A region-based selective optical flow back-projection for genuine motion vector estimation

Motion vector plays one significant feature in moving object segmentation. However, the motion vector in this application is required to represent the actual motion displacement, rather than regions of visually significant similarity. In this paper, region-based selective optical flow back-projection (RSOFB) which back-projects optical flows in a region to restore the region's motion vector from gradient-based optical flows, is proposed to obtain genuine motion displacement. The back-projection is performed based on minimizing the projection mean square errors of the motion vector on gradient directions. As optical flows of various magnitudes and directions provide various degrees of reliability in the genuine motion restoration, the optical flows to be used in the RSOFB are optimally selected based on their sensitivity to noises and their tendency in causing motion estimation errors. In this paper a deterministic solution is also derived for performing the minimization and obtaining the genuine motion magnitude and motion direction.     

Robust camera parameter estimation using genetic algorithm

In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm (GA)-based approach to determine the external parameters of the camera from the knowledge of a given set of points in object space. We study the effect of noise and presence of outliers, and also mismatch resulting from incorrect correspondences between the object space points and the image space points, on the estimation of three translation parameters and three rotational parameters of a camera. The average of the magnitudes of the translation errors varies from 2.25 cm to 5 mm and the average of the magnitudes of the rotational errors varies from 0.4° to 0.25° at 20 dB SNR. The error in parameter estimation is insignificant upto three pairs of mismatched points out of 20 points in object space and skyrockets when four or more pairs of points are mismatched. These results have clearly established the robustness of GA in external camera parameter estimation.     

Biodynamic response analysis of semi-supine human under varying vertical excitations

The biodynamic responses of semi-supine humans exposed to varying vertical vibration magnitudes (0.125–1.0 m/s² r.m.s.) are studied employing a multi-body modeling approach. The model comprises five rigid segments: the head, upper torso, lower torso, thigh, and leg. The viscoelastic property of tissues at joints and body-support interface are incorporated using the Kelvin-Voigt model. The dynamic model parameters identified through optimization are employed to capture the transmissibility responses of different body segments at varying vibration magnitudes. The Monte-Carlo simulation is performed to ascertain the effect of uncertainty of the model parameter and body mass on the biodynamic responses at different vibration magnitudes. The calibrated model accurately predicts the decrease in the primary resonance frequency with the increase in vibration magnitude. This nonlinearity is also apparent in vertical transmissibility responses of all the body segments. The effect of uncertainty of model parameters and body mass on the transmissibility responses is prominent near resonance frequency, while their effect on the apparent mass response is consistent across the entire frequency spectrum. The Monte-Carlo simulation illustrates higher dispersion in the transmissibility responses of the head and thorax at 1.0 m/s² r.m.s. compared to at 0.125 m/s² r.m.s. Therefore effective restraint systems are required at the head and thorax to counter the impact of high vibration magnitudes experienced during spaceflight.     

Non-linear position control of cooperative hydraulic manipulators handling unknown payloads

In this paper, a non-linear stable control scheme is developed for performing a cooperative task by hydraulic manipulators. The goal is to design a controller that allows two or more hydraulic robots to coordinately regulate an object's position/orientation while maintaining specified load sharing between the manipulators as well as desired internal forces on the object. First the complete dynamic model of the whole system is described. Then, a controller is designed, augmented by an on-line updating law to eliminate the steady-state errors due to lack of knowledge about the payload. Extended Lyapunov's second method is used for stability analysis of the control system. The stability of the system is guaranteed by constructing a smooth Lyapunov function. Simulations are performed to substantiate the controller developed in this paper.     

