37 research outputs found
Integration of Virtual Reality in a Knowledge-based Engineering System for Preliminary Configuration and Quotation of Assembly Lines
No full textRealistic visualization of products is now a must-have for all companies facing worldwide and highly competitive market. Despite Virtual Reality technologies are appealing, its industrial use is still limited to conceptual design and prototyping activities. One of the reason is that generating Virtual Reality (VR) environment is a complex and time-consuming task, especially for complex products or systems. Many technical data are involved in their design and conguration. A meaningful example is the preliminary conguration of assembly lines devoted to deliver a quotation to the customer. To be competitive, the quotation should be completed in tight time and contain variants of the congured system ranging dierent costs. Moreover, high-impact and successful quotation goes beyond the merely technical aspect. In this view, the automatic generation of a virtual reality environment can foster the adoption of this technology in industry, since its setup time is short and doesn't require any skills. In this paper, the integration of a VR module in product conguration and quotation process is proposed. The framework is a Knowledge-based Engineering (KBE) system that, taken the customer requirements as input is able to automatically generate a bunch of dierent solutions. Starting from technical data coming from a KBE system, a virtual environment is generated automatically tting the features of the congured solution. Furthermore, the immersivity of the VR scene is enhanced by integrating the animation of the objects, like robots and pallets. After a brief description of the KBE system, the paper details the information is involved in, the implementation of the VR module and its integration within the KBE framework
Integration of Virtual Reality in a Knowledge-based Engineering Approach for Preliminary Design and Quotation of Assembly Plants
No full textThe worldwide market forces companies to deliver high quality quotation services to their potential customer. In fact, they should provide a range of different offers respecting tight lead-time. If the product to be marketed belongs to the so-called category of the “complex systems”, the bidding process may be challenging. The manufacturing plants are part of that class: their design involves many activities and results in the physical layout of the plant. In the last years, researchers put an increasing effort on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools for automatically designing, optimizing and giving quotes of manufacturing plant layout. Knowledge based Engineering (KBE) oriented to automatic configuration of products is a powerful technology can tackle those issues. In literature, many studies treat about advantages of KBE approach and its integration within several industrial environments. Usually, those applications deal with the automatic generation of technical documentation (reports, CAD model, simulation outputs, and so on). Nowadays, high bidding success rates go beyond the merely technical aspect
Italian Art Song Masterclass with Carlo Bergonzi, November 16, 1988
No full textThis is the concert program of the Italian Art Song Masterclass with Carlo Bergonzi performance on Wednesday, November 16, 1988 at 10:00 a.m., at the Boston University Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Se tu m'ami by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Cangiò d'aspetto, from Admeto by George Frederic Handel, Lascia ch'io pianga, from Rinaldo by George Frederic Handel, Piangerò la sorte mia, from Giulio Cesare by George Frederic Handel, L'alba Separa dalla luca l'omba by Paolo Tosti, Sole e Amore by Giacomo Puccini, and I pastori by Ildebrando Pizzetti. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund
Data and Knowledge in IIoT-Based Maintenance Application
No full textAlong with increased digitalization, virtualization of processes and automation in industry, Industrial Internet of Things opens for new possible scenarios and business models. The opportunities of this technology rely, among the others, on new way for data and knowledge management. Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) is greatly considered to support design activities related to digital technologies. The paper aims at analyzing the role of Industrial Internet of Things for supporting maintenance operations and evaluating whether the adoption of data structure and the integration with the KBE system can face the actual gaps and needs. After a brief overview of different technologies for knowledge management, a possible scenario has been identified. It represents the framework within IIoT technologies can be applied. This conceptual environment considers a multilevel structure: local facilities, the whole company, suppliers, retailers and global network have been involved into the analysis. Upon that scenario, how data and knowledge can be mapped and managed for each level have been investigated. Moreover, these data can be used to improve the predictive maintenance model as well as to enhance the design of new products through the acquisition and monitoring of an effective set of parameters. Finally, in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach with the use of simulation as well as physical devices, a prototypical application related to the maintenance of refrigerated display cabinets has been developed.</jats:p
An Augmented Reality Approach to Visualize Biomedical Images
No full textIn the last two decades, the digital revolution has become one of the defining aspects of our current era, to the point that nowadays it is largely regarded as the basis onto which the so called knowledge economy has been building upon. As a matter of fact, the widespread availability of powerful and always cheaper tech devices has allowed the development of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) techniques and applications, opening to new possibilities and solutions in common practices. The core difference between these two is represented by the fact that AR focuses on bringing virtual object and information into real-world environment, whereas VR includes the user into a completely virtual world. The fields of application for these technologies are evolving both in quantity and quality, and despite the fact that they are usually advertised as the new frontier for the entertainment industry, they might eventually play a major role also in other fields, such as design, education and even healthcare. Focusing on healthcare, in recent years many researchers have committed to the development of educational and academic applications for training both students and specialists during difficult patient-specific procedures
Cyclopenta[d]isoxazoline β‑Turn Mimics: Synthetic Approach, Turn Driving Force, Scope, and Limitations
No full textModel β-turn inducers were prepared from
constrained oxazanorbornene aminols. Taking advantage of
the starting materials geometry, new diastereoisomeric
compounds were synthesized, introducing different amino
acidic residues. The products were spectroscopically characterized
(VT and NMR titration). Temperature coefficients in
dimethyl sulfoxide denote the existence of an intramolecular
hydrogen bond. Chiroptical properties disclosed a β-turn
arrangement of the synthesized compounds. The fused
isoxazoline ring constraints the cyclopentane moiety, stabilizing
a boatlike conformation that ensures the turn efficiency but limiting the accessibility to hindered amino acids
How augmented reality can improve the visualization of medical images
No full textLAUREA MAGISTRALELa realtà aumentata (nota in inglese come Augmented Reality o AR) è una delle tecnologie che sta dimostrando il maggior potenziale in una gamma sempre più ampia di campi di utilizzo, dall'intrattenimento al design fino all'assistenza sanitaria. La caratteristica più specifica della realtà aumentata consiste nella possibilità di sovrapporre oggetti virtuali, da proiettare attraverso un dispositivo dedicato, all'interno di un ambiente reale.
