Positive Technology Journal

The CIRT consortium, composed by Tokyo University and a group of 7 companies (Toyota, Olympus, Sega, Toppan Printing, Fujitsu, Matsushita, and Mitsubishi), has started a project to develop robotic assistants for Japan’s aging population.

The robots envisioned by the project should support the elderly with housework and serve as personal transportation capable of replacing the automobile.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) will be the major sponsor of the research, whose total cost is expected to be about 1 billion yen (US$9 million) per year.

The website of University of Twente (faculty of Behavioral Sciences) has a list of relevant journals in HC/ergonomics; ISI impact factors is also provided for most of them.

The complete list can be accessed here

Delwin Clarke, P. Robert Duimering.

Computers in Entertainment (CIE), Volume 4 ,  Issue 3  (July 2006)

Very little is known about computer gamers' playing experience. Most social scientific research has treated gaming as an undifferentiated activity associated with various factors outside the gaming context. This article considers computer games as behavior settings worthy of social scientific investigation in their own right and contributes to a better understanding of computer gaming as a complex, context-dependent, goal-directed activity. The results of an exploratory interview-based study of computer gaming within the "first-person shooter" (FPS) game genre are reported. FPS gaming is a fast-paced form of goal-directed activity that takes place in complex, dynamic behavioral environments where players must quickly make sense of changes in their immediate situation and respond with appropriate actions. Gamers' perceptions and evaluations of various aspects of the FPS gaming situation are documented, including positive and negative aspects of game interfaces, map environments, weapons, computer-generated game characters (bots), multiplayer gaming on local area networks (LANs) or the internet, and single player gaming. The results provide insights into the structure of gamers' mental models of the FPS genre by identifying salient categories of their FPS gaming experience. It is proposed that aspects of FPS games most salient to gamers were those perceived to be most behaviorally relevant to goal attainment, and that the evaluation of various situational stimuli depended on the extent to which they were perceived either to support or to hinder goal attainment. Implications for the design of FPS games that players experience as challenging, interesting, and fun are discussed.

Via Videogame workout 

The latest BusinessWeek has an interesting report on brain training software. Although there is poor scientific evidence of the effectiveness of this approach in improving brain function, preliminary findings are encouraging:

This summer Posit released two studies [of their $395 Brain Fitness program] that Merzenich says prove its worth. One, involving 182 healthy people 60 and over, assigned half the group to Posit's brain exercises for eight weeks. The rest were asked only to watch educational DVDs. The researchers found that 93% of the Brain Fitness group significantly improved their memory function, while the control group did not.

In a second study released this summer, Posit's program was tried on 45 people diagnosed with MCI. PET scans of the brains of 15 participants were taken before and after the study. There was some evidence of memory gains in the Brain Fitness group, and the PET scans revealed a decline in brain activity in those who did not use the brain exercises. Brain activity held steady for the rest. "We've seen 80-year-old people improve from being sluggish and slow to having the mental performance level of a 35-year-old," says Merzenich.

Cognitive behavior therapy for fear of flying: sustainability of treatment gains after september 11.

Behav Ther. 2006 Mar;37(1):91-7

Authors: Anderson P, Jacobs CH, Lindner GK, Edwards S, Zimand E, Hodges L, Rothbaum BO

This study examines the long-term efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for fear of flying (FOF) after a catastrophic fear-relevant event, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Participants (N = 115) were randomly assigned to and completed treatment for FOF using 8 sessions of either virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) or standard exposure therapy (SE) prior to September 11, 2001. Individuals were reassessed in June, 2002, an average of 2.3 years after treatment, with a response rate of 48% (n = 55). Analyses were run on the original data and, using multiple imputation procedures, on imputed data for the full sample. Individuals maintained or improved upon gains made in treatment as measured by standardized FOF questionnaires and by number of flights taken. There were no differences between VRE and SE. Thus, results suggest that individuals previously treated for FOF with cognitive-behavioral therapy can maintain treatment gains in the face of a catastrophic fear-relevant event, even years after treatment is completed.

Cognitive behavior therapy for fear of flying: sustainability of treatment gains after september 11.

