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Die transurethrale Resektion der Prostata (TUR-P) ist der Gold Standard für die endoskopisch-chirurgische Behandlung der Benignen Prostatahyperplasie (BPH). Unbekannt ist jedoch, ob bei der bipolaren TUR-P die Möglichkeit von elektrothermischen Verletzung von benachbar-
tem nichtopertiertem Gewebe besteht. Grund hierfür könnten höhere Ausgangsleistungen der Chirurgie-Generatoren sein. Deshalb werden experimentell gemessene Werte der räumlichen Verlustleistungsdichte um ein bipolares Resektoskop als Quellterm für die Berechnung der Temperaturänderung im operationsnahen Gewebe verwendet. Die Temperaturberechnung basiert auf der numerischen Lösung der Wärmeleitungsgleichung nach Penne. Für die gewählten Randbedingungen und Eingabeparameter sind keine signifikanten Temperaturerhöhungen im Berechnungsgebiet am proximalen Ende des Resektoskop-Schaftes festzustellen. Um ein umfassendes Verständnis zu gewinnen sollen weiterführende Untersuchungen mit einer Variation der Randbedingungen und Eingabeparameter durchgeführt werden.
The term “Cloud Computing” does not primarily specify new types of core technologies but rather addresses features to do with integration, interoperability and accessibility. Although not new, virtualization and automation are core features that characterize Cloud Computing. In this paper, we intend to explore the possibility of integrating cloud services with educational scenarios without re-defining neither the technology nor the usage scenarios from scratch. Our suggestion is based on certain solutions that have already been implemented and tested for specific cases.
It is common to have a large noise and/or a strong interference around the frequency band of a Power Line Communication (PLC) system due to the fact that the PLC channel is not designed for communication. If there are no efficient operations at the receiver to suppress this out-of-band noise and interference to some extent, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) will decrease and system will suffer performance loss consequently. Normally, the effort of Analog Front End (AFE) on the suppression of out-of-band interference is finite and it is uneconomic to change the AFE structure to make a performance improvement. Therefore, an appropriate structure of Digital Front End (DFE) at the receiver is necessary to reduce the impact of out-of-band noise and interference furthermore. In this paper, three different kinds of DFE structure at the receiver are introduced: classic DFE, time domain Nyquist windowing and Equivalent Complex Baseband (ECB) approach. The performance of these DFE structures is compared, not only from the aspect of out-of-band suppression, but also from the system overhead they need.
In recent years, hardware for the production and consumption of virtual reality content has reached level of prices that make it affordable to everyone. Accordingly schools and universities are showing increased interest in implementations of virtual reality technologies for supporting their innovative educational activities. Hence, this paper presents a flexible architecture for supporting the development of virtual reality learning scenarios conveniently deployed for educational purposes. We also suggest an example of such
educational scenario for medical purposes deployable with the suggested architecture. In addition, we developed and used a questionnaire answered by 17 medical students in order to derive additional requirements for refining such scenarios. Then, we present these efforts while aiming at deployments usable also for additional domains. Finally, we summarize and mention aspects we will address
in our coming efforts while deploying such activities.
In this paper we describe an architecture for behavioral organization based on dynamical systems. This architecture
enables the generation of complex behavioral sequences, which is demonstrated using the example of approaching and
passing a door. The behavioral sequence is generated by activating and deactivating the elementary behaviors dependent
on sensory information and internal logical conditions. The architecture is demonstrated on a mobile KOALA robot and
in simulation as well.
In the field of magnetic inductance tomography,
signal processing is a real challenge. This is due to the divergent
nature of magnetic fields. The sensitivity, i.e. the change in the
receiving signal by means of an electrically conductive sample
in a measuring volume depends strongly on the positioning
of the sample. Objects that are located near the transmitting
or receiving coils are very well locatable, where objects in
larger distance are hard to detect. In this paper an approach
is presented that improves the topology of the magnetic fields
in the ”magnetic induction tomography” (MIT) by changing
geometric constructions and current patterns of coils so far,
as to allow a sharper localization of objects within the space.
The aim is to level the distribution of the sensitivity in the
measuring volume, so that electrically conductive objects with
a larger distance between transmitting and receiving unit can
be detected with almost the same signal intensity as objects
close to the transmitting and receiving unit. The simulation tool
Comsolic is used for the geometric modeling making a finite
element analysis (FEA). The subsequent signal processing and
analysis of the simulation results are implemented in Matlabic .
Within this FEA the coil geometries and current patterns are
changed numerically, so that the minimum object size, that is
still detectable, is, compared to the known MIT, reduced and the
sensitivity of the system is improved. To validate the simulation in
Comsolic , first simulation results are compared with analytical
models and analyses.
The astronomy domain provides rich opportunities for learning about natural phenomena. It can involve and motivate a variety of mathematical and physical knowledge and skills. However it is difficult to connect astronomic observations to modelling and calculation tools and to embed them into educational scenarios. It is particularly this challenge which is focused in this paper. Concretely, we build on an existing collaborative modelling framework (Cool Modes) and extend it with specific representations to support learning activities in astronomy. A first field test has been conducted with these extensions.
Der Einsatz von virtuellen Servern im LDS NRW erfolgte bisher unter dem Blickwinkel der Konsolidierung von einfachen und sehr einfachen Systemen, die keine dedizierte Serversystemtechnik benötigten.
Mittlerweile bietet VMware Funktionalitäten, die neben dem Konsolidierungsgedanken hoch interessante Möglichkeiten für vielfältigste, individuelle Kundenanforderungen bieten. Dies reicht von flexiblen, preiswerten und einfachen
Systemen bis hin zu Serverplattformen mit hohen Ansprüchen an Performance und Verfügbarkeit.
