Average Hounsfield units for human tissues.
\r\n\tThe LED can be lingering further into three major categories are (i) Traditional inorganic LEDs, (ii) Organic LEDs (Small Molecule OLED, Polymer LED, Passive Matrix OLED Active Matrix OLED), (iii) High brightness LEDs, (iv) Deep-UV LEDs, (v) Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (AMOLED).
",isbn:"978-1-83968-886-7",printIsbn:"978-1-83968-885-0",pdfIsbn:"978-1-83968-887-4",doi:null,price:0,priceEur:0,priceUsd:0,slug:null,numberOfPages:0,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"97e861d1556a639f0e5cc6ee8bdb0a0f",bookSignature:"Prof. Jagannathan Thirumalai",publishedDate:null,coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10559.jpg",keywords:"Aluminum Gallium Arsenide, Gallium Arsenide Phosphide, Indium Phosphide, Thin-Film-Display, Organic Rare-Earth Complexes, Colour Rendering Index, High Brightness Leds, Luminous Control, Air Purification, Skin Therapy, Organic Compounds Form the Electroluminescent Material, Specific Type of Thin-Film-Display",numberOfDownloads:4,numberOfWosCitations:0,numberOfCrossrefCitations:0,numberOfDimensionsCitations:0,numberOfTotalCitations:0,isAvailableForWebshopOrdering:!0,dateEndFirstStepPublish:"September 21st 2020",dateEndSecondStepPublish:"October 19th 2020",dateEndThirdStepPublish:"December 18th 2020",dateEndFourthStepPublish:"March 8th 2021",dateEndFifthStepPublish:"May 7th 2021",remainingDaysToSecondStep:"3 months",secondStepPassed:!0,currentStepOfPublishingProcess:4,editedByType:null,kuFlag:!1,biosketch:"As an expert in the optoelectronics and nanotechnology area, Dr.Thirumalai has been invited to examine several MSc and Ph.D. theses, invited to give a talk in various forums, and to review papers for international and national journals.",coeditorOneBiosketch:null,coeditorTwoBiosketch:null,coeditorThreeBiosketch:null,coeditorFourBiosketch:null,coeditorFiveBiosketch:null,editors:[{id:"99242",title:"Prof.",name:"Jagannathan",middleName:null,surname:"Thirumalai",slug:"jagannathan-thirumalai",fullName:"Jagannathan Thirumalai",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/99242/images/system/99242.png",biography:"Dr. J. Thirumalai received his Ph.D. from Alagappa University, Karaikudi in 2010. \n\nHe was awarded the Post-doctoral Fellowship from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Republic of Korea, in 2013.\nHe worked as an Assistant Professor of Physics, B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, India (2011 to 2016). \nCurrently, he is working as an Assistant Professor & Head of the Department of Physics, SASTRA Deemed to be University, Kumbakonam (T.N.), India. \n\nHis research interests focus on luminescence, self-assembled nanomaterials, thin-film optoelectronic devices & Supercapacitors. \n\nHe has published more than 60 SCOPUS/ISI indexed papers, 11 book chapters, and he edited 5 books. He is serving as a member in various national and international societies. Currently, he is acting as a principal investigator for a funded project towards the application of luminescence-based thin-film optoelectronic devices, funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India. \nAs an expert in optoelectronics and nanotechnology area, he has been invited to examine several MSc and Ph.D. theses, invited to give a talk in various forums and to review papers for international and national journals.",institutionString:"SASTRA University",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"10",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"6",institution:{name:"SASTRA University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"India"}}}],coeditorOne:null,coeditorTwo:null,coeditorThree:null,coeditorFour:null,coeditorFive:null,topics:[{id:"11",title:"Engineering",slug:"engineering"}],chapters:[{id:"74673",title:"Economic Applications for LED Lights in Industrial Sectors",slug:"economic-applications-for-led-lights-in-industrial-sectors",totalDownloads:5,totalCrossrefCites:0,authors:[{id:"150046",title:"Prof.",name:"Muhammad M.A.S.",surname:"Mahmoud",slug:"muhammad-m.a.s.-mahmoud",fullName:"Muhammad M.A.S. Mahmoud"}]}],productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"},personalPublishingAssistant:{id:"297737",firstName:"Mateo",lastName:"Pulko",middleName:null,title:"Mr.",imageUrl:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/297737/images/8492_n.png",email:"mateo.p@intechopen.com",biography:"As an Author Service Manager my responsibilities include monitoring and facilitating all publishing activities for authors and editors. From chapter submission and review, to approval and revision, copyediting and design, until final publication, I work closely with authors and editors to ensure a simple and easy publishing process. I maintain constant and effective communication with authors, editors and reviewers, which allows for a level of personal support that enables contributors to fully commit and concentrate on the chapters they are writing, editing, or reviewing. I assist authors in the preparation of their full chapter submissions and track important deadlines and ensure they are met. I help to coordinate internal processes such as linguistic review, and monitor the technical aspects of the process. As an ASM I am also involved in the acquisition of editors. Whether that be identifying an exceptional author and proposing an editorship collaboration, or contacting researchers who would like the opportunity to work with IntechOpen, I establish and help manage author and editor acquisition and contact."}},relatedBooks:[{type:"book",id:"5348",title:"Luminescence",subtitle:"An Outlook on the Phenomena and their Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d982c49fed4423a0ea7367af4f917b82",slug:"luminescence-an-outlook-on-the-phenomena-and-their-applications",bookSignature:"Jagannathan Thirumalai",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/5348.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"99242",title:"Prof.",name:"Jagannathan",surname:"Thirumalai",slug:"jagannathan-thirumalai",fullName:"Jagannathan Thirumalai"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"6489",title:"Light-Emitting Diode",subtitle:"An Outlook On the Empirical Features and Its Recent Technological Advancements",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"20818f168134f1af35547e807d839463",slug:"light-emitting-diode-an-outlook-on-the-empirical-features-and-its-recent-technological-advancements",bookSignature:"Jagannathan Thirumalai",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6489.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"99242",title:"Prof.",name:"Jagannathan",surname:"Thirumalai",slug:"jagannathan-thirumalai",fullName:"Jagannathan Thirumalai"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"6242",title:"Hydroxyapatite",subtitle:"Advances in Composite Nanomaterials, Biomedical Applications and Its Technological Facets",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6a18a9b6617ae6d943649ea7ad9655cc",slug:"hydroxyapatite-advances-in-composite-nanomaterials-biomedical-applications-and-its-technological-facets",bookSignature:"Jagannathan Thirumalai",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6242.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"99242",title:"Prof.",name:"Jagannathan",surname:"Thirumalai",slug:"jagannathan-thirumalai",fullName:"Jagannathan Thirumalai"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"5699",title:"Thin Film Processes",subtitle:"Artifacts on Surface Phenomena and Technological Facets",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"164177fc1e3eca542ebad5fd34a79d1e",slug:"thin-film-processes-artifacts-on-surface-phenomena-and-technological-facets",bookSignature:"Jagannathan Thirumalai",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/5699.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"99242",title:"Prof.",name:"Jagannathan",surname:"Thirumalai",slug:"jagannathan-thirumalai",fullName:"Jagannathan Thirumalai"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9414",title:"Advances in Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics",subtitle:"Rudimentary Research to Topical Technology",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"3aebac680de7d3af200eadd0a0b2f737",slug:"advances-in-condensed-matter-and-materials-physics-rudimentary-research-to-topical-technology",bookSignature:"Jagannathan Thirumalai and Sergey Ivanovich Pokutnyi",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9414.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"99242",title:"Prof.",name:"Jagannathan",surname:"Thirumalai",slug:"jagannathan-thirumalai",fullName:"Jagannathan Thirumalai"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"6124",title:"Micro/Nanolithography",subtitle:"A Heuristic Aspect on the Enduring Technology",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c94caf617c31b349bd3d9dd054a022a3",slug:"micro-nanolithography-a-heuristic-aspect-on-the-enduring-technology",bookSignature:"Jagannathan Thirumalai",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6124.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"99242",title:"Prof.",name:"Jagannathan",surname:"Thirumalai",slug:"jagannathan-thirumalai",fullName:"Jagannathan Thirumalai"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"1591",title:"Infrared Spectroscopy",subtitle:"Materials Science, Engineering and Technology",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"99b4b7b71a8caeb693ed762b40b017f4",slug:"infrared-spectroscopy-materials-science-engineering-and-technology",bookSignature:"Theophile Theophanides",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/1591.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"37194",title:"Dr.",name:"Theophanides",surname:"Theophile",slug:"theophanides-theophile",fullName:"Theophanides Theophile"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"3092",title:"Anopheles mosquitoes",subtitle:"New insights into malaria vectors",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c9e622485316d5e296288bf24d2b0d64",slug:"anopheles-mosquitoes-new-insights-into-malaria-vectors",bookSignature:"Sylvie Manguin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/3092.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"50017",title:"Prof.",name:"Sylvie",surname:"Manguin",slug:"sylvie-manguin",fullName:"Sylvie Manguin"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"3161",title:"Frontiers in Guided Wave Optics and Optoelectronics",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"deb44e9c99f82bbce1083abea743146c",slug:"frontiers-in-guided-wave-optics-and-optoelectronics",bookSignature:"Bishnu Pal",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/3161.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"4782",title:"Prof.",name:"Bishnu",surname:"Pal",slug:"bishnu-pal",fullName:"Bishnu Pal"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"72",title:"Ionic Liquids",subtitle:"Theory, Properties, New Approaches",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d94ffa3cfa10505e3b1d676d46fcd3f5",slug:"ionic-liquids-theory-properties-new-approaches",bookSignature:"Alexander Kokorin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/72.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},chapter:{item:{type:"chapter",id:"47662",title:"CAD/CAM Technology in Implant Dentistry",doi:"10.5772/59322",slug:"cad-cam-technology-in-implant-dentistry",body:'When a patient presents with a need and a desire for implants to replace missing teeth, correct execution will only occur with thorough planning [1-4]. Recently introduced technology may benefit both the dentist and the patient when restoring with dental implants, in that the implants will be placed in an ideal, predictable, and planned location [4-7]. Implant dentistry is constantly challenging the practitioner to be aware of recent advances. Though it may feel overwhelming for a practitioner to stay informed with the continuous introduction of new technologies, implant dentistry is undergoing an exciting time, and in order to take full advantage of it, the practitioner has a duty to practice at the highest level. This chapter aims to inform the practitioner about the latest technologies, their history and importance, and the current options on the market.