Behav Ther. 2006 Mar;37(1):91-7

Authors: Anderson P, Jacobs CH, Lindner GK, Edwards S, Zimand E, Hodges L, Rothbaum BO

This study examines the long-term efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for fear of flying (FOF) after a catastrophic fear-relevant event, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Participants (N = 115) were randomly assigned to and completed treatment for FOF using 8 sessions of either virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) or standard exposure therapy (SE) prior to September 11, 2001. Individuals were reassessed in June, 2002, an average of 2.3 years after treatment, with a response rate of 48% (n = 55). Analyses were run on the original data and, using multiple imputation procedures, on imputed data for the full sample. Individuals maintained or improved upon gains made in treatment as measured by standardized FOF questionnaires and by number of flights taken. There were no differences between VRE and SE. Thus, results suggest that individuals previously treated for FOF with cognitive-behavioral therapy can maintain treatment gains in the face of a catastrophic fear-relevant event, even years after treatment is completed.

A Virtual Reality Apartment as a Measure of Medication Management Skills in Patients With Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study.

Schizophr Bull. 2006 Sep 6;

Authors: Kurtz MM, Baker E, Pearlson GD, Astur RS

Performance on a novel, virtual reality (VR) assessment of medication management skills, the Virtual Reality Apartment Medication Management Assessment (VRAMMA), was investigated in 25 patients with schizophrenia and 18 matched healthy controls. The VRAMMA is a virtual 4-room apartment consisting of a living room with an interactive clock and TV, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom with an interactive medicine cabinet. After an exploratory phase, participants were given a mock prescription regimen to be taken 15 minutes later from pill bottles located in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom of the virtual environment. The VRAMMA was administered with a validated measure of medication management skills, several neurocognitive tests, and a symptom scale. Results revealed that (1) schizophrenic patients made significantly more quantitative errors in the number of pills taken, were less accurate at taking the prescribed medications at the designated time, and checked the interactive clock less frequently than healthy controls; (2) in patients with schizophrenia, there was significant agreement in classification of adherence vs nonadherence between a validated measure of medication management skills and the VRAMMA; and (3) in patients with schizophrenia, years of education and a measure of verbal learning and memory were linked to quantitative errors on the VRAMMA, while positive symptoms, specifically delusional symptoms, were inversely linked to distance traveled within the VRAMMA. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to provide evidence for the utility of VR technology in the assessment of instrumental role functioning in patients with schizophrenia.

Transformation of flow in rehabilitation: the role of advanced communication technologies.

Behav Res Methods. 2006 May;38(2):237-44

Authors: Riva G, Castelnuovo G, Mantovani F

Authentic rehabilitation requires the active participation of patients and their involvement with opportunities for action and development. Within this framework, in this article we outline the possibility of using two emerging computing and communication technologies-ambient intelligence (AmI) and virtual reality (VR)--for a new breed of rehabilitative and clinical applications based on a strategy defined as transformation of flow. Transformation of flow is a person's ability to exploit an optimal (flow) experience to identify and use new and unexpected psychological resources as sources of involvement. We identify the feeling of presence--the feeling of being in a world that exists outside oneself--as the theoretical link between the technology and rehabilitation. AmI and VR are used to trigger broad empowerment processes induced by a strong sense of presence, leading to greater agency and control over one's actions and environment.

The TelePresence World event series seeks to introduce telepresence technologies and explore their use in industry, government, education, medical and other fields.

Event delegates will have the opportunity to debate and discuss the revolutionary technological developments that have brought telepresence from the realm of science fiction to the reality of everyday business.

To demonstrate the power of telepresence and unified communications to bridge distance and bring people together, TelePresence World 2007 will include a concurrent exhibition to be held in the university's 25,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art pavilion.

Download the entire press release as a .pdf

Download the event "one-pager" as a .pdf

Video game-based exercises for balance rehabilitation: a single-subject design.

Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2006 Aug;87(8):1141-9

Authors: Betker AL, Szturm T, Moussavi ZK, Nett C

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether coupling foot center of pressure (COP)-controlled video games to standing balance exercises will improve dynamic balance control and to determine whether the motivational and challenging aspects of the video games would increase a subject's desire to perform the exercises and complete the rehabilitation process. DESIGN: Case study, pre- and postexercise. SETTING: University hospital outpatient clinic. PARTICIPANTS: A young adult with excised cerebellar tumor, 1 middle-aged adult with single right cerebrovascular accident, and 1 middle-aged adult with traumatic brain injury. INTERVENTION: A COP-controlled, video game-based exercise system. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The following were calculated during 12 different tasks: the number of falls, range of COP excursion, and COP path length. RESULTS: Postexercise, subjects exhibited a lower fall count, decreased COP excursion limits for some tasks, increased practice volume, and increased attention span during training. CONCLUSIONS: The COP-controlled video game-based exercise regime motivated subjects to increase their practice volume and attention span during training. This in turn improved subjects' dynamic balance control.