Objective and subjective responses of seated subjects while reading Hindi newspaper under multi axis whole-body vibration

Train passengers often read newspapers while traveling. Vibration is one of the key factors that may occasionally inhibit this activity. An experimental study was, therefore, conducted to investigate the extent of interference perceived in reading task by seated subjects in two postures under random vibration. 30 healthy male subjects were exposed to vibration magnitudes of 0.4, 0.8 and 1.2 m/s² in mono, dual and multi axis in the low frequency range 1–20 Hz. The task required subjects to read a given paragraph of Hindi national newspaper, in two seated postures (lap posture with backrest support and table posture with leaning over the table). The reading performance was evaluated by both degradation in performance in terms of time required to complete the task and subjective rating using Borg CR10 scale. Both the methods of reading performance evaluation exhibit progressive increase with an increase in vibration magnitude for both the subject postures in all the direction of vibration and are found to be higher in lateral and vertical direction among mono axes. The effects of multi axis vibration on perceived difficulty have been found to be similar to dual axes vibration and greater than mono axes vibration; however degradation in reading performance in multi axis vibration was also found to be similar to that for lateral direction. A comparison of the effect of postures by both evaluation methods revealed that the reading performance was adversely affected for table posture in all direction of vibration, however for lap posture, only the X-axis vibration effect was more severe.

Relevance to industry

Available ride comfort standards for vehicles do not include the effects of vibrations on passenger activities. Assessment of activity discomfort would be useful for vehicle design optimization to facilitate activity comfort.     

The relative discomfort of noise and vibration: effects of stimulus duration

How noise discomfort and vibration discomfort depend on duration has not previously been compared. For five durations (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 s), the subjective equivalence of noise and vibration was investigated with all 49 combinations of 7 levels of noise and 7 magnitudes of whole-body vertical vibration. The rates of increase in discomfort with increasing duration were similar for noise and vibration, whereas they are currently assumed to be 3 dB per doubling of noise duration and 1.5 dB per doubling of vibration duration. The discomfort caused by low levels of noise was masked by high magnitudes of vibration, and the discomfort caused by low magnitudes of vibration was masked by high levels of noise. As stimuli durations increased from 2 to 32 s, the influence of vibration on the judgement of noise discomfort decreased, whereas the influence of noise on the judgement of vibration discomfort was unchanged.     

Equivalent comfort contours for vertical seat vibration: effect of vibration magnitude and backrest inclination

This study determined how backrest inclination and the frequency and magnitude of vertical seat vibration influence vibration discomfort. Subjects experienced vertical seat vibration at frequencies in the range 2.5-25 Hz at vibration magnitudes in the range 0.016-2.0 ms(-2) r.m.s. Equivalent comfort contours were determined with five backrest conditions: no backrest, and with a stationary backrest inclined at 0° (upright), 30°, 60° and 90°. Within all conditions, the frequency of greatest sensitivity to acceleration decreased with increasing vibration magnitude. Compared to an upright backrest, around the main resonance of the body, the vibration magnitudes required to cause similar discomfort were 100% greater with 60° and 90° backrest inclinations and 50% greater with a 30° backrest inclination. It is concluded that no single frequency weighting provides an accurate prediction of the discomfort caused by vertical seat vibration at all magnitudes and with all backrest conditions. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Vertical seat vibration is a main cause of vibration discomfort for drivers and passengers of road vehicles. A frequency weighting has been standardised for the evaluation of vertical seat vibration when sitting upright but it was not known whether this weighting is suitable for the reclined sitting postures often adopted during travel.     

Non-parametric hand pose estimation with object context

In the spirit of recent work on contextual recognition and estimation, we present a method for estimating the pose of human hands, employing information about the shape of the object in the hand. Despite the fact that most applications of human hand tracking involve grasping and manipulation of objects, the majority of methods in the literature assume a free hand, isolated from the surrounding environment. Occlusion of the hand from grasped objects does in fact often pose a severe challenge to the estimation of hand pose. In the presented method, object occlusion is not only compensated for, it contributes to the pose estimation in a contextual fashion; this without an explicit model of object shape. Our hand tracking method is non-parametric, performing a nearest neighbor search in a large database (.. entries) of hand poses with and without grasped objects. The system that operates in real time, is robust to self occlusions, object occlusions and segmentation errors, and provides full hand pose reconstruction from monocular video. Temporal consistency in hand pose is taken into account, without explicitly tracking the hand in the high-dim pose space. Experiments show the non-parametric method to outperform other state of the art regression methods, while operating at a significantly lower computational cost than comparable model-based hand tracking methods.     

