplinary therapies for their medical conditions.

A Smart Technology Intervention in the Homes of People with Mental Illness and Physical Comorbidities.

Appropriate support in the home may not be readily available for people living in the community with mental illness and physical comorbidities. This mixed-method study evaluated a smart home technology intervention for individuals within this population as well as providing health care providers with health monitoring capabilities. The study recruited 13 participants who were offered a smartphone, a touchscreen monitor, and health devices, including smartwatches, weigh scales, and automated medication dispensers. Healthcare providers were able to track health device data, which were synchronized with the Lawson Integrated DataBase. Participants completed interviews at baseline as well as at 6-month and 12-month follow-ups. Focus groups with participants and care providers were conducted separately at 6-month and 12-month time points. As the sample size was too small for meaningful statistical inference, only descriptive statistics were presented. However, the qualitative analyses revealed improvements in physical and mental health, as well as enhanced communication with care providers and friends/family. Technical difficulties and considerations are addressed. Ethics analyses revealed advancement in equity and fairness, while policy analyses revealed plentiful opportunities for informing policymakers. The economic costs are also discussed. Further studies and technological interventions are recommended to explore and expand upon in-home technologies that can be easily implemented into the living environment.

A Touchscreen Device for Behavioral Testing in Pigs.

Pigs are becoming more common research models due to their utility in studying neurological conditions such as traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s Disease. However, behavioral tasks often require a large apparatus and are not automated, which may disinterest researchers in using important functional measures. To address this, we developed a touchscreen that pigs could be trained on for behavioral testing. A rack-mounted touchscreen monitor was placed in an enclosed, weighted audio rack. A pellet dispenser was operated by a radio frequency transceiver to deliver fruit-flavored sugar pellets from across the testing room. Programs were custom written in Python and executed on a microcomputer. A behavioral shaping program was designed to train pigs to interact with the screen and setup responses for future tasks. Pigs rapidly learned to interact with the screen. To demonstrate efficacy in more complex behavior, two pigs were trained on a delay discounting tasks and two pigs on a color discrimination task. The device held up to repeated testing of large pigs and could be adjusted to the height of minipigs. The device can be easily recreated and constructed at a relatively low cost. Research topics ranging from brain injury to pharmacology to vision could benefit from behavioral tasks designed to specifically interrogate relevant function. More work will be needed to develop tests which are of specific relevance to these disciplines.

Effects of virtual reality erotica on ejaculate quality of sperm donors: a balanced and randomized controlled cross-over within-subjects trial

BackgroundPrevious research has shown that the type and duration of erotic material that men have access to during masturbation can influence semen parameters. To our knowledge, the use of virtual reality (VR) headsets to present erotica has not previously been studied. We reasoned that, because VR can provide a more immersive experience to the user, semen parameters of masturbatory ejaculates may be altered.MethodsThis study had a balanced and randomized controlled cross-over within-subjects design. 504 ejaculates were collected from 63 sperm donors at 4 locations in Denmark. During masturbation each donor was instructed to observe erotic material either on a touch screen monitor or using a VR headset. The order of each pair of within-subject treatments was randomized by the throw of a dice. Anonymized data were analysed with linear mixed and piecewise structural equation models.ResultsBoth abstinence period and VR-use influenced the total number of motile spermatozoa ejaculated. For short abstinence periods, VR-use increased the number of motile sperm in the ejaculate. However, the difference between VR and non-VR ejaculates decreased as abstinence period increased such that there was no difference at the mean abstinence period of 58 h. For longer abstinence periods, total motile sperm counts were lower, on average, when men used VR compared to those that did not.ConclusionThe use of VR headsets to view erotica had a strong positive effect on the number of motile sperm in an ejaculate when the donor’s abstinence time was short (< 24 h). VR-use could improve the ejaculate quality of men who are asked to provide samples after a short period of abstinence, such as men in infertile partnerships producing samples for ART or cancer patients depositing sperm before treatment.Trial registrationTrial retrospectively registered on 13 July 2022 at ClinicalTrials.gov. Identifier: NCT05457764.

