Browsing by Author "Qian, Enlin"

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    Capturing the Perceived Phantom Limb through Virtual Reality
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Lau, Jonathan; Huynh, Denver; Albertson, Steven; Beem, James; Qian, Enlin
    Phantom limb is the sensation amputees may feel where the missing limb (occasionally an organ) is still attached to the body and is still moving as it would if it were there. Between 50-80% amputees report neuropathic pain, also known as phantom limb pain (PLP). Recent studies suggest that providing sensory input to the stump or amputation area may modulate how PLP can be related to neuroplastic changes in the cortex. However, there is still little understanding of why PLP occurs and there are no fully effective, long-term treatments available. Part of the problem is the difficulty for amputees to describe the sensations of their phantom limbs due to the lack of a physical limb as well as phantom limbs that are in positions that are impossible to attain. This project aims to develop an effective 3D tool with the Maya 3D animation software and the Unity game engine. The tool will then be used for those with phantom limb syndrome to communicate the sensations accurately and easily through various hand positions using a model arm with a user friendly interface. The 3D model arm will be able to mimic the phantom sensation, being able to go beyond normal joint extensions of a regular arm. This way we can have a true 3D visual of how the amputee with phantom limb feels if it is abnormal. Testing the effectiveness of the tool will involve a pilot study with able-bodied volunteers. The non-dominant limb of the volunteers will be hidden behind a blind. After putting their limb in a random position, they will attempt to capture the limb on the 3D model. The actual position and captured position will be compared to determine the reproducibility and accuracy of the virtual limb. By taking advantage of computer graphics, virtual reality and computerized image capture technologies we are hoping to achieve a far less challenging way to quickly and accurately capture the position and striking feelings of the phantom limb sensation.
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    Capturing the Perceived Phantom Limb through Virtual Reality
    (Hindawi, 2016-09-05) Rogers, Christian; Lau, Jonathan; Huynh, Denver; Albertson, Steven; Beem, James; Qian, Enlin; Department of Computer Information and Graphics, School of Engineering and Technology
    Phantom limb is the sensation amputees may feel when the missing limb is still attached to the body and is still moving as it would if it still existed. Despite there being between 50 and 80% of amputees who report neuropathic pain, also known as phantom limb pain (PLP), there is still little understanding of why PLP occurs. There are no fully effective long-term treatments available. One of the struggles with PLP is the difficulty for amputees to describe the sensations of their phantom limbs. The sensations may be of a limb that is in a position that is impossible for a normal limb to attain. The goal of this project was to treat those with PLP by developing a system to communicate the sensations those with PLP were experiencing accurately and easily through various hand positions using a model arm with a user friendly interface. The system was developed with Maya 3D animation software, the Leap Motion input device, and the Unity game engine. The 3D modeled arm was designed to mimic the phantom sensation being able to go beyond normal joint extensions of regular arms. The purpose in doing so was to obtain a true 3D visualization of the phantom limb.
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    Image Processing Techniques for Bone Cell Analysis
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Huang, Wenhan; Qian, Enlin
    Osteoblast and osteoclast are two different types of bone cell that are responsible for bone formation and bone resorption, respectively. Both cell types are very critical in maintaining, repairing, and remodeling of the skeleton in the human body. Moreover, they are involved in skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. To absorb bone matrix, pre-osteoclasts infuse into one large multinucleated mature osteoclast. The area of the large multinucleated cell is measured to represent the formation and the activity of mature osteoclast cells. The number of osteoblast cells is a key factor that determines the rate of bone formation. Thus, the area of mature osteoclast and the number of osteoblast are two critical parameters to decide the effect of a stimulus on bone remodeling. In order to automatically obtain the number of osteoblast cells and the area of the osteoclast cells from bright field images, an image analysis technique, implemented in OpenCV, was developed. After cells are stained and photographed, edge maps of the acquired images are obtained using edge detection techniques such as the Canny edge detector. The scheme requires a threshold value from the user and employs it to determine an initial edge map, that is displayed to the user. If the user is not satisfied with the outcome they can request the threshold value to be adjusted and new edge map is consequently obtained. If the edge maps are satisfactory, they are subsequently converted into segmentation masks. The purpose of this step is to eliminate noise in the background while retaining objects/cells of interest. Once the cells have been identified the technique employs the Hough Circle Transform to identify and count the number of osteoblast cells present in the image. For the osteoclast cells, the scheme permits the user to manually select specific cells in order to determine their size as a ratio of the total image size.