An investigation on the relationship between grip, push and contact forces applied to a tool handle

Owing to the strong dependence of the health risks associated with vibration exposure of the human hand and arm on hand force, a laboratory study was conducted to develop a methodology for measurement of the contact force at the tool handle–hand interface, and to identify the relationship between the contact force and the hand grip and push forces. A simulated tool handle fixture was realized in the laboratory to measure the grip and push forces using compression/extension force sensors integrated within the handle and a force plate, respectively. The contact force was derived through integration of the interface pressure over the contact area. These were measured using a capacitive pressure-sensing grid. The measurements were performed with 10 male subjects and three circular cross-section handles of different sizes under different combinations of grip and push forces. The hand–handle interface pressure data were analyzed to derive the contact force, as functions of the constant magnitudes of the grip and push forces, and the handle size. The results suggest that the hand–handle contact force is strongly dependent upon not only the grip and push forces but also the handle diameter. The contact force for a given handle size can be expressed as a linear combination of grip and push forces, where the contribution of the grip force is considerably larger than that of the push force. The results further suggest that a linear relation can characterize the dependence of the contact force on the handle diameter. The validity of the proposed relationship is demonstrated by evaluating the magnitudes of errors between the estimated contact forces with the measured data for the range of handle diameters, and grip and push forces considered in the study.

Relevance to industry

The methodology proposed in this study can be applied to measure the effective hand–handle contact force at workplaces for assessing the health risks associated with exposure to hand-transmitted vibration exposure and hand–wrist cumulative trauma. The relationship proposed in the study could be effectively applied for estimating the hand–handle contact force from known grip and push forces that are conveniently and directly measurable in laboratory studies involving vibration analyses of the human hand, power tools and relevant vibration attenuation devices. It is expected to be most useful in field applications, where it could provide an estimate of the range of magnitudes of the hand-grip force applied to the handle of an actual tool, which is quite difficult and expensive to measure. The relationship is also expected to contribute to the on-going standardization efforts for defining a correction factor to account for the effects of hand force on the vibration transmission and hand injuries.     

Identification of effective engineering methods for controlling handheld workpiece vibration in grinding processes

The objective of this study is to identify effective engineering methods for controlling handheld workpiece vibration during grinding processes. Prolonged and intensive exposures to such vibration can cause hand-arm vibration syndrome among workers performing workpiece grinding, but how to effectively control these exposures remains an important issue. This study developed a methodology for performing their analyses and evaluations based on a model of the entire grinding machine-workpiece-hand-arm system. The model can simulate the vibration responses of a workpiece held in the worker's hands and pressed against a grinding wheel in order to shape the workpiece in the major frequency range of concern (6.3–1600 Hz). The methodology was evaluated using available experimental data. The results suggest that the methodology is acceptable for these analyses and evaluations. The results also suggest that the workpiece vibration resulting from the machine vibration generally depends on two mechanisms or pathways: (1) the direct vibration transmission from the grinding machine; and (2) the indirect transmission that depends on both the machine vibration transmission to the workpiece and the interface excitation transformation to the workpiece vibration. The methodology was applied to explore and/or analyze various engineering methods for controlling workpiece vibrations. The modeling results suggest that while these intervention methods have different advantages and limitations, some of their combinations can effectively reduce the vibration exposures of grinding workers. These findings can be used as guidance for selecting and developing more effective technologies to control handheld workpiece vibration exposures.     

