Graduate Students
Jorge Torres-Solis
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Toronto
Advisors: Dr. Tom Chau, Dr. S. Mann
E-mail: torresolmx[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]mx
Education & Training:
Jorge holds a BASc in Telecommunications from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico), a specialization postgraduate diploma in Telecommunications Management from EOI (Spain) and a M.Sc. in Telecommunication and Information Systems from the University of Essex (United Kingdom). He started working in 1997 for one of the first Internet Service Providers in Mexico (Supernet), as an assistant in the programming and development area. Later on he was in charge of the area.
In 1999 he started working for an electronics company (Elpro) as project manager in the area of research and new technologies. After his master's studies, he returned to Mexico and started working as a private consultant for several companies and diverse project including the Mexican government.
Research abstract:
Topographical Disorientation (TD) refers to a family of conditions that affect one’s capabilities to orient and navigate in the environment. Although research in understanding TD has increased in recent years, there is a lack of research in the rehabilitation, follow-up and long term evaluation of TD. The effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) in the rehabilitation of TD has been recently demonstrated. However, one of the central debates around VR-mediated rehabilitation is the transferability of skills or knowledge from the virtual world to real-life scenarios. To overcome this limitation while preserving the advantages of perceptual modulation offered by VR, we make use of Mediated Reality (MR), technology endowed to add to, subtract from, or otherwise manipulate one's perception of reality.
We propose the following clinical research questions: Is mediated reality-based therapy effective for treatment of topographical orientation in patients with acquired brain injury, in terms of reducing training time and user errors, as compared to or when combined with conventional clinician-guided learning therapy? 2) Are the skills and knowledge gained through the usage of an augmented environment system transferable to other wayfinding tasks? To answer these questions, an MR Location Aware (LA) system (called MERLA) will be designed. The different components and technologies of MERLA will be tested, leading to several potential publications. We will empirically select the best MR-based navigational tools for indoor environments. The LA system will include a scene scanning system using a camera and fiducial markers, and a dead reckoning position tracking system, using inertial sensors.
Patients with topographical disorientation will use the MERLA device. The navigational tools selected will be superimposed through MR on a transparent screen in the field of view of the user. Fiducial markers will be set in the environment to ensure a certain level of accuracy of the LA system. The patients will participate in a scavenger hunt route, in which they will navigate to different rooms of their rehabilitation centre. The route will be performed 5 times with (phase A) and without the proposed device (phase B). These phases will be repeated once. Sessions for a particular patient will take place every other day. This experimental design has been chosen due to the heterogeneity of patients with cognitive impairments. We will measure variables such as displacement over time, mistakes over time, and request for help over time. These measurements might help us to determine 1) If the patients improved their navigational skills by using the device, and 2) if the patients benefit from the usage of the device.
Other interests:
Jorge's current interests are oriented on the application of telecommunications and computing technologies for rehabilitation and biomedical engineering. Additionally, Jorge enjoys playing soccer and the guitar, and has been performing with different theatre groups along his studies.
