Integrating Real-Time Wind Hazard Prediction and Visual Augmentation in Full-Flight Simulators to Assess the Pilot's Workload

Extended-Reality Technologies: An Overview of Emerging Applications in Medical Education and Clinical Care.

With Generation Z becoming the primary group of nursing learners and the increasing shortage of nursing education resources, augmented reality and mixed reality based on head-mounted displays are being used more and more in nursing education. However, the current application landscape and the proper usage of these concepts remain unclear. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a scoping review to explore the current applications of head-mounted display-based augmented reality and mixed reality in nursing education and to clarify the definitions and usage of the concepts of augmented reality and mixed reality, ultimately providing directions for future applications and research. Based on the five-stage framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a comprehensive collection and summarization of evidence regarding the application of head-mounted display-based augmented reality and mixed reality in nursing education were conducted. The databases retrieved include CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Ei. The languages of the included literature are Chinese and English. The retrieval was up to October 2024. A total of 44 studies were included in this review, covering three types of head-mounted displays: immersive head-mounted displays, smart glasses, and smartphone-based head-mounted displays. The main application areas were skills training and knowledge acquisition. Most of the studies were feasibility studies, though they also included some efficacy studies and research on personal experiences. In addition, these studies often employed vague or inconsistent definitions of augmented reality and mixed reality. Despite various explorations in the application of head-mounted display-based augmented reality and mixed reality in nursing education, there is still room for improvement in the relevant theory and utilization of this technology. In the future, interventions should use the three dimensions (observation of reality, real - virtual interaction, and fidelity of virtuality) described in detail, rather than simply employing the concepts of augmented reality or mixed reality. Efforts should be concentrated on developing and implementing head-mounted displays combined with other technologies that boast enhanced performance and cost - effectiveness, and further validating their effectiveness.

Weather radar is a critical tool in meteorology, providing invaluable insights into atmospheric conditions and in detecting precipitation, storm intensity, and movement.Several studies have been conducted using DWR observations to retrieve the local wind field.These winds are vital in transporting mass, momentum, and energy throughout the atmosphere, influencing various meteorological processes.Traditional methods like velocity-azimuth display (VAD) and volume-velocity processing (VVP) assume linearity in wind patterns, introducing potential inaccuracies in the case of non-uniform flow [1], [2].Furthermore, studies suggest that in traditional VVP, where multivariate regression is used to estimate the wind field coefficients, this leads to an ill-conditioned matrix and poses practical limitations in estimating the wind fields for small analysis volume.Studies indicate that the application of machine learning techniques for estimating wind fields from single Doppler radar data eliminates the constraint of linearity, resulting in more accurate predictions of the wind field [3].The present study aims to leverage machine learning (ML) techniques that can potentially overcome the challenges posed by ill-conditioned matrices and the linearity assumption in wind field retrievals.These models can adapt to complex wind patterns and learn from radar radial velocity data, leading to more realistic and accurate wind field representations.This study explores a support vector regression (SVR) based framework for retrieving wind fields, incorporating the k-means clustering algorithm to consider the analysis volume.The proposed methodology is shown in Fig. 1.In a simulated experiment, the SVR method effectively captured a uniform horizontal wind field, with a notably strong correlation between simulated and predicted winds.The comparison of retrieved winds at different altitudes with ERA5 winds reveals that the RMSE increases with altitude.The RMSE at lower altitudes is found to be about 5-6 m/s up to 6 km and further increases with altitude.Ongoing efforts involve model fine-tuning, comprehensive retrievals and validation for DWR data, contributing valuable insights to improve our understanding of extreme meteorological events and enhance forecasting accuracy.Fig 1: Flow chart representation of the proposed algorithm.

The perceptual behavior of consumers on a product displayed in the market has a vital role in analyzing the importance given to that product. Therefore, various strategies have been developed to understand this consumer behavior in the selection of products. Immersive technologies like virtual, augmented, and mixed reality are among them. With the foremost feature of immersion in the virtual world and interaction of users with virtual objects, virtual reality, and augmented reality have unlocked their potential in research and a user-friendly tool for analyzing consumer behavior. In addition to these technologies, mixed reality also has a significant role in investigating consumer behavior. Studies on immersive technologies in food applications are vast, hence this review focuses on the applications of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality in the food selection behavior of consumers. The behavioral studies are elicited to develop new products based on consumer needs, to understand the shopping behavior in supermarkets for real-time usage, and to know the influence of emotions in a selection of products. The findings suggest that virtual, augmented, and mixed reality induce immersion of the users in food selection behavioral studies. Information on the technological advancements in the tools used for bringing immersion and interaction are discussed for its futuristic applications in food. Though immersive technology gives users a realistic virtual environment experience, its application in food systems is in the budding stage. More research on human response studies would contribute to its innovative and inevitable application in the future.

