In this paper, we describe three novel data processing techniques used for haptic rendering and s... more In this paper, we describe three novel data processing techniques used for haptic rendering and simulation: We present an approach to constraining a haptic device to travel along a discretely-sampled curve. We present an approach to generating distance maps from surface meshes using axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) trees. Our method exploits spatial coherence among neighboring points. We present a data structure that allows thread-safe, lock-free streaming of data from a high-priority haptic rendering thread to a lower-priority data-logging thread. We provide performance metrics and example applications for each of these techniques. C++-style pseudocode is provided wherever possible and is used as the basis for presenting our approaches. Links to actual implementations are also provided for each section.
Design for Manufacturability through Design-Process Integration V, 2011
The traditional design rule paradigm of defining the illegal areas of the design space has been d... more The traditional design rule paradigm of defining the illegal areas of the design space has been deteriorating at the advanced technology nodes. Radical design space restrictions, advocated by the regular design fabrics methodology, provide an opportunity to reshape the design/manufacturing interface by constraining the layout to a set of allowable patterns. As such, this would allow for guaranteed convergence of
In a high profile case, a terminally ill woman, Diane Pretty, challenged the United Kingdom prohi... more In a high profile case, a terminally ill woman, Diane Pretty, challenged the United Kingdom prohibition on assisted suicide as incompatible with certain fundamental rights which are guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights. Mrs Pretty's battle was ultimately unsuccessful, with a total of three courts and 15 judges ruling against her. Such unanimity of opinion might well be thought to represent the coup de grace for arguments about the right to assistance in death under European human rights law. However, in this article it is suggested that, in limited circumstances, such assistance might yet still be possible under the Constitution.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 2006
One important technique common throughout surgery is achieving proper exposure of critical anatom... more One important technique common throughout surgery is achieving proper exposure of critical anatomic structures so that their shapes, which may vary somewhat among patients, can be confidently established and avoided. In this paper, we present an algorithm for determining which regions of selected structures are properly exposed in the context of a mastoidectomy simulation. Furthermore, our algorithm then finds and displays all other points along the surface of the structure that lie along a sufficiently short and straight path from an exposed portion such that their locations can be safely inferred. Finally, we present an algorithm for providing realistic visual cues about underlying structures with view-dependent shading of the bone.
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international conference on Interactive tabletops and surfaces, 2013
Recent work has shown that the body provides an interesting interaction platform. We propose a no... more Recent work has shown that the body provides an interesting interaction platform. We propose a novel sensing technique based on transdermal low-frequency ultrasound propagation. This technique enables pressure-aware continuous touch sensing as well as arm-grasping hand gestures on the human body. We describe the phenomena we leverage as well as the system that produces ultrasound signals on one part of the body and measures this signal on another. The measured signal varies according to the measurement location, forming distinctive propagation profiles which are useful to infer on-body touch locations and on-body gestures. We also report on a series of experimental studies with 20 participants that characterize the signal, and show robust touch and gesture classification along the forearm.
One of the most important advantages of computer simulators for surgical training is the opportun... more One of the most important advantages of computer simulators for surgical training is the opportunity they afford for independent learning. However, if the simulator does not provide useful instructional feedback to the user, this advantage is significantly blunted by the need for an instructor to supervise and tutor the trainee while using the simulator. Thus, the incorporation of relevant, intuitive metrics is essential to the development of efficient simulators. Equally as important is the presentation of such metrics to the user in such a way so as to provide constructive feedback that facilitates independent learning and improvement. This paper presents a number of novel metrics for the automated evaluation of surgical technique. The general approach was to take criteria that are intuitive to surgeons and develop ways to quantify them in a simulator. Although many of the concepts behind these metrics have wide application throughout surgery, they have been implemented specifically in the context of a simulation of mastoidectomy. First, the visuohaptic simulator itself is described, followed by the details of a wide variety of metrics designed to assess the user's performance. We present mechanisms for presenting visualizations and other feedback based on these metrics during a virtual procedure. We further describe a novel performance evaluation console that displays metric-based information during an automated debriefing session. Finally, the results of several user studies are reported, providing some preliminary validation of the simulator, the metrics, and the feedback mechanisms. Several machine learning algorithms, including Hidden Markov Models and a Naïve Bayes Classifier, are applied to our simulator data to automatically differentiate users' expertise levels.
Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07), 2007
This paper explores the use of haptic feedback to teach an abstract motor skill that requires rec... more This paper explores the use of haptic feedback to teach an abstract motor skill that requires recalling a sequence of forces. Participants are guided along a trajectory and are asked to learn a sequence of onedimensional forces via three paradigms: haptic training, visual training, or combined visuohaptic training. The extent of learning is measured by accuracy of force recall. We find that recall following visuohaptic training is significantly more accurate than recall following visual or haptic training alone, although haptic training alone is inferior to visual training alone. This suggests that in conjunction with visual feedback, haptic training may be an effective tool for teaching sensorimotor skills that have a forcesensitive component to them, such as surgery. We also present a dynamic programming paradigm to align and compare spatiotemporal haptic trajectories.
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international joint conference on Pervasive and ubiquitous computing, 2013
The weight scale is perhaps the most ubiquitous health sensor of all and is important to many hea... more The weight scale is perhaps the most ubiquitous health sensor of all and is important to many health and lifestyle decisions, but its fundamental interface-a single numerical estimate of a person's current weight-has remained largely unchanged for 100 years. An opportunity exists to impact public health by reconsidering this pervasive interface. Toward that end, we investigated the correspondence between consumers' perceptions of weight data and the realities of weight fluctuation. Through an analysis of online product reviews, a journaling study on weight fluctuations, expert interviews, and a large-scale survey of scale users, we found that consumers' perception of weight scale behavior is often disconnected from scales' capabilities and from clinical relevance, and that accurate understanding of weight fluctuation is associated with greater trust in the scale itself. We propose significant changes to how weight data should be presented and discuss broader implications for the design of other ubiquitous health sensing devices.
The development and evaluation of haptic rendering algorithms presents two unique challenges. Fir... more The development and evaluation of haptic rendering algorithms presents two unique challenges. Firstly, the haptic information channel is fundamentally bidirectional, so the output of a haptic environment is fundamentally dependent on user input, which is difficult to reliably reproduce. Additionally, it is difficult to compare haptic results to real-world, "gold standard" results, since such a comparison requires applying identical inputs to real and virtual objects and measuring the resulting forces, which requires hardware that is not widely available. We have addressed these challenges by building and releasing several sets of position and force information, collected by physically scanning a set of real-world objects, along with virtual models of those objects. We demonstrate novel applications of this data set for the development, debugging, optimization, evaluation, and comparison of haptic rendering algorithms.
Composers of popular music weave lyrics, melody, and instrumentation together to create a consist... more Composers of popular music weave lyrics, melody, and instrumentation together to create a consistent and compelling emotional scene. The relationships among these elements are critical to musical communication, and understanding the statistics behind these relationships can contribute to numerous problems in music information retrieval and creativity support. In this paper, we present the results of an observational study on a large symbolic database of popular music; our results identify several patterns in the relationship between lyrics and melody.
This document contains cool pictures with no useful data; this work was done as part of a corpora... more This document contains cool pictures with no useful data; this work was done as part of a corporate internship that used proprietary data, so we couldn’t release or publish sequence information or real numbers. It’s purely a description of what I worked on, with no constructive scientific content. APPENDIX A contains a number of (unlabeled) images representing examples of alternative splicing. The extremely informal APPENDIX B describes how we arrived at some of our filtering procedures, using public-domain examples. Recent estimates of the frequency of alternative splicing in human genes, in conjunction with recent estimates of the number of genes in the human genome, have confirmed that alternative splicing plays a critical role in human genetic complexity. However, despite this recent interest in alternative splicing as a fundamental genetic mechanism, and despite numerous experimentally confirmed examples of alternative splicing in plants, no genome-wide studies have been perfor...
Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from ... more Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from neural spike trains in real-time. Currently, research groups develop specialized environments for studying closed-loop control, and these environments typically depend on specialized hardware, multiple computers, and multiple software packages. This complexity limits the transfer of neural prosthetic work to a clinical environment and the rapid implementation of new decoding algorithms or paradigms in animal studies. In order to address these issues, we have implemented TG2, a Windows-based software package that integrates flexible behavioral control scripting with real-time neural decoding. A novel state-machine-based representation of experiments allows behavioral tasks to be developed graphically. Device-independent hardware abstractions allow experiments to be rapidly transferred among a variety of neural data acquisition systems, kinematic input devices, and neural decoding algorith...
The RF system of the FRIB driver accelerator includes solid state amplifiers up to 18 kW operatin... more The RF system of the FRIB driver accelerator includes solid state amplifiers up to 18 kW operating at frequencies from 80.5 MHz to 322 MHz. Much higher power is required for the normal conducting RFQ, ~100 kW, and it is based on vacuum tubes. This invited talk presents the performance of solid state amplifiers and LLRF in off-line testing and on-line testing of the RFQ amplifier.
The reaccelerator facility (ReA) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at M... more The reaccelerator facility (ReA) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU) will provide a unique capability to study reactions with low-energy beams of rare isotopes. A beam from the coupled cyclotron facility is stopped in a gas stopping system, charge bred in an Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT), and then reaccelerated in a compact superconducting LINAC. At present the beam repetition rate at the ReA targets is the same as the LINAC RF frequency of 80.5 MHz. A lower frequency would be desirable for many types of experiments using time of flight data acquisitions. This paper reports the results of preliminary design studies of such a low frequency prebuncher designed to increase the pulse separation and minimize bunch lengths at the detector.
Recent estimates of the frequency of alternative splicing in human genes, in conjunction with rec... more Recent estimates of the frequency of alternative splicing in human genes, in conjunction with recent estimates of the number of genes in the human genome, have confirmed that alternative splicing plays a critical role in human genetic complexity. However, despite this recent interest in alternative splicing as a fundamental genetic mechanism, and despite numerous experimentally confirmed examples of alternative splicing in plants, no genome-wide studies have been performed to estimate the frequency of alternative splicing in any plant species. Here we present an estimate of the number of alternatively spliced genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, based on genomic alignments of approximately [very large number] EST sequences. After strict filtering to eliminate false-positives, we estimate that the total number of alternatively spliced genes in Arabidopsis is [top secret number], or about [top secret number] of the total gene number.
Recent advances in both haptic rendering techniques and CPU power have made haptic feedback incre... more Recent advances in both haptic rendering techniques and CPU power have made haptic feedback increasingly accessible on consumer hardware. With the recent success of simple haptic feedback devices in console and PC game systems, more sophisticated haptic rendering is poised to enter the mass entertainment market in the near future. With this in mind, we describe “Haptic Battle Pong”, a competitive networked game that makes extensive use of three-degree-of-freedom force-feedback and six-degree-of-freedom input. This is among the first games to fully utilize the capabilities of high-fidelity haptic devices, and we use this environment to explore the applicability of high-degreeof-freedom haptics to games. We discuss our approaches to physical simulation, forcerendering, and networked haptic interaction. We also discuss several techniques we used to enhance the entertainment value of a traditional video game using the capabilities of a haptic display. Finally, we review the subjective r...
Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from ... more Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from neural spike trains in real-time. Currently, research groups develop specialized environments for studying closed-loop control, and these environments typically depend on specialized hardware, multiple computers, and multiple software packages. This complexity limits the transfer of neural prosthetic work to a clinical environment and the rapid implementation of new decoding algorithms or paradigms in animal studies. In order to address these issues, we have implemented TG2, a Windows-based software package that integrates flexible behavioral control scripting with real-time neural decoding. A novel state-machine-based representation of experiments allows behavioral tasks to be developed graphically. Device-independent hardware abstractions allow experiments to be rapidly transferred among a variety of neural data acquisition systems, kinematic input devices, and neural decoding algorith...