This contribution demonstrates the efficient embedding of a single depth-camera into the automotive environment making mid-air gesture interaction for mobile applications viable in such a scenario. In this setting a new human-machine interface is implemented to give an idea of future improvements in automation processes in industrial applications. Our system is based on a data-driven approach by learning hand poses as well as gestures from a large database in order to apply them on mobile devices. We register any movement in a nearby driver area and crop data efficiently with the means of PCA transforming it into so-called feature vectors which present the input for our multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs). After MLP classification, the interpretation of user input is sent via WiFi to a tablet PC mounted into the car interior visualizing an infotainment system which the user is able to interact with. We demonstrate that by this setup hand gestures as well as hand poses are easily and efficiently interpretable insofar as that they become an intuitive and supplementary means of interaction for automotive HMI in mobile scenarios realizable in real-time.
In recent years, the number of reasonable powerful mobile devices increased. In 2011, the number of smartphones(e.g.)increased to more than 300 million units. A lot of research has already been conducted with respect of mobile devices acting as Cloud Service consumers, but
still not much effort is put on mobile devices in the role of Cloud Service providers. Therefore, this paper presents an approach that allows to utilize mobile devices like smart phones or tablets as Cloud Service providers. In order to make this a reasonable approach, some of the occurring problems are discussed and it is shown how the presented architecture is able to overcome these problems. Last
but not least, this paper
describes some performance
tests of the chosen implementa
tion for mobile Web Services.
CORA is a robotic assistant whose task is to collaborate with a human operator on simple manipulation or handling tasks. Its sensory channels comprising vision, audition, haptics, and force sensing are used to extract perceptual information about speech, gestures and gaze of the operator, and object recognition. The anthropomorphic robot arm makes goal-directed movements to pick up and hand over objects. The human operator may mechanically interact with the arm by pushing it away (haptics) or by taking an object out of the robot's gripper (force sensing). The design objective has been to exploit the human operator's intuition by modeling the mechanical structure, the senses, and the behaviors of the assistant on human anatomy, human perception, and human motor behavior.
We extend the attractor dynamics approach to generate goal-directed movement of a redundant, anthropomorphic arm while avoiding dynamic obstacles and respecting joint limits. To make the robot's movements human-like, we generate approximately straight-line trajectories by using two heading direction angles of the tool-point quite analogously to how movement is represented in the primate central nervous system. Two additional angles control the tool's spatial orientation so that it follows the tool-point's collision-free path. A fifth equation governs the redundancy angle, which controls the elevation of the elbow so as to avoid obstacles and respect joint limits. These variables make it possible to generate movement while sitting in an attractor (or, in the language of the potential field approach, in a minimum). We demonstrate the approach on an assistant robot, which interacts with human users in a shared workspace
The presented work formulates an framework in which early prediction of drivers lane change behavior is realized. We aim to build a representation of drivers lane change behavior in order to recognize and to predict driver's intentions as a first step towards a realistic driver model. In the test bed of the Institute of Neuroinformatik, based on the traffic simulator NISYS TRS 1, 10 individuals have driven in the experiments and they performed more then 150 lane change maneuvers. Lane-offset, distance to the front car and time to contact, were recorded. The acquired data was used to train - in parallel- a recurrent neural network, a feed forward neural network and a set of support vector machines. In the followed test drives the system was able of performing a lane change prediction time of 1.5 sec beforehand. The proposed approach describes a framework for lane-change detection and prediction, which will serve as a prerequisite for a successful driver model.
Generating collision free reaching movements for redundant manipulators using dynamical systems
(2010)
For autonomous robots to manipulate objects in unknown environments, they must be able to move their arms without colliding with nearby objects, other agents or humans. The simultaneous avoidance of multiple obstacles in real time by all link segments of a manipulator is still a hard task both in practice and in theory. We present a systematic scheme for the generation of collision free movements for redundant manipulators in scenes with arbitrarily many obstacles. Based on the dynamical systems approach to robotics, constraints are formulated as contributions to a dynamical system that erect attractors for targets and repellors for obstacles. These contributions are formulated in terms of variables relevant to each constraint and then transformed into vector fields over the manipulator joint velocity vector as an embedding space in which all constraints are simultaneously observed. We demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by implementing it on a real anthropomorphic 8-degrees-of-freedom redundant manipulator. In addition, performance is characterized by detecting failures in a systematic simulation experiment in randomized scenes with varying numbers of obstacles.
Generating flexible collision-free reaching move-
ments is a standard task for autonomous articulated robots that
is critical especially when such systems interact with humans in
a service robotics setting. Current solutions are still challenging
to put into practice. Here we generalize an approach
first
used to plan end-effector movement that is based on attractor
dynamical systems. We show, how different contributions to
the motion planning dynamics can be formulated in constraint-
specific reference frames and then transformed into the frame
of the joint velocity vector. We implement this system on an
8 DoF redundant manipulator and show its feasibility in a
simulation. A systematic experiment with randomly generated
obstacle scenes characterizes the performance of the system.
Especially challenging confi
gurations of obstacles are discussed
to illustrate how the method solves these cases
This paper deals with the question how to integrate smart devices in Java appli-
cations. It will outline how different smart devices can be used to enrich learning
environments, we will point to some of the problems one has to face while dealing
with smart devices, a differentiation of smart devices will be done and we will give an
overview about existing Java Virtual Machines available for different smart devices.
Furthermore we will tackle the question of the communication between different smart
devices and also between different kinds of smart devices. An outlook to the future
work will also be given at the end of this work
Integrating Orientation Constraints into the Attractor Dynamics Approach for Autonomous Manipulation
(2010)
For the rod shape measurement of hot rolled round steel bars (rods) the high frequency eddy current method is especially well suited as it requires no contact point and is not limited to below the Curie temperature. Defects of the rod's shape can be detected by measuring the impedance spectrum of the RLC-oscillator. In the first laboratory setup an Agilent impedance analyser was used for initial tests. Nevertheless, this setup cannot be applied in a steel plant due to the difficult environmental conditions. Hence, a vector network analyser for passive impedance measurement that is applicable in these surroundings was developed.
