Engineering Commons^™

Investigating Bimanual Haptic Exploration With Arm-Support Exoskeletons, Balagopal Raveendranath

All Dissertations

The ability to judge properties like weight and length of hand-held objects is essential in industrial work. Sometimes workers use devices like exoskeletons, which can augment their ability to lift and move heavy objects. Previous studies have investigated the perceptual information available for one-handed weight and length judgments. The current study investigated how blindfolded participants bimanually heft and wield objects to explore haptic information, to perceive object heaviness or length. The study also investigated the effects of using an arm-support exoskeleton (ASE) on the perceived weight of hand-held objects. We empirically tested whether people wield and manipulate objects differently, depending …

All Hands On Deck: Choosing Virtual End Effector Representations To Improve Near Field Object Manipulation Interactions In Extended Reality, Roshan Venkatakrishnan

All Dissertations

Extended reality, or "XR", is the adopted umbrella term that is heavily gaining traction to collectively describe Virtual reality (VR), Augmented reality (AR), and Mixed reality (MR) technologies. Together, these technologies extend the reality that we experience either by creating a fully immersive experience like in VR or by blending in the virtual and "real" worlds like in AR and MR.

The sustained success of XR in the workplace largely hinges on its ability to facilitate efficient user interactions. Similar to interacting with objects in the real world, users in XR typically interact with virtual integrants like objects, menus, windows, …

Investigating Drivers’ Knowledge And Experience With The Anti-Lock Braking System (Abs) Which Led To The Development And Evaluation Of An Emergency Braking Training Exercise Using A Driving Simulator With Haptic Pedal Feedback, Lauren Mims

All Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the extent to which drivers do or do not have knowledge of and experience with the anti-lock braking system (ABS) and then to explore the development and evaluation of a driving simulator task specifically designed to address emergency braking with haptic brake pedal feedback. The anti-lock braking system (ABS) was created to help drivers in emergency braking situations by preventing skidding and loss of control due to locked wheels. Vehicles with conventional (pre-ABS) brakes required the driver to “pump” the brake pedal, or to rapidly press and release the brake pedal, during …

Evaluation Of Life Cycle Costs, Benefits, And Public Perceptions Of Greywater Reuse Systems For Supplementing Conventional Water Delivery, Sreeganesh Reddy Yerri

All Dissertations

The water utility industry is under enormous pressure to meet the challenges of increasing demands due to population growth, lifestyle changes, and depleting freshwater resources. The current and predicted future deficit scenarios challenge water supply managers to come up with a sustainable and reliable alternative source while making the supply infrastructure smarter and resilient. One such alternative source is the greywater that is available at the point of consumption itself. With certain limitations, there have been studies performed to evaluate the life cycle costs and expected monetary benefits of decentralized greywater reuse systems, but the public and health bureaus are …

Integrating Visual Mnemonics And Input Feedback With Passphrases To Improve The Usability And Security Of Digital Authentication, Kevin Juang

All Dissertations

The need for both usable and secure authentication is more pronounced than ever before. Security researchers and professionals will need to have a deep understanding of human factors to address these issues. Due to their ubiquity, recoverability, and low barrier of entry, passwords remain the most common means of digital authentication. However, fundamental human nature dictates that it is exceedingly difficult for people to generate secure passwords on their own. System-generated random passwords can be secure but are often unusable, which is why most passwords are still created by humans. We developed a simple system for automatically generating mnemonic phrases …

Automatically Measuring Individual Consumption Events During Natural Eating Using A Table Embedded Scale, Ryan Mattfeld

All Theses

This thesis is motivated to improve the tools available for tracking energy intake. The goal of this work is to develop a table-embedded scale capable of measuring the weight of individual consumption events during unrestricted eating. The method was tested on a data set gathered from 276 subjects eating 518 courses consisting of 22,383 marked individual consumption events in a cafeteria environment. Approximately 30% of the consumption events can be detected and weighed. The remaining 70% of the events occur without participants interacting with the scale or when noisy interactions with the scale prevent weight measurement. The relationship between bite …