Remote control

Summary

In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as a television set, DVD player or other home appliance. A remote control can allow operation of devices that are out of convenient reach for direct operation of controls. They function best when used from a short distance. This is primarily a convenience feature for the user. In some cases, remote controls allow a person to operate a device that they otherwise would not be able to reach, as when a garage door opener is triggered from outside. Early television remote controls (1956–1977) used ultrasonic tones. Present-day remote controls are commonly consumer infrared devices which send digitally-coded pulses of infrared radiation. They control functions such as power, volume, channels, playback, track change, heat, fan speed, and various other features. Remote controls for these devices are usually small wireless handheld objects with an array of buttons. They are used to adjust various settings such as television channel, track number, and volume. The remote control code, and thus the required remote control device, is usually specific to a product line. However, there are universal remotes, which emulate the remote control made for most major brand devices. Remote controls in the 2000s include Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity, motion sensor-enabled capabilities and voice control. Remote controls for 2010s onward Smart TVs may feature a standalone keyboard on the rear side to facilitate typing, and be usable as a pointing device. Wired and wireless remote control was developed in the latter half of the 19th century to meet the need to control unmanned vehicles (for the most part military torpedoes). These included a wired version by German engineer Werner von Siemens in 1870, and radio controlled ones by British engineer Ernest Wilson and C. J.

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_control

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Structure determination techniques are an essential tool to investigate and understand molecules, especially in biology, where functionality crucially depends on structure. The dominant high-resolution methods, such as transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, rely on ensemble averaging, making them unsuitable for evidencing structural variations of flexible molecules. Common single-molecule imaging techniques like scanning probe microscopy achieve high resolution but lack access to 3D objects. A possible way to overcome these limitations is offered by low-energy electron holography (LEEH). So far, LEEH achieved molecular imaging at resolutions in the range of 7-8 Å on the single-molecule level. A resolution in the range of a few Å, which would give access to atomic details of molecular structures, is in theory attainable. Obtaining a resolution near the theoretical limit requires a fully optimized LEEH setup and workflow, for which in particular sample and emitter preparation are crucial. Here, I present a novel LEEH microscope with a unique experimental workflow, which is capable of resolving molecular substructures with an unprecedented resolution for LEEH experiments. The newly constructed LEEH microscope takes advantage of an efficient vibration isolation system and is remote-controlled to minimize external perturbations. The setup is capable of low-temperature (50 K) measurements, which enhances the stability of the system. A reliable way for preparing highly coherent electron emitters constituted by sharp tungsten tips is presented along with different methods for improving their performance via functionalization and UHV treatments. I show an optimized and reliable substrate preparation protocol resulting in ultra-clean free-standing single-layer graphene (SLG) samples. Native electrospray ion beam deposition (ES-IBD) allows for the transfer of non-volatile molecules from solution into gas phase and onto the substrate. By employing a quadrupole mass selection, highly pure molecular ion beams are obtained, which are soft-landed onto the SLG substrate in a controlled and reproducible manner while retaining an intact structure. This versatile preparation method allows us to study a great variety of molecules by LEEH. Data on proteins with masses ranging from 12-820 kDa reveal molecular shapes consistent with model structures. Locally, structural details as small as 5 Å were identified, thus we are approaching our goal of a resolution in the range of a few Å. The application of our methodology to flexible proteins, exemplified by antibodies, allowed for the imaging of their conformational variability and for determining the influence of the sample preparation on their structure. This gave us the possibility to directly image gas-phase related conformations. Data of compact molecular systems with masses below 3 kDa reveal that our LEEH microscope is able to investigate small molecules, such as porphyrines, at high imaging contrast. The presented results indicate that an optimized LEEH setup and workflow in combination with ES-IBD is a versatile microscopy method, which is filling the gap between high-resolution and single-molecule techniques by elucidating structural details of various molecular species.