Computerized tomography is a tool that is based on the original concept of conventional tomography [8,9]. Tomography is a type of image in which a 2-D slice is captured and the surrounded slices are blurred. This works by the sensor and the x-ray tube moving in opposite directions around the source. During this movement, the plane of interest remains fixed, and the surrounding planes become blurred due to constantly changing positions on the sensor. A panoramic image is a single tomographic image [9]. Panoramic radiographs cover large anatomical areas, have low radiation doses, and are easily and quickly done, though their distortion and 2-D quality limits their diagnostic value.
Computed tomography (CT) was introduced in 1973 by Godfrey Hounsfield. It works by an x-ray tube and a series of detectors which rotate in synchronous directions, as the x-ray tube emits fan-shaped beams through the region of interest and onto the detectors. The data captured is processed in a computer which displays the resulting image in voxels, or volume elements [10]. Benefits of CT include high resolution and absence of superimposed images, but they emit large radiation doses and are expensive.
More recently, a new technology called cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) has become popular [1,10-13]. This works by the x-ray tube emitting beams onto a 2-D sensor. The x-ray tube and sensor rotate around the region of interest and expose an image at each degree of rotation. These slices can subsequently be arranged into a 3-D image which can provide detailed and accurate information which has been reported to be within 2% of geometric accuracy. Benefits of CBCT include cost effectiveness, ease of use, low radiation dose, and accurate gathering of information [14,15].
When utilizing CBCT technology, the practitioner should be aware of several features [14,15]. The resolution of a CBCT image acquired is measured by voxel size. The majority of CBCT’s used for dental implant planning has a voxel size of 0.4 mm, and the accuracy of measurements made on the CBCT are directly related to this size. When reading a CBCT, one way to analyze bone density is through the Hounsfield index. This index was named after the inventor of computed tomography, as previously mentioned. The scale ranges from-1,000 to+1,000, in which air reads at-1,000, water reads at 0, and extremely dense bone reads at+1,000 [16]. Different anatomical structures have varying Hounsfield units. It is important to know how to apply the Hounsfield scale because the differences in bone densities will alter the chosen surgical protocol. For instance, if the CBCT scan shows very dense bone, more implant preparation drills will be required. Each implant system has a unique protocol for soft and dense bone. The average Hounsfield units for human tissues are shown in Table 1 [16].
\n\t\t\t\tTissue\n\t\t\t | \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tHounsfield Unit\n\t\t\t | \n\t\t
Trabecular bone | \n\t\t\t150-900 | \n\t\t
Cortical bone | \n\t\t\t900-1800 | \n\t\t
Dentin | \n\t\t\t1600-2400 | \n\t\t
Enamel | \n\t\t\t2500-3000 | \n\t\t
Muscle | \n\t\t\t35-70 | \n\t\t
Fibrous tissue | \n\t\t\t60-90 | \n\t\t
Cartilage | \n\t\t\t80-130 | \n\t\t
Average Hounsfield units for human tissues.
Most implant planning software is structured from the images produced by medical computed tomography. The conversion of a cone beam computed tomography image into a medical computed tomography image has not been studied, though it is hypothesized that there is no difference in linear measurement between the two.
When planning for implant surgery, few complications should occur when utilizing cone beam computed tomography. The most common complication, called beam hardening, occurs when the patient already has implants or a large amount of metal restorations [17,18]. This is a phenomenon that occurs when the metal causes the x-ray to increase in energy and become “hard” as it passes through an object. Beam hardening makes it difficult to visualize surrounding structures, thus altering the accuracy of measurements of crucial anatomical sites, such as the inferior alveolar nerve and the buccal plate thickness [17,18].
When ordering a scan, clear written instructions should be communicated from the practitioner to the radiologist. The practitioner should specify the reason for the scan (i.e., implant placement, sites), the size of the scan (small or large), and any additional anatomical regions that should be included (such as a TMJ or sinus evaluation). A small volume scan should be ordered for single tooth implants, and a large volume scan should be ordered for full-arch implants, inclusion of sinuses, or evaluation of TMJ or OSA.
Not only does cone-beam technology provide valuable information for evaluation before placing dental implants, but it also translates into completely digital planning of surgical cases. Utilizing a CBCT scan as a template, a surgical guide may be fabricated based on the precise location of a planned implant [1,4,19,20]. All of the major implant companies offer software which can be used for planning the specific location of implants in the CBCT image, and eventually a guide can be ordered and fabricated. The software allows the virtual placement of implants into the CBCT scan at the precise location you choose, while taking into account considerations such as anatomic landmarks, adjacent dentition, type of restoration to be fabricated, and occlusal scheme.
It is beneficial, and many times essential, to utilize a radiographic guide in order to aid in choosing the correct position of the implants. If a patient is missing several teeth, a radiographic guide should be worn by the patient during the CBCT scan. The guide allows the practitioner to locate where the future teeth will be restored in space. Radiographic guides can be fabricated in many ways, and one must consider the protocol of the implant planning software one chooses to use. For example, the Nobel Clinician prescribes a dual-scan protocol in which the patient wears the guide during the patient’s scan, and then the guide is scanned separately [21,22]. Fiduciary markers, or small gutta percha points placed into the radiographic guide, allow the software to overlap the two scans and merge the two files together. In this way, the guide may be virtually removed and replaced on the patient’s scan in the computer. Another way to fabricate a radiographic guide is by placing radiopaque denture teeth into the guide. These teeth will ultimately be visible in the scan so that the implants may be planned accordingly.
Regardless of which system is chosen, the practitioner must be able to understand when it is important to utilize a radiographic guide. When planning for single implant replacements, with adjacent teeth on both sides, it is often not necessary to use a radiographic guide because enough adjacent landmarks exist in order to surmise the future location of the single crown. In an edentulous patient, the decision to use a radiographic guide depends largely upon the type of restoration that will be fabricated. For a mandibular locator overdenture with two implants, it is often unnecessary to use a radiographic guide because the clinician has some freedom in the positioning of these implants. This is unlike an edentulous patient that is planned to receive metal ceramic restorations in which the abutment-screw access hole must open through the occlusal surface of the posterior teeth and the cingula of the anterior teeth. In this case, it is paramount to plan for the precise implant positioning, and the radiographic guide must have the identical anticipated tooth positions of the final prosthesis. If the patient is unhappy with the tooth position or shape on the radiographic guide, this must be fixed before utilizing it as the guide.
The purpose of utilizing virtual implant software is to plan the placement of the implants in prosthodontically driven positions [22,23]. Of course an implant may be placed anywhere the bony anatomy allows, but in order to build a successful prosthesis for that implant, the correct planning must be done. In the past, a panoramic tomography scan was performed while the patient wore a radiographic template with integrated metal spheres at the implant site. In this manner, the magnification of the radiograph was able to be calculated, and the approximate placement of the implant was planned. This conventional model was flawed in that it did not convey any 3-D information [24].