Quantitative prediction of overall seat discomfort

Static seat characteristics (seat stiffness) and dynamic seat characteristics (vibration magnitude) can both influence judgements of seat comfort. It is proposed that seat comfort can be predicted on the basis of Steven's psychophysical law: psi = kphi(n), where psi is a sensation magnitude, phi is the stimulus magnitude and k is a constant. The law is modified to: psi = a + bphis[n(s)] + cphiv[n(v)], where phis and phiv represent seat stiffness and vibration magnitude, n(s) and n(v) are exponents determined by the rate of increase in discomfort associated with the stiffness and vibration magnitude, and a, b and c are constants. The stiffness of foam loaded to 490 N may indicate static seat comfort, while the vibration dose value (VDV) on the seat surface may indicate vibration discomfort. Two experiments with 20 subjects investigated this approach. The first experiment with five magnitudes of vibration, three foams and a rigid wooden flat seat yielded 0.929 for the exponent, n(v), for VDV. In the second experiment subjects judged the overall seat discomfort while exposed six vibration magnitudes with the same four seating conditions. This experiment yielded 1.18 for the exponent, n(s), for seat stiffness. The overall prediction of seat discomfort was given by: psi = -50.3 + 2.68phis1.18 + 101phiv0.929. The prediction equation provided more accurate estimates of subject discomfort than models using either the VDV alone or the stiffness alone, especially when the vibration magnitude was low or the seats were similar. An interaction variable between the VDV and the stiffness slightly improved the prediction. The equivalence of the two stimuli was given by log10 (stiffness) = 0.787 log10 (VDV) + 1.34, or log10 (VDV) = 1.27 log10 (stiffness) - 1.70.     

Frequency-dependence of discomfort caused by vibration and mechanical shocks

The frequency content of a mechanical shock is not confined to its fundamental frequency, so it was hypothesised that the frequency-dependence of discomfort caused by shocks with defined fundamental frequencies will differ from the frequency-dependence of sinusoidal vibration. Subjects experienced vertical vibration and vertical shocks with fundamental frequencies from 0.5 to 16 Hz and magnitudes from ±0.7 to ±9.5 ms^–2. The rate of growth of discomfort with increasing magnitude of motion decreased with increasing frequency of both motions, so the frequency-dependence of discomfort varied with the magnitudes of both motions and no single frequency weighting will be ideal for all magnitudes. At the frequencies of sinusoidal vibration producing greatest discomfort (4–16 Hz), shocks produced less discomfort than vibration with same peak acceleration or unweighted vibration dose value. Frequency-weighted vibration dose values provided the best predictions of the discomfort caused by different frequencies and magnitudes of vibration and shock.

Practitioner Summary: Human responses to vibration and shock vary according to the frequency content of the motion. The ideal frequency weighting depends on the magnitude of the motion. Standardised frequency-weighted vibration dose values estimate discomfort caused by vibration and shock but for motions containing very low frequencies the filtering is not optimum.     

The effect of posture and vibration magnitude on the vertical vibration transmissibility of tractor suspension system

The efficiency of suspension seat can be influenced by several factors such as the input vibration, the dynamic characteristics of the seat and the dynamic characteristics of the human body. The objective of this paper is to study the effect of sitting postures and vibration magnitude on the vibration transmissibility of a suspension system of an agricultural tractor seat. Eleven (11) healthy male subjects participated in the study. All subjects were asked to sit on the suspension system. Four (4) different sitting postures were investigated – i) “relax”, ii) “slouch”, iii) “tense”, and iv) “with backrest support”. All subjects were exposed to random vertical vibration in the range of 1–20 Hz, at three vibration magnitudes - 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 m/s² r.m.s for 60 s. The results showed that there were three pronounced peaks in the seat transmissibility, with the primary resonance was found at 1.75–2.5 Hz for every sitting postures. The “backrest” condition had the highest transmissibility resonance (1.46), while the “slouch” posture had the highest Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility (SEAT) values (64.7%). Changes in vibration magnitude for “relax” posture from 0.5 to 2.0 m/s² r.m.s resulted in greater reduction in the primary resonance frequency of seat transmissibility. The SEAT values decreased with increased vibration magnitude. It can be suggested that variations in posture and vibration magnitude affected the vibration transmission through the suspension system, indicating the non-linear effect on the interaction between the human body and the suspension system.Relevance to industry: Investigating the posture adopted during agricultural activities, and the effects of various magnitudes of vibration on the suspension system's performance are beneficial to the industry. The findings regarding their influence on the human body may be used to optimize the suspension system's performance.     

