Method and apparatus for haptic control

The present invention provides remote interfacing utilising haptic technology. In a first aspect there is provided a haptic grasping interface comprising a plurality of finger interaction points, with actuators connected at one end to an actuator control mechanism. The mechanism is mounted remotely from the grasping interface, inverse to the finger interaction points, for manipulation of these points. The grasping points comprise pulleys which route the actuators through a cable tension and transmission system. A second aspect provides haptic augmentation to an operator, which indicates to the operator the state of a control input to a controlled device. A third aspect provides a means of simulating motion where haptic feedback is provided to a user in correspondence with the movement of the user within a pod environment.

Using e Technologies for active learning

This paper describes a study of educators at an Australian University who are using eTechnolo-gies in their teaching. The perceptions of the educators of the technologies are discussed as well as how they believe these technologies help students to learn. Outcomes from the study offer suggestions of how appropriate eTechnologies can be incorporated into online learning environments for effective teaching. Particular emphasis is made of eTechnologies which support active learning by students, one of the goals of the principles of good teaching practice in undergraduate education.

Corporate intranet implementation : managing emergent technologies and organizational practices

This paper examines the adoption and development of intranets in large business organizations. The authors demonstrate that intranet technology introduces a host of new managerial and technical challenges and requires new approaches to IS development. Evidence from two European corporations indicates that the traditional division of labor and definition of work roles in IS development breaks down. The distinction between developers and users becomes increasingly blurred and new organizational roles and structures associated with intranets are emerging. However, ready-made organizational models for implementing and managing intranets do not exist and the two organizations in this study have followed two different approaches. One organization favors a “planned change” approach, emphasizing management control and careful planning. The other organization prefers an “improvisational” approach, emphasizing experimentation, innovation and local initiative.

Application of novel technologies in water reclamation, reuse and recycle

Water reuse has become an integral element of the "total water resources planning and management" along with the other elements such as water conservation, water use efficiency and management of the allocation of existing water sources. Researchers are working actively on the following aspects of water reuse: identification and characterization of different wastewaters that could be reclaimed, development of treatment technologies and effluent standards, quantification of potential gains due to recycling and risk management. The wastewaters that can be reclaimed are domestic and industrial wastewaters, grey water, black water, stormwater and rain water and their potential reuse lies in agriculture, aquaculture, industries, non-potable use in residential and community fronts and indirect and direct potable use. The treatment of wastewater ranges from secondary treatment to advanced treatment, which produces different "Classes" of reclaimed water. This paper evaluates the current status of the research on the above-mentioned important aspects of water reuse with relevant case studies and the future demand for reuse water. The direction in which the future-reuse schemes should be formulated so that they are safe, environmentally sustainable and cost effective are also discussed.

Food, passion and marginalised young people : technologies of the self in Jamie's kitchen

A passion for food that is understood in certain ways – slow, organic, not industrialised – plays a central role in the drama of the successful and popular Jamie’s Kitchen (2002) and Jamie’s Kitchen Australia (2006). Large parts of the drama in these shows revolve around an apparent lack of passion that is displayed by the marginalised, unemployed young people that are the central characters in this story. In this paper I examine the ways in which these accounts of food, passion, and the training of marginalised young people expose some of the challenges and opportunities faced by marginalised young people as they seek to transition into the uncertain and risky labour markets of 21st century capitalism. I argue that Michel Foucault’s (1988) concept of technologies of the self enables us to understand passion, and its particular manifestations in Jamie’s Kitchen, and in the training of marginalised young people, as a powerful technology of self transformation. The drama of Jamie’s Kitchen suggests that as a technology of the self passion for food promises to provide precarious, possibly temporary, forms of salvation, meaning and purpose for the young people engaged in the Fifteen Foundation’s social enterprise transitional labour market program.

An Australian/UK comparison of contemporary teaching and learning technologies

The last decade has delivered substantial changes in construction and property education in Australia and the UK. There has been an increase in the number of courses offered in built environment education and the profile of a typical student has changed. In both countries students are under pressure to balance study and work due to the higher costs of living and education. This has placed demands on providers to deliver teaching and learning which meets student, industry and professional needs. Simultaneously there has been an increase in the application of technology in the business and corporate world which has resulted in increased efficiencies and new challenges. This paper evaluates changes in construction and property education courses to embrace new technology. The focus is on the delivery of innovative teaching and learning materials and the interaction between students, staff and the community. Results from questionnaires from new and existing students at Deakin University and Nottingham Trent University were used alongside examples of teaching and learning as illustrative case studies, the emphasis is placed on pushing the boundaries of the conventional built environment education process. The findings show that by embracing technology there can be a „win-win‟ scenario for students, staff and industry stakeholders. Whilst courses adopt varying levels of technology, it seems inevitable that educators must evolve the delivery of education to become efficient and effective as the century progresses.

Placing space/time through photography’s old and new technologies

The discovery that an impressively strong 3-dimensional effect in a 2-dimensional photographic representation of natural outdoor scenes occurs when a single camera is directed around one point in the scene, thus drawing into relief the subject of attention and blurring the surrounding space, has important implications for understanding basic processes in 3-dimensional vision. For the development of new ways for generating 3D effects in motion and static representations of scenes we might well learn from photography’s old technologies, as well as digital technologies of the static print, which have yet to release the full impact of their potential in the representation of motion and space.

