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Papers by Osama Halabi

This paper explores the possibility of generating visual expressions in a highly interactive envi... more This paper explores the possibility of generating visual expressions in a highly interactive environment on the basis of hand movements and acceleration. A new method for displaying visualization is presented. This method is known as hybrid raster-laser projection; in this method two projections are combined to create a final visual. A Wii Remote Controller was used to capture a participant’s hand orientation, acceleration, and action. The graphics are generated by using hypotrochoids. The proposed system presents a new interactive approach for creating visual art in real time and a novel method for displaying these visuals.

Sensors, Nov 7, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2021

International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Management

To improve traffic safety, different systems were invented to warn drivers when detecting a confl... more To improve traffic safety, different systems were invented to warn drivers when detecting a conflict. However, drivers may be already aware of such conflicts. In these cases, warning drivers may not effective and may lead drivers to not pay attention to warnings in the case of serious conflicts. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel posture recognition system to detect different driver activities while driving. If drivers are not braking or decelerating in the case of a conflict, they are alerted and notified about the conflict. The proposed system is based on a passive method for measuring bodypostures by using two force sensor arrays to inspect the pressure patterns exhibited in the driver’s seat and backrest. Different sensors' distributions were tested to find the most suitable distribution to improve the accuracy of the recognition. A virtual reality (VR) driving simulation was developed to test the accuracy of recognition in an immersive environment. Experiments ...

International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET)

This project provides a proficient approach to coordinate archeological ex-ercises, information a... more This project provides a proficient approach to coordinate archeological ex-ercises, information administration, digital object representation, and spa-tial investigation. The proposed framework furnishes the client with the in-tuitive investigation of the 3D model artifacts along with detailed infor-mation on specific points of interest alongside their 3D geographic infor-mation system (3D GIS). A parallel result is the utilization of fully trans-parent and cost-effective open source tools and free software. The work ad-dressed the creation of a computerized system that aids classification, ad-ministration, and representation of archeological discoveries inside a 3D web-based repository; and the utilization of 3D digital models as a restora-tion of the artifacts to allow navigation through the data; besides enabling 3D GIS to spatially store, share, envision and examine complex archeologi-cal components; This work is one of the first of its type in Qatar to archive and record all of...

The Journal of the Society for Art and Science

Fumio TAKENAKA(Non-member) * Tadahiro FUJIMOTO(Member) ** Osama HALABI(Member) ** Norishige CHIBA... more Fumio TAKENAKA(Non-member) * Tadahiro FUJIMOTO(Member) ** Osama HALABI(Member) ** Norishige CHIBA(Member) **

Applied Sciences

Pre-operative imaging has been used earlier to guide traditional surgical navigation systems. The... more Pre-operative imaging has been used earlier to guide traditional surgical navigation systems. There has been a lot of effort in the last decade to integrate augmented reality into the operating room to help surgeons intra-operatively. An augmented reality (AR) based navigation system provides a clear three-dimensional picture of the interested areas over the patient to aid surgical navigation and operations, which is a promising approach. The goal of this study is to review the application of AR technology in various fields of surgery and how the technology is used for its performance in each field. Assessment of the available AR assisted navigation systems being used for surgery is reviewed in this paper. Furthermore, a discussion about the required evaluation and validation metric for these systems is also presented. The paper comprehensively reviews the literature since the year 2008 for providing relevant information on applying the AR technology for training, planning and surgi...

arXiv (Cornell University), Oct 24, 2022

Metaverse is expected to emerge as a new paradigm for the next-generation Internet, providing ful... more Metaverse is expected to emerge as a new paradigm for the next-generation Internet, providing fully immersive and personalised experiences to socialize, work, and play in selfsustaining and hyper-spatio-temporal virtual world(s). The advancements in different technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G/6G communication will be the key enablers behind the realization of AI-XR metaverse applications. While AI itself has many potential applications in the aforementioned technologies (e.g., avatar generation, network optimization, etc.), ensuring the security of AI in critical applications like AI-XR metaverse applications is profoundly crucial to avoid undesirable actions that could undermine users' privacy and safety, consequently putting their lives in danger. To this end, we attempt to analyze the security, privacy, and trustworthiness aspects associated with the use of various AI techniques in AI-XR metaverse applications. Specifically, we discuss numerous such challenges and present a taxonomy of potential solutions that could be leveraged to develop secure, private, robust, and trustworthy AI-XR applications. To highlight the real implications of AI-associated adversarial threats, we designed a metaverse-specific case study and analyzed it through the adversarial lens. Finally, we elaborate upon various open issues that require further research interest from the community.

