With the increased aging population, and declined support from the families, societies will need ... more With the increased aging population, and declined support from the families, societies will need new tools to ensure the well-being of the elderly. Many of them would prefer living at home, but they will need help and assistance from someone. Technological innovations in the field of robotic systems can be used to enable independent living, to prolong the life of the elderly in their familiar home environments, to maintain the social connections by reducing social isolation and to improve the quality of life in general. In this paper, we present the design and validation of a low-cost mobile robot system that can assist elderly and professional caregivers in everyday activities. The robot structure and its control objectives are described in detail. The developed assistive telepresence robot was tested in simulation and experimentally. On field experiments were conducted in real environment, with potential end users, which is a major advantage of this study. The results of the evalu...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the universities to close face-to-face (f2f) education and move ... more The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the universities to close face-to-face (f2f) education and move all activities online. Online learning has become essential for students to continue their education. But the shift from traditional f2f to online learning, has raised some questions about the quality and success of the learning process. This study developed an integrated model based on both the TAM and ISS model which is best suited for investigating the impact of online learning systems on students' satisfaction and student outcomes. The results showed that good system quality and information quality will motivate the students to use the online learning system more actively. On the other hand, the system should be ease of use, and students should perceive it as useful for fulfilling their tasks. Such system will provide high level of satisfaction for students, which in turn will lead to positive student outcomes
The term educational robot is usually associated with systems that can be classified as robots an... more The term educational robot is usually associated with systems that can be classified as robots and that are used in the process of education with a final goal to learn with, form or about it. In the last decades,due to the technological and pedagogical advancements as well as low prices of the educational robots, their usage is dramatically increased. This is also reflected in the increasing number of articles that are published in the last decades. Various education robots have different features from architectural, structural and functional point of view. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to present a literature review of the educational robots and their characteristics
Understanding the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of serial robot chains using for computer sci... more Understanding the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of serial robot chains using for computer science students is very challenging task. Therefore, adopting the corresponding methodology for teaching robotics in the undergraduate program is very important. Main goal of this paper is to validate the adopted approach to teach the kinematics of serial robot chains using virtual environments and physical humanoid robot. Moreover, the concept of visual programming of serial robotics chains vs. classical programming has also been evaluated
Recent demographic trends in most countries show that the percentage of elderly is rapidly increa... more Recent demographic trends in most countries show that the percentage of elderly is rapidly increasing. Ageing society is demanding technological solutions that will help to overcome these issues. Robotic assistants used in the elderly and the disabled care has emerged as a potential solution. This study presents a low-cost assistive telepresence robot system for facilitating the health care of the elderly, and improving the quality of life of the elderly and handicapped
This paper describes a system for automated chess playing with a robot manipulator. Customized ch... more This paper describes a system for automated chess playing with a robot manipulator. Customized chess engine is used to implement chess rules, to evaluate the board position during the game and to compute the next move of the robot using the alpha-beta search algorithm. This work contributes to the recent trends for creating automated robotic games and introduction of non-standard human-computer interfaces.
According to the National association of deaf and hard of hearing of Macedonia, there are around ... more According to the National association of deaf and hard of hearing of Macedonia, there are around six thousand deaf persons, and they are representing about 0.3% of the total population. According to the reports of the same association, there are two schools for deaf children and only twelve certified sign language interpreters at national level. Considering also the fact that 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who may not know sign language or have low levels of proficiency with sign language, it is evident that there is a huge problem in education of deaf children. They necessitate permanent access to education tools even at home in order to develop language skills. For this purposes we have developed 3D virtual tutor for Macedonian Sign Language (MSL) using Java programming language, compatible with desktop computers and mobile devices. It is composed of two modules: module for learning the alphabet and module for learning individual words. This software was evaluate...
Maps are a powerful tool for geographic data presentation. Interactive maps a computer-based tool... more Maps are a powerful tool for geographic data presentation. Interactive maps a computer-based tool designed to collect, manipulate, analyze and visualize geographic data. They can be used also as a new teaching and learning tool for teachers, to conduct problem-solving active-ties in the classroom, and for students, to explore geographic issues. This paper describes the process of creating interactive map of Republic of Macedonia using OpenLayers. The application allows visual presentation of some geographic and statistical data for Republic of Macedonia, like: region-al borders, location of cities, presentation of some important information about selected city, population density for re-goons and cities, total number of men, women and children etc.