3D particle-based cell modelling for haptic microrobotic cell injection

Introducing haptic interface to conduct microrobotic intracellular injection has many beneficial implications. In particular, the haptic device provides force feedback to the bio-operator's hand. This paper introduces a 3D particle-based model to simulate the deformation of the cell membrane and corresponding cellular forces during microrobotic cell injection. The model is based on the kinematic and dynamic of spring – damper multi particle joints considering visco-elastic fluidic properties. It simulates the indentation force feedback as well as cell visual deformation during the microinjection. The model is verified using experimental data of zebrafish embryo microinjection. The results demonstrate that the developed cell model is capable of estimating zebrafish embryo deformation and force feedback accurately.

A comparative study of supervised learning techniques for data-driven haptic simulation

This paper focuses on the choice of a supervised learning algorithm and possible data preprocessing in the domain of data-driven haptic simulation. This is done through a comparison of the performance of different supervised learning techniques with and without data preprocessing. The simulation of haptic interactions with deformable objects using data-driven methods has emerged as an alternative to parametric methods. The accuracy of the simulation depends on the empirical data and the learning method. Several methods were suggested in the literature and here we provide a comparison between their performance and applicability to this domain. We selected four examples to be compared: singular learning mechanism which is artificial neural networks (ANN), attribute selection followed by ANN learning process, ensemble of multiple learning techniques, and attribute selection followed by the learning ensemble. These methods performance was compared in the domain of simulating multiple interactions with a deformable object with nonlinear material behavior.

Enabling multi-point haptic grasping in virtual environments

Haptic interaction has received increasing research interest in recent years. Currently, most commercially available haptic devices provide the user with a single point of interaction. Multi-point haptic devices present a logical progression in device design and enable the operator to experience a far wider range of haptic interactions, particularly the ability to grasp via multiple fingers. This is highly desirable for various haptically enabled applications including virtual training, telesurgery and telemanipulation. This paper presents a gripper attachment which utilises two low-cost commercially available haptic devices to facilitate multi-point haptic grasping. It provides the ability to render forces to the user's fingers independently and using Phantom Omni haptic devices offers several benefits over more complex approaches such as low-cost, reliability, and ease of programming. The workspace of the gripper attachment is considered and in order to haptically render the desired forces to the user's fingers, kinematic analysis is discussed and necessary formulations presented. The integrated multi-point haptic platform is presented and exploration of a virtual environment using CHAI 3D is demonstrated.

User-centered design and evaluation of an interactive visual-haptic-auditory interface : a user study on assembly

Utilizing user-centred system design and evaluation method has become an increasingly important tool to foster better usability in the field of virtual environments (VEs). In recent years, although it is still the norm that designers and developers are concerning the technological advancement and striving for designing impressive multimodal multisensory interfaces, more and more awareness are aroused among the development team that in order to produce usable and useful interfaces, it is essential to have users in mind during design and validate a new design from users' perspective. In this paper, we describe a user study carried out to validate a newly developed haptically enabled virtual training system. By taking consideration of the complexity of individual differences on human performance, adoption and acceptance of haptic and audio-visual I/O devices, we address how well users learn, perform, adapt to and perceive object assembly training. We also explore user experience and interaction with the system, and discuss how multisensory feedback affects user performance, perception and acceptance. At last, we discuss how to better design VEs that enhance users perception, their interaction and motor activity.

Virtual haptic cell model for operator training

Microrobotic cell injection is an area of growing research interest. Typically, operators rely on visual feedback to perceive the microscale environment and are subject to lengthy training times and low success rates. Haptic interaction offers the ability to utilise the operator’s haptic modality and to enhance operator performance. Our earlier work presented a haptically enabled system for assisting the operator with certain aspects of the cell injection task. The system aimed to enhance the operator’s controllability of the micropipette through a logical mapping between the haptic device and microrobot, as well as introducing virtual fixtures for haptic guidance. The system was also designed in such a way that given the availability of appropriate force sensors, haptic display of the cell penetration force is straightforward. This work presents our progress towards a virtual replication of the system, aimed at facilitating offline operator training. It is suggested that operators can use the virtual system to train offline and later transfer their skills to the physical system. In order to achieve the necessary representation of the cell within the virtual system, methods based on a particle-based cell model are utilised. In addition to providing the necessary visual representation, the cell model provides the ability to estimate cell penetration forces and haptically display them to the operator. Two different approaches to achieving the virtual system are discussed.

A multi-point haptic platform for grasping and manipulating virtual objects

This work presents a multi-point haptic platform that employs two Phantom Omni haptic devices. A gripper attachment connects to both devices and enables multi-point haptic grasping in virtual environments. In contrast to more complex approaches, this setup benefits from low-cost, reliability, and ease of programming while being capable of independently rendering forces to each of the user’s fingertips. The ability to grasp with multiple points potentially lends itself to applications such as virtual training, telesurgery and telemanipulation.