Bioinspired nanomaterials for wearable sensing and human–machine interfacing

The inculcation of bioinspiration in sensing and human–machine interface(HMI)technologies can lead to distinctive characteristics such as conformability,low power consumption,high sensitivity,and unique properties like self-healing,self-cleaning,and adaptability.Both sensing and HMI are fields rife with opportunities for the application of bioinspired nanomaterials,particularly when it comes to wearable sensory systems where biocompatibility is an additional requirement.This review discusses recent development in bioinspired nanomaterials for wearable sensing and HMIs,with a specific focus on state-of-the-art bioinspired capacitive sensors,piezoresistive sensors,piezoelectric sensors,triboelectric sensors,magnetoelastic sensors,and electrochemical sensors.We also present a comprehensive overview of the challenges that have hindered the scientific advancement in academia and commercialization in the industry.

Technology acceptance comparison between on-road dynamic message sign and on-board human machine interface for connected vehicle-based variable speed limit in fog area

Purpose–Connected vehicle-based variable speed limit(CV-VSL)systems in fog area use multi-source detection data to indicate drivers to make uniform change in speed when low visibility conditions suddenly occur.The purpose of the speed limit is to make the driver’s driving behavior more consistent,so as to improve traffic safety and relieve traffic congestion.The on-road dynamic message sign(DMS)and on-board human–machine interface(HMI)are two types of warning technologies for CV-VSL systems.This study aims to analyze drivers’acceptance of the two types of warning technologies in fog area and its influencing factors.Design/methodology/approach–This study developed DMS and on-board HMI for the CV-VSL system in fog area on a driving simulator.The DMS and on-board HMI provided the driver with weather and speed limit information.In all,38 participants participated in the experiment and completed questionnaires on drivers’basic information,perceived usefulness and ease of use of the CV-VSL systems.Technology acceptance model(TAM)was developed to evaluate the drivers’acceptance of CV-VSL systems.A variance analysis method was used to study the influencing factors of drivers’acceptance including drivers’characteristics,technology types and fog density.Findings–The results showed that drivers’acceptance of on-road DMS was significantly higher than that of on-board HMI.The fog density had no significant effect on drivers’acceptance of on-road DMS or on-board HMI.Drivers’gender,age,driving year and driving personality were associated with the acceptance of the two CV-VSL technologies differently.This study is beneficial to the functional improvement of on-road DMS,on-board HMI and their market prospects.Originality/value–Previous studies have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of CV-VSL systems.However,there were rare studies focused on the drivers’attitude toward using which was also called as acceptance of the CV-VSL systems.Therefore,this research calculated the drivers’acceptance of two normally used CV-VSL systems including on-road DMS and on-board HMI using TAM.Furthermore,variance analysis was conducted to explore whether the factors such as drivers’characteristics(gender,age,driving year and driving personality),technology types and fog density affected the drivers’acceptance of the CV-VSL systems.

Analysis of Design Directions for Ground Control Station (GCS)

This study is a preparation phase for integrated visualization of battlefield situation. To develop the ground control station for unmanned systems, many factors have to be considered from the design stages, such as layout, information component, representation scheme, and human operation methods. Considering such many factors can be very difficult, hence we conducted an in-depth investigation of design factors from major UAV stations around the world. We analyzed the design characteristics and the specifics. In conclusion, we were able to derive some common aspects of design characteristics, which lead to the successful design approach.

Analysis of Design Approach for Navy Weapon System Operation Environment

This study is a preparation phase for visualization of utilized information using ergonomic user interface and standardization of elements for anti-air weapon system. Therefore, we investigated the instances of Navy Weapon System operation environment for defense advanced country. Based on the collected data, we compared and analyzed the weapon system operation environment design. Ultimately, it is essential to share a variety of battle field conditions such as enemy threat, enemy/friendly information, terrain information that can be effectively recognized. In this paper, we conduct case study for ergonomically development of Operation Environment. It is expected that this research improves the situational awareness and reduces the operator’s task load.