Awareness of subtle emotional feelings: a comparison of long-term meditators and nonmeditators.

Emotion. 2006 Aug;6(3):392-405

Authors: Nielsen L, Kaszniak AW

Neuroimaging of meditation's effect on brain reactivity to pain.

Neuroreport. 2006 Aug 21;17(12):1359-63

Authors: Orme-Johnson DW, Schneider RH, Son YD, Nidich S, Cho ZH

Some meditation techniques reduce pain, but there have been no studies on how meditation affects the brain's response to pain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the response to thermally induced pain applied outside the meditation period found that long-term practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique showed 40-50% fewer voxels responding to pain in the thalamus and total brain than in healthy matched controls interested in learning the technique. After the controls learned the technique and practiced it for 5 months, their response decreased by 40-50% in the thalamus, prefrontal cortex, total brain, and marginally in the anterior cingulate cortex. The results suggest that the Transcendental Meditation technique longitudinally reduces the affective/motivational dimension of the brain's response to pain.

Via the Neurophilosopher's blog 

Alexander Pines and his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are working on a new laser-based MRI technique which may lead to the development of a cheap and compact scanning device.

The experimental technique is based on a method called atomic magnetometry, which allows to detect the magnetic signals produced by water molecules without the large magnets or complex cooling systems used in conventional fMRI.

From the LBNL website:

Alexander Pines and colleagues at Berkeley Lab have developed a method to improve NMR/MRI resolution either inside of poorly shimmed magnets or outside of portable one-sided magnet systems, which accommodate arbitrarily sized samples.  This technique will enable for the first time the collection of multidimensional NMR/ MRI information in cases where on-the-spot medical diagnosis is critical, where samples cannot be moved to or placed inside of a superconducting magnet, or where inexpensive, highly inhomogeneous magnets are being used.  Other ex situ systems give relaxation data and sometimes slice-selective images, but not spectra and true 3D images.

Via Neuroguy 

MIT’s Technology Review has an interesting article that describes the development of silicon nanowires to measure small electrical signals on the same neuron:

Via infosthetics

CiteSpace is a network data visualization technique that facilitates the detection of emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature.

From Infoesthetics:

CiteSpace is based on 2 concepts: "research fronts", defined as an emergent grouping of concepts & underlying research issues & "intellectual base", the network of citations & co-citations of a research front in scientific literature. the size of a node is proportional to the normalized citation counts in the latest time interval. The label size of each node is proportional to citations of the article, thus larger nodes also have larger-sized labels. the user can enlarge font sizes at will, & both the width & the length of a link are proportional to the corresponding cocitation coefficient. the color of a link indicates the earliest appearance time of the link with reference to chosen thresholds. current applications show complex patterns regarding mass extinction research & terrorism research.

Via NewScientist.com 

Eli Peli, an ophthalmologist and bioengineer at Harvard Medical School in Boston, has designed an augmented reality device to help patients with tunnel vision, a condition which narrows a person’s field of view.

The system, consisting of glasses fitted with a small camera and a transparent display on one lens, works by superimposing computer-generated images over real scenes.

According to preliminary test results, which will be reported in the September issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, patients who tried the system were able to search objects far more quickly.

Read the original article  

Effects of motor imagery training after chronic, complete spinal cord injury.

Exp Brain Res. 2006 Aug 31;

Authors: Cramer SC, Orr EL, Cohen MJ, Lacourse MG

Abnormalities in brain motor system function are present following spinal cord injury (SCI) and could reduce effectiveness of restorative interventions. Motor imagery training, which can improve motor behavior and modulate brain function, might address this concern but has not been examined in subjects with SCI. Ten subjects with SCI and complete tetra-/paraplegia plus ten healthy controls underwent assessment before and after 7 days of motor imagery training to tongue and to foot. Motor imagery training significantly improved the behavioral outcome measure, speed of movement, in non-paralyzed muscles. Training was also associated with increased fMRI activation in left putamen, an area associated with motor learning, during attempted right foot movement in both groups, despite foot movements being present in controls and absent in subjects with SCI. This fMRI change was absent in a second healthy control group serially imaged without training. In subjects with SCI, training exaggerated, rather than normalized, baseline derangement of left globus pallidus activation. The current study found that motor imagery training improves motor performance and alters brain function in subjects with complete SCI despite lack of voluntary motor control and peripheral feedback. These effects of motor imagery training on brain function have not been previously described in a neurologically impaired population, and were similar to those found in healthy controls. Motor imagery might be of value as one component of a restorative intervention.