In this paper, we describe three novel data processing techniques used for haptic rendering and s... more In this paper, we describe three novel data processing techniques used for haptic rendering and simulation: We present an approach to constraining a haptic device to travel along a discretely-sampled curve. We present an approach to generating distance maps from surface meshes using axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) trees. Our method exploits spatial coherence among neighboring points. We present a data structure that allows thread-safe, lock-free streaming of data from a high-priority haptic rendering thread to a lower-priority data-logging thread. We provide performance metrics and example applications for each of these techniques. C++-style pseudocode is provided wherever possible and is used as the basis for presenting our approaches. Links to actual implementations are also provided for each section.
Design for Manufacturability through Design-Process Integration V, 2011
The traditional design rule paradigm of defining the illegal areas of the design space has been d... more The traditional design rule paradigm of defining the illegal areas of the design space has been deteriorating at the advanced technology nodes. Radical design space restrictions, advocated by the regular design fabrics methodology, provide an opportunity to reshape the design/manufacturing interface by constraining the layout to a set of allowable patterns. As such, this would allow for guaranteed convergence of
In a high profile case, a terminally ill woman, Diane Pretty, challenged the United Kingdom prohi... more In a high profile case, a terminally ill woman, Diane Pretty, challenged the United Kingdom prohibition on assisted suicide as incompatible with certain fundamental rights which are guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights. Mrs Pretty's battle was ultimately unsuccessful, with a total of three courts and 15 judges ruling against her. Such unanimity of opinion might well be thought to represent the coup de grace for arguments about the right to assistance in death under European human rights law. However, in this article it is suggested that, in limited circumstances, such assistance might yet still be possible under the Constitution.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 2006
One important technique common throughout surgery is achieving proper exposure of critical anatom... more One important technique common throughout surgery is achieving proper exposure of critical anatomic structures so that their shapes, which may vary somewhat among patients, can be confidently established and avoided. In this paper, we present an algorithm for determining which regions of selected structures are properly exposed in the context of a mastoidectomy simulation. Furthermore, our algorithm then finds and displays all other points along the surface of the structure that lie along a sufficiently short and straight path from an exposed portion such that their locations can be safely inferred. Finally, we present an algorithm for providing realistic visual cues about underlying structures with view-dependent shading of the bone.
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international conference on Interactive tabletops and surfaces, 2013
Recent work has shown that the body provides an interesting interaction platform. We propose a no... more Recent work has shown that the body provides an interesting interaction platform. We propose a novel sensing technique based on transdermal low-frequency ultrasound propagation. This technique enables pressure-aware continuous touch sensing as well as arm-grasping hand gestures on the human body. We describe the phenomena we leverage as well as the system that produces ultrasound signals on one part of the body and measures this signal on another. The measured signal varies according to the measurement location, forming distinctive propagation profiles which are useful to infer on-body touch locations and on-body gestures. We also report on a series of experimental studies with 20 participants that characterize the signal, and show robust touch and gesture classification along the forearm.
One of the most important advantages of computer simulators for surgical training is the opportun... more One of the most important advantages of computer simulators for surgical training is the opportunity they afford for independent learning. However, if the simulator does not provide useful instructional feedback to the user, this advantage is significantly blunted by the need for an instructor to supervise and tutor the trainee while using the simulator. Thus, the incorporation of relevant, intuitive metrics is essential to the development of efficient simulators. Equally as important is the presentation of such metrics to the user in such a way so as to provide constructive feedback that facilitates independent learning and improvement. This paper presents a number of novel metrics for the automated evaluation of surgical technique. The general approach was to take criteria that are intuitive to surgeons and develop ways to quantify them in a simulator. Although many of the concepts behind these metrics have wide application throughout surgery, they have been implemented specifically in the context of a simulation of mastoidectomy. First, the visuohaptic simulator itself is described, followed by the details of a wide variety of metrics designed to assess the user's performance. We present mechanisms for presenting visualizations and other feedback based on these metrics during a virtual procedure. We further describe a novel performance evaluation console that displays metric-based information during an automated debriefing session. Finally, the results of several user studies are reported, providing some preliminary validation of the simulator, the metrics, and the feedback mechanisms. Several machine learning algorithms, including Hidden Markov Models and a Naïve Bayes Classifier, are applied to our simulator data to automatically differentiate users' expertise levels.
Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07), 2007
This paper explores the use of haptic feedback to teach an abstract motor skill that requires rec... more This paper explores the use of haptic feedback to teach an abstract motor skill that requires recalling a sequence of forces. Participants are guided along a trajectory and are asked to learn a sequence of onedimensional forces via three paradigms: haptic training, visual training, or combined visuohaptic training. The extent of learning is measured by accuracy of force recall. We find that recall following visuohaptic training is significantly more accurate than recall following visual or haptic training alone, although haptic training alone is inferior to visual training alone. This suggests that in conjunction with visual feedback, haptic training may be an effective tool for teaching sensorimotor skills that have a forcesensitive component to them, such as surgery. We also present a dynamic programming paradigm to align and compare spatiotemporal haptic trajectories.
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international joint conference on Pervasive and ubiquitous computing, 2013
The weight scale is perhaps the most ubiquitous health sensor of all and is important to many hea... more The weight scale is perhaps the most ubiquitous health sensor of all and is important to many health and lifestyle decisions, but its fundamental interface-a single numerical estimate of a person's current weight-has remained largely unchanged for 100 years. An opportunity exists to impact public health by reconsidering this pervasive interface. Toward that end, we investigated the correspondence between consumers' perceptions of weight data and the realities of weight fluctuation. Through an analysis of online product reviews, a journaling study on weight fluctuations, expert interviews, and a large-scale survey of scale users, we found that consumers' perception of weight scale behavior is often disconnected from scales' capabilities and from clinical relevance, and that accurate understanding of weight fluctuation is associated with greater trust in the scale itself. We propose significant changes to how weight data should be presented and discuss broader implications for the design of other ubiquitous health sensing devices.
The development and evaluation of haptic rendering algorithms presents two unique challenges. Fir... more The development and evaluation of haptic rendering algorithms presents two unique challenges. Firstly, the haptic information channel is fundamentally bidirectional, so the output of a haptic environment is fundamentally dependent on user input, which is difficult to reliably reproduce. Additionally, it is difficult to compare haptic results to real-world, "gold standard" results, since such a comparison requires applying identical inputs to real and virtual objects and measuring the resulting forces, which requires hardware that is not widely available. We have addressed these challenges by building and releasing several sets of position and force information, collected by physically scanning a set of real-world objects, along with virtual models of those objects. We demonstrate novel applications of this data set for the development, debugging, optimization, evaluation, and comparison of haptic rendering algorithms.
Composers of popular music weave lyrics, melody, and instrumentation together to create a consist... more Composers of popular music weave lyrics, melody, and instrumentation together to create a consistent and compelling emotional scene. The relationships among these elements are critical to musical communication, and understanding the statistics behind these relationships can contribute to numerous problems in music information retrieval and creativity support. In this paper, we present the results of an observational study on a large symbolic database of popular music; our results identify several patterns in the relationship between lyrics and melody.
This document contains cool pictures with no useful data; this work was done as part of a corpora... more This document contains cool pictures with no useful data; this work was done as part of a corporate internship that used proprietary data, so we couldn’t release or publish sequence information or real numbers. It’s purely a description of what I worked on, with no constructive scientific content. APPENDIX A contains a number of (unlabeled) images representing examples of alternative splicing. The extremely informal APPENDIX B describes how we arrived at some of our filtering procedures, using public-domain examples. Recent estimates of the frequency of alternative splicing in human genes, in conjunction with recent estimates of the number of genes in the human genome, have confirmed that alternative splicing plays a critical role in human genetic complexity. However, despite this recent interest in alternative splicing as a fundamental genetic mechanism, and despite numerous experimentally confirmed examples of alternative splicing in plants, no genome-wide studies have been perfor...
Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from ... more Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from neural spike trains in real-time. Currently, research groups develop specialized environments for studying closed-loop control, and these environments typically depend on specialized hardware, multiple computers, and multiple software packages. This complexity limits the transfer of neural prosthetic work to a clinical environment and the rapid implementation of new decoding algorithms or paradigms in animal studies. In order to address these issues, we have implemented TG2, a Windows-based software package that integrates flexible behavioral control scripting with real-time neural decoding. A novel state-machine-based representation of experiments allows behavioral tasks to be developed graphically. Device-independent hardware abstractions allow experiments to be rapidly transferred among a variety of neural data acquisition systems, kinematic input devices, and neural decoding algorith...
The RF system of the FRIB driver accelerator includes solid state amplifiers up to 18 kW operatin... more The RF system of the FRIB driver accelerator includes solid state amplifiers up to 18 kW operating at frequencies from 80.5 MHz to 322 MHz. Much higher power is required for the normal conducting RFQ, ~100 kW, and it is based on vacuum tubes. This invited talk presents the performance of solid state amplifiers and LLRF in off-line testing and on-line testing of the RFQ amplifier.
The reaccelerator facility (ReA) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at M... more The reaccelerator facility (ReA) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU) will provide a unique capability to study reactions with low-energy beams of rare isotopes. A beam from the coupled cyclotron facility is stopped in a gas stopping system, charge bred in an Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT), and then reaccelerated in a compact superconducting LINAC. At present the beam repetition rate at the ReA targets is the same as the LINAC RF frequency of 80.5 MHz. A lower frequency would be desirable for many types of experiments using time of flight data acquisitions. This paper reports the results of preliminary design studies of such a low frequency prebuncher designed to increase the pulse separation and minimize bunch lengths at the detector.
Recent estimates of the frequency of alternative splicing in human genes, in conjunction with rec... more Recent estimates of the frequency of alternative splicing in human genes, in conjunction with recent estimates of the number of genes in the human genome, have confirmed that alternative splicing plays a critical role in human genetic complexity. However, despite this recent interest in alternative splicing as a fundamental genetic mechanism, and despite numerous experimentally confirmed examples of alternative splicing in plants, no genome-wide studies have been performed to estimate the frequency of alternative splicing in any plant species. Here we present an estimate of the number of alternatively spliced genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, based on genomic alignments of approximately [very large number] EST sequences. After strict filtering to eliminate false-positives, we estimate that the total number of alternatively spliced genes in Arabidopsis is [top secret number], or about [top secret number] of the total gene number.
Recent advances in both haptic rendering techniques and CPU power have made haptic feedback incre... more Recent advances in both haptic rendering techniques and CPU power have made haptic feedback increasingly accessible on consumer hardware. With the recent success of simple haptic feedback devices in console and PC game systems, more sophisticated haptic rendering is poised to enter the mass entertainment market in the near future. With this in mind, we describe “Haptic Battle Pong”, a competitive networked game that makes extensive use of three-degree-of-freedom force-feedback and six-degree-of-freedom input. This is among the first games to fully utilize the capabilities of high-fidelity haptic devices, and we use this environment to explore the applicability of high-degreeof-freedom haptics to games. We discuss our approaches to physical simulation, forcerendering, and networked haptic interaction. We also discuss several techniques we used to enhance the entertainment value of a traditional video game using the capabilities of a haptic display. Finally, we review the subjective r...
Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from ... more Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing intended arm movements from neural spike trains in real-time. Currently, research groups develop specialized environments for studying closed-loop control, and these environments typically depend on specialized hardware, multiple computers, and multiple software packages. This complexity limits the transfer of neural prosthetic work to a clinical environment and the rapid implementation of new decoding algorithms or paradigms in animal studies. In order to address these issues, we have implemented TG2, a Windows-based software package that integrates flexible behavioral control scripting with real-time neural decoding. A novel state-machine-based representation of experiments allows behavioral tasks to be developed graphically. Device-independent hardware abstractions allow experiments to be rapidly transferred among a variety of neural data acquisition systems, kinematic input devices, and neural decoding algorith...
Uploads
Papers by Dan R Morris