一种用于精密铸造工艺的树脂模具高效多功能固化设备的开发与应用

开发了一种基于stereo lithography appearance(SLA)光固化增材制造技术的、用于精密铸造领域树脂模具制作的后处理高效多功能固化设备。通过对核心机械结构的全新设计和加工工艺的深入探究,实现了可变循环散热、可变紫外功率、可变速固化、可变固化时间、舱门互锁等多项新功能。以programmable logic controller(PLC)和human machine interface(HMI)为中央控制器和人机交互平台,通过图形化界面编程实现了一键固化、个性化参数匹配、温差限值安全锁定等控制功能。最后通过多组目标件测试及数据对比,验证了设备具有固化目标高质量、固化过程高效率、界面操作简便、使用过程高安全等特性。其作为高效多功能的SLA光固化树脂模具后处理核心设备,具有很高的使用和推广价值。

A surface electromyography controlled steering assistance interface

Purpose–Two-handed automobile steering at low vehicle speeds may lead to reduced steering ability at large steering wheel angles and shoulder injury at high steering wheel rates(SWRs).As afirst step toward solving these problems,this study aims,firstly,to design a surface electromyography(sEMG)controlled steering assistance interface that enables hands-free steering wheel rotation and,secondly,to validate the effect of this rotation on path-following accuracy.Design/methodology/approach–A total of 24 drivers used biceps brachii sEMG signals to control the steering assistance interface at a maximized SWR in three driving simulator scenarios:U-turn,908 turn and 458 turn.For comparison,the scenarios were repeated with a slower SWR and a game steering wheel in place of the steering assistance interface.The path-following accuracy of the steering assistance interface would be validated if it was at least comparable to that of the game steering wheel.Findings–Overall,the steering assistance interface with a maximized SWR was comparable to a game steering wheel.For the U-turn,908 turn and 458 turn,the sEMG-based human–machine interface(HMI)had median lateral errors of 0.55,0.3 and 0.2 m,respectively,whereas the game steering wheel,respectively,had median lateral errors of 0.7,0.4 and 0.3 m.The higher accuracy of the sEMG-based HMI was statistically significant in the case of the U-turn.Originality/value–Although production automobiles do not use sEMG-based HMIs,and few studies have proposed sEMG controlled steering,the results of the current study warrant further development of a sEMG-based HMI for an actual automobile.

Effects of input method and display mode of situation map on early warning aircraft reconnaissance task performance with different information complexities

Early Warning Aircraft(EWA)are the main force for air detection and its Human-Machine Interface(HMI)should be designed to support task efficiency and safety.With the appli-cation of advanced input method and interface design in EWA,little is known about their actual usability in terms of human factors and ergonomics.The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the input method and display mode of the situation map on EWA reconnaissance task performance with different information complexities.Eighteen participants attended a three-factor within-subject design experiment with input method(touch screen and mouse),display mode of the situation map(color and grayscale),and information complexity(high and low)as the inde-pendent variables.Participant behavior performance,subjective workload,heart rate/heart rate variability,and eye movements were recorded as the dependent variables.The results suggest that a touch screen requires greater task completion time and has greater physical demands than mouse operation;however,it also facilitates information processing by reducing the average fixation time.Color mode significantly decreases saccade counts compared to grayscale mode and is considered more appropriate for target search tasks as it induces less visual search load.High information complexity produces significant negative effects on behavior performance and subjective workload.It also has significant interaction effects with input method on fixation and saccade counts.The findings have implications in the optimization design of Human–Machine Interface for EWA task systems.