The most contemporary technique utilizes cone-beam CT technology which provides the essential 3-D information. The technique begins with fabrication of a radiographic guide with ideal tooth positions. This guide may be a duplicate of the patient’s exiting denture, only if that denture offers tooth positions that are acceptable by the patient and practitioner. If the denture is not ideal, a new one should be fabricated until the esthetics and functional demands are met. It is not until this point that a CBCT scan should be taken. The next step involves interpretation of the scan and possibly a re-working of the original treatment plan. This may include an additional surgery for bone grafting, or a different prosthesis choice. For example, if metal ceramic restorations were originally planned for, but the scan clearly shows that an implant cannot be placed in the proposed position, either a new design or a new prosthesis must be chosen. Lastly, the practitioner can virtually place the implants into the bone at the exact position that optimizes prosthodontic benefit as well as osseointegration potential. These positions are then translated into the surgical guide which will be used on the day of surgery for the placement of the implants.
The benefits of virtual planning and fabricating surgical guides from the planning are numerous. The patient’s chair time is decreased, the surgery is more predictable and less stressful, the implants are placed in a restoratively driven manner, and the case difficulty is learned ahead of time [6,25]. These factors allow the dentist to plan accordingly in regards to time and fees. Increased lab costs due to customized abutments may be realized during planning, and extra surgical procedures may be foreseen. The patient will know what to expect and will appreciate the dentist for the knowledge rendered.
As mentioned before, not all cases are advocated for radiographic guides. Similarly, not all patients are candidates for surgical guides. There are several limiting factors involving surgical guides. Firstly, the patient must have adequate opening. Depending on the guide, length of implant, and drill system used, the normal minimal opening is 35 mm at the first molar. This must be evaluated before ordering the guide, as the guides are custom made and non-returnable. Secondly, the patient must be aware that this is an added cost to the treatment. Surgical guides range anywhere from $200 to $1,000 depending on the complexity of the case and the company chosen to fabricate the guide.
Surgical guides allow prosthodontically driven implant placement, which ultimately will give the patient the best prosthesis to satisfy esthetic and functional needs. Surgical guides also allow more accuracy during implant placement. Not only are the implants placed in the exact pre-determined positions, but the surgery may take less time and ultimately will be more comfortable for the patient.
Some of the steps involved in virtual implant planning are different depending on which company you choose to utilize, but they are all based on the same principles. As mentioned before, the first step is to fabricate trial dentures for the completely edentulous patient or a trial tooth arrangement for the partially edentulous patient. Once this is approved by the patient and practitioner, the denture may be converted into a radiographic guide.
There are three basic methods of fabricating a radiographic guide. The generic method involves any type of scan template that has radiopaque material to indicate the desired implant positions. There are many radiopaque materials that may be used. These include radiopaque denture teeth (SR vivo TAC, Ivoclar, Vivadent, Amherst, NY), radiopaque acrylic (Biocryl X, Great Lakes, Tonawanda, NY), and triphenylbismuth added to denture acrylic.
Another type of guide, termed a dual density radiographic guide, is fabricated as a duplicate denture utilizing denture teeth of a high radiopacity and denture base of a lesser radiopacity. This type of guide prescribes a single scan protocol.
Lastly, the dual-scan protocol requires a radiographic guide with fiduciary markers placed into it. These are small divets 1.5 mm in diameter that are filled with gutta percha. Eight markers must be placed in each guide at different horizontal, vertical, and transverse levels. The term “dual-scan” comes from the way in which the patient is first scanned while wearing the radiographic guide, and then the guide is secondarily scanned alone on a plexi-glass table.
Once the type of guide is chosen, the CBCT scan may be performed. During this procedure, that patient’s occlusion must be opened at least 5 mm. This may be done by injecting PVS material on the patient’s occlusal surface and having the patient bite down at an open vertical dimension. A radiopaque material should never be used for this, as it will obscure the region of interest on the scan. This opened bite allows us to distinguish the maxillary teeth from the mandibular teeth in the radiograph.
Next, the case may be planned using the software of your choice. Most major implant companies sell their own software, but there are also universal software companies available which allow you to place any implant of your choosing. These will be reviewed later in the chapter.
The type of surgical guide must be chosen at this point. Three types exist based on the type of supporting tissue: bone, mucosal, and tooth [1,19,26,27].
Bone-based guides are indicated for the fully or partially edentulous arch, when immediate implants are being placed, when alveoloplasty is required, and when anatomic limitations exist which require visualization of the bone. Bone-based guides may provide a more accurate seating of the guide because of the rigidness of the bony base. Sufficient bone support is essential for a stable guide positioning. During surgery, an incision is made along the alveolar ridge and mucoperiosteal flaps are elevated. The guide sits directly on the bone and complete visibility is acquired. Limitations of bone-based guides include a lengthier surgical appointment, longer healing times for the patient, and difficulties gaining adequate palatal reflection in certain patients. Some argue that they may be a poor choice in a patient with a thin buccal plate which can be prone to resorption after tissue reflection.
Flapless implant surgery is an alternative method for implant placement. Advantages of a flapless surgery include less trauma to the hard and soft tissues during surgery, shortened procedure, rapid healing, fewer postoperative complications, decreased infection risk, and increased patient comfort [28-31]. A significant advantage of the flapless implant surgery is the decreased amount of bone loss as well as the preservation of the gingival margin of the adjacent teeth and interdental papillae [31]. More bone loss occurs during flapped procedures since the gingiva is unable to provide nutrients to the bone during the surgery. The preservation of tissues will help prevent the appearance of black triangles after healing.
Though flapless surgery offers many advantages, many surgeries still require a flap to be elevated. Reasons for this include the need for more visualization, bone grafting, and alveoloplasty. If the patient’s alveolar bone is thin, it is wise to elevate a flap and visualize the bone before placing an implant.
A mucosal-based guide is a good choice for a fully edentulous arch with a minimum of 2 mm of bone buccal and lingual to the proposed implant site. This amount of bone is necessary because of the increased risk of cortical bone perforation related to implant placement without direct visualization of the bone. The conventional flapless surgery relies on the experience of the surgeon to correctly predict the shape of the underlying bone when placing an implant. Recently it has been suggested that using a surgical guide fabricated virtually utilizing a CBCT may be beneficial in these cases.
Mucosal-based guides are good choices in the maxilla due to difficulty in reflection of the soft tissue of the palate which is necessary for a bone-based guide [32]. A mucosal-based guide can also be used in conjunction with osteotome sinus lifts [33]. Limitations include error when seating the guide due to the mobility of mucosa which ultimately can affect the implant positions. Furthermore, a mucosal-based guide will mimic the fit of the radiographic guide, which is most often fabricated as a duplicate of the denture. So it is important that the denture be very stable before utilizing it as a radiographic guide.
Three retention pins are required to be placed in these guides to stabilize them on the edentulous arch. The retention pins must be spread out, must not protrude into the vestibule, and must be an adequate distant from the implant sites so as not to hinder their placement.
The literature shows conflicting results when comparing mucosa-based versus bone-based guides. Some say that mucosa-based guides may have a decreased accuracy as compared to bone-and tooth-borne guides [27,34] and some say that mucosa-based guides have increased accuracy as compared to bone-and tooth-borne guides [20]. In the end, the literature shows that mucosal-based guides offer adequate accuracy of implant placement. Several studies have displayed a mean of about 1.0mm deviation at the apical aspect of the implant from the planned placement on the CBCT [20,35]. Some authors recommend a certain safety zone (2.0mm) due to the inevitable deviation of the planned versus actual osteotomy site [35].
A tooth-borne guide is indicated for the partially edentulous arch with adequate remaining sound dentition. A plaster cast or an optical scan of the cast is necessary for the laboratory fabrication of this type of guide. The remaining teeth will determine how stable a tooth-borne guide will be, so this must be evaluated carefully. It is recommended to use this type of guide when placing a single implant or several implants when minimally invasive surgery is required. Often times, a flapless surgery may be performed with a tooth-borne guide. In a partially edentulous patient, the treatment planning may be more difficult due to anatomical limitations, so utilizing computer-aided techniques can optimize the efficiency and accuracy of implant placement [36].
When preparing for surgery, several steps must be taken when utilizing a surgical guide. First, the guide should be disinfected according to the instructions provided from the company who fabricated the guide. Many guides may be placed in a chemical disinfectant for 10 to 12 minutes, and most guides will not tolerate heat disinfection. Also, if utilizing a mucosal-based guide, it is a good idea to place holes into the guide before the surgery begins, so that anesthesia may be administered throughout the surgical procedure. If this step is missed, the practitioner must remove the mucosal based guide, after removing the retention pins, administer anesthesia, and replace the guide in the exact same position. Or the practitioner must drill through the guide to gain access to the anesthesia locations. Lastly, when seating a mucosal-based guide on the day of surgery, the same interocclusal record which was used during the CBCT scan should be placed in the patients mouth along with the guide. At that point the retention pins can be placed into the bone to lock the guide into place while using the patients occlusion to stabilize the guide in the correct location.