EPFL2022

Auditory externalization of a remote microphone signal

Vincent Pierre Olivier Grimaldi

A remote microphone (RM) system can be used in combination with wearable binaural communication devices, such as hearing aids (HAs), to improve speech intelligibility. Typically, a speaker is equipped with a body-worn microphone which enables to pick up their voice with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, if this signal is played diotically through the receivers (i.e. the same signal in both ears), the necessary cues enabling the auditory system to locate the sound source are bypassed. This can affect the ability of the listener to feel immersed in the environment or to follow a conversation, especially for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. Auditory sound source localization in humans is performed by the auditory system owing to the interpretation of various cues related to the physical sound propagation from this source to the eardrums of the listener. This is mainly enabled by the binaural structure of the auditory system.Previous works have successfully developed a method to provide a simplified spatialization of the RM signal which enabled normal-hearing (NH) and HI listeners to locate sound sources in azimuth, while preserving speech intelligibility. However, the proposed method yielded common spatial hearing perceptual artefacts, such as in-head localization and front/back confusion.This thesis is devoted to the investigation and the perceptual evaluation of wearable devices-compatible audio playback solutions aiming at enhancing the realism of this spatialization. In particular, the goal is to improve the externalization of a sound source, i.e. to ensure it is perceived outside the head, and possibly at a certain distance corresponding to its physical location in the environment. For this purpose, early reflections (ERs) in a room play a key role. Hence, several signal processing approaches to provide ERs in the binaural synthesis were investigated. Subsequently, a subjective listening study was conducted, in which NH and HI aided listeners had to evaluate the perceived auditory distance with various binaural rendering strategies. The results show that the superimposition of ERs with the considered methods significantly improves the perception of auditory distance for NH and HI listeners. The study also provides insights about auditory distance perception in aided HI listeners with severe-to-profound hearing loss. A follow-up study was conducted with NH listeners and showed that a complete implementation of these strategies might improve auditory distance perception while preserving spatial awareness. In these studies, subjects had their head fixed.Previous studies have shown that head movements coupled with head-tracking can contribute to the auditory externalization of a virtual sound source. The next part of this thesis reports the development of a head-tracking algorithm compatible with wearable devices, relying solely on two 3-axis accelerometers. While showing promising results, the limitations of the developed algorithm still yield mismatches in the estimation. Consequently, a subjective listening test was conducted with NH listeners to study the effect of head-tracking artefacts on the perception of externalization and the performance in azimuth localization of a sound source. The results suggest that auditory externalization is not affected by a large latency or the amplitude mismatch. Latency did not decrease the performance in localization either, contrarily to the amplitude mismatch.

EPFL2022

Personalized Body-Machine Interfaces for Advanced Human-Robot Interaction

Matteo Macchini

Robotic systems are becoming more and more pervasive in modern industrial, scientific and personal activities through recent years and will play a fundamental role in the future society. Despite their increasing level of automation, teleoperation is still needed in many robotic applications. Human-Robot Interfaces (HRIs) are a central element in the diffusion of robots and are a crucial component to make them available to the use of most people. However, standard interfaces such as remote controllers still need time and extensive training to be proficiently mastered by users. Body-Machine Interfaces (BoMIs) represent a promising alternative to such devices as they leverage the innate ability of humans to finely control their movements. This thesis aims to provide new insights about humans' natural motor behaviors when interfacing with robots and to propose novel approaches for the implementation of HRIs based on body motion. The core contribution of this work is the design, realization and qualification of machine learning-based methods to translate the motion of a person into control inputs for a robot. The methods described here allowed naive users to effectively control real and simulated robots based on the processing of their body movements with a faster learning rate compared to classic interfaces. We extended our core algorithm to leverage knowledge about the natural organization of human motion resulting a more general method that was successfully applied for the control of a set of morphologically different machines. Through the implementation of an online adaptive functionality, we enabled users to modify their motor behaviour during teleoperation resulting in a lower perceived physical and cognitive workload and augmented performance. Human factors such as the sense of presence in virtual or distant environments, or the motor characteristics of distinct body areas are a key factor for advanced telerobotic applications. We studied the impact of the use of Virtual Reality for the control of non-anthropomorphic machines, and the effects of designing BoMIs based on different limbs opening to new knowledge about the effects of such factors in human-robot interaction. The design of a wearable haptic interface for drone operation showed the potential of augmenting their senses to perceive a distal environment through the sense of touch. Thanks to this novel design, nonexpert users were enabled to navigate drones through narrow passages with limited visibility, a task almost impossible to perform with standard interfaces.We believe that this thesis contributes to pave the way towards a deeper understanding of humans in human-robot interaction, as well as providing a new set of tools for the design of simple, intuitive interfaces with the goal of democratizing robotic teleoperation for the masses.

EPFL2021