Digitally programmable organic light‐emitting tetrodes

Limited to the structure of traditional light‐emitting devices,electronic devices that can directly convert machine language into human visual information without introducing any back‐end circuit are still not easy to achieve.Based on a specially designed three‐phase co‐planar electrode structure,a new type of three‐phase alternating current driven organic light‐emitting device with the integration of emission and control functions,full‐color tunability and simple device structure is demonstrated in this study.We integrate the light‐emitting function of color‐tunable light‐emitting devices and the switching of three triodes in a single three phase organic light‐emitting device.The state control of luminous color and luminance intensity merely requires the introduction of a kind of machine language,that is an easy‐to‐program 6‐bit binary number coded digital signals.The color adjustable area covers 66%of the color triangle of the National Television System Committee.Such simple and easy‐to‐integrate light‐emitting system has great potential applications in the next‐generation man‐machine interface.

Wearable sensors for activity monitoring and motion control:A review

Wearable sensors for activity monitoring currently are being designed and developed,driven by an increasing demand in health care for noninvasive patient monitoring and rehabilitation training.This article reviews state-of-the-art wearable sensors for activity monitoring and motion control.Different technologies,including electromechanical,bioelectrical,and biomechanical sensors,are reviewed,along with their broad applications.Moreover,an overview of existing commercial wearable products and the computation methods for motion analysis are provided.Future research issues are identified and discussed.

Toward Shared Control Between Automated Vehicles and Users

Technological developments in the domain of vehicle automation are targeted toward driver-less,or driver-out-of-the-loop driving.The main societal motivation for this ambition is that the majority of(fatal)accidents with manually driven vehicles are due to human error.However,when interacting with technology,users often experience the need to customize the technology to their personal preferences.This paper considers how this might apply to vehicle automation,by a conceptual analysis of relevant use cases.The analysis proceeds by comparing how handling of relevant situations is likely to differ between manual driving and automated driving.The results of the analysis indicate that full out-of-the-loop automated driving may not be acceptable to users of the technology.It is concluded that a technology that allows shared control between the vehicle and the user should be pursued.Furthermore,implications of this view are explored for the concrete temporal dynamics of shared control,and general characteristics of human machine interface that support shared control are proposed.Finally,implications of the proposed view and directions for further research are discussed.

A Case Study of a Force-myography Controlled Bionic Hand Mitigating Limb Position Effect

Force Myography （FMG）, which monitors pressure or radial deformation of a limb, has recently been proposed as a po- tential alternative for naturally controlling bionic robotic prostheses. This paper presents an exploratory case study aimed at evaluating how FMG behaves when a person with amputation uses a hand prosthetic prototype. One volunteer （transradial amputation） participated in this study, which investigated two experimental cases： static and dynamic. The static case considered forearm muscle contractions in a fixed elbow and shoulder positions whereas the dynamic case included movements of the elbow and shoulder. When considering eleven different hand grips, static data showed an accuracy over 99%, and dynamic data over 86% （within-trial analysis）. The across-trial analysis, that takes into account multiple trials in the same data collection set, showed a meaningful accuracy respectively of 81% and 75% only for the reduced six grips setup. While further research is needed to increase these accuracies, the obtained results provided initial evidence that this technology could represent an in- teresting alternative that is worth exploring for controlling prosthesis.

Laser-processed lithium niobate wafer for pyroelectric sensor

During the past few decades, pyroelectric sensors have attracted extensiveattention due to their prominent features. However, their effectiveness is hinderedby low electric output. In this study, the laser processed lithium niobate(LPLN) wafers are fabricated to improve the temperature–voltage response.These processed wafers are utilized to construct pyroelectric sensors as well ashuman–machine interfaces. The laser induces escape of oxygen and the formationof oxygen vacancies, which enhance the charge transport capability on thesurface of lithium niobate (LN). Therefore, the electrodes gather an increasedquantity of charges, increasing the pyroelectric voltage on the LPLN wafers toa 1.3 times higher voltage than that of LN wafers. For the human–machineinterfaces, tactile information in various modes can be recognized by a sensorarray and the temperature warning system operates well. Therefore, the lasermodification approach is promising to enhance the performance of pyroelectricdevices for applications in human–machine interfaces.