Обучение макак-резусов задаче отсроченного сравнения с образцом на сенсорном мониторе

The delayed matching-to-sample task (DMTS) is often used in animal working memory studies. In the classical DMTS paradigm, an animal is presented with a sample (three-dimensional object or image), and after some time—from seconds to minutes—with two stimuli, one of which is identical to the sample, while the other one is new. The animal gets reinforcement for choosing a stimulus identical to the sample. In non-human primate studies, researchers often use computerized versions of this test, with a touchscreen monitor for presenting stimuli and recording animal responses. However, these researchers do not normally discuss the process of teaching animals to perform this task on a touchscreen monitor, which is often a challenge for the experimenter. In this work, we describe the procedure for teaching rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) to perform the DMTS task, using a computerized setup with a touchscreen monitor for stimulus presentation (geometric shapes of different colours). To teach monkeys, we used a training version of the task, where the sample is not just replaced by stimuli for matching, but shifts in the direction of one of the positions of stimuli for matching. With this training version of the task, it took us only one experimental session to teach six male monkeys to perform the DMTS task with a moving stimulus. Furthermore, we gradually increased task complexity by increasing the number of samples simultaneously presented for memorisation. Five out of six monkeys learned the more complex version of the task with two samples and proceeded to performing the task with three samples. This procedure for teaching monkeys to perform the DMTS task with varying numbers of samples presented for memorisation will promote the use of sensor screens for this test instead of actual physical objects, which will expand the opportunities for cognitive research on monkeys.

Predicting children's audiovisual speech recognition thresholds based on unimodal performance

This study examined the extent to which individual differences in children’s audiovisual speech recognition thresholds are explained by their performance in unimodal auditory and unimodal visual conditions. Auditory-only and audiovisual speech recognition thresholds were measured in fifty children between 7 and 9 years of age using an adaptive closed-set speech recognition task in a two-talker speech masker. Children heard color-number combinations and responded by choosing the color-number combination on a touch-screen monitor. Visual-only speech recognition accuracy scores were measured using the same stimuli and closed-set response format. Correlations and linear modeling were used to examine the extent to which visual-only speech recognition accuracy, auditory-only speech recognition thresholds, and age predict audiovisual speech recognition thresholds. Audiovisual speech recognition thresholds were positively correlated with auditory-only speech recognition thresholds and negatively correlated with visual-only accuracy. A linear model explained 38% of variance in audiovisual thresholds and indicated that children with better visual-only accuracy had lower audiovisual thresholds. Effects of auditory-only accuracy and age were non-significant. These results suggest that lipreading ability contributes to individual differences in 7- to 9-year-old children’s audiovisual recognition of color-number stimuli in a two-talker speech masker.

A Proposal of Implementation of Sitting Posture Monitoring System for Wheelchair Utilizing Machine Learning Methods.

This paper presents a posture recognition system aimed at detecting sitting postures of a wheelchair user. The main goals of the proposed system are to identify and inform irregular and improper posture to prevent sitting-related health issues such as pressure ulcers, with the potential that it could also be used for individuals without mobility issues. In the proposed monitoring system, an array of 16 screen printed pressure sensor units was employed to obtain pressure data, which are sampled and processed in real-time using read-out electronics. The posture recognition was performed for four sitting positions: right-, left-, forward- and backward leaning based on k-nearest neighbors (k-NN), support vector machines (SVM), random forest (RF), decision tree (DT) and LightGBM machine learning algorithms. As a result, a posture classification accuracy of up to 99.03 percent can be achieved. Experimental studies illustrate that the system can provide real-time pressure distribution value in the form of a pressure map on a standard PC and also on a raspberry pi system equipped with a touchscreen monitor. The stored pressure distribution data can later be shared with healthcare professionals so that abnormalities in sitting patterns can be identified by employing a post-processing unit. The proposed system could be used for risk assessments related to pressure ulcers. It may be served as a benchmark by recording and identifying individuals’ sitting patterns and the possibility of being realized as a lightweight portable health monitoring device.