2022 International Conference on Cyberworlds (CW)

Scientific Reports

Segmentation of abdominal Computed Tomography (CT) scan is essential for analyzing, diagnosing, a... more Segmentation of abdominal Computed Tomography (CT) scan is essential for analyzing, diagnosing, and treating visceral organ diseases (e.g., hepatocellular carcinoma). This paper proposes a novel neural network (Res-PAC-UNet) that employs a fixed-width residual UNet backbone and Pyramid Atrous Convolutions, providing a low disk utilization method for precise liver CT segmentation. The proposed network is trained on medical segmentation decathlon dataset using a modified surface loss function. Additionally, we evaluate its quantitative and qualitative performance; the Res16-PAC-UNet achieves a Dice coefficient of 0.950 ± 0.019 with less than half a million parameters. Alternatively, the Res32-PAC-UNet obtains a Dice coefficient of 0.958 ± 0.015 with an acceptable parameter count of approximately 1.2 million.

HCI in Games: Serious and Immersive Games, 2021

Journal of Emergency Medicine, Trauma and Acute Care, 2021

Background: Virtual reality (VR) is still an evolving domain that presents a versatile medium to ... more Background: Virtual reality (VR) is still an evolving domain that presents a versatile medium to simulate various environments and scenarios that can be easily reset between users, which can be particularly useful for training purposes. In this pilot study, we recreated the interior of a modular ambulance patient compartment with elements that can be moved and also had access to the real physical ambulance with the same interior design and equipment. The primary objective of this study was to determine the usability of the VR patient compartment in terms of functionality and sense of presence. Methods: Paramedics were invited to take part in this pilot study which involved them attending a 15-minute presentation about ambulance safety and ergonomics, familiarise themselves with the VR equipment, position the modular elements of the ambulance patient compartment in the VR or real setting (and vice versa), and complete a questionnaire corresponding to the task completed and adapted fr...

This paper presents a new navigation aid hybrid system for blind people based on depth informatio... more This paper presents a new navigation aid hybrid system for blind people based on depth information, Augmented Reality (AR), and 3D sound. The system acquires depth data in real-time from Kinect depth sensor and detect the object, then generate 3D spatial sound to convey the direction and the distance of the nearest object. The RGB camera in the same Kinect sensor is used to recognize AR markers and provide adequate information about the surrounding environment using synthesized sound. The system architecture ensures satisfactory real-time performance, which contributed to the improvement achieved towards smooth and unhindered blind travel in indoor environment, and provided adequate help information about the surrounding environment as well.

Sensors, Nov 7, 2022

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2021

International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Management

International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET)

The Journal of the Society for Art and Science

Applied Sciences

arXiv (Cornell University), Oct 24, 2022

2022 International Conference on Cyberworlds (CW)

Scientific Reports

HCI in Games: Serious and Immersive Games, 2021

Journal of Emergency Medicine, Trauma and Acute Care, 2021

Background Virtual Reality (VR) can provide an immersive experience and enables users to live in ... more Background Virtual Reality (VR) can provide an immersive experience and enables users to live in different worlds. The technology becomes affordable with the recent development in VR technology and the release of many consumers VR Head Mounted Display (HMD). VR provides a unique and efficient way of exploration and learning. The available VR systems, so far, provides seated experience where the user uses gamepad or joystick to navigate and interact. In this work, we are proposing a walking VR immersive experience where the user will be able to walk naturally and interact in the virtual world. This achieved by using cameras to track user movements. As a result, the participant will be able to lively experience the underwater live and be able to have an enjoyable learning space. Approach Recently, we developed a bilingual animal domain knowledge base (ontology) where information are stored in a hierarchical structure based on the classifications of the animals (e.g., mammal, aquatic, etc.). The knowledge base defines the relationship between the classifications (concepts). Each concept can have different properties which describe all viable facts that can be associated with. Each property can have specific settings (e.g., multiplicity, restriction, etc.). For instance, the animal cannot have two different blood types (i.e., this can be restricted using multiplicity). In this work, we propose a VR whale shark educational system that presents whale sharks and diverse kind of aquatic animals. The system extracts informative facts from the knowledge base and attaches them to the generated 3D models. The VR simulation provides the ability to walk in the world by tracking the movements of the user using cameras. The result is fully immersive VR-based simulation. The aim of the proposed system is to improve the educational skills about whale sharks and underwater environment which includes comprehension, realization, and deduction. Results Previous mobile based educational system have been developed and showed significant improvements for learners. The features of the proposed educational system include: 1) presentation of illustrations for natural text, 2) knowledge extraction from an animal domain knowledge base, 3) getting illustrations (i.e., 2D and 3D images) from a multimedia repository; and 4) querying online search engine to get new images. Our ongoing system development includes the development of a VR system for Whale shark and underwater environment. Conclusions The study presents a virtual reality educational system for whale sharks and underwater environment. An animal domain knowledge base will be used to extract semantic information about aquatic animals. The proposed system provides immersive VR with ability to walk and navigate.

