Blue Eyes Technology

The Blue Eyes technology aims at creating computational machines that have perceptual and sensory ability like those of human beings. It uses non-obtrusive sensing method, employing most modern video cameras and microphones to identify the user’s actions through the use of imparted sensory abilities. The machine can understand what a user wants, where he is looking at, and even realize his physical or emotional states. The Blue Eyes Technology developed is intended to be a complex solution for monitoring and recording the operator’s conscious brain involvement as well as his/her physiological condition. This shows yet another development in the field of Brain Computer Interface. The basic idea behind this technology is to give the computer the human power. We all have some perceptual abilities. That is we can understand each other’s feelings. For example we can understand one’s emotional state by analysing his facial expression. If we add these perceptual abilities of human to computers would enable computers to work together with human beings as intimate partners. The “BLUE EYES” technology aims at creating computational machines that have perceptual and sensory ability like those of human beings. This paper discusses the concept of blue eyes technology.

THE RELEVANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERCEPTUAL ABILITIES IN CHILDREN OF PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE

Article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities and importance of the development of perceptual abilities of children studying in primary school. First of all, the concept of perception, classification and properties are considered for further understanding of the topic. The article includes a comparison of perception by age groups and shows by the example of an experiment how much perception skills affect the lives of primary school children. The peculiarities of the psyche of children aged 7-10 years, such as concentration time, attentiveness, perception of time, were taken into account. Basically, the article touches on certain types of perceptual abilities, such as visual and auditory perceptions. These types of perception skills are of the greatest importance in the development of children.

Processing visual ambiguity in fractal patterns: Pareidolia as a sign of creativity

Creativity is a complex, multifaceted and highly valued quality. Characterizing creativity experimentally is a challenging endeavor. While most studies to date have focused on divergent thinking, emerging work also points to an intricate link between creativity and perceptual abilities. Here, we hypothesized that differences in high- and low-creative individuals are already present at the level of sensory perception, specifically in the ability to perceive recognizable forms in noisy or ambiguous stimuli, a phenomenon called pareidolia. To test this, we designed a visual perception task in which 50 participants, with various levels of creativity, were presented with ambiguous stimuli and asked to identify as many recognizable forms as possible. A key manipulation consisted in generating cloud-like images where we manipulated the level of complexity by manipulating fractal dimension (FD) and contrast level. We found that pareidolic perceptions arise more often and more rapidly in creative individuals. Interestingly, less creative individuals have a narrower range of FD values that support the emergence of pareidolia. Our results show that FD and contrast are key visual properties to manipulate when investigating pareidolic perception and its putative link to creativity. They also suggest that pareidolia may be used as a perceptual proxy of idea generation abilities, a prerequisite for creative behavior. In sum, we extend the established body of work on divergent thinking, by introducing divergent perception as a complementary manifestation of the creative mind. Therefore, these findings expand our understanding of the perception-creation link and open new paths in studying creative behavior in humans.

Trajectories and perceptual precursors of intelligence in minimally verbal autistic children from preschool to school age

Background The question of cognitive prognosis is frequently asked at the time of autism diagnosis, often at preschool age. It remains however difficult to answer this question at such a young age, given the considerable heterogeneity of cognitive development trajectories and the challenges associated with intellectual assessment in autistic children, particularly among minimally verbal children. Methods The current prospective cohort study investigated whether early perceptual abilities measured at preschool age could predict later intellectual abilities at school age in a group of 41 autistic (9 girls, 32 boys) and 57 neurotypical children (29 girls, 28 boys). Participants were assessed at three time points during the childhood period (between the age of 2 and 8 years old) using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence – Fourth edition as a measure of full-scale IQ and the Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices as a measure of non-verbal IQ. The performance on two perceptual tests (Visual Search and Children Embedded Figures Test) as well as the frequency of perceptual behaviors served as predictors of later intellectual abilities. Results Early performance on perceptual tests measured at preschool age was positively related to later full-scale IQ in both autistic and neurotypical children. Furthermore, both perceptual behaviors and performance on perceptual tests measured at preschool age were associated with later non-verbal IQ in the autistic group. In contrast, only the performance on Children Embedded Figures Test was associated with later non-verbal IQ in the neurotypical group. Limitations: The sample size was relatively modest, with some attrition across time points, as expected in a sample including preschool minimally and non-verbal children. Conclusions Our findings support the important role of perception in autistic cognition. Early perceptual abilities may be a valid avenue for estimating general intelligence and non-verbal abilities at preschool age, particularly for minimally verbal autistic children.

Differences in achievement on tests of perceptual abilities in lower and upper elementary school grade students involved in the process of determining the psychophysical state

This paper investigates whether there are differences in the results achieved during the assessment of visual and auditory perceptual abilities in students (N = 166) of upper and lower elementary school grades who are involved in the process of determining the psychophysical condition. Adequate assessment is important not only because of the prediction of students’ academic success, but also as a basis for the development of individualized curricula that will enable the selection of adequate forms and content of educational support for each student. The Acadia developmental ability test was used to assess students’ perceptual abilities. In data processing, in addition to calculating frequencies and arithmetic means by groups, in order to determine the deviation of the observed frequencies from the expected frequencies, the χ2-test was used. The results indicate the existence of significant differences in student achievement on the subtests of visual and auditory memory and visual differentiation. It turned out that lower results in all three tests were achieved by lower elementary school grade students. The pedagogical implications of this study indicate the need for more intensive educational monitoring of students from the beginning of their education.

Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes

Virtual reality games are playing a greater role in rehabilitation settings. Previously, commercial games have dominated, but increasingly, bespoke games for specific rehabilitation contexts are emerging. Choice and design of tasks for VR-games are still not always clear, however; some games are designed to motivate and engage players, not necessarily with the facilitation of specific movements as a goal. Other games are designed specifically for the facilitation of specific movements. A theoretical background for the choice of tasks seems warranted. As an example, we use a game that was designed in our lab: VR Walk. Here, the player walks on a treadmill while wearing a head-mounted display showing a custom-made virtual environment. Tasks include walking on a glass bridge across a drop, obstacle avoidance, narrowing path, walking in virtual footsteps, memory, and selection tasks, and throwing and catching objects. Each task is designed according to research and theory from movement science, exercise science, and cognitive science. In this article, we discuss how for example walking across a glass bridge gives perceptual challenges that may be suitable for certain medical conditions, such as hearing loss, when perceptual abilities are strained to compensate for the hearing loss. In another example, walking in virtual footsteps may be seen as a motor and biomechanical constraint, where the double support phase and base of support can be manipulated, making the task beneficial for falls prevention. In a third example, memory and selection tasks may challenge individuals that have cognitive impairments. We posit that these theoretical considerations may be helpful for the choice of tasks and for the design of virtual reality games.

Sensory and Perceptual Abilities in People With Down Syndrome

During typical development, the efficiency with which distinct image attributes, objects such as faces, and emotions are analyzed depends on the development of ocular functioning (sensory level) and brain mechanisms mediating perceptual abilities (neural level). Compared to typically developing individuals, ocular differences are more frequent in persons with Down syndrome (DS) and include an increased incidence of refractive errors, i.e. hyperopia and myopia, and difficulties with accommodation (focusing up close). In most cases, these conditions can be corrected with bifocals, resulting in greatly improved literary skills that underlie reading, particularly for younger persons with DS. In addition, individuals with DS seem to benefit from the spatially structured presentation of visual material when learning, another accommodation that can be implemented during instruction. Finally, although not specific to DS, young children and adults with DS generally identify and recognize emotions less efficiently than do persons without DS. However, among persons with DS, these difficulties seem to be more pronounced for more intense emotions, including fear and anger. In sum, visual profiles based on sensory and perceptual performance can advance our understanding of atypical information processing among persons with DS, as well as provide practical information aimed at improving learning and instruction.

Effects of age on face perception: Reduced eye region discrimination ability but intact holistic processing

While age-related decline in face recognition memory is well established, the degree of decline in face perceptual abilities across the lifespan and their underlying mechanisms are incompletely characterized. In the current study, using the part-whole task, we sought to examine how age relates to facial feature discrimination ability and holistic face processing in a large sample of 3,341 online participants aged 18-69 years. We evaluated performance on the part-whole eye and mouth trials and the magnitude of the part-whole holistic advantage across the lifespan. We found that while discrimination of the eye region decreased beginning in the 50s, both mouth discrimination accuracy and the magnitude of the holistic advantage were stable with age. When investigating gender differences, we found that age-related declines in eye region accuracy were more pronounced in men than women, but this was not true for mouth accuracy or holistic processing. We discuss potential mechanistic explanations for this eye region-specific aging effect, including age-related hearing loss and its potential relationship with the age-related positivity effect.

Psychometric properties of the Korean Motor-free Visual Perception Test-4 in healthy people

Objective This study was conducted to cross-culturally adapt the Motor-free Visual Perception Test 4 (MVPT-4) for use in Korean contexts and examine its psychometric properties. Methods The Korean MVPT-4 (K-MVPT-4) was developed via the process of translation, back-translation, and expert committee review. To establish internal consistency, test-retest reliability, concurrent validity and construct validity of the K-MVPT-4, 295 healthy people aged 10 to 79 years participated in this study. Participants completed the measures for the test-retest reliability on two occasions, 2 weeks apart. Results After three steps of cross-cultural adaptation, the K-MVPT-4 was revised to improve its alignment with Korean cultural norms. Cronbach’s α for internal consistency was .857 and intra-class correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability was .949. The K-MVPT-4 scores were significantly correlated with those of three motor-reduced subscales of the Korean Developmental Test of Visual Perception-Adolescent (K-DTVP-A) ( r = .44–.46, p < .01). Participants’ age significantly influenced the K-MVPT-4 scores ( p < .001) while their gender did not affect those scores ( p = .409). As the age increased, the K-MVPT-4 scores decreased. Conclusions The findings indicated that the K-MVPT-4 is a reliable and valid test that Korean rehabilitation service providers can use with confidence to assess clients’ visual perceptual abilities.

Functional rehabilitation in intensive care units for post craniotomy patients: study protocol

INTRODUCTION: Craniotomy makes insight and approach towards the brain easier but accompanies ailments. Intensive care units are equipped with trained professional physical therapists working over these deleterious after-effects of this surgical program, but a progressive, defined, and evidence-supported protocol for such patients is lacking. OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of a Neuro-rehabilitation protocol devised for post-craniotomy patients within their stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to improve their functional outcomes and reduce their length of stay (LOS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: It will be a single group pre-test post-test quasi feasibility trial. Fifteen patients undergoing craniotomy will be recruited for the trial and will be rendered with Neuro-rehabilitation protocol for 60 minutes from the first day of surgery up to 15 days of surgery. The primary outcome will be the Early Functional Abilities (EFA) Scale to measure functional outcomes like conscious level, sensorimotor abilities, cognitive-perceptual abilities, and oro-motor abilities of patients, which will be assessed first-day post craniotomy. Secondary outcomes will include Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R), Sensory Modality Assessment Rehabilitation Technique (SMART), Modified Ashworth Scale (mMAS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment Score (MoCA), and Medical Research Council Scale (MRC). Assessments will be taken on the first and fifteenth days post-surgery. PERSPECTIVES: It is expected that this protocol might improve functional outcomes and may reduce the occurrence of comorbidities in patients after Craniotomy in ICUs.