In this paper we describe our efforts to foster educational interoperability in scenarios using mobile and wireless technologies to support hands-on scientific experimentation and learning. A special focus is given to the idea that innovative uses of mobile and wireless technologies enhance the learners' scientific experience. Specific contributions include the creation of new applications to support interoperability between different mobile devices, thus to provide "glue" between different learning situations. We describe a number of educational scenarios as well as the technologies and the architectural principles behind them.
Methods of red-hot rod shape testing require a robust non-contact measurement principle as a touch point could lead to damages to the rod and the detection unit. Therefore a new basic approach based on high frequency eddy current (HFEC) has been investigated. Due to the robustness and the ability to determine the rod shape even above the Curie temperature this principle is especially well suited and can be implemented in the production process directly. The first automatic measurement setup was successfully developed with promising results. Hereby a defect of ovality was detected with a parallel RLC-oscillator. The capacity of this RLC-oscillator is constant whereas the inductance is the measurement part that varies due to eddy current interactions with the rod.
Fat content of liver is an essential parameter to decide whether a liver is suitable for transplantation or not. The determination of fat content is often challenging and usually there is not enough time to bring a specimen to a pathologic laboratory. That is why transplantation clinics need a technique to measure the fat content of a graft. In this paper the theoretical basics and an existing laboratory setup are presented.
The harmonic and interharmonic analysis recommendations are contained in the latest International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards on power quality. Measurement and analysis experiences have shown that great difficulties arise in the interharmonics detection and measurement with acceptable levels of accuracy. In this paper, the spectral leakage problems of the discrete Fourier transform due to synchronization errors of interharmonics are analyzed. The time-domain averaging is investigated for the processing of harmonics in the framework of the IEC standards. A difference filter is proposed to detect interharmonics and can be compatible with the IEC standards. Simulations and the field results show the usefulness of the proposed methods.
The transurethral resection (TUR) is a standard technique in urological treatment procedures. Both, monopolar and bipolar electrosurgical systems, are used for TUR. Whereas electrical and physical processes in surgery surroundings are well understood for monopolar systems, there is no sufficient data base for the assessment of the processes with the use of bipolar systems. In this context a multi-electrode measuring system was developed to visualize the spatial potential distribution around bipolar electrosurgical devices as a first step to risk analysis. To simulate the anatomic surroundings of a transurethral surgery a cylinder filled with isotonic saline solution was used as a complexity reduced experimental environment.
The bipolar transurethral resection is a further development of monopolar transurethral resection, being the gold standard in surgical treatment of prostate and bladder diseases. To create the metrological basis for understanding of electrical and physical processes during bipolar transurethral resection an experimental set-up to visualize spatial potential distribution around bipolar devices was developed. A hardware based signal conditioning and specific undersampling are presented as data acquisition methods for a sampling rate up to 1 MS/s. These methods are compared with the possibilities of a high speed data acquisition card. For more than four measuring channels and depending on the output bandwidth of the electrosurgical generator either hardware based signal conditioning or specific undersampling is suggested.
We present an architecture based on the Dynamic Field Theory for the problem of scene representation. At the core of this architecture are three-dimensional neural fields linking feature to spatial information. These three-dimensional fields are coupled to lower-dimensional fields that provide both a close link to the sensory surface and a close link to motor behavior. We highlight the updating mechanism of this architecture, both when a single object is selected and followed by the robot's head in smooth pursuit and in multi-item tracking when several items move simultaneously
The WWW is the killerapp of the internet. In recent years an enormously increasing number of Web Applications, as a means of human-to-computer interaction, showed up, that allows a visitor of a certain website to interact with the website. Additionally the approach of Web Services was introduced in order to allow computer-to-computer Interaction on the basis of standardized protocols. This paper shows how the gap between Web Applications and Web Services can be closed by making Web Applications available to computer-to-computer interaction by a systematic approach.
In recent years the diversity and the ownership of mobile devices steadily increased while the prices for this kind of devices decreased to a level that allows many students to own reasonably powerful devices. As mobile devices are also being used in learning scenarios, the challenge of today is the integration of multiple heterogeneous devices into existing and upcoming learning scenarios. This paper describes an architecture that allows easy integration of various kinds of mobile and non-mobile devices. The presented architecture will be exemplified by a group discussion scenario in a heterogeneous learning environment. The paper concludes with the description of a pilot study using the described system.
This paper presents an approach towards a mobile learning environment, which is flexible in terms of supported scenarios, supported devices and input channels. The approach makes use of existing and commonly used channels like SMS, Twitter or Face book to increase acceptance and ease-of-use of mobile devices in learning scenarios. Envisaged application scenarios are described along with technical details for their realization.
The first robots are currently appearing on the consumer market. Initially they are targeted at rather simple applications such as entertainment and home convenience. For more complex areas, these robots will need to collaborate and interactively communicate with their human users, which requires appropriate man-machine interaction technologies and considerable cognitive abilities on the robot's side. Consumer acceptance will strongly depend on the integrated system. Thus, system integration and evaluation of the integrated system is becoming increasingly important. This paper describes our approach to construct a robotic assistance system. We present experience with an integrated technology demonstration and exposure of the integrated system to the public.
In diesem Artikel stellen wir ein System zur Synchronisierung beliebiger, in Java geschriebener, Anwendungen vor. Nach einer kurzen Diskussion der Vor- und Nachteile von replizierter Datenhaltung – wie sie in unserem System verwendet wird – werden wir am Beispiel einer komplexen Diskussions- und Modellierungsumgebung
zeigen, wie man mit unserer Architektur Anwendungen partiell koppeln kann und somit flexible Kooperationsmöglichkeiten technisch unterstützen kann.