The redirected walking algorithm (RDW) is a locomotion technique that gives the user the percepti... more The redirected walking algorithm (RDW) is a locomotion technique that gives the user the perception of walking in larger or infinite virtual environment (VE) within small and limited tracking area. The available approaches which are derived from the original algorithm such as Steer-to-Orbit (S2O) and Steer-to-Center (S2C) proved its effectiveness for certain use cases. In addition, it requires a very large space. In this paper, we present a new algorithm that can combine the benefits of the both S2O and S2C techniques. The algorithm is based on Hypotrochoid equations which enabled us to generate many redirection paths with unique shapes. We present two new redirection paths with promising results.

\textcopyright} 2017 IEEE. In this research, we present the design of a driving seat with driver ... more \textcopyright} 2017 IEEE. In this research, we present the design of a driving seat with driver activities recognition based on a passive method for measuring body-postures by using two force sensor arrays to inspect the pressure patterns exhibited in driver's seat and backrest. The seat is designed by testing the sensors distribution to find the most suitable distribution to make the recognition more accurate. A Virtual Reality (VR) driving simulation is developed to test the accuracy of recognition in immersive environment. Experiments carried out to test the posture recognition accuracy in both realistic setting and VR setting. The result showed that the system was able to recognize ten different postures with various accuracy ratio. The VR immersive driving environment enhanced the accuracy recognition in some postures.

This paper presents the design and the characteristics of a new developed five-fingered haptic in... more This paper presents the design and the characteristics of a new developed five-fingered haptic interface robot named HIRO II. The haptic interface can present force and tactile feeling at the five fingertips of the human hand. It is designed to be completely safe and similar to the human upper limb both in shape and motion ability. Its mechanism consists of a 6 DOF arm and a 15 DOF hand. The interface is placed opposite to the human hand, which brings safety and no oppressive feeling, but this leads to difficulty in controlling the haptic interface because it should follow the hand poses of the operator. A redundant force control method in which all the joints of the mechanism were force controlled simultaneously to present the virtual force is studied. Experimental results to show high potential of a multi-fingered haptic interface are presented.

Medical education has a strong need for palpation training. Haptic sense is indispensable for the... more Medical education has a strong need for palpation training. Haptic sense is indispensable for the detection of subsurface tumor. A virtual reality (VR) training for breast palpation simulation was created utilizing the newly designed multi-fingered haptic interface robot (HIRO). The simulation allows the user to perform breast palpation. A realistic model of the breast was developed and a physically based modeling is achieved by using a finite element method (FEM) that provides correct reaction forces and deformations of a virtual deformable object. A VR medical application system for breast palpation using HIRO was developed and examined in a real-time experiment.

Individuals in the Autism Spectrum often encounter situations where they have to respond to quest... more Individuals in the Autism Spectrum often encounter situations where they have to respond to questions and situations that they do not know how to respond to, such as, questions asked by strangers including ones related to daily-life activities. A variety of research has been done to improve social and communication impairments in children with autism using technology. Immersive virtual reality is a relatively recent technology with a potential to bring an effective solution and used as a therapeutic tool to develop different skills. This paper presents a virtual reality solution to reduce the gap experienced by autistic children due to their inability to establish a communication. An interactive scenario-based system that uses role-play and turn-taking technique was implemented to evaluate and verify the effectiveness of immersive environment on the social performance of an autistic child. Preliminary testing of the system demonstrated the feasibility of VR-based system as a took for improving the communication skill in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children. The results of the comparative usability study show the effectiveness of immersive VR in motivating and satisfying the autistic.