Surgical guides can be made through many techniques and several different materials. Recently, stereolithography has become a popular method of fabricating surgical guides [5,19]. Stereolithography is an additive manufacturing process. This process utilizes a bath of light-sensitive liquid resin which is cured one layer at a time by a laser which traces the 3-D model which the computer demands of it. Guides made from stereolithography are light sensitive as well as heat sensitive. These guides should always be kept in their original packaging in a cool dry environment.
Stereolithographic guides are very rigid in comparison to a conventional resin cured guide. When restoring a large edentulous area in which the guide has the potential to flex under pressure of the implant drill, it may be a wise decision to choose a stereolithographic guide so that the implant positions are not compromised. Stereolithographic guides also allow more precision when placing implants as compared with conventional guides. One study compared the difference between the planned implant position and the actual osteotomy at the apex. The conventional guides had an average of 2.1mm difference whereas the stereolithographic guides had an average of 1.0mm difference [37].
Surgical guides may be fabricated from the radiographic guide. The radiographic guide can be sent to a manufacturer which will convert it, through a mechanized process, into a surgical guide with included guide sleeves. If this technique is chosen, the radiographic guide must incorporate the correct orientation and placement of the implant into the guide. This can be accomplished either by using a radiographically opaque denture tooth, gutta percha markers through the long access of the tooth, or any other radio-opaque material which can orient the planned implant into the radiographic guide.
Alternatively, a mapping technique may be used to fabricate a computer generated surgical guide. This is a technique which eliminates the need for a radiographic guide. The patient is scanned while wearing a radiolucent interocclusal record to disclude the patient’s posterior teeth by about 5 mm. Then a cast of the patient is scanned and a diagnostic wax-up is scanned. The computer is then able to orient these images to each other and the practitioner can digitally plan the implant placement in reference to the patients alveolar bone and planned tooth positions. A surgical guide can then be fabricated from the digital design.
All of these choices are viable options for fabricating a surgical guide. Each situation is unique and depending on the practitioners resources and relationship with their radiologist, the practitioner may choose any option he or she prefers.
The aim of this section is not to advertise any specific company, and we just want to share our experiences with these surgical guides. Surgical guides are fabricated by many manufactures, most notable the major implant companies. Each company has a unique planning software program as well as various choices for scanning protocol, guide materials, and design of the guide. Depending on the case, different manufacturers must be considered in certain situations. For example, if dual-scan protocol was desired, only NobelBiocare and Anatomage offer this option.
Things to Consider When Choosing a System
How well can you maneuver the software program? Or will your radiologist be manipulating most of the digital implant planning for you?
If you plan on doing the virtual placement yourself, make sure you are comfortable with the program. Each company offers a different program and these are not all as user-friendly as the next.
What kind of radiographic scanning protocol to you plan on using? Do you prefer the dual-scan protocol in which a denture can be quickly converted into a radiographic guide? Or do you prefer to have your lab fabricate a separate radiographic guide for the scan?
Do you plan on using bone, mucosa, or tooth supported guides? Or do you want to have the option of using all three, depending on the case?
These are all considerations that must be taken into account before investing in any imaging software because once you do, you will be limited by that companies available options.
Another consideration is that different implant-planning softwares allow different levels of resolution of the CBCT data. So even if the CBCT machine is capable of taking high resolution images, the planning software you choose may not be able to open the full resolution which was recorded. When placing implants, any fraction of a millimeter in the wrong direction may have a significant compromise on the outcome.
Keystone offers one of the most basic surgical guide systems, hence the coined term “EasyGuide” for their planning software. EasyGuide can be utilized for planning implant placement in single tooth edentulous spaces, partially edentulous spaces, and completely edentulous arches. The Keystone surgical guide can only be used in single tooth edentulous spaces and partially edentulous spaces.
During the CBCT, the patient wears a laboratory fabricated radiographic guide with barium sulfate incorporated in the areas where the teeth will be replaced. This guide also has a built in radiographic “X Marker”, which is subsequently used by Keystone to fabricate the surgical guide. The clinician then plans the implant placement in the EasyGuide computer program and virtually sends this information to Keystone to fabricate the surgical guide, if desired.
The surgical guide is fabricated from the digital planning. The clinician must send the radiographic guide with the incorporated “X Marker” to Keystone, which uses this to orient the guide to the patient’s jaw. Keystone then will fabricate the surgical guide either as “directional” or “depth and directional”, depending on the clinician’s wishes. This means that the guide can be used to direct the implant at the correct angle and it can also be used to direct it to the correct depth in the bone.
Biohorizons is another very simple and basic implant planning program that offers a user-friendly technique but limited options to the clinician. The surgical guide, called a Compu-Guide, can be fabricated for single implant placement, partially edentulous multiple implant placement, and fully edentulous multiple implant placement.
The patient wears a laboratory fabricated radiographic guide during the CBCT which is fabricated to the planning software, VIP, specifications. Then the clinician may digitally plan the implant placement using the VIP computer software. This software allows the placement of any type of implant system.
This information along with the radiographic guide is sent to Biohorizons which fabricates the Pilot Compu-Guide, a surgical guide that allows only the pilot drills to be sequenced through the guide. The clinician inserts the Compu-Guide and stabilizes it. The pilot osteomoties are drilled to length, then the guide is removed, and the twist drills are then used free-hand without the guide, according to the implant manufacturer’s protocol. This method increases the possibility of error because the angulation may be altered when using the twist drills.
NobelBiocare offers a very sturdy stereolithographic surgical guide with multiple indications for use, but can only be used with NobelBiocare implants. This system can be used for single tooth edentulous sites, partially edentulous sites, and completely edentulous arches.
The CBCT prescription requests a dual-scan protocol. The dual-scan protocol requires two scans: one scan of the patient while wearing the radiographic guide and one scan of the radiographic guide by itself. The radiographic guide has built-in fiduciary markers, which allow the software to overlay the two separate scanned images. Fiduciary markers are gutta percha dots added into the radiographic guide. If the patient is already wearing a well-fitting denture, these markers can be added to the denture very easily. If the patient does not have a well-fitting denture, a new tooth-set up should be tried in and then duplicated or processed into a radiographic guide. The fiduciary markers can be added to the radiographic guide by drilling eight to ten round divots throughout and filling them with gutta percha. They should be 1mm x 1 mm in size, and spread throughout the guide in different horizontal and vertical levels.
The planning software, NobelClinician, will fuse the two files, using the fiduciary markers, so that the patient’s anatomy can be visualized with and without the radiographic guide in place. In other words, the anatomical data and prosthetic data can be visualized separately. NobelClinician allows various views and reslices of the scan. It also shows a yellow safety zone around implants, which is especially important when performing flapless surgery. This safety zone helps prevents implants from being placed too close to anatomical structures or to other implants. The program also shows technical restrictions in red. For example, the software prevents the clinician from placing implants close to each other due to the width requirement of the metal sleeve in the guide. This is a complication of the fabrication of the guide to be the strongest possible in the areas where the implant drill will be entering. If the acrylic between two sleeves is thin, the guide may break in that area. If a clinician desires to place implants fairly close together, another system may be better suited.
NobelBiocare offers tooth-borne and mucosal-borne guides, but not bone-based guides. So for the completely edentulous patient, a mucosal-borne guide must be chosen. The clinician will run into a problem if the edentulous patient has very thick gingival tissue. The mucosal-based surgical guide is fabricated so that the head of the implants are placed 3 mm from the intaglio surface of the surgical guide, assuming the average patient has 3 mm of gingival tissue thickness. So if the patients gingiva is more than 3 mm thick, and the implants were digitally planned to be at the crest of bone, then the intaglio surface of the surgical guide will impinge upon the patients tissue. The easiest way around this is to relieve the intaglio surface of the guide around the drill hole, before placing it in the patient’s mouth.
The virtual planning will be completed on NobelClinician, which is one of the only programs that runs on Windows and Mac OS X. The NobelClinician software also allows planning of the abutments with digital visualization. This is particularly useful when placing angled implants which will need angled multi-unit abutments. The planned information from NobelClinician is sent electronically to NobelBiocare Production Center where the NobelGuide is produced centrally.
The following photos show how to make a Nobelguide and to restore a patient with an immediate implant-retained overdenture (Figures 1-20).
Complete denture with fiduciary markers is used as radiographic guide.
Patient wears complete denture with fiduciary markers during CBCT scan.
Occlusal view of maxillary surgical guide and maxilla on software.
Occlusal view of maxillary surgical guide on sofware after removing maxillary bone.
Frontal view of maxillary surgical guide and maxilla.
Occlusal view of actual surgical guide fabricated at NobelBiocare production center.
Surgical guide is inserted with bite-registration.
Anchor pins are placed to secure surgical guide.