Response of the seated human body to whole-body vertical vibration: biodynamic responses to sinusoidal and random vibration

The dependence of biodynamic responses of the seated human body on the frequency, magnitude and waveform of vertical vibration has been studied in 20 males and 20 females. With sinusoidal vibration (13 frequencies from 1 to 16 Hz) at five magnitudes (0.1–1.6 ms^? 2 r.m.s.) and with random vibration (1–16 Hz) at the same magnitudes, the apparent mass of the body was similar with random and sinusoidal vibration of the same overall magnitude. With increasing magnitude of vibration, the stiffness and damping of a model fitted to the apparent mass reduced and the resonance frequency decreased (from 6.5 to 4.5 Hz). Male and female subjects had similar apparent mass (after adjusting for subject weight) and a similar principal resonance frequency with both random and sinusoidal vibration. The change in biodynamic response with increasing vibration magnitude depends on the frequency of the vibration excitation, but is similar with sinusoidal and random excitation.     

An ergonomics evaluation of the vibration backpack harness system in walking

Many studies in backpack design have been focused on reducing trunk muscle activity and improving overall comfort while the wearers (college students and outdoor enthusiasts) were walking. However, little work has done on combining the vibration with harness system design. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the vibration backpack harness system on trunk muscle activity and overall comfort in walking. There were four vibrators sewn in the four different positions of our harness system. Subjects were asked to support a load (20% body weight) on their backpack while performing 5-min walking trials on the treadmill (speed = 1.6 m/s) with different frequencies of vibration (0 Hz, 28 Hz, 35 Hz, 42 Hz). The objective measures of trunk muscle activity (electromyography) were obtained during the walking task. Subjects also were asked to complete subjective ratings of comfort. The results of the objective measures in this study had shown that the vibration function had a positive effect on reducing muscle activity for upper trapezius (UT), but not for erector spinae (ES). From the data of the two subjective surveys in our study, the comfort level of no-vibration state (0 Hz) was worse than vibration state (28 Hz, 35 Hz, 42 Hz) for both muscles, and when the frequency was 35 Hz, the comfort of the harness system was higher than the other three frequencies. The findings of the present study support that backpack with low frequency vibration has a positive effect on reducing trunk muscle activity and improving overall comfort level for wearers in walking.Relevance to industryObservations of present study is beneficial in assisting wearers to reduce muscle activity and improve overall comfort in walking according to the vibration backpack harness system. New backpack design criteria for harness systems are discussed to optimize production strategies. The wearers could be students, outdoor enthusiasts and old people.     

Attention decrease of drivers exposed to vibration from military vehicles when driving in terrain conditions

In this study, we analyzed the phenomenon of reduced attention for 11 subjects using a 6-degree-of-freedom synthetic vibration platform to simulate the vibration from terrain driving. Military vehicles are mainly used in terrain conditions, and drivers are exposed to whole-body vibrations for long periods of time. Drivers not only have trouble with comfort and health, they also suffer decreased attention. This decrease has a negative effect on driving. The vibration signal of a military vehicle on terrain is simulated using a synthetic vibration platform. Eleven subjects experienced these synthesized field-terrain vibrations while on the vibration platform performing a variety of perceptual and cognitive attention tests. The attention tests were divided into perceptual and cognitive, and the decrease in attention caused by vibration exposure and the exposure time was analyzed. From the results, automatic perceptual attention was not affected by vibration exposure. When the complexity of cognitive processing was increased during the attention test, the effects of vibration exposure became significant. The decrease in certain attention mechanisms was found when drivers were exposed to whole-body vibrations. Thus, it is expected that drivers are adversely affected when performing missions. We analyze the correlation between vibration exposure and attention decrease in this study, and the ability of the military vehicle driver to perform his mission can be predicted.     

Response of the seated human body to whole-body vertical vibration: discomfort caused by sinusoidal vibration

Frequency weightings for predicting vibration discomfort assume the same frequency-dependence at all magnitudes of vibration, whereas biodynamic studies show that the frequency-dependence of the human body depends on the magnitude of vibration. This study investigated how the frequency-dependence of vibration discomfort depends on the acceleration and the force at the subject–seat interface. Using magnitude estimation, 20 males and 20 females judged their discomfort caused by sinusoidal vertical acceleration at 13 frequencies (1–16 Hz) at magnitudes from 0.1 to 4.0 ms^? 2 r.m.s. The frequency-dependence of their equivalent comfort contours depended on the magnitude of vibration, but was less dependent on the magnitude of dynamic force than the magnitude of acceleration, consistent with the biodynamic non-linearity of the body causing some of the magnitude-dependence of equivalent comfort contours. There were significant associations between the biodynamic responses and subjective responses at all frequencies in the range 1–16 Hz.