Practical component is often considered as one of the most important characteristics of the engin... more Practical component is often considered as one of the most important characteristics of the engineering education. In this context engineering education laboratories play very important role, by helping the students to test theoretically acquired knowledge, enabling them collaborative environment, trial and error learning approach and offline analysis of the experimental results. However, permanent availability of the laboratory and the equipment is one of the main problems in the process of learning. Sometimes, they are even completely missing. The rapid development of information and communication technologies in the last decades has made a huge impact on the education system with a special emphasis on the engineering subjects. The advances of web technologies on the other hand have also significantly improved online and collaborative learning, and students’ learning experience in general. This paper presents a developed virtual online laboratory that aims at helping high school s...
The emerging demographic trends toward an aging population, demand new ways and solutions to impr... more The emerging demographic trends toward an aging population, demand new ways and solutions to improve the quality of elderly life. These include, prolonged independent living, improved health care, and reduced social isolation. Recent technological advances in the field of assistive robotics bring higher sophistication and various assistive abilities that can help in achieving these goals. In this paper, we present design and validation of a low-cost telepresence robot that can assist the elderly and their professional caregivers, in everyday activities. The developed robot structure and its control objectives were tested in, both, a simulation and experimental environment. On-field experiments were done in a private elderly care center involving elderly persons and caregivers as participants. The goal of the evaluation study was to test the software architecture and the robot capabilities for navigation, as well as the robot manipulator. Moreover, participants’ reactions toward a po...
International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 2012
Recent advances in wireless sensor networks (WSN) technologies are enabling patient-centered, res... more Recent advances in wireless sensor networks (WSN) technologies are enabling patient-centered, result oriented health care services, in the most cost-effective manner. Furthermore, technological advances are enabling a greater shift from institutional services to community-based services. The model of the collaborative health care system (COHESY) presented in this paper offers 24 hour monitoring of the condition of patients and the possibility of sending an emergency call for sudden deterioration of his medical condition. In addition, the system enables the patient (system user) to contact other people with similar condition and exchange their experience. This system improves the terms of home care treatment of the patient and also increases the medical capacity of the appropriate institutions. The result is significant reduction of the overall costs for patients and hospitals.
Annals of Computer Science and Information Systems, 2014
The main aim of this paper is to advance the state of the art in automated prostate segmentation ... more The main aim of this paper is to advance the state of the art in automated prostate segmentation using T2 weighted MR images, by introducing a hybrid topological MRI prostate segmentation method which is based on a set of prelabeled MR atlas images. The proposed method has been experimentally tested on a set of 30 MRI T2 weighted images. For evaluation the automated segmentations of the proposed scheme have been compared with the manual segmentations, using an average Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC). Obtained quantitative results have shown a good approximation of the segmented prostate.
Games have been an important activity among people for many years, but it has never been as inter... more Games have been an important activity among people for many years, but it has never been as interesting to explore as it is today. The main aim of our work is to investigate the influence of mobile phone games on collaboration and social interaction of physically co-located players, instead of focusing on the consequences of playing digital games that are antisocial in nature. Considering the performances of the contemporary converged mobile phones, we have developed and augmented reality (AR) TeamTwixT game for mobile phones. We have evaluated the system performances, user interface performances by adopting the Fitts’ law and the usability of mobile phones for collaborative AR. The results have shown that, despite the small screen and limited input capabilities mobile phones and 3D AR technology can be used to naturally enhance collaboration of co-located players and increase their confidence in respect to other gaming conditions.