Shared haptic virtual environments (SHVEs) where participants can feel each other over the networ... more Shared haptic virtual environments (SHVEs) where participants can feel each other over the network are beneficial for many VR simulations as in training, learning, tele-immersion, medicine, and design. A little is known about the role of the network delay in such environments. This paper addresses the issue of defining the quality of haptic in shared virtual environments by suggesting subjective measures that are specific to SHVE and can quantitatively evaluate the haptic quality. Also, examined the usage of such environments in training and learning by exploring the effect of the network delay on a generic tele-training task. Network emulator was utilized to simulate the real network cloud. Experiments for different delay settings have been conducted and an assessment of the effect of the delay on the force feedback and on the quality of haptic using subjective measures is described. These results may encourage the development of collaborative shared worlds that incorporate touch for cooperative teaching, training, planning, and design. At the same time introduces the obstacles that must be addressed before achieving natural and efficient interaction over the network. Our results showed that the force feedback has not been affected by the induced delay. Meanwhile, The accuracy of having the learner following the exact path of the instructor decreased dramatically as the delay increased. Also, the quality of haptic sensation in terms of force, vibration, and rebound deteriorated as the delay increased.

In this paper we present an innovative way to combine a laser (vector) projector with a video (ra... more In this paper we present an innovative way to combine a laser (vector) projector with a video (raster) projector, using the former to enhance or augment the 3D images projected with the latter. As we will show, two main problems arise from this setting. One is to find a relation between the video projector space and the laser projector space, so that we can transform pixels into laser coordinates. The second problem is related to hiding virtually occluded laser segments to create a seamless fusion of the two projected parts. Also, we apply a calibration technique to compensate visual deformations caused by projector placement and/or non-planar screens.

$Research paper thumbnail of ベクトルイメージを生成するためのスケッチインタフェース: ペンデバイスを用いたラフスケッチ手法 (映像表現 {\&} コンピュータグラフィックス)$

This paper proposes a method, which is based on a volume intersection method by utilizing project... more This paper proposes a method, which is based on a volume intersection method by utilizing projection mappings, to reconstruct and render the 3D shape of an object in real time from images captured by multiple video cameras. The proposed method imitates a voxel-based volume intersection method on a pseudo-voxel space, which is constructed by placing orthogonally three sets of parallel equally-spaced planes in the 3D space. In each frame time, first, the frame image of each camera is processed to generate a projection texture having different alpha values on foreground (object) pixels and background ones. Then, the projection texture of every camera is projected onto the parallel planes by projection mapping functions of a graphic library. Finally, the visual hull of the object is efficiently reconstructed as the intersection of all cameras' projection regions in the 3D space by alpha operations of the graphic library, and is rendered using color values. The proposed method is more efficient than a conventional voxel-based volume intersection method, and is able to generate virtual viewpoint images with a moving object in real time. 263

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) regularly experience situations in which they nee... more Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) regularly experience situations in which they need to give answers but do not know how to respond; for example, questions related to everyday life activities that are asked by strangers. Research geared at utilizing technology to mend social and communication impairments in children with autism is actively underway. Immersive virtual reality (VR) is a relatively recent technology that has the potential of being an effective therapeutic tool for developing various skills in autistic children. This paper presents an interactive scenario-based VR system developed to improve the communications skills of autistic children. The system utilizes speech recognition to provide natural interaction and role-play and turn-taking to evaluate and verify the effectiveness of the immersive environment on the social performance of autistic children. In experiments conducted, participants showed more improved performance with a computer augmented virtual environment (CAVE) than with a head mounted display (HMD) or a normal desktop. The results indicate that immersive VR could be more satisfactory and motivational than desktop for children with ASD.

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2018

This paper presents a new approach for delivering the project component in introductory engineeri... more This paper presents a new approach for delivering the project component in introductory engineering course. The approach is based on using 3D modeling software to create the prototype of the product. Furthermore, immersive VR display were utilized to enable the students to explore and inspect their design in different stages and discover the problems in the design. The approach enabled the students to get perception of their design and interact with the model from different angle and navigate around which gave them closer look at the design that usually impossible using the traditional 2D display. The results showed that the VR approach increased the attainment of the students in the project. {\textcopyright} 2018, Springer International Publishing AG.