Drills are used to prepare implant sockets.
Implants are placed through metal sleeves.
All implants are placed.
Surgical guide is removed after all implants are placed.
Locater abutments are screwed on implants.
Metal housings are seated on locaters.
Enough room is needed for locaters and metal housings.
Enough room is created for locaters and metal housings.
Metal housing are attached to complete denture.
Complete denture is converted to immediate implant-retained overdenture.
Intra-oral view of patient.
Panoramic radiograph of patient.
Anatomage is a system which offers some of the most options when planning implant placement with a surgical guide. The biggest downside of this system is that the guides are fabricated out of a conventional acrylic resin, which easily flexes under high loads of stress during implant placement. One must be very careful when choosing to use this system in a patient with a large edentulous area because it can easily be torqued out of position. Due to the material used, one benefit of this system is that the guides are cheaper than any other system. The price is a fixed price no matter how many implants are being placed.
This system, similar to the NobelClinician, prescribes for a dual-scan protocol. The company boasts that their planning software does not require a scanning appliance (or radiographic guide). Instead, a stone model and/or wax-up is scanned in order to visualize the planned positions of the teeth on the image. The planning software, InVivo5, allows the planning of any type of implant as well as bone-based, mucosal-based, and tooth-based guides. InVivo5 offers high quality volume rendering with some of the best visualization options. The volume easily switches between transparent hard tissues, as well as detailed bone, airway, or skin profiles.
The surgical guide is fabricated centrally by Anatomage in order to preserve the fixed price. Along with the surgical guide, the clinician may choose to order specialized depth control drills to gain the most guidance.
Materialise offers the most versatile implant planning program. They will provide bone-based, mucosal-based, and tooth-based guides. And all three types are fabricated by stereolithography so that they are the most rigid. A tooth-supported SurgiGuide is suitable for minimally invasive surgery. Since the guide was fabricated from virtual planning, it is not necessary to raise a flap for implant placement. A plaster cast of the pre-surgical teeth must be sent to Materialise with the SimPlant virtual plan. A mucosa-supported SurgiGuide is indicated when minimally invasive surgery is necessary for a fully edentulous case. A bone-supported SurgiGuide is appropriate for a partially or fully edentulous case when increased visibility or more surgical procedures are necessary.
The patient is scanned using the clinicians method of choice, either single-scan or dual-scan protocol. If choosing the dual-scan protocol, the clinician may purchase the dual scan markers from Materialise or add the fiduciary markers on their own. The digital planning is then performed using the software Simplant Planner. SimPlant Planner provides a library with more than 8000 different implants and abutments to provide easy surgical guide fabrication. Any implant system may be prescribed when using Materialise. The planned information is virtually sent to Materialise, and the surgical guide, Surgiguide, is fabricated.
If the clinician would like to convert the CBCT images into the 3D representation, the software SimPlant Pro is available for this. When using SimPlant Planner this conversion is performed by Materialise. SimPlant also offers a free software program, called SimPlant View, which allows anyone to view the files. So when planning a case between different team members, such as a surgeon, restorative dentist and lab technician, all team members may view the case on their personal computer.
There are three different options when choosing the surgical guide, SurgiGuide: Pilot, Universal, and SAFE. The Pilot SurgiGuide offers the guidance during the initial pilot drilling, and then the guide is removed and the drilling sequence is completed free-hand. This is best used in straightforward and simple cases. It is similar to Biohorizons Pilot Compu-Guide. The Universal SurgiGuide offers a fixed implant position and angulation, without depth control. The drill depth is provided in the prescription sent with the SurgiGuide so the clinician knows how deep to drill. The drills are guided through the SurgiGuide, and when the drilling sequence is completed, the guide is removed and the implants are placed in the osteotomies. Lastly, the SAFE SurgiGuide offers a fixed implant position, angulation, and depth. This guide provides the most controlled system.
Materialise also offers bone reduction guides. If the clinician is planning for a prosthesis which requires more restorative space than is available, a bone reduction guide can first be used to perform a precise amount of alveoloplasty. Afterwards, a bone-based implant surgical guide is placed, according to the amount of bone reduction, and the implants are predictable placed at that new bone level. When positioning the implants in the SimPlant Planner, place them at the desired subcrestal positions. The white dots around the implants in SimPlant show the bone height desired after placement. These can be moved up and down as desired. The SimPlant designers then have enough information to produce the drill guide as well as the bone reduction guide.
A virtually planned surgical guide for the placement of implants offers not only a predictable method for the surgical placement of the implants, but also a more convenient and time saving method for the fabricating provisional restorations. A clinician may use a surgical guide to its full advantage by preparing the provisionals before the day of surgery. Either the clinician or a lab technician can prefabricate the implant provisionals using the surgical template. First, a master cast is fabricated using the surgical guide. Implant analogs are attached to the guide, large undercuts are blocked out, a soft tissue matrix is fabricated, and stone is poured into the guide. This master cast can then be mounted against the opposing cast using the premade bite index which was utilized during the CBCT scan. Provisional restorations can be fabricated on this master cast, which will then be ready for chairside pick-up of the implants after surgery. This method provides an easy way to do immediate loading of implants on the day of surgery.
This is a popular method being advertised worldwide and is an advantageous strategy for attracting patients to your office. Patients are given an immediate result with predictable esthetics, phonetics, and function if the laboratory steps and chairside pick-up are followed correctly.
Another advantage of using virtual planning for dental implants is the ability to fabricate implant frameworks through scanning of the master cast. After implants have osseointegrated, a final implant-level impression is made, and a master cast is made and verified. Then a 3-D scanner will scan the implant positions and the framework can be designed virtually for the final prosthesis. From the virtual design, the framework is then milled from a block of metal [3]. Each scanning company has different milling materials to choose from. The framework can support a hybrid, bar-overdenture, or implant-supported fixed dental prostheses (such as screw-retained PFM crowns or FDPs). This framework can either be designed virtually or it can be designed in acrylic on the master cast and scanned (i.e., copy-milled). The latter of the two options is a better choice for complicated clinical situations with no room for error, such as implant-supported fixed dental prostheses. This prosthetic design requires very specific dimensions for the final porcelain layer, and thus should always be copy-milled. Hybrid cases which were planned well with enough restorative space can usually be designed virtually with retention elements added for the acrylic which will be surrounding the milled metal framework.
Milling provides a much more accurate framework than conventional casting because there is no shrinkage involved. When a multiple-implant framework is waxed and cast, it takes extra time because it must be sectioned and soldered after shrinkage. The milled frameworks, on the other hand, are milled to fit the implant positions exactly and involve no shrinkage or distortion of the metal. The major disadvantage of choosing a milled framework is that the companies offer only a limited number of material choices. Most companies do not offer a metal which porcelain can be added to predictably.
The following photos show how to make a milled titanium framework using NobelProcera software and scanner and to restore a patient with an implant-supported fixed dental prosthesis (Figures 21-34).
Final impression for each arch is made.
Denture teeth are arranged in the laboratory.
Both trial dentures are verified clinically.
Mandibular definitive cast is sprayed with zinc-oxide powder before placing scanning abutments.
Scanning abutments are screwed on the implant replicas, and definitive cast mounted for scanning.
Occlusal view of mandibular cast with implant positions after scanning process.
Trial denture is sprayed with zinc-oxide powder after placing it on definitive cast.
Note red line generated by laser probe during trial denture scanning process.
Occlusal view of trial denture overlapping mandibular cast including implants after scanning process.
Frontal view of final design of mandibular framework.
Occlusal view of final design of mandibular framework.
Clinical fit of mandibular framework verified.
Intraoral view after both restorations are inserted.
Panoramic radiograph after maxillary complete denture and mandibular FDP are inserted.
This chapter aimed to explain virtual treatment planning by using softwares, scanners and CAD/CAM technology. Each person involved in this process should possess the knowledge to use these softwares and hardwares, which require advanced training and experience. Otherwise, failures would be inevitable and costly. Although each step was explained and illustrated in great detail, the readers need to make to sure that they have proper knowledge, armemantarium, and experience before attempting to these types of treatment.
Today, information has become the main component of what we produce, do, buy, and consume. Having an economic value in almost all products and services that meet the needs of today’s societies, it has been now obligatory for individuals and organizations to obtain information technologies and to actively use them in both work and social life domains. Hence, in the current information age, where information is seen as power, this situation has made it imperative for organizations to become increasingly information-based and to benefit from information technologies in many processes and activities.
The intensive use of information technologies in many functions and processes has also required some changes in organizations [1]. This is due to the fact that information technologies, unlike traditional technologies, do not only change the technical fields but also affect the communication channels, decision-making functions and mechanisms, control, etc. [2]. Consequently, one of the most striking developments is on organizational structures that are becoming increasingly flattened and horizontal. Relatedly, information technologies have begun to take over the role of middle management, which supports decision-making processes of senior management and has reduced the importance of this level [3, 4, 5]. Similarly, while information technologies enable managers to obtain faster, more accurate, and more information [6, 7, 8], it also provides lower-level managers with more information about the general situation of the organization, the nature of current problems, and important organizational matters [9, 10, 11, 12].
