1,721,020 research outputs found
ArchiVico Digitale: a comprehensive and synergistic approach for the preservation and dissemination of local memory to strengthen identity
Full text linkThe main objectives of the “ArchiVico Digitale” project are the digitization, cataloging and web publication on an Omeka-based platform of the documentary material preserved in the Historical Archive of Vicopisano (HAV) to facilitate the access to several
documents and the exploration of thematic discovery paths linked to local historical memory. The result of the publication of this material on the web is a digital archive collecting and enhancing archival documents to allow scholars and the general public to carry out research. Since the HAV keeps a large number of documents gathered in files, a preliminary selection of two types of documents/files was necessary: those in a poor state of conservation and those of extreme interest which bear witness to relations with the territory and historical dynamics. The proposed approach, implemented in synergy between different public and private subjects, provides the restoration of documents in a poor state of conservation, the digitization and archival description of
each selected document, the web publication in a digital archive and the dissemination of the contents of the documents relating to local historical dynamics to students of schools of all levels in educational courses aimed at preserving the collective historical memory. The project, conducted in a three-year period, resulted in 12 thematic
paths for a total of 194 documents (765 image files), a total of 6 restored archives (5,130 image files) and a dissemination activity of the thematic itineraries involving a total of over 160 students and over 15 teachers
Braille Cursor: An Innovative and Affordable Refreshable Braille Display Designed for Inclusion
No full textIn this work we present an innovative, low-cost Refreshable Braille Display (RBD): the key feature of the developed method is represented by a single actuated cursor that refreshes Braille cells composed of mechanically simple, passive pins. In particular, a single electromagnetic actuator, moved on a linear slider, is capable of refreshing a full row of passive pins: each pin consists in a simple metal cylinder and can be reconfigured in a low or high state by an external magnetic field. The design based on passive pins, operated by a single moving actuator, makes the cost of the device almost independent on the number of Braille cells. This is suitable for application in either portable (up to 40 Braille cells) or desktop use (more than 40 Braille cells). Moreover, once the line is refreshed, the pins require no energy to hold their configuration and can withstand very high forces applied by the reading fingers. Finally, dimensions of the passive pins, differently from traditional piezo-actuated RBDs, allow for implementation in matrices of tactile pins displaying not only Braille characters but also generic two dimensional shapes
A survey on innovative refreshable braille display technologies
No full textThis works presents a survey on recent technologies applied for Refreshable Braille Displays (RBD): these devices allow the dynamic rendering of refreshable Braille characters, analogously to a computer monitor rendering text and other visual information. Although commercially available RBD share a similar technology based on piezo actuators, and feature a single line of characters at a relatively high cost, alternative solutions have been proposed in recent years. They include adaptation of existing actuators and technologies to the rendering of Braille, and innovative materials used for developing actuators appositely designed for RBDs. In this survey, we compare performance of the above methods analyzing potential benefits and limitations of the different technologies
A new bounded jerk on-line trajectory planning for mimicking human movements in robot-aided neurorehabilitation
No full textEnhanced HW-NAS for Affordance Segmentation on Wearable Robotics
No full textThe automatic design of deep neural network architectures executed in real-time on mobile processors would pave the way for new developments in wearable robotics. Processing information from cameras in real-time is essential to implement semiautonomous control pipelines. This work presents a hardware-aware neural architecture search suitable to generate architectures for affordance segmentation supported by mobile processors. The procedure uses a weight-sharing mechanism to speed up the search procedure and improves the convergence capability of the network selection procedure. In addition, the proposed search space has been design to induce multi-resolution features. These factors allow the network generation procedure to select architectures with a better trade-off between generalization performance and hardware requirements when compared to existing solutions
Pedestrian Indoor Navigation System Using Inertial Measurement Unit
Full text linkThis paper presents a method for an indoor pedestrian localization, based on the data that solely are measured by a foot-mounted Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). To locate the user accurately, a comprehensive Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) with five states is developed. Five different error reduction methods are employed to estimate the errors of all five states. These error reduction methods feed EKF independently, at stance phases or different time intervals of swing phases. The navigation system is developed using the accelerometer and gyroscope measurements and without magnetometer, thus it is insensitive to the presence of metal and magnetic fields, and it is able to estimate the user’s tracked trajectory with the same accuracy in both indoor and outdoor environments. The system does not rely on the measurement from external infrastructure (e.g., RFID). To evaluate the accuracy of the system, several experimental tests are carried out over the known trajectories. Results demonstrate that the error of the estimated tracked trajectory is less than 1% of the total traveled distance
New generation emerging technologies for neurorehabilitation and motor assistance
No full textThis paper illustrates the application of emerging technologies and human-machine interfaces to the neurorehabilitation and motor assistance fields. The contribution focuses on wearable technologies and in particular on robotic exoskeleton as tools for increasing freedom to move and performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). This would result in a deep improvement in quality of life, also in terms of improved function of internal organs and general health status. Furthermore, the integration of these robotic systems with advanced bio-signal driven human-machine interface can increase the degree of participation of patient in robotic training allowing to recognize user's intention and assisting the patient in rehabilitation tasks, thus representing a fundamental aspect to elicit motor learning
An online trajectory planning method for visually guided assisted reaching through a rehabilitation robot
No full textSeveral manipulators or exoskeleton are characterized by having a concave workspace in the operational space due to mechanical limits. This article proposes an online trajectory planning method for performing visually guided assisted reaching through a rehabilitation robotic exoskeleton, the L-Exos, in its concave workspace. To evalute the proposed methodology in a rehabilitation application, we set-up a computer vision based system that can automatically identify target objects in the workspace and generate a robot assisted movement to reach them through the L-Exo
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