Augmented reality in robotic assisted orthopaedic surgery: A pilot study

BackgroundThe research and development of augmented-reality (AR) technologies in surgical applications has seen an evolution of the traditional user-interfaces (UI) utilised by clinicians when conducting robot-assisted orthopaedic surgeries. The typical UI for such systems relies on surgeons managing 3D medical imaging data in the 2D space of a touchscreen monitor, located away from the operating site. Conversely, AR can provide a composite view overlaying the real surgical scene with co-located virtual holographic representations of medical data, leading to a more immersive and intuitive operator experience. Materials and MethodsThis work explores the integration of AR within an orthopaedic setting by capturing and replicating the UI of an existing surgical robot within an AR head-mounted display worn by the clinician. The resulting mixed-reality workflow enabled users to simultaneously view the operating-site and real-time holographic operating informatics when carrying out a robot-assisted patellofemoral-arthroplasty (PFA). Ten surgeons were recruited to test the impact of the AR system on procedure completion time and operating surface roughness. Results and DiscussionThe integration of AR did not appear to require subjects to significantly alter their surgical techniques, which was demonstrated by non-significant changes to the study’s clinical metrics, with a statistically insignificant mean increase in operating time (+0.778 s, p = 0.488) and a statistically insignificant change in mean surface roughness (p = 0.274). Additionally, a post-operative survey indicated a positive consensus on the usability of the AR system without incurring noticeable physical distress such as eyestrain or fatigue. ConclusionsOverall, these study results demonstrated a successful integration of AR technologies within the framework of an existing robot-assisted surgical platform with no significant negative effects in two quantitative metrics of surgical performance, and a positive outcome relating to user-centric and ergonomic evaluation criteria.

Usability Study of a Novel Collaborative Health IT in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Non-mandated technologies hold the promise of increasing health care quality by rendering care that is patient-centered, collaborative, and team approach-driven. Large Customizable Interactive Monitor (LCIM), a non-mandated collaborative health information technology (HIT), is a flat panel touch screen monitor that displays validated patient information from the electronic health record (EHR), including vital signs, laboratory results, medications, X-rays, and interventions. The present study conducts semi-structured interviews with 33 parents and 36 providers to address gaps in post-adoption research on collaborative inpatient LCIM in pediatric settings. The study identified 15 usability issues experienced by doctors and patients’ families while using LCIM. The themes were surrounded around data display characteristics, intuition, physical properties, features supporting or opposing the user’s mental model, and technical problems. Filling these gaps produces scientific knowledge about how providers and patients’ family members perceive LCIM technology’s usability.

Tones slow down visuomotor responses in a visual-spatial task

The current study examined how simple tones affect speeded visuomotor responses in a visual-spatial sequence learning task. Across the three reported experiments, participants were presented with a visual target that appeared in different locations on a touchscreen monitor and they were instructed to touch the visual targets as quickly as possible. Visual sequences were either paired with sounds that correlated with the location of the target, paired with sounds that did not correlate with the location of the target, or the sequences were presented in silence (baseline). Response times decreased across training and participants were slower to respond to the visual stimuli when the sequences were paired with tones. Moreover, these interference effects were more pronounced early in training and explicit instructions directing attention to the visual modality had little effect on eliminating auditory interference, suggesting that these interference effects may stem from bottom-up factors and do not appear to be under attentional control. These findings have implications on tasks that require the processing of simultaneously presented auditory and visual information and provide support for a proposed mechanism underlying auditory dominance on a task that is typically better suited for the visual modality.

The effect of pelage, background, and distance on predator detection and the evolution of primate color vision.

Primates' predators, such as carnivore mammals, usually rely on camouflage to increase proximity to prey and start a predatory attempt. Camouflage depends not only on the color pattern presented by a predator's pelage but also on the background scene in which the hunting takes place. Another factor that influences camouflage effectiveness is prey's color vision since a given camouflage strategy might not work for all visual phenotypes. Still, little research has been made on the effect of primate visual phenotype on predator detection. Here, we investigate the effects of natural pelages, background scenarios, visual phenotypes, and detection distances on predator detection. We used photographs of taxidermized carnivores (ocelots, cougars, and lesser grisons) as detection stimuli, taken in three different natural scenarios (forest, savanna, and grassland), and at two viewing distances (near and far). On a touchscreen monitor, sets of four images (only one containing a hidden animal) were randomly presented to 39 human males (19 dichromats and 20 trichromats). We found that trichromats, when compared to dichromats, present a lower latency and a higher accuracy of carnivore detection for some conditions tested. We also found that pelage color, background scenario, and detection distance interact to influence the effectiveness of camouflage. Our results suggest that trichromacy might be even more advantageous for carnivore detection than thought before, since it facilitates detection of mammals with diverse pelage colorations, in environments with different phytophysiognomies, and at longer distances. We also propose that the higher rates of dichromacy found in modern human societies could have resulted from a relaxation in predation.