Bipolar electrosurgical systems are used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in urology. In order to analyse electrothermal processes during surgery the power loss density distribution around a bipolar resectoscope is calculated out of the measured potential distribution in isotonic saline solution ex situ. During further analysis power loss density values act as input for the Penne's bioheat equation. To achieve results, which are as realistic as possible, a method to obtain power loss density values, depending on the observed tissue or medium in the operating field, is presented. Applying this method, the power loss density distribution in isotonic saline solution at 25 °C is compared to the distribution calculated for the average conductivity of biological tissue in the region of interest.
In this contribution we present a novel approach to transform data from time-of-flight (ToF) sensors to be interpretable by Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). As ToF data tends to be overly noisy depending on various factors such as illumination, reflection coefficient and distance, the need for a robust algorithmic approach becomes evident. By spanning a three-dimensional grid of fixed size around each point cloud we are able to transform three-dimensional input to become processable by CNNs. This simple and effective neighborhood-preserving methodology demonstrates that CNNs are indeed able to extract the relevant information and learn a set of filters, enabling them to differentiate a complex set of ten different gestures obtained from 20 different individuals and containing 600.000 samples overall. Our 20-fold cross-validation shows the generalization performance of the network, achieving an accuracy of up to 98.5% on validation sets comprising 20.000 data samples. The real-time applicability of our system is demonstrated via an interactive validation on an infotainment system running with up to 40fps on an iPad in the vehicle interior.
Detection of air trapping in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by low frequency ultrasound
(2012)
Background: Spirometry is regarded as the gold standard for the diagnosis of COPD, yet the condition is widely underdiagnosed. Therefore, additional screening methods that are easy to perform and to interpret are needed. Recently, we demonstrated that low frequency ultrasound (LFU) may be helpful for monitoring lung diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether LFU can be used to detect air trapping in COPD. In addition, we evaluated the ability of LFU to detect the effects of short-acting bronchodilator medication.Methods: Seventeen patients with COPD and 9 healthy subjects were examined by body plethysmography and LFU. Ultrasound frequencies ranging from 1 to 40 kHz were transmitted to the sternum and received at the back during inspiration and expiration. The high pass frequency was determined from the inspiratory and the expiratory signals and their difference termed F. Measurements were repeated after inhalation of salbutamol.Results: We found signi ficant differences in F between COPD subjects and healthy subjects. These differences were already significant at GOLD stage 1 and increased with the severity of COPD. Sensitivity for detection of GOLD stage 1 was 83% and for GOLD stages worse than 1 it was 91%. Bronchodilator effects could not be detected reliably.Conclusions: We conclude that low frequency ultrasound is cost-effective, easy to perform and suitable for detecting air trapping. It might be useful in screening for COPD
Background:
Detection of influential actors in social media such as Twitter or Facebook plays an important role for improving the quality and efficiency of work and services in many fields such as education and marketing.
Methods:
The work described here aims to introduce a new approach that characterizes the influence of actors by the strength of attracting new active members into a networked community. We present a model of influence of an actor that is based on the attractiveness of the actor in terms of the number of other new actors with which he or she has established relations over time.
Results:
We have used this concept and measure of influence to determine optimal seeds in a simulation of influence maximization using two empirically collected social networks for the underlying graphs.
Conclusions:
Our empirical results on the datasets demonstrate that our measure stands out as a useful measure to define the attractors comparing to the other influence measures.
Background:
Influential actors detection in social media such as twitter or Facebook can play a major role in gathering opinions on particular topics, improving the market
-
ing efficiency, predicting the trends, etc.
Proposed methods:
This work aims to extend our formally defined
T
measure to
present a new measure aiming to recognize the actor’s influence by the strength of
attracting new important actors into a networked community. Therefore, we propose a
model of the actor’s influence based on the attractiveness of the actor in relation to the
number of other attractors with whom he/she has established connections over time.
Results and conclusions:
Using an empirically collected social network for the
underlying graph, we have applied the above-mentioned measure of influence in
order to determine optimal seeds in a simulation of influence maximization. We study
our extended measure in the context of information diffusion because this measure is
based on a model of actors who attract others to be active members in a community.
This corresponds to the idea of the IC simulation model which is used to identify the
most important spreaders in a set of actors.
Keywords: Actor influence, Social media networks, Twitter, IC model, Information
diffusion, Independent cascade model, T measure
Photoluminescence (PL) in GaN or InGaN layers monitored during epitaxial growth at high temperatures permits a quasi-continuous in situ characterization of opto-electronic properties. Therefore, epitaxial parameters can now be optimized at the earliest possible stage. A pulsed and high-power UV laser was required for PL excitation at high temperatures. Herein, the underlying nonlinear mechanism was studied via time-resolved PL experiments and rate equation-based modeling. A temperature-activated and saturable path for quenching over defects was identified. Beyond the saturation threshold, reasonably-intensive PL sets in. At high temperatures not only is the near band gap-PL present, but also—as a new observation—a defect-assisted PL emerges. Apart from these specific electronic transitions in high-temperature PL of GaN, a simple, but reasonably predictive model of the luminescent thin film has been set up to track down interference fringes in the PL spectra. It is worth mentioning that the spectral PL modulation (aiming at the Purcell effect) is often mixed up with ordinary Fabry–Pérot interference. A distinction has become key to properly analyze the spectral signatures of high-temperature PL in order to provide a reliable in situ characterization of GaN layers during epitaxial growth
Untersuchung des Einflusses von Längsrissen in Drähten auf die Impedanz eines Wirbelstromsensors
(2012)
Induktive Bioimpedanzmessung – Verbesserte örtliche Auflösung durch geeignete Spulengeometrien
(2013)
Influencing Parameters on Measuring the Cross-Section Area of Hot Rolled Rods in Steel Industries
(2014)
Die transurethrale Resektion der Prostata (TURP) ist ein Verfahren der Elektrochirurgie innerhalb der Urologie. Thema der Arbeit ist die Entwicklung einer Methodik für realitätsnahe vergleichende Untersuchungen der elektrothermischen Vorgänge um Resektoskope zur bipolaren TURP. Die Relevanz dieses Themas liegt in der aktuellen Diskussion, ob elektrothermische Verletzungen eine mögliche Ursache urethraler Komplikationen darstellen. In diesem Kontext sind nicht die Vorgänge an der Resektionselektrode sondern in nicht behandelten Arealen des Operationsgebiets von Interesse. Bisher durchgeführte Untersuchungen konzentrieren sich auf monopolare Systeme. Untersuchte bipolare Elektrodenanordnungen unterscheiden sich allerdings von heutigen bipolaren Resektoskopen. Die vorhandenen Erkenntnisse sind deshalb nur äußerst eingeschränkt anwendbar. Informationen zu thermischen Vorgängen bezüglich Spätkomplikationen liegen nicht vor.