An operational storm surge forecasting system aimed at providing warning information for storm surges has been developed and evaluated using four typhoon events. The warning system triggered by typhoon forecasts from Taiwan Cooperative Precipitation Ensemble Forecast Experiment (TAPEX) has been executed with two storm surge forecasting scenarios with and without tides. Three numerical experiments applying different meteorological inputs have been designed to assess the impact of typhoon forcing on storm surges. One uses synthetic wind fields, and the others use realistic wind fields with and without adjustments to the initial wind fields for the background circulation. Local observations from Central Weather Bureau (CWB) weather stations and tide gauge stations are used to evaluate the wind fields and storm surges from our numerical experiments. The comparison results show that the accuracy of the storm surge forecast is dominated by the track, the intensity, and the driving flow of a typhoon. When the structure of a typhoon is disturbed by Taiwan’s topography, using meteorological inputs from real wind fields can result in a better typhoon simulation than using inputs from synthetic wind fields. The driving flow also determines the impact of topography on typhoon movement. For quickly moving typhoons, storm forcing from TAPEX is reliable when a typhoon is strong enough to be relatively unaffected by environmental flows; otherwise, storm forcing from a sophisticated typhoon initialization scheme that better simulates the typhoon and environmental flows results in a more accurate prediction of storm surges. Therefore, when a typhoon moves slowly and interacts more with the topography and environmental flows, incorporating realistic wind fields with adjustments to the initial wind fields for the background circulation in the warning system will obtain better predictions for a typhoon and its resultant storm surges.

The NASA Scatterometer, NSCAT, is an active spaceborne radar designed to measure the normalized radar backscatter coefficient (sigma0) of the ocean surface. These measurements can, in turn, be used to infer the surface vector wind over the ocean using a geophysical model function. Several ambiguous wind vectors result because of the nature of the model function. A median-filter-based ambiguity removal algorithm will be used by the NSCAT ground data processor to select the best wind vector from the set of ambiguous wind vectors. This process is commonly known as dealiasing or ambiguity removal. The baseline NSCAT ambiguity removal algorithm and the method used to select the set of optimum parameter values are described. An extensive simulation of the NSCAT instrument and ground data processor provides a means of testing the resulting tuned algorithm. This simulation generates the ambiguous wind-field vectors expected from the instrument as it orbits over a set of realistic meoscale wind fields. The ambiguous wind field is then dealiased using the median-based ambiguity removal algorithm. Performance is measured by comparison of the unambiguous wind fields with the true wind fields. Results have shown that the median-filter-based ambiguity removal algorithm satisfies NSCAT mission requirements.

Study of boundary layer parameterization simulation uncertainties of sand-dust storm windfield using high-resolution three-dimensional Doppler wind lidar data

Augmented and virtual reality have the potential to improve various aspects of everyday life such as tourism. An elementary part of tourism is the organization and execution of guided city tours. In case of tours for virtual cities, such as in the case of no longer existing ancient settlements, a combination of augmented and virtual reality may render high benefit for collaboration between guide and visitors. Immersive technology has been shown suitable for collaborative systems by previous research, as they can provide a better experience than other technologies. However, recent literature analyses showed that there is a lack of research regarding the role of augmented reality supporting the active/leading user role in such scenarios. Usually, augmented reality is used for the users who are passively experiencing the virtual environment and not for the one controlling it. However, we think that augmented reality has a large potential to improve the workflow of such a primary user. To investigate this research question, we present a collaborative system in this work, which implements a virtual city tour. In this system, the guide is using augmented reality and the visitor is immersed in the virtual city using virtual reality glasses. To implement a valid research prototype, the system has been developed in close feedback with experts in the field of guided city tours.

Augmented reality imaging technology for orthopaedic surgery

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging and image reconstruction play a prominent role in the diagnosis, treatment planning, and post-therapeutic monitoring of patients with congenital heart disease. More interactive and realistic medical experiences take advantage of advanced visualization techniques like augmented, mixed, and virtual reality. Further, 3D printing is now used in medicine. All these technologies improve the understanding of the complex morphologies of congenital heart disease. In this review article, we describe the technical advantages and disadvantages of various advanced visualization techniques and their medical applications in the field of congenital heart disease. In addition, unresolved issues and future perspectives of these evolving techniques are described.