Artificial Intelligence in education: Using heart rate variability (HRV) as a biomarker to assess emotions objectively

The aim of this study was to assess the emotions of happiness and sadness objectively to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool in education. There were two stages in the study. The inclusion criteria for selecting participants were healthy adults in local community with no known medical diagnosis. Those with a history of mental health problems, mood disorders, and cardiovascular and pulmonary problems were excluded. At Stage 1, subjects were asked to categorize the selected video clips downloaded from YouTube into happiness, sadness, and others. The subjects in Stage 1 did not participate in Stage 2. At Stage 2, the videos were presented randomly via computer to each subject who could, immediately after he/she had watched a video clip, input his/her respective emotion ratings through a touch-screen monitor. Simultaneously his/her HRV was captured using a Polar watch with chest belt during the entire Stage 2. A total of 239 subjects participated in the study. Of them, 158 (66.1%) were female and 81 (33.9%) were male. The mean ages for females and males were 34.10 (sd ​= ​18.11) and 37.51 (sd ​= ​18.35) respectively. In the Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) model, a sensitivity of 70.7% that the model correctly identified a subject’s happiness, while a specificity of 58.4% that the model correctly identified sadness. Prediction of the emotions of happiness and sadness using HRV measures was supported. HRV measures does provide an objective method to assess the emotions. Further work could be done to explore the prediction of other emotions. • The classification method of the PLS-DA is a feasible process for classifying emotions. • Prediction of the emotions of happiness and sadness by HRV measures was supported. • Stable peaks of the R-R interval are crucial to the emotion prediction model.

Does Threat Have an Advantage After All? - Proposing a Novel Experimental Design to Investigate the Advantages of Threat-Relevant Cues in Visual Processing.

The automatic visual attentional procession of threatening stimuli over non-threatening cues has long been a question. The so-called classical visual search task (VST) has quickly become the go-to paradigm to investigate this. However, the latest results showed that the confounding results could originate from the shortcomings of the VST. Thus, here we propose a novel approach to the behavioral testing of the threat superiority effect. We conducted two experiments using evolutionary relevant and modern real-life scenes (e.g., forest or street, respectively) as a background to improve ecological validity. Participants had to find different targets in different spatial positions (close to fovea or periphery) using a touch-screen monitor. In Experiment 1 participants had to find the two most often used exemplar of the evolutionary and modern threatening categories (snake and gun, respectively), or neutral objects of the same category. In Experiment 2 we used more exemplars of each category. All images used were controlled for possible confounding low-level visual features such as contrast, frequency, brightness, and image complexity. In Experiment 1, threatening targets were found faster compared to neutral cues irrespective of the evolutionary relevance. However, in Experiment 2, we did not find an advantage for threatening targets over neutral ones. In contrast, the type of background, and spatial position of the target only affected the detection of neutral targets. Our results might indicate that some stimuli indeed have an advantage in visual processing, however, they are not highlighted based on evolutionary relevance of negative valence alone, but rather through different associational mechanisms.

Digital Information System and Waifinding

Generally new students and new visitors in a building often experience difficulties when searching for a space, especially a building that has a lot of space. As well as having a complex space, both classrooms and staff workspaces. Usually visitors who have just entered the building's environment ask the security information parties or other visitors to provide information on classrooms or staff workspace sought. Another way for visitors to find information on conventional building space is available, but the alternative method requires a lot of time. For this reason, this study was made in the campus building, using NetBeans IDE software applying the closest path search algorithm based on the pixel index value on the map image. The system will display the closest landing map and information on the lecturer room staff room and lecture classrooms and search for lecturer data information. Likewise the search for staff and lecturers by writing their names in the search panel on the touch screen monitor. then pressing the "take me there" button, the system will show the direction to the workspace and provide staff information. To view announcement information, users simply select the announcement menu, then choose the announcement category. With this system, visitors are expected to have no difficulties in finding space and staff and campus information. The purpose of this study is to be able to provide a map of the direction of the building on campus from the position of the system to the classroom and the staff room and lecturer room. Besides that, it can also provide information about campus activities, announcements and even events to students and visitors, designed with an attractive interface that is easy to use.&#x0D; Keywords: Building Map, Waifinding, Digital Information, LCD screen, NetBeans IDE