Der gewählte Ansatz aus messtechnischer Bestimmung der 3D Potentialverteilung ex situ sowie modellbasierter und numerischer Analyse der sich daraus ergebenden 3D Verlustleistungsdichteverteilung und der darauf beruhenden Temperaturberechnung im operationsnahen Gewebe ermöglicht ein auf die Realität übertragbares Ergebnis. Die berechnete Temperatur dient des Weiteren als Grundlage einer medizinischen Einschätzung hinsichtlich des Potentials elektrothermischer Verletzungen. Ergebnis der Arbeit ist, dass vergleichende Untersuchungen bipolarer Resektoskope mit der entwickelten Methodik durchführbar sind. Für die untersuchte bipolare Elektrodenanordnung erscheinen elektrothermische Verletzungen als Ursache urethraler Strikturen bei konservativer Betrachtung und unter durchschnittlichen Operationsbedingungen ohne intraoperative Komplikationen unwahrscheinlich.
This experimental study demonstrates for the first time a solid-state circuitry and design for a simple compact copper coil (without an additional bulky permanent magnet or bulky electromagnet) as a contactless electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) for pulse echo operation at MHz frequencies. A pulsed ultrasound emission into a metallic test object is electromagnetically excited by
an intense MHz burst at up to 500 A through the 0.15 mm filaments of the transducer. Immediately thereafter, a smoother and quasi “DC-like” current of 100 A is applied for about 1 ms and allows an
echo detection. The ultrasonic pulse echo operation for a simple, compact, non-contacting copper coil is new. Application scenarios for compact transducer techniques include very narrow and
hostile environments, in which, e.g., quickly moving metal parts must be tested with only one, non-contacting ultrasound shot. The small transducer coil can be operated remotely with a cable
connection, separate from the much bulkier supply circuitry. Several options for more technical and fundamental progress are discussed.
Optimization of Encircling Eddy Current Sensors for Online Monitoring of Hot Rolled Round Steel Bars
(2014)
Modern manufacturing industries are continually working on quality enhancements for the hot rolling process of round products. One method for improving the finalisation of the rods is the implementation of an automatic size control system. As a result of these trends over the last few years, there has been an increasing demand for more accurate online measurements. Thus the reason for the research performed for this thesis. A particular challenge throughout this research was dealing with the temperature changes (up to 1200°C) from the in- and output of the fervent rolling stocks, and the effect this temperature changes had on the sensors. Furthermore, there is also high demand for developing fast and practical electronic measuring equipment, capable of measuring during high transport velocities (up to 120 m/s). The eddy current principle is just one of the very few methods available which can with-stand such harsh industrial environments. In fact, eddy current sensors are already being integrated into online monitoring tasks for hot rolling processes. The measurement uncertainty, however, is still considerably large for process control purposes. One reason for this lies within the ability for eddy current detectors to receive signals influenced by outward forces, i.e. forces dependent on its location, its geometry, the outside temperature and the material properties of a particular target. Thus the current accuracy for a cross-sectional area measurement, for example, is no higher than 1%. As a result, this thesis investigates the magnitude of all individual influential factors on the eddy current detectors, using model-based analysis techniques. The analytical model provides a solution for all rotationally symmetrical targets and the FEA model covers all of the other influencing parameters in a more time consuming manner. This thesis then provides different methods which are developed to separate the cross-sectional area measurement of a rod from all of the other influencing parameters. In addition, a material tracking approach for round products is developed. Two different kinds of prototypes, capable of measuring approximately 466 Tons of red-hot steel rods during the production process, are finally introduced in this thesis. The usefulness of the eddy current principle is validated by the provided field test results. The count accuracy for the identification of 2876 bars was found to be 99.93%, and the average measurement accuracy for the cross-sectional area experiments was reduced to ± 0.29 % when including all of the findings.
A Large and Quick Induction Field Scanner for Examining the Interior of Extended Objects or Humans
(2017)
This study describes the techniques and signal properties of a large, powerful, and linear-scanning 1.5 MHz induction field scanner. The mechanical system is capable of quickly reading the volume of relative large objects, e.g., a test person. The general approach mirrors Magnetic Induction Tomography (MIT), but the details differ considerably from currently-described MIT systems: the setup is asymmetrical, and it operates in gradiometric modalities, either with coaxial excitation with destructive interference or with a single excitation loop and tilted receivers. Following this approach, the primary signals were almost completely nulled, and test objects' real or imaginary imprint was obtained directly. The coaxial gradiometer appeared advantageous: exposure to strong fields was reduced due to destructive interference. Meanwhile, the signals included enhanced components at higher spatial frequencies, thereby obtaining a gradually improved capability for localization. For robust signals, the excitation field can be powered towards the rated limits of human exposure to time-varying magnetic fields. Repeated measurements assessed the important signal integrity, which is affected by the scanner´s imperfections, particularly any motions or respiratory changes in living beings during or between repeated scans. The currently achieved and overall figure of merit for artifacts was 58 dB for inanimate test objects and 44 dB for a test person. Both numbers should be understood as worst case levels: a repeated scan with intermediate breathing and drift/dislocations requires 50 seconds, whereas a single measurement (with respiratory arrest) takes only about 5 seconds.
