Search Results
Like a Second Skin: Understanding How Epidermal Devices Affect Human Tactile Perception
2019, Nittala, Aditya Shekhar, Kruttwig, Klaus, Lee, Jaeyeon, Bennewitz, Roland, Arzt, Eduard, Steimle, Jürgen, Brewster, Stephen
The emerging class of epidermal devices opens up new opportunities for skin-based sensing, computing, and interaction. Future design of these devices requires an understanding of how skin-worn devices affect the natural tactile perception. In this study, we approach this research challenge by proposing a novel classification system for epidermal devices based on flexural rigidity and by testing advanced adhesive materials, including tattoo paper and thin films of poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). We report on the results of three psychophysical experiments that investigated the effect of epidermal devices of different rigidity on passive and active tactile perception. We analyzed human tactile sensitivity thresholds, two-point discrimination thresholds, and roughness discrimination abilities on three different body locations (fingertip, hand, forearm). Generally, a correlation was found between device rigidity and tactile sensitivity thresholds as well as roughness discrimination ability. Surprisingly, thin epidermal devices based on PDMS with a hundred times the rigidity of commonly used tattoo paper resulted in comparable levels of tactile acuity. The material offers the benefit of increased robustness against wear and the option to re-use the device. Based on our findings, we derive design recommendations for epidermal devices that combine tactile perception with device robustness.
Semantic segmentation of non-linear multimodal images for disease grading of inflammatory bowel disease: A segnet-based application
2019, Pradhan, Pranita, Meyer, Tobias, Vieth, Michael, Stallmach, Andreas, Waldner, Maximilian, Schmitt, Michael, Popp, Juergen, Bocklitz, Thomas, De Marsico, Maria, Sanniti di Baja, Gabriella, Fred, Ana
Non-linear multimodal imaging, the combination of coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering (CARS), two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG), has shown its potential to assist the diagnosis of different inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). This label-free imaging technique can support the ‘gold-standard’ techniques such as colonoscopy and histopathology to ensure an IBD diagnosis in clinical environment. Moreover, non-linear multimodal imaging can measure biomolecular changes in different tissue regions such as crypt and mucosa region, which serve as a predictive marker for IBD severity. To achieve a real-time assessment of IBD severity, an automatic segmentation of the crypt and mucosa regions is needed. In this paper, we semantically segment the crypt and mucosa region using a deep neural network. We utilized the SegNet architecture (Badrinarayanan et al., 2015) and compared its results with a classical machine learning approach. Our trained SegNet mod el achieved an overall F1 score of 0.75. This model outperformed the classical machine learning approach for the segmentation of the crypt and mucosa region in our study.
A Computational Pipeline for Sepsis Patients’ Stratification and Diagnosis
2018, Campos, David, Pinho, Renato, Neugebauer, Ute, Popp, Juergen, Oliveira, José Luis, Zwiggelaar, Reyer, Gamboa, Hugo, Fred, Ana, Bermúdez i Badia, Sergi
Sepsis is still a little acknowledged public health issue, despite its increasing incidence and the growing mortality rate. In addition, a clear diagnosis can be lengthy and complicated, due to highly variable symptoms and non-specific criteria, causing the disease to be diagnosed and treated too late. This paper presents the HemoSpec platform, a decision support system which, by collecting and automatically processing data from several acquisition devices, can help in the early diagnosis of sepsis.