Augmented reality (AR) has been successfully providing surgeons an extensive visual information of surgical anatomy to assist them throughout the procedure. AR allows surgeons to view surgical field through the superimposed 3D virtual model of anatomical details. However, open surgery presents new challenges. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the available literature regarding the use of AR in open surgery, both in clinical and simulated settings. In this way, we aim to analyze the current trends and solutions to help developers and end/users discuss and understand benefits and shortcomings of these systems in open surgery. We performed a PubMed search of the available literature updated to January 2018 using the terms (1) "augmented reality" AND "open surgery", (2) "augmented reality" AND "surgery" NOT "laparoscopic" NOT "laparoscope" NOT "robotic", (3) "mixed reality" AND "open surgery", (4) "mixed reality" AND "surgery" NOT "laparoscopic" NOT "laparoscope" NOT "robotic". The aspects evaluated were the following: real data source, virtual data source, visualization processing modality, tracking modality, registration technique, and AR display type. The initial search yielded 502 studies. After removing the duplicates and by reading abstracts, a total of 13 relevant studies were chosen. In 1 out of 13 studies, in vitro experiments were performed, while the rest of the studies were carried out in a clinical setting including pancreatic, hepatobiliary, and urogenital surgeries. AR system in open surgery appears as a versatile and reliable tool in the operating room. However, some technological limitations need to be addressed before implementing it into the routine practice.

Questionnaires are used for evaluating virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (MR) in healthcare. Utilizing the perfect one to meet the needs is a challenge for researchers and examiners. Hence, this study aimed to review and determine the frequently used questionnaires for evaluating mentioned services. The PubMed and Web of science databases were searched for conducting this review. Original observational and interventional studies that used a referenced questionnaire to evaluate virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and MR in healthcare were included. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Totally, 179 studies were included in this research. The questionnaires are mostly used for evaluating usability (39%) and cybersickness (37.5%). System Usability Scale (28%), Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (27.5%), and Presence Questionnaire (9.5%) were the most used questionnaires. The use of special, need-based, and targeted questionnaires to evaluate the various outcomes of VR, AR, and MR can help in better evaluation of these services.

Currently, the research on urban air mobility and particularly on air taxi concepts experiences a major boom, not only in the aviation industry. One goal of DLL’s project HorizonUAM is to assess the passenger acceptance during this new way to travel. Therefore, we developed a mixed reality air taxi simulator that exploits the capabilities of a video-see-through head-mounted display. In this paper, we present and evaluate four different mixed reality setups that differ in the amount of real and virtual content present inside the air taxi cabin. In a study with twelve participants we assessed the overall simulator as well as the usability of the four setups with respect to the level of immersion and ease of interaction. Our findings Leveal that the participants preferred a fully virtual experience of an air taxi flight. From our tasks on human-machine interaction we also found the text on a virtual user interface to be easier readable than from a real tablet computer via the see-through cameras of the HMD. The Latings of the tasks that required input from the user, however, show that the vast majority of participants favor the interaction with the real tablet. Taking the results into consideration, we will further improve the air taxi simulator for an extensive human factors study on passenger acceptance.

BackgroundExtended reality, which encompasses virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), is increasingly used in medical education. Studies assessing the effectiveness of these new educational modalities should measure relevant outcomes using outcome measurement tools with validity evidence.ObjectiveOur aim is to determine the choice of outcomes, measurement instruments, and the use of measurement instruments with validity evidence in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effectiveness of VR, AR, and MR in medical student education.MethodsWe conducted a systematic mapping review. We searched 7 major bibliographic databases from January 1990 to April 2020, and 2 reviewers screened the citations and extracted data independently from the included studies. We report our findings in line with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines.ResultsOf the 126 retrieved RCTs, 115 (91.3%) were on VR and 11 (8.7%) were on AR. No RCT on MR in medical student education was found. Of the 115 studies on VR, 64 (55.6%) were on VR simulators, 30 (26.1%) on screen-based VR, 9 (7.8%) on VR patient simulations, and 12 (10.4%) on VR serious games. Most studies reported only a single outcome and immediate postintervention assessment data. Skills outcome was the most common outcome reported in studies on VR simulators (97%), VR patient simulations (100%), and AR (73%). Knowledge was the most common outcome reported in studies on screen-based VR (80%) and VR serious games (58%). Less common outcomes included participants’ attitudes, satisfaction, cognitive or mental load, learning efficacy, engagement or self-efficacy beliefs, emotional state, competency developed, and patient outcomes. At least one form of validity evidence was found in approximately half of the studies on VR simulators (55%), VR patient simulations (56%), VR serious games (58%), and AR (55%) and in a quarter of the studies on screen-based VR (27%). Most studies used assessment methods that were implemented in a nondigital format, such as paper-based written exercises or in-person assessments where examiners observed performance (72%).ConclusionsRCTs on VR and AR in medical education report a restricted range of outcomes, mostly skills and knowledge. The studies largely report immediate postintervention outcome data and use assessment methods that are in a nondigital format. Future RCTs should include a broader set of outcomes, report on the validity evidence of the measurement instruments used, and explore the use of assessments that are implemented digitally.

Repair Wind Field of Oil Spill Regional Using SAR Data