Metaverse virtual social center for elderly communication in time of social distancing

Background The lack of social activities among the elderly due to physical limitations can result in loneliness and depression. The spread of COVID-19 has made it difficult for the elderly to conduct stable social activities, increasing feelings of loneliness. The metaverse is a virtual world that mirrors reality. This allows the elderly to overcome the constraints of reality and perform social activities stably and continuously, providing new ideas for alleviating loneliness. Methods By analyzing their needs, a virtual social center framework for the elderly was proposed in this study. In addition, a prototype system was designed according to this framework. The elderly can socialize in virtual reality with metaverse-related technologies and human–computer interaction tools. Additionally, a test was conducted jointly with the chief physician of the geriatric rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital. Results The results demonstrated that the mental state of the elderly who had used the virtual social center was significantly better than that of those who had not used it. Conclusions Thus, virtual social centers can help relieve loneliness and depression among the elderly with increasing global epidemics and an aging society. Hence,they have promotional value.

Design and preliminary results of beam return on of high power ion source

Long pulse operation of high power ion source is the requirement of fusion science research on neutral beam injector. A breakdown of accelerator column is drastically increased when operating with high beam energy and long beam duration. To extend the pulse length, which was stopped with every breakdown so far, the beam re-starting technology was developed and utilized. As a result, the voltage drop of every power supply due to breakdown was recovered within a time of 90 ms and beam pulse length was extended much longer than the case before this improvement. The details of the beam re-starting technology and the preliminary results were presented in this manuscript.

Augmented reality-based visual-haptic modeling for thoracoscopic surgery training systems

Background Compared with traditional thoracotomy,video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery(VATS)has less minor trauma,faster recovery,higher patient compliance,but higher requirements for surgeons.Virtual surgery training simulation systems are important and have been widely used in Europe and America.Augmented reality(AR)in surgical training simulation systems significantly improve the training effect of virtual surgical training,although AR technology is still in its initial stage.Mixed reality has gained increased attention in technology-driven modern medicine but has yet to be used in everyday practice.Methods This study proposed an immersive AR lobectomy within a thoracoscope surgery training system,using visual and haptic modeling to study the potential benefits of this critical technology.The content included immersive AR visual rendering,based on the cluster-based extended position-based dynamics algorithm of soft tissue physical modeling.Furthermore,we designed an AR haptic rendering systems,whose model architecture consisted of multi-touch interaction points,including kinesthetic and pressure-sensitive points.Finally,based on the above theoretical research,we developed an AR interactive VATS surgical training platform.Results Twenty-four volunteers were recruited from the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province to evaluate the VATS training system.Face,content,and construct validation methods were used to assess the tactile sense,visual sense,scene authenticity,and simulator performance.Conclusions The results of our construction validation demonstrate that the simulator is useful in improving novice and surgical skills that can be retained after a certain period of time.The video-assisted thoracoscopic system based on AR developed in this study is effective and can be used as a training device to assist in the development of thoracoscopic skills for novices.