Practitioner Summary: Vertical seat vibration causes discomfort in many forms of transport. This study provides the frequency-dependence of vibration discomfort over a range of vibration magnitudes and shows how the frequency weightings in the current standards can be improved.     

Equivalent comfort contours for fore-and-aft,lateral, and vertical whole-body vibration in the frequency range 1.0 to 10 Hz

Abstract

Standards assume vibration discomfort depends on the frequency and direction of whole-body vibration, with the same weightings for frequency and direction at all magnitudes. This study determined equivalent comfort contours from 1.0 to 10?Hz in each of three directions (fore-and-aft, lateral, vertical) at magnitudes in the range 0.1 to 3.5?ms^?2?r.m.s. Twenty-four subjects sat on a rigid flat seat with and without a beanbag, altering the pressure distribution on the seat but not the transmission of vibration. The rate of growth of vibration discomfort with increasing magnitude of vibration differed between the directions of vibration and varied with the frequency of vibration. The frequency-dependence and direction-dependence of discomfort, therefore, depended on the magnitude of vibration. The beanbag did not affect the frequency-dependence or direction-dependence of vibration discomfort. It is concluded that different weightings for the frequency and direction of vibration are required for low and high magnitude vibration.

Practitioner summary: When evaluating whole-body vibration to predict vibration discomfort, the weightings appropriate to different frequencies and different directions of vibration should depend on the magnitude of vibration. This is overlooked in all current methods of evaluating the severity of whole-body vibration.     

Post-effects of long-term hand vibration on visuo-manual performance in a tracking task

Movement precision and performance time were evaluated through a visuo-manual tracking task performed before and after 10-min hand vibration exposure. Constant displacement amplitude vibration of 0.2 and 0.3 mm peak to peak at 90, 150, 300 Hz were applied to the hand z-axis by a vertical handle. During exposure a grip force of 5% MVC was exerted for 5 s and then relaxed for 25 s while maintaining fingers-handle contact. The tracking task consisted in moving a ring (phi = 9 mm) attached to a thin rod held between the index finger and thumb along a zig-zagged wire (phi = 3.7 mm). Alterations of tracking errors (ring-wire contact) and tracking time were analysed as a function of the vibration parameters. The tasks were performed by ten healthy participants. Vibration induced a significant increase in tracking errors (ring-wire contact) and a significant decrease in tracking time. These impairments decayed with time after vibration exposure. The recovery period was > 5 min but < 10 min with the exception of 90 Hz vibration, for which recovery could be > 10 min. The number of tracking errors was neither influenced by vibration frequency nor by amplitude. The tracking time decreased as frequency increased and recovery was related to the displacement amplitude. The subjective rating of the performance on a visual analogue scale indicated that the subjects tended to perceive the task as being easier after vibration exposure. Vibration applied to the non-dominant hand while the participant performed the tracking task had no effect. These results show that vibration similar to hand-tool vibration affects precision and velocity control of visually guided hand movements. Furthermore, these performance decrements were not consciously perceived.     

Designing and prototyping data-intensive applications in the Logresand Algres programming environment

The authors present an environment and a methodology for the design and rapid prototyping of data-intensive software applications, i.e., applications which perform substantial retrieval and update activity on persistent data. In the approach, the application is formally specified using Logres, a database language which combines object-oriented data modeling and rule-based programming. These specifications are translated into Algres, an extended relational algebra, thus yielding a rapid executable prototype. Algres programs embedded into a conventional programming language interface may be converted to conventional programs operating on a commercial relational system. This methodology helps automate the conversion from declarative requirements to imperative code, performing several tasks fully automatically and reducing the probability of human errors, while integrity constraints and application specifications are expressed in a declarative language, at a very high level of abstraction