International Journal of Computer Applications, 2013
The main motivation of gait rehabilitation is to help a patient recovering from injury, illness o... more The main motivation of gait rehabilitation is to help a patient recovering from injury, illness or disease, to recover some locomotor abilities in order to promote as much independence as possible in activities of daily living tasks, and to assist the patient in compensating for deficits that cannot be treated medically. However, the amount of hands-on therapy that patients can receive is limited, as economic pressures are inherent in the health care system. Therefore, worldwide efforts are being made to automate locomotor training. Robotic devices has the potential to make therapy more affordable and thus more available for more patients and for more time. This article reviews the most important characteristics and features of the current robot devices for gait rehabilitation, both in clinical use and in the phase of research.
In order to facilitate and speed up the search of massive DNA databases, the database is indexed ... more In order to facilitate and speed up the search of massive DNA databases, the database is indexed at the beginning, employing a mapping function. By searching through the indexed data structure, exact query hits can be identified. If the database is searched against an annotated DNA query, such as a known promoter consensus sequence, then the starting locations and the number of potential genes can be determined. This is particularly relevant if unannotated DNA sequences have to be functionally annotated. However, indexing a massive DNA database and searching an indexed data structure with millions of entries is a time-demanding process. In this paper, we propose a fast DNA database indexing and searching approach, identifying all query hits in the database, without having to examine all entries in the indexed data structure, limiting the maximum length of a query that can be searched against the database. By applying the proposed indexing equation, the whole human genome could be indexed in 10 hours on a personal computer, under the assumption that there is enough RAM to store the indexed data structure. Analysing the methodology proposed by Reneker, we observed that hits at starting positions p k ¡ j q j are not reported, if the database is searched against a query shorter than k nucleotides, such that k is the length of the DNA database words being mapped and j q j is the length of the query. A solution of this drawback is also presented.
Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2011
The work presented in this paper analyses the viability of using a cell-phone as students’ guidan... more The work presented in this paper analyses the viability of using a cell-phone as students’ guidance for literature selection. The integrated cell-phone camera is used to recognize the book covers in the bookstores and libraries. The chosen solution is based on client-server architecture and the object recognition is based on local features. Detecting, identifying, and recognizing salient regions or feature
Today there is a growing interest towards the adoption of novel technology in the field of medica... more Today there is a growing interest towards the adoption of novel technology in the field of medical monitoring and personal health care systems in general. In this paper we present algorithms that generate recommendations and suggestions for preventive intervention instead of emergency care and hospital admissions, used in the model of the collaborative health care system (Cohesy). Use of data sets from the health and physical activities history of users can be very important for improving the health of users because the history of the diagnoses can detect which physical activities contributed to the improvement of the health of the user. Step further, we use these data sets to generate recommendation for activity in cases where the user health has deteriorated.
High resolution and high field magnetic resonance neurography (MR neurography, MRN) is shown to h... more High resolution and high field magnetic resonance neurography (MR neurography, MRN) is shown to have excellent anatomic capability. There have been considerable advances in the technology in the last few years leading to various feasibility studies using different structural and functional imaging approaches in both clinical and research settings. This paper is intended to be a useful seminar for readers who want to gain knowledge of the advancements in the MRN pulse sequences currently used in clinical practice as well as learn about the other techniques on the horizon aimed at better depiction of nerve anatomy, pathology, and potential noninvasive evaluation of nerve degeneration or regeneration.
In this work a pointing interface based on human gestures using a mobile phone accelerometer for ... more In this work a pointing interface based on human gestures using a mobile phone accelerometer for interaction with robots is proposed. Through this interface the user can sketch stroke gestures on a computer screen using the cell phone accelerometer to make a selection and instruct a robot to perform a task. Selection, cancelation and movement, as well as some additional commands such as stop, pause and resume are supported. All the projected gestures are processed using known image analysis algorithms providing instantaneous position and path information. The proposed interface is experimentally evaluated and the results show that it is efficient, natural, robust and easy to use. It also provides asynchronous robot control with minimum operator effort and engagement.
The rapid development of the information technology worldwide contributes for a drastic change of... more The rapid development of the information technology worldwide contributes for a drastic change of the traditional procedures according to which the companies are functioning for completion of everyday activities. This change demands for establishing separate departments to support the end users. This paper presents a software system for automated support of end-users.