Increasing cortical activity in auditory areas through neurofeedback functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Neuroreport. 2006 Aug 21;17(12):1273-1278

Authors: Yoo SS, Oʼleary HM, Fairneny T, Chen NK, Panych LP, Park H, Jolesz FA

We report a functional magnetic resonance imaging method to deliver task-specific brain activities as biofeedback signals to guide individuals to increase cortical activity in auditory areas during sound stimulation. A total of 11 study participants underwent multiple functional magnetic resonance imaging scan sessions, while the changes in the activated cortical volume within the primary and secondary auditory areas were fed back to them between scan sessions. On the basis of the feedback information, participants attempted to increase the number of significant voxels during the subsequent trial sessions by adjusting their level of attention to the auditory stimuli. Results showed that the group of individuals who received the feedback were able to increase the activation volume and blood oxygenation level-dependent signal to a greater degree than the control group.

From the Neuro-IT mailing list 

The Department of Neural Information Processing at the University of Ulm invites applications for a post-doc (or PhD student) position to begin November 1 2006, or later.

The Institute for Neural Information Processing at the University of Ulm (Germany) has two full professors, 4 postdocs and about 12 students and researchers in different areas of neural network research. Ongoing work includes mobile autonomous robots, computer vision, neural modelling, and pattern recognition.

Successful applicants will be expected to conduct research involving:

- pattern recognition or sensor fusion with artificial neural networks, or
- information processing in networks of spiking neurons, or
-large associative memory systems with possible applications in autonomous vehicles, bioinformatics, medicine, speech or vision, or modelling and recognition of emotions.

Post-doc candidates should have a recent PhD-degree for example in computer science, physics, mathematics or electrical engineering.

They will have some small teaching obligations, so some knowledge of German would be useful.

Applications for PhD-work are also possible. In this case the applicants should already have some experience in one of the fields mentioned above.

The appointment will be for at least 2 years. Salary will be BAT IIa (details depend on age and family status).

See for application details http://www.informatik.uni-ulm.de/neuro/

Via Medgadget

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a system (dubbed SWAN) that can guide people with or without vision through a difficult terrain. The SWAN system, consisting of a small laptop, a proprietary tracking chip, and bone-conduction headphones, provides audio cues to guide the person from place to place, with or without vision.

From the press release

“We are excited by the possibilities for people who are blind and visually impaired to use the SWAN auditory wayfinding system,” said Susan B. Green, executive director, Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta. “Consumer involvement is crucial in the design and evaluation of successful assistive technology, so CVI is happy to collaborate with Georgia Tech to provide volunteers who are blind and visually impaired for focus groups, interviews and evaluation of the system.”

Collaboration
In an unusual collaboration, Frank Dellaert, assistant professor in the Georgia Tech College of Computing and Bruce Walker, assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Psychology and College of Computing, met five years ago at new faculty orientation and discussed how their respective areas of expertise — determining location of robots and audio interfaces — were complimentary and could be married in a project to assist the blind. The project progressed slowly as the researchers worked on it as time allowed and sought funding. Early support came through a seed grant from the Graphics, Visualization and Usability (GVU) Center at Georgia Tech, and recently Walker and Dellaert received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop SWAN.

 

 

Dellaert’s artificial intelligence research focuses on tracking and determining the location of robots and developing applications to help robots determine where they are and where they need to go. There are similar challenges when it comes to tracking and guiding robots and people. Dellaert’s robotics research usually focuses on military applications since that is where most of the funding is available.

“SWAN is a satisfying project because we are looking at how to use technology originally developed for military use for peaceful purposes,” says Dellaert. “Currently, we can effectively localize the person outdoors with GPS data, and we have a working prototype using computer vision to see street level details not included in GPS, such as light posts and benches. The challenge is integrating all the information from all the various sensors in real time so you can accurately guide the user as they move toward their destination.”