Browse Topic: Head
Severe rear-impact collisions can cause significant intrusion into the occupant compartment when the structural integrity of the rear survival space is insufficient. Intrusion patterns are influenced by impact configuration—underride, in-line, or override—with underride collisions channeling forces below the beltline through the rear wheels as a primary load path. This force concentration rapidly propels the rear seat-pan forward, contacting the rearward-rotating front seatback. The resulting bottoming-out phenomenon produces a forward impulse that amplifies loading on the front occupant’s upper torso, increasing the risk of thoracic injury even when the head is properly supported by the head restraint. This study analyzes a real-world rear-impact collision that resulted in fatal thoracic injuries to the driver, attributed to the interaction between the driver’s seatback and the forward-moving rear seat pan. A vehicle-to-vehicle crash test was conducted to replicate similar intrusion characteristics and assess the relative kinematics between the seatback and rear seat structure. Results demonstrate that seatback bottoming out under intrusion conditions significantly elevates thoracic loading. These findings highlight the need for improved rear structural design strategies to manage load paths in underride scenarios and to minimize front seatback rearward collapse and associated occupant loading.
Image sensors built into every smartphone and digital camera, distinguish colors like the human eye. In our retinas, individual cone cells recognize red, green and blue (RGB). In image sensors, individual pixels absorb the corresponding wavelengths and convert them into electrical signals.
The return to Earth is a rough ride for astronauts, from the violent turbulence of atmospheric entry to a jarring landing. Hitting the ground in a Soyuz capsule is the equivalent of driving a car backward into a brick wall at 20 mph, and it’s resulting in more head and neck injuries than NASA computer models predicted. To collect more data, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston commissioned a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project to develop a wearable data recorder for astronaut spacesuits. One result, created by Diversified Technical Systems Inc. (DTS), is a miniature commercial device that now collects and transmits data for any application from airplane test flights to tracking high-value shipments.
A team led by University of Maryland computer scientists invented a camera mechanism that improves how robots see and react to the world around them. Inspired by how the human eye works, their innovative camera system mimics the tiny involuntary movements used by the eye to maintain clear and stable vision over time. The team’s prototyping and testing of the camera — called the Artificial Microsaccade-Enhanced Event Camera (AMI-EV) — was detailed in a paper published in the journal Science Robotics in May 2024.
Rear-end vehicle collisions may lead to whiplash-associated disorders (WADs), comprising a variety of neck and head pain responses. Specifically, increased axial head rotation has been associated with the risk of injuries during rear impacts, while specific tissues, including the capsular ligaments, have been implicated in pain response. Given the limited experimental data for out-of-position rear impact scenarios, computational human body models (HBMs) can inform the potential for tissue-level injury. Previous studies have considered external boundary conditions to reposition the head axially but were limited in reproducing a biofidelic movement. The objectives of this study were to implement a novel head repositioning method to achieve targeted axial rotations and evaluate the tissue-level response for a rear impact condition. The repositioning method used reference geometries to rotate the head to three target positions, showing good correspondence to reported interverbal rotations. Under a 7 g rear impact scenario, the head-turned models were compared with the neutral position and demonstrated increases in the maximum capsular ligament distractions. Increased head rotation was associated with increased ligament distractions. The locations with critical ligament distractions shifted to the lower cervical spine (below C3) and lateral portion of the capsular ligaments for the head-turned position cases. The proposed repositioning method introduced in this study enabled the model to achieve steady head rotations with realistic cervical spine movements, increasing the biofidelity of out-of-position rear impact simulations.
A team led by University of Maryland computer scientists invented a camera mechanism that improves how robots see and react to the world around them. Inspired by how the human eye works, their innovative camera system mimics the tiny involuntary movements used by the eye to maintain clear and stable vision over time. The team’s prototyping and testing of the camera — called the Artificial Microsaccade-Enhanced Event Camera (AMI-EV) — was detailed in a paper published in the journal Science Robotics in May 2024.
Most humans rely heavily on our visual abilities to function in the world—we are optically oriented. In the broadest sense, “optics” refers to the study of sight and light. At its foundation, Radiant’s business is all about optics: measuring light and the properties of light in relation to the human eye. Photometry is the science of light according to our visual perception. Colorimetry is the science of color: how our eyes interpret different wavelengths of light.
Researchers have found a way to bind engineered skin tissue to the complex forms of humanoid robots. This brings with it potential benefits to robotic platforms such as increased mobility, self-healing abilities, embedded sensing capabilities and an increasingly lifelike appearance. Taking inspiration from human skin ligaments, the team, led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo, included special perforations in a robot face, which helped a layer of skin take hold. Their research could be useful in the cosmetics industry and to help train plastic surgeons.
Ergonomics plays an important role in automobile design to achieve optimal compatibility between occupants and vehicle components. The overall goal is to ensure that the vehicle design accommodates the target customer group, who come in varied sizes, preferences and tastes. Headroom is one such metric that not only influences accommodation rate but also conveys a visual perception on how spacious the vehicle is. An adequate headroom is necessary for a good seating comfort and a relaxed driving experience. Headroom is intensely discussed in magazine tests and one of the key deciding factors in purchasing a car. SAE J1100 defines a set of measurements and standard procedures for motor vehicle dimensions. H61, W27, W35, H35 and W38 are some of the standard dimensions that relate to headroom and head clearances. While developing the vehicle architecture in the early design phase, it is customary to specify targets for various ergonomic attributes and arrive at the above-mentioned dimensions. In general, specifications that relate to headroom are only a consequence of static assessments carried out inside a laboratory and not on real-time driving condition. The static assessment can be as simple as positioning a digital manikin in CAD environment and then specifying how high or low the interior trim of the headliner be to achieve a certain head clearance. In actual driving scenario, the vehicle would experience rough terrain. In such cases, the road undulations can displace the occupant from their normal seated position in effect reducing the head clearance. Therefore, it is important to understand this dynamic variance of head clearance on actual driving condition. Undertaking a volunteer test to study this variance comes with risk of endangering the participant and has other measurement related complexities. Hence, we adopt a simulation-based approach for the same using Human Body Models (HBMs) of different anthropometry, which are proven having high bio-fidelity. The aim of this study is to validate this hypothesis and develop a head envelope for drivers considering dynamic road conditions, thus enabling vehicle manufactures digitally evaluate head clearance during early development phase. A typical driving scenario with various vehicle speeds on different stochastic roads and braking conditions are simulated using MBS vehicle models and the acceleration signatures from the simulations are used to estimate the vertical lift of driver over the seat. The resulting displaced posture is compared with the normal driving posture and various head clearances are analyzed. The outcome of this work will help in validating and (or) updating the static head envelope and use it for specifying the headroom target for driver in the early phase of the vehicle design.
The history of construction materials and methods has evolved over time, with Portland cement concrete being the most widely used material on Earth. Constructing habitats and infrastructure on the Moon and Mars, however, requires a different approach given the lack of such conventional construction resources and materials. Recognizing the need for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) to support long-duration human missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Sidus Space have developed a novel three-dimensional print head apparatus using regolith-polymer mixtures as a building material.
Patients with dizziness problems can now get better diagnosis in a simple and painless way. A new type of bone conduction speaker, easily attached behind the ear, can make the diagnosis more efficient and safer — especially for patients who also suffer from hearing problems. The technology has been developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and is now ready for manufacturing.
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