With the increased aging population, and declined support from the families, societies will need ... more With the increased aging population, and declined support from the families, societies will need new tools to ensure the well-being of the elderly. Many of them would prefer living at home, but they will need help and assistance from someone. Technological innovations in the field of robotic systems can be used to enable independent living, to prolong the life of the elderly in their familiar home environments, to maintain the social connections by reducing social isolation and to improve the quality of life in general. In this paper, we present the design and validation of a low-cost mobile robot system that can assist elderly and professional caregivers in everyday activities. The robot structure and its control objectives are described in detail. The developed assistive telepresence robot was tested in simulation and experimentally. On field experiments were conducted in real environment, with potential end users, which is a major advantage of this study. The results of the evalu...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the universities to close face-to-face (f2f) education and move ... more The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the universities to close face-to-face (f2f) education and move all activities online. Online learning has become essential for students to continue their education. But the shift from traditional f2f to online learning, has raised some questions about the quality and success of the learning process. This study developed an integrated model based on both the TAM and ISS model which is best suited for investigating the impact of online learning systems on students' satisfaction and student outcomes. The results showed that good system quality and information quality will motivate the students to use the online learning system more actively. On the other hand, the system should be ease of use, and students should perceive it as useful for fulfilling their tasks. Such system will provide high level of satisfaction for students, which in turn will lead to positive student outcomes
The term educational robot is usually associated with systems that can be classified as robots an... more The term educational robot is usually associated with systems that can be classified as robots and that are used in the process of education with a final goal to learn with, form or about it. In the last decades,due to the technological and pedagogical advancements as well as low prices of the educational robots, their usage is dramatically increased. This is also reflected in the increasing number of articles that are published in the last decades. Various education robots have different features from architectural, structural and functional point of view. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to present a literature review of the educational robots and their characteristics
Understanding the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of serial robot chains using for computer sci... more Understanding the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of serial robot chains using for computer science students is very challenging task. Therefore, adopting the corresponding methodology for teaching robotics in the undergraduate program is very important. Main goal of this paper is to validate the adopted approach to teach the kinematics of serial robot chains using virtual environments and physical humanoid robot. Moreover, the concept of visual programming of serial robotics chains vs. classical programming has also been evaluated
Recent demographic trends in most countries show that the percentage of elderly is rapidly increa... more Recent demographic trends in most countries show that the percentage of elderly is rapidly increasing. Ageing society is demanding technological solutions that will help to overcome these issues. Robotic assistants used in the elderly and the disabled care has emerged as a potential solution. This study presents a low-cost assistive telepresence robot system for facilitating the health care of the elderly, and improving the quality of life of the elderly and handicapped
This paper describes a system for automated chess playing with a robot manipulator. Customized ch... more This paper describes a system for automated chess playing with a robot manipulator. Customized chess engine is used to implement chess rules, to evaluate the board position during the game and to compute the next move of the robot using the alpha-beta search algorithm. This work contributes to the recent trends for creating automated robotic games and introduction of non-standard human-computer interfaces.
According to the National association of deaf and hard of hearing of Macedonia, there are around ... more According to the National association of deaf and hard of hearing of Macedonia, there are around six thousand deaf persons, and they are representing about 0.3% of the total population. According to the reports of the same association, there are two schools for deaf children and only twelve certified sign language interpreters at national level. Considering also the fact that 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who may not know sign language or have low levels of proficiency with sign language, it is evident that there is a huge problem in education of deaf children. They necessitate permanent access to education tools even at home in order to develop language skills. For this purposes we have developed 3D virtual tutor for Macedonian Sign Language (MSL) using Java programming language, compatible with desktop computers and mobile devices. It is composed of two modules: module for learning the alphabet and module for learning individual words. This software was evaluate...
Maps are a powerful tool for geographic data presentation. Interactive maps a computer-based tool... more Maps are a powerful tool for geographic data presentation. Interactive maps a computer-based tool designed to collect, manipulate, analyze and visualize geographic data. They can be used also as a new teaching and learning tool for teachers, to conduct problem-solving active-ties in the classroom, and for students, to explore geographic issues. This paper describes the process of creating interactive map of Republic of Macedonia using OpenLayers. The application allows visual presentation of some geographic and statistical data for Republic of Macedonia, like: region-al borders, location of cities, presentation of some important information about selected city, population density for re-goons and cities, total number of men, women and children etc.
