Development of Measurement Method for Temperature and Velocity Field with Optical Fiber Sensor.

We have developed a new method for measuring temperature and velocity at a high spatial resolution (minimum 2.56 mm pitch along an optical fiber). The developed method uses the same principle as a hot wire anemometer, where the velocity perpendicular to an optical fiber is estimated as a function of the cooling curve of a gold-coated layer on the optical fiber Joule-heated intermittently.

Investigation into Effect of Thrombomodulin Alfa for Septic Model Rats based on Microcirculation Image Analysis.

Sepsis is life threatening organ dysfunction caused by microcirculatory dysfunction. With progression of sepsis, the patients are likely to develop septic shock which is associated with multi organ dysfunction. To treat sepsis and septic shock, Thrombomodulin alfa (TM alfa) was developed.

Two-wavelength oximetry of tissue microcirculation based on sidestream dark-field imaging.

Monitoring oxygen saturation (SO2) in microcirculation is effective for understanding disease dynamics. We have developed an SO2 estimation method, sidestream dark-field (SDF) oximetry, based on SDF imaging. SDF imaging is a noninvasive and clinically applicable technique to observe microcirculation.

Geometry calibration between X-ray source and detector for tomosynthesis with a portable X-ray system.

Purpose: Tomosynthesis is attracting attention as a low-dose tomography technology compared with X-ray CT. However, conventional tomosynthesis imaging devices are large and stationary. Furthermore, there is a limitation in the working range of the X-ray source during image acquisition.

Evaluation of a Home Biomonitoring Autonomous Mobile Robot.

Increasing population age demands more services in healthcare domain. It has been shown that mobile robots could be a potential solution to home biomonitoring for the elderly. Through our previous studies, a mobile robot system that is able to track a subject and identify his daily living activities has been developed.

Designing and testing lightweight shoulder prostheses with hybrid actuators for movements involved in typical activities of daily living and impact absorption.

Unlike forearm amputees, transhumeral amputees have residual stumps that are too small to provide a sufficient range of operation for their prosthetic parts to perform usual activities of daily living. Furthermore, it is difficult for small residual stumps to provide sufficient impact absorption for safe manipulation in daily living, as intact arms do. Therefore, substitution of upper limb function in transhumeral amputees requires a sufficient range of motion and sufficient viscoelasticity for shoulder prostheses under critical weight and dimension constraints.

Ergonomic design and evaluation of new surgical scissors.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study is to design a new surgical scissors handle and determine its effectiveness with various usability indices. A new scissors handle was designed that retains the professional grip but has the shapes of the eye rings modified to fit the thumb and ring finger and finger rests for the index and little finger. The newly designed scissors and traditional scissors were compared by electromyography, subjective evaluation and task performance in experiments using cutting and peeling tasks.

Development of robust behaviour recognition for an at-home biomonitoring robot with assistance of subject localization and enhanced visual tracking.

Our research is focused on the development of an at-home health care biomonitoring mobile robot for the people in demand. Main task of the robot is to detect and track a designated subject while recognizing his/her activity for analysis and to provide warning in an emergency. In order to push forward the system towards its real application, in this study, we tested the robustness of the robot system with several major environment changes, control parameter changes, and subject variation.

Designing and testing a hybrid lightweight shoulder prosthesis.

Lightweight prostheses are preferred in terms of usability in daily living. However, this is not a property easy to realize, especially for shoulder prostheses. High portability, multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs) with an appropriate ROM (range of motion), sufficient end-effector power, and suitable viscoelasticity for the safe use in daily living, usually result in a heavy weight.

Development of a small sucker manipulator for underwater surgery support.

WaFLES (Water-Filled LaparoEndoscopic Surgery) is an operative method suggested by Igarashi et al., which has several advantages, such as, preventing the drying of inner organs, and being able to use ultrasound devices for real time monitoring. However, grasping of inner organs with usual forceps for move and incision purpose is difficult.

Designing shoulder prostheses with a small pneumatic actuator driven parallel mechanism for spatial accessibility in daily living use.

In this study, several indexes for spatial accessibility were proposed for evaluating the shoulder prosthesis with a small pneumatic actuator driven parallel mechanism in daily living use. Using the spatial accessibility indexes and manipulability indexes, the configuration of the parallel mechanism was optimized. Especially, the effect of biasing spacer and trunk motions on spatial accessibility were taken into consideration.

Auditory display as a prosthetic hand sensory feedback for reaching and grasping tasks.

Upper limb amputees have to rely extensively on visual feedback in order to monitor and manipulate successfully their prosthetic device. This situation leads to high consciousness burden, which generates fatigue and frustration. Therefore, in order to enhance motor-sensory performance and awareness, an auditory display was used as a sensory feedback system for the prosthetic hand's spatio-temporal and force information in a complete reaching and grasping setting.

Psycho-physiological assessment of a prosthetic hand sensory feedback system based on an auditory display: a preliminary study.

Background: Prosthetic hand users have to rely extensively on visual feedback, which seems to lead to a high conscious burden for the users, in order to manipulate their prosthetic devices. Indirect methods (electro-cutaneous, vibrotactile, auditory cues) have been used to convey information from the artificial limb to the amputee, but the usability and advantages of these feedback methods were explored mainly by looking at the performance results, not taking into account measurements of the user's mental effort, attention, and emotions. The main objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using psycho-physiological measurements to assess cognitive effort when manipulating a robot hand with and without the usage of a sensory substitution system based on auditory feedback, and how these psycho-physiological recordings relate to temporal and grasping performance in a static setting.