Shreyas Rana - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Shreyas Rana
Using a Mobile Phone to monitor the progression of Parkinson's with Non-invasive tests, 2022
Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a loss of nerves in the brain, spec... more Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a loss of nerves in the brain, specifically in the Substantia Nigra. This part of the brain is responsible for creating dopamine, a chemical transmitter, and hormone used by neurons in a paracrine connection. This hormone is correlated with feelings of pleasure, however, it has further purposes such as learning, memory, and most physically relevant to Parkinson's Disease-motor control. Today, there is no effective way of monitoring Parkinson's Disease in a clinical setting. So far, the only way to detect the signs of Parkinson's Disease is to study the patient's ancestry in relation to Parkinson's and to perform qualitative tests monitored by a physician. Through this project, "MobiTest", I aim to digitize these tests to monitor the progression of Parkinson's Disease. The main goal of this project is to ensure that constant monitoring no longer requires the assistance of a physician, and to bring monitoring to those suffering from Parkinson's disease all over the world-onto their smartphones. MobiTest utilizes Advanced Statistics algorithms and Support Vector Classifiers to quantify drawings of spirals into a score on a UPDRS (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale) from 1 to 5, where 1 is least severe and 5 is most severe. MobiTest also provides charts in which users can identify trends in their scores that can be sent to physicians. Apart from progression monitoring, MobiTest also includes a specialized keyboard that serves to help the caretakers of speech-impaired Parkinson's Disease patients to look up commonly used words. This keyboard uses a Bayesian theorem for a progressive NLP prediction algorithm to make suggestions for a fast and efficient lookup time.
NaVRgate: Expression-Driven VR Environment Navigation, 2021
One aspect of a growing VR industry that developers have to face is the ethics behind the technol... more One aspect of a growing VR industry that developers have to face is the ethics behind the technology. This includes making sure that technology is readily available and accessible to as large of a population as possible. Current consumer virtual reality (VR) headsets typically utilize two controllers to navigate a virtual environment, leading to accessibility issues for potential users that cannot effectively operate a controller. We propose NaVRgate, a proof of concept idea that removes the need for controllers in which a user uses expressions to navigate a virtual environment. The system utilizes the computer webcam and computer vision face and eye position tracking to capture the nature of expression tracking, with certain positional thresholds representing different facial expressions. To test this system, We design a game environment where a user navigates with either a controller or the face position tracker, collecting a set of orbs scattered around the map as quickly as they can, comparing the efficiency between navigation through the novel computer vision and traditional controller methods. Users are also questioned on the difficulty of use and experience with each control input method. This paper details the process of the development and drafts, to the statistical experiment constructed to determine the efficiency of head gestures.
Using a Mobile Phone to monitor the progression of Parkinson's with Non-invasive tests, 2022
Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a loss of nerves in the brain, spec... more Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a loss of nerves in the brain, specifically in the Substantia Nigra. This part of the brain is responsible for creating dopamine, a chemical transmitter, and hormone used by neurons in a paracrine connection. This hormone is correlated with feelings of pleasure, however, it has further purposes such as learning, memory, and most physically relevant to Parkinson's Disease-motor control. Today, there is no effective way of monitoring Parkinson's Disease in a clinical setting. So far, the only way to detect the signs of Parkinson's Disease is to study the patient's ancestry in relation to Parkinson's and to perform qualitative tests monitored by a physician. Through this project, "MobiTest", I aim to digitize these tests to monitor the progression of Parkinson's Disease. The main goal of this project is to ensure that constant monitoring no longer requires the assistance of a physician, and to bring monitoring to those suffering from Parkinson's disease all over the world-onto their smartphones. MobiTest utilizes Advanced Statistics algorithms and Support Vector Classifiers to quantify drawings of spirals into a score on a UPDRS (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale) from 1 to 5, where 1 is least severe and 5 is most severe. MobiTest also provides charts in which users can identify trends in their scores that can be sent to physicians. Apart from progression monitoring, MobiTest also includes a specialized keyboard that serves to help the caretakers of speech-impaired Parkinson's Disease patients to look up commonly used words. This keyboard uses a Bayesian theorem for a progressive NLP prediction algorithm to make suggestions for a fast and efficient lookup time.
NaVRgate: Expression-Driven VR Environment Navigation, 2021
One aspect of a growing VR industry that developers have to face is the ethics behind the technol... more One aspect of a growing VR industry that developers have to face is the ethics behind the technology. This includes making sure that technology is readily available and accessible to as large of a population as possible. Current consumer virtual reality (VR) headsets typically utilize two controllers to navigate a virtual environment, leading to accessibility issues for potential users that cannot effectively operate a controller. We propose NaVRgate, a proof of concept idea that removes the need for controllers in which a user uses expressions to navigate a virtual environment. The system utilizes the computer webcam and computer vision face and eye position tracking to capture the nature of expression tracking, with certain positional thresholds representing different facial expressions. To test this system, We design a game environment where a user navigates with either a controller or the face position tracker, collecting a set of orbs scattered around the map as quickly as they can, comparing the efficiency between navigation through the novel computer vision and traditional controller methods. Users are also questioned on the difficulty of use and experience with each control input method. This paper details the process of the development and drafts, to the statistical experiment constructed to determine the efficiency of head gestures.