Practical component is often considered as one of the most important characteristics of the engin... more Practical component is often considered as one of the most important characteristics of the engineering education. In this context engineering education laboratories play very important role, by helping the students to test theoretically acquired knowledge, enabling them collaborative environment, trial and error learning approach and offline analysis of the experimental results. However, permanent availability of the laboratory and the equipment is one of the main problems in the process of learning. Sometimes, they are even completely missing. The rapid development of information and communication technologies in the last decades has made a huge impact on the education system with a special emphasis on the engineering subjects. The advances of web technologies on the other hand have also significantly improved online and collaborative learning, and students’ learning experience in general. This paper presents a developed virtual online laboratory that aims at helping high school s...
The emerging demographic trends toward an aging population, demand new ways and solutions to impr... more The emerging demographic trends toward an aging population, demand new ways and solutions to improve the quality of elderly life. These include, prolonged independent living, improved health care, and reduced social isolation. Recent technological advances in the field of assistive robotics bring higher sophistication and various assistive abilities that can help in achieving these goals. In this paper, we present design and validation of a low-cost telepresence robot that can assist the elderly and their professional caregivers, in everyday activities. The developed robot structure and its control objectives were tested in, both, a simulation and experimental environment. On-field experiments were done in a private elderly care center involving elderly persons and caregivers as participants. The goal of the evaluation study was to test the software architecture and the robot capabilities for navigation, as well as the robot manipulator. Moreover, participants’ reactions toward a po...
International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 2012
Recent advances in wireless sensor networks (WSN) technologies are enabling patient-centered, res... more Recent advances in wireless sensor networks (WSN) technologies are enabling patient-centered, result oriented health care services, in the most cost-effective manner. Furthermore, technological advances are enabling a greater shift from institutional services to community-based services. The model of the collaborative health care system (COHESY) presented in this paper offers 24 hour monitoring of the condition of patients and the possibility of sending an emergency call for sudden deterioration of his medical condition. In addition, the system enables the patient (system user) to contact other people with similar condition and exchange their experience. This system improves the terms of home care treatment of the patient and also increases the medical capacity of the appropriate institutions. The result is significant reduction of the overall costs for patients and hospitals.
Annals of Computer Science and Information Systems, 2014
The main aim of this paper is to advance the state of the art in automated prostate segmentation ... more The main aim of this paper is to advance the state of the art in automated prostate segmentation using T2 weighted MR images, by introducing a hybrid topological MRI prostate segmentation method which is based on a set of prelabeled MR atlas images. The proposed method has been experimentally tested on a set of 30 MRI T2 weighted images. For evaluation the automated segmentations of the proposed scheme have been compared with the manual segmentations, using an average Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC). Obtained quantitative results have shown a good approximation of the segmented prostate.
Games have been an important activity among people for many years, but it has never been as inter... more Games have been an important activity among people for many years, but it has never been as interesting to explore as it is today. The main aim of our work is to investigate the influence of mobile phone games on collaboration and social interaction of physically co-located players, instead of focusing on the consequences of playing digital games that are antisocial in nature. Considering the performances of the contemporary converged mobile phones, we have developed and augmented reality (AR) TeamTwixT game for mobile phones. We have evaluated the system performances, user interface performances by adopting the Fitts’ law and the usability of mobile phones for collaborative AR. The results have shown that, despite the small screen and limited input capabilities mobile phones and 3D AR technology can be used to naturally enhance collaboration of co-located players and increase their confidence in respect to other gaming conditions.