Nel corso di questa tesi verrà discusso lo sviluppo di un prototipo di software per la visualizzazione di immagini e modelli medici in contesti di realtà aumentata, per dimostrare il potenziale di questa tecnologia in relazione al settore sanitario. Più precisamente, il nucleo del progetto consiste in un'applicazione per la visualizzazione delle informazioni risultanti da scansioni TAC o MRI. I dati visivi in uscita sono costituiti da una successione di immagini di sezioni per ciascuna delle tre viste ortografiche da un lato e come modelli 3D derivati sull'altro. A questo punto, anzichè utilizzare apparecchiature digitali tradizionali, tali entità virtuali vengono proiettate dinanzi all'utente attraverso un dispositivo HMD (Head Mounted Display, letteralmente "display montato sulla testa") di ultima generazione che implementa i metodi e le funzionalità fornite dalla tecnologia AR.
Una volta che i dati sono stati adeguatamente perfezionati e preparati per essere importati all'interno dell'applicazione dopo una fase di programmazione in Unity, un modello 3D virtuale degli organi interni del paziente può essere sovrapposto al paziente stesso, in modo che, in definitiva, sia possibile ricreare l'illusione per l'utente di essere in grado di vedere attraverso la pelle del paziente senza distorsioni visive, fornendo allo stesso tempo una migliore percezione della posizione relativa delle strutture interne dell'organismo.
Le tecniche attuali utilizzano questi set di dati principalmente nella fase diagnostica, mentre è possibile implementare gli strumenti AR che sono stati incorporati all'interno di questa applicazione anche in successive fasi del trattamento della patologia, comprese la pianificazione chirurgica e le attività di formazione. Inoltre, la possibilità di collegare più dispositivi HMD insieme consente l'utilizzo in una grande varietà di situazioni di lavoro o apprendimento collaborativo, poiché possono essere facilmente programmati per visualizzare la stessa scena da diverse angolazioni.
Nonostante il fatto che ci siano ancora molti margini di miglioramento per perfezionare l'applicazione e per semplificare il processo di acquisizione dei dati, le basi di questo progetto sono state create, aprendo la strada ad una futura integrazione con modalità e strumenti più sofisticati come visualizzazioni fluidodinamiche nel caso di patologie dell'apparato circolatorio o persino procedure di simulazione chirurgica. In questo modo potrebbe evolversi in qualcosa di realmente utilizzabile in uno scenario di vita reale.Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the technologies that is showing the greatest potential in an always widening range of fields of use, from entertainment to design and even healthcare. The most defining characteristic of AR consists of the possibility to overlap virtual objects, to be projected by a dedicated device, inside a real environment.
Throughout this thesis, the development of a software prototype for the visualization of medical images and models in AR environments will be discussed, to demonstrate the potential of this technology in relation to the healthcare domain. To be more specific, the core of the project consists of an application aimed at displaying the information resulting from CT or MRI scans. The outcoming visual data are represented as arrays of slices for each of the three orthographic views on one side, and as the derived 3D models on the other. At this point, instead of relying on traditional digital equipment, these virtual entities are projected in front of the user’s eyes through the lenses of a last-generation Head Mounted Display (HMD) device that implements the methods and features provided by AR.
Once the data have been properly refined and prepared to be imported inside the application following a programming phase in Unity, a virtual 3D model of the internal organs of the patient can be overlapped upon the patient himself, so that ultimately, it is possible to recreate the illusion for the user to be able to see through the patient’s skin with no visual distortion, providing at the same time an improved perception of the relative position of the inner body structures.
Present techniques make use of such datasets primarily in the diagnostic stage, whereas it is possible to deploy the AR tools that have been embedded inside this application even in further phases of the disease treatment including surgery planning and training activities. Additionally, the possibility to connect a multitude of HMD devices together opens up to a great variety of collaborative working or learning situations, since they can be easily programmed to display the same scene from different angles.
Despite the fact that there is still a lot of scope for improvements to refine the application and to streamline the data acquisition process, the foundations of this project have been set up, paving the way for a future integration with more sophisticated tools and visualization modes such as CFDs in the case of pathologies of the circulatory system or even surgery simulation procedures. In this way it will hopefully evolve into something actually usable in a real-life scenario
Polychlorinated biphenyl serum levels in subjects with hepatocellular carcinoma as compared with the general population
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