Moreover, information technologies also have an important potential in determining whether organizations have a mechanical or an organic structure [13]. Within the mechanical organizational structures, people do not have much autonomy, and behaviors expected from employees are being careful and obedience to upper authority and respect for traditions. In such organizations, predictability, consistency, and stability are desirable phenomena. In contrast, people in organic structures have more freedom in shaping and controlling their activities, and being enthusiastic, creative, and taking risks have important places among the desired behaviors [14].
Accordingly, information technologies begin to influence the cultural values of the organization over time, through these transformations they create on organizational structures, processes, and operations. In other words, the fact that organizational structures are mechanical or organic causes the formation of diverse cultural values in organizations [15]. Therefore, the desired cultural values in mechanical organizations are quite different from those in organic structures [1, 16, 17]. In this context, this chapter deals with the influences of information technologies on cultural characteristics of organizations along with the reflections of the use of these technologies on organizational structures and their functioning.
When we look at studies on the relations between organizational culture and information technologies, we generally see the studies on the effects of culture on technology adaptation or use [18, 19, 20, 21], as well as on the effects of certain specific information technologies and applications (e.g., e-mail use, group support practices, etc.) on some aspects of any organizational culture [22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31]. However, the number of studies that consider the use of information technologies as a “whole” and that address “why” and “how” its effects on organizational culture occurred is still limited. And so, this chapter aims to examine and discuss the overall effects of the usage and intensity of information technologies established in organizations on the cultural life within.
In this context, the chapter plan is as follows: Firstly, the basic concepts related to information and information technologies are included. Emphasis is placed on the meaning differences between knowledge and information, and their connections to information technologies are tried to be explained briefly. Secondly, the effects of information technologies on organizational structure are given particular attention. The reason for this is that as a system of values, beliefs, assumptions, and practices [32], organizational culture encompasses many features closely related to structures of organizations. Thirdly, possible links between organizational structure and organizational culture are included. Fourthly, important theoretical approaches and studies on the relationships between information technologies and organizational culture are provided. Finally, by deepening a bit more and by emphasizing key points, some important arguments are discussed.
In the literature, the concepts of information and knowledge are sometimes expressed by a single term, “information.” However, although the concepts of knowledge and information are intertwined, they are two different concepts that have different meanings and describe different phenomena. The reason for this is that knowledge is also included in the concept of information as it is transformed into a commodity when it begins to be processed, stored, and shared by information technologies.
Becoming the basic elements of today’s economic, social, and cultural systems, information is obtained in a certain hierarchy. The images are at the beginning of the process, and the process is completed with a hierarchical staging in the form of data, information, and knowledge, respectively [33]. Image is located in the first step of the process. Humans copy the picture of any object and event they previously perceived by sensory organs. When faced with a similar phenomenon in the later stages of life, these pictures in the mind are redesigned. We call these pictures of realities occurring in the human mind as images [33]. The next stage, the data, contains symbols that represent events and their properties. For this reason, data are expressed as figures and/or facts without content and interpretation [34]. Information that constitutes the next stage of the process and is mixed with knowledge and used interchangeably is expressed as a reporting of one system’s own status to another system [33]. In information, associated data are combined for a specific purpose. Therefore, we can explain information as meaningful data [35]. Knowledge, on the other hand, is defined as personalized information that allows people to fully and accurately grasp what is happening around them and manifests itself in the form of thoughts, insights, intuition, ideas, lessons learned, practices, and experiences [36]. According to Kautz and Thaysen [37] who stated that knowledge is found only in the people’s minds, knowledge is, therefore, a subjective formation. In other words, knowledge is the form of information enriched with interpretation, analysis, and context [38]. However, here, it should be emphasized again by highlighting a very important issue that knowledge is also accepted as information when this knowledge begins to be processed, stored, shared, and used over information technologies. Therefore, after this, when talking about information, one should consider not only the information created by the data brought together in a meaningful way but also the knowledge shared and used over information technologies.
On the other hand, information technologies, used as the most important tool of generating value today, are defined as the technologies that enable processes such as recording and storing data, producing information through certain operational processes, and accessing, storing, and transmitting this produced information effectively and efficiently [39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46]. The term information technologies is used to cover computer and electronic communication technologies, as they are now inseparably intertwined in literature and everyday use and are generally used in this way [47]. In this context, data processing systems, management information systems (MIS), office automation systems, executive support systems, expert systems, intranet and extranet, electronic mail (e-mail), group applications (groupware), database management systems, decision support systems, artificial intelligence, and telecommunication systems can be given as examples of information technologies [33, 48, 49].
Towards the end of the twentieth century, the rapid changes with the impact of developments in information technologies led to the emergence of customer satisfaction-based, learning, knowledge-based, and constantly changing organizations [50]. The fact that organizations have become considerably information-based and benefit from information technologies intensively in their activities and processes has made also the changes in their organizational structures mandatory [1]. Accordingly, the effects of information technologies on organizational structure will be summarized under the subtitles of differentiation, centralization, and standardization/formalization, which are the three main components of organizational structure [15].
Differentiation within an organization occurs in three ways: Specialization/division of labor, horizontal and vertical differentiation, and hierarchy and size [15]. Specialization refers to the amount of different expertise or types of work [51, 52]. Specialization generally increases the number of subunits and makes it harder to understand the larger structure that people contribute to with their skills and expertise [53]. Information technologies have the potential to reduce this tendency by providing more access to information and experts at this point. In this way, access to information resources provides synergy [54].
Vertical and horizontal differentiation refers to the amount of hierarchical levels in an organization [55]. Information technologies, with the support of problem solving and decision-making, lead to the emergence of more flattened organizational structures as they require fewer levels within the hierarchy [56]. Since information technologies give employees in lower positions more autonomy to harmonize their activities, this can allow them to find and try better methods while performing their work. In this context, we can increasingly see that organizational structures have become horizontal and strengthened and that virtual organizations have begun to emerge as the most cost-effective structure [17].
In terms of hierarchy and size, Heinze and Stuart [4] argue that the mid-level management staff is unnecessary, increases bureaucracy, reduces efficiency, and has no function in organizations any more. Since most of the tasks performed by mid-level executives can be fulfilled by computers, both less costly and faster, information technology has begun to take over the role of mid-level management, which supports the decision-making process of senior management [5]. Sharing the same opinion, Fulk and DeSanctis [57] also stated that the largely witnessed situation in modern organizational designs is the reduction of intermediate-level managers and administrative support.
Centralization points to the extent to which decision-making power within an organization is scattered or centered [58]. Due to increasing local and global competition, many companies have started to leave their strategic decision-making task further down the organization to benefit from the expert people with more precise and timely local knowledge [10]. Information technologies affect these efforts directly in two ways. Firstly, information technologies increase local knowledge by contributing to obtaining closer information about market trends, opportunities, and customers. Secondly, information technologies can create synergies for organizations because, thanks to information technologies, communication and coordination between distributed decision makers, central planners, and senior managers can be realized more effectively and efficiently [59].
However, whether information technologies will lead to centralization or decentralization is a very controversial question. Regarding centralization, it enables managers to acquire faster, more accurate, and more information, reduces uncertainty, and allows them to make decisions that they cannot make before [6, 7, 8]. Conversely, by the use of other forms of information technologies (e.g., electronic bulletin boards), decentralization provides more information to lower- and mid-level managers about the general situation of the organization and the nature of current matters and problems [9, 10, 11, 12]. Raymond et al. [60] argued that because information technologies facilitate the use and transmission of information by all levels and units in the organization, it enables top management, which is the decision authority, to be disabled in certain areas and the decentralization of control. Thach and Woodman [61] maintained that this is due to the fact that as a result of sharing information at lower levels with the help of information technologies, this power of senior management has decreased to a certain extent, and the knowledge and participation of the staff in organizational matters have increased.
The literature shows that information technologies allow both centralization and decentralization. Researchers are in the agreement that information technologies make it possible for organizational managers to leave their decision-making power to a large part of the hierarchical levels without compromising the quality and timeliness of the decision [62, 63]. Keen [64] combined the concepts of centralization and decentralization and used the term “federated organization” in which organizations do not have to choose either because information technologies simultaneously allow centralization-decentralization [64, 65].
Formalization is the process of detailing how activities are coordinated for organizational purposes in order for employees and organizational units to respond routinely to recurring situations [51, 66]. Formalization involves rules, instructions, shared values, and norms [67]. In fact, formalization is based on the objective of more efficiency and less uncertainty [13].