International Journal of Computer Applications, 2013
The main motivation of gait rehabilitation is to help a patient recovering from injury, illness o... more The main motivation of gait rehabilitation is to help a patient recovering from injury, illness or disease, to recover some locomotor abilities in order to promote as much independence as possible in activities of daily living tasks, and to assist the patient in compensating for deficits that cannot be treated medically. However, the amount of hands-on therapy that patients can receive is limited, as economic pressures are inherent in the health care system. Therefore, worldwide efforts are being made to automate locomotor training. Robotic devices has the potential to make therapy more affordable and thus more available for more patients and for more time. This article reviews the most important characteristics and features of the current robot devices for gait rehabilitation, both in clinical use and in the phase of research.
In order to facilitate and speed up the search of massive DNA databases, the database is indexed ... more In order to facilitate and speed up the search of massive DNA databases, the database is indexed at the beginning, employing a mapping function. By searching through the indexed data structure, exact query hits can be identified. If the database is searched against an annotated DNA query, such as a known promoter consensus sequence, then the starting locations and the number of potential genes can be determined. This is particularly relevant if unannotated DNA sequences have to be functionally annotated. However, indexing a massive DNA database and searching an indexed data structure with millions of entries is a time-demanding process. In this paper, we propose a fast DNA database indexing and searching approach, identifying all query hits in the database, without having to examine all entries in the indexed data structure, limiting the maximum length of a query that can be searched against the database. By applying the proposed indexing equation, the whole human genome could be indexed in 10 hours on a personal computer, under the assumption that there is enough RAM to store the indexed data structure. Analysing the methodology proposed by Reneker, we observed that hits at starting positions p k ¡ j q j are not reported, if the database is searched against a query shorter than k nucleotides, such that k is the length of the DNA database words being mapped and j q j is the length of the query. A solution of this drawback is also presented.
Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2011
The work presented in this paper analyses the viability of using a cell-phone as students’ guidan... more The work presented in this paper analyses the viability of using a cell-phone as students’ guidance for literature selection. The integrated cell-phone camera is used to recognize the book covers in the bookstores and libraries. The chosen solution is based on client-server architecture and the object recognition is based on local features. Detecting, identifying, and recognizing salient regions or feature
Today there is a growing interest towards the adoption of novel technology in the field of medica... more Today there is a growing interest towards the adoption of novel technology in the field of medical monitoring and personal health care systems in general. In this paper we present algorithms that generate recommendations and suggestions for preventive intervention instead of emergency care and hospital admissions, used in the model of the collaborative health care system (Cohesy). Use of data sets from the health and physical activities history of users can be very important for improving the health of users because the history of the diagnoses can detect which physical activities contributed to the improvement of the health of the user. Step further, we use these data sets to generate recommendation for activity in cases where the user health has deteriorated.
High resolution and high field magnetic resonance neurography (MR neurography, MRN) is shown to h... more High resolution and high field magnetic resonance neurography (MR neurography, MRN) is shown to have excellent anatomic capability. There have been considerable advances in the technology in the last few years leading to various feasibility studies using different structural and functional imaging approaches in both clinical and research settings. This paper is intended to be a useful seminar for readers who want to gain knowledge of the advancements in the MRN pulse sequences currently used in clinical practice as well as learn about the other techniques on the horizon aimed at better depiction of nerve anatomy, pathology, and potential noninvasive evaluation of nerve degeneration or regeneration.
In this work a pointing interface based on human gestures using a mobile phone accelerometer for ... more In this work a pointing interface based on human gestures using a mobile phone accelerometer for interaction with robots is proposed. Through this interface the user can sketch stroke gestures on a computer screen using the cell phone accelerometer to make a selection and instruct a robot to perform a task. Selection, cancelation and movement, as well as some additional commands such as stop, pause and resume are supported. All the projected gestures are processed using known image analysis algorithms providing instantaneous position and path information. The proposed interface is experimentally evaluated and the results show that it is efficient, natural, robust and easy to use. It also provides asynchronous robot control with minimum operator effort and engagement.
The rapid development of the information technology worldwide contributes for a drastic change of... more The rapid development of the information technology worldwide contributes for a drastic change of the traditional procedures according to which the companies are functioning for completion of everyday activities. This change demands for establishing separate departments to support the end users. This paper presents a software system for automated support of end-users.
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Papers by Saso Koceski