Temporal stabilization of discrete movement in variable environments: An attractor dynamics approach
(2009)
The ability to generate discrete movement with distinct and stable time courses is important for interaction scenarios both between different robots and with human partners, for catching and interception tasks, and for timed action sequences. In dynamic environments, where trajectories are evolving online, this is not a trivial task. The dynamical systems approach to robotics provides a framework for robust incorporation of fluctuating sensor information, but control of movement time is usually restricted to rhythmic motion and realized through stable limit cycles. The present work uses a Hopf oscillator to produce discrete motion and formulates an online adaptation rule to stabilize total movement time against a wide range of disturbances. This is integrated into a dynamical systems framework for the sequencing of movement phases and for directional navigation, using 2D-planar motion as an example. The approach is demonstrated on a Khepera mobile unit in order to show its reliability even when depending on low-level sensor information.
Recognition of emotions from multimodal cues is of basic interest for the design of many adaptive interfaces in human-machine interaction (HMI) in general and human-robot interaction (HRI) in particular. It provides a means to incorporate non-verbal feedback in the course of interaction. Humans express their emotional and affective state rather unconsciously exploiting their different natural communication modalities such as body language, facial expression and prosodic intonation. In order to achieve applicability in realistic HRI settings, we develop person-independent affective models. In this paper, we present a study on multimodal recognition of emotions from such auditive and visual cues for interaction interfaces. We recognize six classes of basic emotions plus the neutral one of talking persons. The focus hereby lies on the simultaneous online visual and accoustic analysis of speaking faces. A probabilistic decision level fusion scheme based on Bayesian networks is applied to draw benefit of the complementary information from both – the acoustic and the visual – cues. We compare the performance of our state of the art recognition systems for separate modalities to the improved results after applying our fusion scheme on both DaFEx database and a real-life data that captured directly from robot. We furthermore discuss the results with regard to the theoretical background and future applications.
To reduce the number of traffic accidents and to increase the drivers comfort, the thought of designing driver assistance systems arose in the past years. Fully or partly autonomously guided vehicles, particularly for road traffic, pose high demands on the development of reliable algorithms. Principal problems are caused by having a moving observer in predominantly natural environments. At the Institut fur Neuroinformatik methods for analyzing driving relevant scenes by computer vision are developed in cooperation with several partners from the automobile industry. We present a solution for a driver assistance system. We concentrate on the aspects of video-based scene analysis and organization of behavior.
Die steigenden Anforderungen an den Umweltschutz bei möglichst niedrigen Kosten betreffen auch die öffentlichen Kanalnetze und Kläranlagen. Speziell die Kanalnetze sind über Jahrzehnte gewachsen, ohne dass kostengünstig eine genaue Bilanz ihrer Leistungsfähigkeit bis in ihre Segmente möglich war. Es fehlte vor allem in kleineren Systemen an Messwerten für die Transportmengen in Abhängigkeit der Witterung zur Beurteilung des Transportverhaltens der Einzelsegmente. Erst diese Messwerte ermöglichen eine mathematische Modellbildung mit Parametrierung und damit Ansätze für eine Optimierung. In diesem Beitrag wird der Prototyp eines neuartigen Sensors vorgestellt, der die gleichzeitige, kostengünstige und zeitbegrenzte Erfassung der Abwasserströme an verschiedenen Punkten im Kanalnetz ermöglichen soll. Die im Abwasserstrom befindlichen Teile des Sensors sind preiswerte mechanische Komponenten, die kostengünstig und einfach zu ersetzen sind. Die Erfassung der Strömungsgeschwindigkeit und der durchströmten Querschnittsfläche erfolgt mit Hilfe der sich an einem Störkörper einstellenden Druckverhältnisse.
In modernen Prüffeldern zur Warenendkontrolle dienen halbleitergesteuerte Frequenzumformer zur Einstellung der Drehzahl. Diese Systeme verursachen erhebliche Störungen der Strom- und Spannungssignale. Aus diesen Signalen müssen alle elektrischen Kenngrößen berechnet werden. Eine besondere Bedeutung haben dabei die Frequenz und Phasenlage. In diesem Beitrag wird ein mathematischer Algorithmus vorgestellt, der zur Berechnung von Frequenz und Phasenlage bei guter Unterdrückung dieser Störungen eingesetzt werden kann.
Based on the concepts of dynamic field theory (DFT), we present an architecture that autonomously generates scene representations by controlling gaze and attention, creating visual objects in the foreground, tracking objects, reading them into working memory, and taking into account their visibility. At the core of this architecture are three-dimensional dynamic neural fields (DNFs) that link feature to spatial information. These three-dimensional fields couple into lower dimensional fields, which provide the links to the sensory surface and to the motor systems. We discuss how DNFs can be used as building blocks for cognitive architectures, characterize the critical bifurcations in DNFs, as well as the possible coupling structures among DNFs. In a series of robotic experiments, we demonstrate how the DNF architecture provides the core functionalities of a scene representation.
Schlussbericht ; Laufzeit des Vorhabens/Berichtszeitraum: 01.10.2005-30.11.2009
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Förderkennzeichen BMBF 01IME01K [richtig] - 01IMEO1K [falsch]. - Verbund-Nr. 01042153. - Engl. Berichtsbl. u.d.T.: Face recognition on mobile robot plattforms. - Literaturverz. Bl. 32
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Relevance & Research Question: Smartphones have become an integrated part in everyday life facilitating communication, information access, entertainment and organization anytime and anywhere. However, the omnipresence of such devices can evoke psychological dependencies and the need of being always connected resulting in discomfort when the smartphone is not accessible. While few studies have found heightened anxiety during smartphone absence (e.g. Cheever, Rosen, Carrier, & Chavez, 2014), such research is scarce. Therefore, we aimed at expanding existing research asking whether the mere imagination of smartphone absence suffices to trigger anxiety and affect user’s context evaluations.
Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird das Phasen-Differenz-Verfahren zur Frequenzmessung der durch Rauschen gestörten Signale vorgestellt. Es wird gezeigt, dass Frequenzausreißer bei Anwendungen dieses Verfahrens entstehen, auch wenn das Signal-zu-Rausch-Verhältnis ausreichend groß ist. Die Ursachen der Frequenzausreißer werden analysiert. Zur Korrektur wird ein Lösungsansatz vorgeschlagen. Im Vergleich mit anderen Verfahren kann das verbesserte Phasen-Differenz-Verfahren die Frequenz der durch Rauschen gestörten Signale mit größerer Genauigkeit und vertretbarem Rechenaufwand berechnen.
In this work methods are described, which are used for an individual adaption of a dialog system. Anyway, an automatic real-time capable visual user attention estimation for a face to face human machine interaction is described. Furthermore, an emotion estimation is presented, which combines a visual and an acoustic method. Both, the attention estimation and the visual emotion estimation based on Active Appearance Models (AAMs). Certainly, for the attention estimation Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs) are used to map the Active Appearance Parameters (AAM-Parameters) onto the current head pose. Afterwards, the chronology of the head poses is classified as attention or inattention. In the visual emotion estimation the AAM-Parameter will be classified by a Support-Vector-Machine (SVM). The acoustic emotion estimation also use a SVM to classifies emotion related audio signal features into the 5 basis emotions (neutral, happy, sad, anger, surprise). Afterward, a Bayes network is used to combine the results of the visual and the acoustic estimation in the decision level. The visual attention estimation as well as the emotion estimation will be used in service robotic to allow a more natural and human like dialog. Furthermore, the human head pose is very efficient interpreted as head nodding or shaking by the use of adaptive statistical moments. Especially, the head movement of many demented people are restricted, so they often only use their eyes to look around. For that reason, this work examine a simple gaze estimation with the help of an ordinary webcam. Moreover, a full body user re-identification method is described, which allows an individual state estimation of several people for hight dynamic situations. In this work an appearance based method is described, which allows a fast people re-identification over a short time span to allow the usage of individual parameter.
Global software development changes the requirements in terms of soft competency and increases the complexity of social interaction by including intercultural aspects. While soft competency is often seen as crucial for the success of global software development projects, the concrete competence requirements remain unknown. Internationalization competency represents one of the first attempts to structure and describe the soft competence requirements for global software developers. Based on the diversity of tasks, competence requirements will differ among the various phases of software development. By conducting a survey on the importance of internationalization competences for the different phases of global software development, we identified differences in terms of competence importance and requirements in the phases. “Adaptability” (of one's working style) and “Cultural Awareness” were the main differences. “Cultural Awareness” distinguishes requirements engineering and software design from testing and implementation while “Adaptability” distinguishes implementation and software design from requirements engineering and testing.
The goal of this paper is to define relevant barriers to the exchange of Open Educational Resources in local public administrations. Building upon a cultural model, eleven experts were interviewed and asked to evaluate several factors, such as openness in discourse, learning at the workplace, and superior support, among others. The result is a set of socio-cultural factors that shape the use of Open Educational Resources in public administrations. Significant factors are, in this respect, the independent choice of learning resources, the spirit of the platform, the range of available formats and access to technologies. Practitioners use these factors to elaborate on the readiness of public administrations towards the use of open e-Learning systems. To academic debates on culture in e-Learning, the results provide an alternative model that is contextualized to meet the demands of public sector contexts. Overall, the paper contributes to the lack of research about open e-Learning systems in the public sector, as well as regarding culture in the management of learning and knowledge exchange.
The open education movement has witnessed ups and downs from initial interest in transparency and openness, followed by a lack of reuse of open educational resources (OER) and the massive boost of interest in massive open online courses (MOOCs). This article addresses educators' online behaviors and perceptions regarding participation in collaborative development of OER in online settings. Using a data-driven approach to study educators' perceptions, this article presents multiple considerations for collaborative OER development and validates a new model explaining educators' intention to participate in collaborative action. The findings reveal the contradictory nature of emotional ownership of knowledge: a critical enabling factor for commitment and a barrier to knowledge exchange in an open and transparent manner. The findings also show how outcome expectations regarding increase in reputation and status in the network do not influence the intention to share knowledge. Further interviews with idea-sharing platform users enable us to explain the favorable settings to resolve the dilemma of emotional ownership. The study contributes not only to further development of the open education movement but also to theory development of educators’ collaborative behaviors online.
This article presents a omparative study of the barriers to open e-learning in public administrations in Luxembourg, Germany, Montenegro and Ireland. It discusses the current state of open e-learning of public administration employees at the local government level and derives the barriers to such learning. This paper's main contribution is its presentation of an empirical set of barriers in the four European countries. The results allow informed assumptions about which barriers will arise in the forthcoming use of open-source e-learning technology, particularly open educational resources as means of learning. Furthermore, this study offers a contextualised barrier framework that allows the systematic capture and comparison of challenges for future studies in the field. Other practical contributions include providing advice about open e-learning programmes, systematising lessons learned and addressing managerial implications.
Immer mehr ältere Menschen leben von ihren Angehörigen getrennt und können über Kommunikationsmedien wie Telefon und Skype nur eingeschränkt gemeinsame Erlebnisse erzeugen. In diesem Paper wird die technische Umsetzung eines Konzeptes vorgestellt, das es Familienmitgliedern ermöglicht über das Internet gemeinsam „Mensch-ärgere-dich-nicht“ zu spielen. Durch Videotelefonie und eine besondere Anordnung der Hardware werden die Spieler trotz räumlicher Trennung virtuell an einen Tisch gebracht und dadurch ein gemeinsames Erlebnis erzeugt. Die Clientanwendung wird dabei als plattformunabhängiger Webservice und die Videotelefonie mittels verschiedener Standards und Server realisiert.