Information technologies provide the ability to reduce the negative effects of formalization by facilitating the documenting and retrieving of information on organizational occurrences and endeavors that make behaviors and processes more consistent through formalization [63]. The more information technologies assist in reducing search times and preventing downtime, the more the administrative cost of formalization decreases and the productivity increases, which ultimately benefits the path to innovation [68].
Different organizational structures lead to the development of different cultural values [15]. The fact that the structure which an organization has established to control its activities and is defined as a formal system consisting of duties and authority relations is mechanical or organic causes the emergence of completely different cultural values, rules, and norms [69]. While mechanical structures are vertical, highly centralized, and almost everything in them are standardized, organic structures are horizontal, decentralized, and based on mutual adaptation [14]. People feel relatively less autonomous in vertical and centralized organizations, and being careful, obeying the upper authority, and respecting traditions are among the desired behaviors. Therefore, in a mechanical organizational structure, there are cultural values where predictability and stability are important [69]. In contrast, in horizontal and decentralized organizations, people can freely choose their own activities and control them. Creativity, courage, and risk-taking are given importance as desired behaviors. Therefore, organic structures contribute to the formation of cultures that value innovation and flexibility [15].
Organizational structure is also important for the development of cultural values that support integration and coordination. In a structure with stable task and role relations, sharing of rules and norms is more since there will be no communication problems and the information flow will be fast [70]. In organizations where the sharing of cultural values, norms, and rules is at a high level, the level of performance also increases [15]. Particularly in team or matrix structures where face-to-face communication is intense, the sharing of these cultural values and common reactions to the problems develop more rapidly [9].
Whether an organization is centralized or not causes different cultural values to emerge. In decentralized structures, authority is divided into subordinate levels, and an environment is created for the formation of cultural values in which creativity and innovation are rewarded [13]. Employees are allowed to use the organization’s resources and work in projects that they want, by spending some of their time in these projects, thus contributing to the production of innovative and creative products and services [15]. The structures of such organizations constitute the cultural values that give their employees the message “as long as it is in the interest of the organization, it is okay to do things in an innovative and the way you want.”
Conversely, in some organizations, it may be more important for employees not to decide on their own and all activities to be followed and controlled by their superiors. In such cases, a centralized structure is preferred to create cultural values that will ensure accountability and obedience [71]. Through norms and rules, all employees are expected to behave honestly and consistently and inform their superiors about wrongs or mistakes, because this is the only acceptable form of behavior within these structures [72].
Since working on the factors that determine the consequences of the adoption and use of information technologies, researchers have focused on people’s beliefs, values, assumptions, and codes of conduct. As a result, they have given names to this research field such as “socio-technical systems,” “social system,” “social structure,” and most recently “culture” [73]. For example, Markus and Robey [23] using “social elements” and Barley [26] using “social system” or “social structure” tried to explain this phenomenon. When examined more closely, it is seen that the details that these authors emphasize while depicting the case are the assumptions, beliefs, and values that exist in common among the group members, and this corresponds to the definition of organizational culture.
Research examining the relationships between information technologies and values, beliefs, and norms belonging to a particular group has gone through certain stages and used rich and complex research models to explain the relationships in each of these stages [74]. In the first studies on information technology applications, it has been suggested that information technologies cause changes in various organizational phenomena including structural features and thus have certain effects on organizations [74]. For instance, in some studies on adoption of groupware software, several researchers have used this deterministic approach to describe how groupware use affects communication and collaboration among employees and their productivity [27, 28]. These studies assume that certain results will certainly emerge after the adoption of information technologies, without considering the motives or activities that shape the use of information technologies by managers and employees. Like much more deterministic studies, these authors often assumed that information technologies would have predetermined influences on the adoption of information technologies, regardless of the environment in which information technologies were applied, how they were applied, and the users’ specific behaviors and particular purposes.
The second group of views concerning the relationships between organizational culture and information technologies includes the fact that information technologies are seen as a tool that can be used for any change that managers desire to make in organizational practices [22]. In studies in this approach, researchers believe that there is a wide range of possibilities to identify changes in organizational culture, structure, processes, and performance [22, 75]. Researchers from this tradition presume that with the right choice of information technologies and appropriate system design, managers can achieve whatever goals they desire.
These works were mostly adopted in the 1980s and reflect a perspective that managers think can manipulate organizational culture in the way they want. Often called “management and control,” “a functional or instrumental approach” to organizational culture, this methodology has caused serious debate in the literature [76]. This approach attributes great powers to the management level in this regard, which conflicts with anthropologists’ views that culture cannot be consciously controlled and goes much deeper to understand it [76]. Robey and Azevido [77] also do not accept the rational thought on the assumption that culture can be manipulated directly in this way.
Studies with this rational perspective in the information technology literature assume that managers can use information technologies as a leverage to make changes in the norms of behavior, strategy, structure, and performance among members within the organization. For example, in studies on group support systems (GSS), we find managers’ beliefs that they can use collaborative technologies to create a more cooperative organizational culture. This perspective was not accepted by Karsten [78] and some experimental research on GSS [30, 79]. Organizational necessity is no longer accepted, as it is viewed by information technology researchers as an overly simple approach [23, 80].
Researchers who take another approach suggest that information technologies and organizational culture can interact with each other to produce various results [22, 23]. These results can be in the form of adoption and effective use of information technologies (if there is a harmony between organizational culture and information technologies) or user reluctance, refusal, or sabotage (if no fit). Researchers who have been working on information systems since the 1980s have focused on understanding information technology features and functionality that cause effective or problematic information technology applications and the interaction between users’ values, assumptions, and other elements of organizational culture. In this regard, Romm et al. [81] argued that many forms of information technologies comprise cultural assumptions embedded within themselves and these assumptions may conflict with existing values of a particular organization. The authors argued that these embedded assumptions present information technologies as a “cultural boundary” and that a cultural analysis should be made to predict compliance or incompatibility. The authors in this approach warn managers to think of organizational culture as a binding limitation in information technology applications. In a warning by Pliskin et al. [76], managers are advised not to try to change the culture of the organization. Regarding this issue, Orlikowski [30] cites Lotus Notes (a group software) application at Alpha Corporation, a consultancy company. In this example, this system, which was established by the CEO of the company only with the benefits to be obtained, did not create the expected effects, became unsuccessful, and disappointed due to reasons such as no cultural analysis and inadequate training. Employees responded to the use of Notes with resistance and refrained from using it. The reason for this was that the employees in this organization, which had a competitive culture where information was seen as a power, avoided sharing information with others. As a result, this incompatibility between the collaborative culture that Notes had in itself and the competitive culture of the organization in question had failed this application of information technologies.
In a different approach, it is stated that information technologies and culture are not fixed and they are more flexible in terms of change [23, 75]. Managers in this approach may set specific goals for the use of information technologies, but actual results of the use of information technologies are not deterministic, and results cannot be predicted or controlled even under the best conditions [23]. The effects of information technologies are not deterministic because technology has interpretable flexibility considering that it can have different meanings for different employees. Similar technology can be interpreted in a different way by distinct people, based on certain assumptions, beliefs, and values. Robey and coauthors [24, 25], for instance, showed that it would be an empty attempt for organizational managers to try to intentionally manipulate the effects of these technologies, since there are many ways that diverse employees can configure a particular technology in different social environments.
Gopal and Prasad [31] also achieved similar results in their work on group support system (GSS), claiming that for researchers seeking fixed laws or regulations on how information technologies affect user behaviors, this would be an impossible goal to pursue. Conversely, the results of using information technologies depend on the symbolic meanings that information technologies have for a particular user. This work of Gopal and Prasad [31] expresses similar results with the work of Barley [26] and Robey and Sahay [25]. The authors stated that the symbolic meanings of certain technologies for users affect their perceptions of information technologies and their specific behaviors.
In the light of the above-mentioned approaches, arguments, and important studies in the literature, it will be useful to discuss some important points by deepening a little more and by emphasizing the key features related to the concepts of information, information technologies, and organizational culture.
First, organizational culture is a complex phenomenon that develops and changes in a historical process [32, 82, 83]. Thus, although it might seem like a plain and simple concept, organizational culture includes many subdimensions and processes. When considered as a complex pattern of these interactions of many factors with each other, it is also a difficult process to identify the direct and indirect effects of information technologies on organizational culture within this cluster of relationships and interactions. Moreover, culture is not a phenomenon that changes and develops in a short time and is therefore open to manipulations of managers. On the contrary, from this point of view, it is not possible to easily achieve control over cultural changes, and it is necessary to go much deeper [76]. So, it is not rational to expect that the rapid developments and changes in information technologies will cause changes in cultural characteristics at the same speed. In this sense, it could be inaccurate to seek direct relationships between two phenomena in question, whose rates of change are quite different.