In this paper we discuss how group processes can be influenced by designing specific tools in computer supported collaborative leaning. We present the design of a shared workspace application for co-constructive tasks that is enriched by certain functions that are able to track, analyze and feed back parameters of collaboration to group members. Thereby our interdisciplinary approach is mainly based on an integrative methodology for analyzing collaboration behavior and patterns in an implicit manner combined with explicit surveyed data of group members’ attitudes and its immediate feedback to the groups. In an exploratory study we examined the influence of this feedback function. Although we could only analyze ad-hoc groups in this study, we detected some benefits of our methodology which might enrich real life Learning Communities’ collaboration processes. The data analysis in our study showed advantages of this feedback on processes of a group’s well-being as well as parameters of participation. These results provide a basis for further empirical work on problem solving groups that are supported by means of parallel interaction analysis as well as its re-use as information resource.
This paper describes an educational application that combines handhelds (PDAs) and programmable Lego bricks in a classroom scenario that deals with the problem of letting a robot escape from a maze. It is specific to our setting that the problem can be solved both in the physical world by steering a Lego robot and in a simulated software environment on a PDA or on a PC. This approach enables the students to generate successful sets of rules in the simulation and to test these sets of rules later in physical mazes, or to create new types of mazes as challenges for known rule sets. In this paper we describe the technical setting for this scenario, different pedagogical scenarios and we will report an evaluation with a group of students in a school environment.
Efficient photoluminescence (PL) spectra from GaN and InGaN layers at temperatures up to 1100 K are observed with low noise floor and high dynamic resolution. A number of detailed spectral features in the PL can be directly linked to physical properties of the epitaxial grown layer. The method is suggested as an in situ monitoring tool during epitaxy of nitride LED and laser structures. Layer properties like thickness, band gap or film temperature distribution are feasible.
Electro-magnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) are intended as non-contact and non-destructive ultrasound transducers for metallic material. The transmitted intensities from EMATS are modest, particularly at notable lift off distances. Some time ago a concept for a “coil only EMAT” was presented, without static magnetic field. In this contribution, such compact “coil only EMATs” with effective areas of 1–5 cm2 were driven to excessive power levels at MHz frequencies, using pulsed power technologies. RF induction currents of 10 kA and tens of Megawatts are applied. With increasing power the electroacoustic conversion efficiency also increases. The total effect is of second order or quadratic, therefore non-linear and progressive, and yields strong ultrasound signals up to kW/cm2 at MHz frequencies in the metal. Even at considerable lift off distances (cm) the ultrasound can be readily detected. Test materials are aluminum, ferromagnetic steel and stainless steel (non-ferromagnetic). Thereby, most metal types are represented. The technique is compared experimentally with other non-contact methods: laser pulse induced ultrasound and spark induced ultrasound, both damaging to the test object’s surface. At small lift off distances, the intensity from this EMAT concept clearly outperforms the laser pulses or heavy spark impacts.
In this work we report the first quasi-continuous in-situ photoluminescence study of growing InGaN LED structures inside an industrial-grade metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) reactor at growth temperature. The photoluminescence spectra contain information about temperature, thickness and composition of the epitaxial layers. Furthermore, the in-situ spectra – even at an early stage of the growth of the active region – can be used to predict the photoluminescence emission wavelength of the structure at room temperature. In this study an accuracy of this predicted wavelength in the range of ± 1.3 nm (2σ) is demonstrated. This technique thus appears suitable for closed-loop control of the emission wavelength of InGaN LEDs already during growth.
A simple copper coil without a voluminous stationary magnet can be utilized as a non-contacting transmitter and as a detector for ultrasonic vibrations in metals. Advantages of such compact EMATs without (electro-)magnet might be: applications in critical environments (hot, narrow, presence of iron filings…), potentially superior fields (then improved ultrasound transmission and more sensitive ultrasound detection).
The induction field of an EMAT strongly influences ultrasound transduction in the nearby metal. Herein, a simplified analytical method for field description at high liftoff is presented. Within certain limitations this method reasonably describes magnetic fields (and resulting eddy currents, inductances, Lorentz forces, acoustic pressures) of even complex coil arrangements. The methods can be adapted to conventional EMATS with a separate stationary magnet.
Increased distances (liftoff) are challenging and technically relevant, and this practical question is addressed: with limited electrical power and given free space between transducer and target metal, what would be the most efficient geometry of a circular coil? Furthermore, more complex coil geometries (“butterfly coil”) with a concentrated field and relatively higher reach are briefly investigated.
Wirbelströme werden in der Mess- und Sensortechnik sehr erfolgreich benutzt, um berührungslos Risse und Abstände metallischer Halbzeuge zu bestimmen. Die Messung von Konturen ist mit diesem industrietauglichen Wirkprinzip bisher nicht realisiert worden. Hier werden häufig optische Messsysteme eingesetzt. Speziell bei glühenden Werkstücken oder bei Benetzung der Halbzeuge mit Bohremulsionen und Schneidölen steigt der Aufwand für den Einsatz optischer Systeme stark an. Messverfahren, die auf hochfrequenten Wirbelströmen basieren, sind aufgrund ihrer einfachen Aufbauten deutlich robuster und somit besser für diese Anwendung geeignet. Voruntersuchungen zeigten, dass mit dieser Methode schon kleine Geometrieabweichungen des Walzgutes von wenigen Mikrometern detektiert werden können. In diesem Beitrag werden zwei Möglichkeiten zur Messung der spektralen Impedanzbeeinflussung eines Messschwingkreises durch die Wirbelströme im Werkstück gegenübergestellt.