Second, for cultural changes, there must also be changes in the basic assumptions, beliefs, and values on which the culture is built [84]. It would be misleading to expect little or intensive use of information technologies to cause changes in these rooted assumptions. For the desired changes in these basic assumptions, beliefs, and values, it is necessary to design the structure accordingly, to recruit employees who are qualified for the targeted culture, and to set ethical values and property rights to employees in accordance with this culture [15]. In this sense, information technologies may only catalyze the contribution of organizational structure to organizational culture.
Third, there are many and different types of hardware and software that fall under the scope of information technologies. It is not logical to accept all of them as homogeneous technologies in all aspects (with the same functions and features, similar usage areas, standard conditions they are applied, similar intentions, and behaviors of all users), and it can be, therefore, misleading to carry out research under a single “IT” concept from this perspective. The reason for this is that, as stated in the sections above, cultural features of each information technology application or product embedded in it might be different. The interactions between the cultural characteristics of the environment in which information technologies are applied and the unique cultural contents of information technologies may cause different results on the culture of the organization.
Fourth, contrary to what is believed, some of cultural features that we anticipate to support information technology applications and products may be interpreted otherwise by diverse people contingent on different assumptions, beliefs, and values. In fact, Robey et al. [24, 25] showed that managers cannot control the effects of these technologies, since different users can configure a particular technology in numerous ways in different social environments. Also, Gopal and Prasad [31] argued that this would be an impossible achievement for researchers looking for fixed laws or regulations on how information technologies affect user behaviors.
Fifth, information technologies were defined above as technologies that enable processing, storage, and sharing of information. The key concept in this definition is “knowledge-based” information and not the technology itself. Therefore, what makes information technologies essential and important is the information itself. According to the definition of knowledge, the most significant characteristic that differentiates it from information is its being a product of the human mind [37]. Because knowledge is the interpretation of information and expresses the value produced from it, qualifying information technologies as good-bad, useful-useless, and necessary-unnecessary can be a meaningless evaluation. So, the basic thing that creates value-added for organizations is not the technology used but the information itself, which is processed, stored, and shared on this technology. In this context, even if it is the latest, most advanced, and most expensive technology in the world, if the organization does not have a qualified human resource capable of producing knowledge that will create value-added, an appropriate organizational structure and culture that will activate this creative potential, and a management approach, all investments in these technologies will also be wasted.
This chapter has aimed to examine the impacts of information technologies on organizations’ cultures, and for this purpose, a special emphasis is given to the concept of “organizational structure” within the theoretical framework presented above. The most important reason for this is that relevant literature shows that organizational culture and organizational structure are in a very close relationship. Indeed, when the question items in the Denison organizational culture scale [85], which is the most frequently used in the literature, are examined, it is possible to see that most of these items point to many features of organizational structure concerning centralization, formalization, and differentiation dimensions. Therefore, it is a very rational approach to expect that information technologies can have direct and indirect effects on organizational cultures based on the influences of information technologies on structures of organizations. However, it should be underlined that different and controversial approaches and findings in the literature mentioned above on the relations between information technologies and organizational culture generate question marks in the minds as well.
In this regard, it is already quite difficult to draw a clear picture of the impacts of information technologies on cultural characteristics of organizations. The number of studies on the subject in the literature is still very limited. Accordingly, it is necessary to underline the great need for interdisciplinary studies in this field. But still, this study argues that the main factor that determines the actual impact and value of information technologies, which have become an integral part of human life in today’s world, is the information itself rather than technology, and it should be kept in mind that information technologies can only function as a means or tool in this knowledge-based social, economic, and cultural life. In other words, the determinant of the benefits, meaning, and importance of information technologies might be the conditions created by organizational factors such as cultural environment and organizational structure where knowledge is created, developed, and used and human resources have become the most important capital element and source of wealth.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
You have been successfully unsubscribed.
",metaTitle:"Unsubscribe Successful",metaDescription:"You have been successfully unsubscribed.",metaKeywords:null,canonicalURL:"/page/unsubscribe-successful",contentRaw:'[{"type":"htmlEditorComponent","content":""}]'},components:[{type:"htmlEditorComponent",content:""}]},successStories:{items:[]},authorsAndEditors:{filterParams:{sort:"featured,name"},profiles:[{id:"6700",title:"Dr.",name:"Abbass A.",middleName:null,surname:"Hashim",slug:"abbass-a.-hashim",fullName:"Abbass A. Hashim",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/6700/images/1864_n.jpg",biography:"Currently I am carrying out research in several areas of interest, mainly covering work on chemical and bio-sensors, semiconductor thin film device fabrication and characterisation.\nAt the moment I have very strong interest in radiation environmental pollution and bacteriology treatment. The teams of researchers are working very hard to bring novel results in this field. I am also a member of the team in charge for the supervision of Ph.D. students in the fields of development of silicon based planar waveguide sensor devices, study of inelastic electron tunnelling in planar tunnelling nanostructures for sensing applications and development of organotellurium(IV) compounds for semiconductor applications. I am a specialist in data analysis techniques and nanosurface structure. I have served as the editor for many books, been a member of the editorial board in science journals, have published many papers and hold many patents.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Sheffield Hallam University",country:{name:"United Kingdom"}}},{id:"54525",title:"Prof.",name:"Abdul Latif",middleName:null,surname:"Ahmad",slug:"abdul-latif-ahmad",fullName:"Abdul Latif Ahmad",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"20567",title:"Prof.",name:"Ado",middleName:null,surname:"Jorio",slug:"ado-jorio",fullName:"Ado Jorio",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais",country:{name:"Brazil"}}},{id:"47940",title:"Dr.",name:"Alberto",middleName:null,surname:"Mantovani",slug:"alberto-mantovani",fullName:"Alberto Mantovani",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"12392",title:"Mr.",name:"Alex",middleName:null,surname:"Lazinica",slug:"alex-lazinica",fullName:"Alex Lazinica",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/12392/images/7282_n.png",biography:"Alex Lazinica is the founder and CEO of IntechOpen. After obtaining a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, he continued his PhD studies in Robotics at the Vienna University of Technology. Here he worked as a robotic researcher with the university's Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Group as well as a guest researcher at various European universities, including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). During this time he published more than 20 scientific papers, gave presentations, served as a reviewer for major robotic journals and conferences and most importantly he co-founded and built the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems- world's first Open Access journal in the field of robotics. Starting this journal was a pivotal point in his career, since it was a pathway to founding IntechOpen - Open Access publisher focused on addressing academic researchers needs. Alex is a personification of IntechOpen key values being trusted, open and entrepreneurial. Today his focus is on defining the growth and development strategy for the company.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"TU Wien",country:{name:"Austria"}}},{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",middleName:null,surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/19816/images/1607_n.jpg",biography:"Alexander I. Kokorin: born: 1947, Moscow; DSc., PhD; Principal Research Fellow (Research Professor) of Department of Kinetics and Catalysis, N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.\r\nArea of research interests: physical chemistry of complex-organized molecular and nanosized systems, including polymer-metal complexes; the surface of doped oxide semiconductors. He is an expert in structural, absorptive, catalytic and photocatalytic properties, in structural organization and dynamic features of ionic liquids, in magnetic interactions between paramagnetic centers. The author or co-author of 3 books, over 200 articles and reviews in scientific journals and books. He is an actual member of the International EPR/ESR Society, European Society on Quantum Solar Energy Conversion, Moscow House of Scientists, of the Board of Moscow Physical Society.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics",country:{name:"Russia"}}},{id:"62389",title:"PhD.",name:"Ali Demir",middleName:null,surname:"Sezer",slug:"ali-demir-sezer",fullName:"Ali Demir Sezer",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/62389/images/3413_n.jpg",biography:"Dr. Ali Demir Sezer has a Ph.D. from Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Marmara (Turkey). He is the member of many Pharmaceutical Associations and acts as a reviewer of scientific journals and European projects under different research areas such as: drug delivery systems, nanotechnology and pharmaceutical biotechnology. Dr. Sezer is the author of many scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and poster communications. Focus of his research activity is drug delivery, physico-chemical characterization and biological evaluation of biopolymers micro and nanoparticles as modified drug delivery system, and colloidal drug carriers (liposomes, nanoparticles etc.).",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Marmara University",country:{name:"Turkey"}}},{id:"61051",title:"Prof.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"100762",title:"Prof.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"St David's Medical Center",country:{name:"United States of America"}}},{id:"107416",title:"Dr.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia",country:{name:"United States of America"}}},{id:"64434",title:"Dr.",name:"Angkoon",middleName:null,surname:"Phinyomark",slug:"angkoon-phinyomark",fullName:"Angkoon Phinyomark",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/64434/images/2619_n.jpg",biography:"My name is Angkoon Phinyomark. I received a B.Eng. degree in Computer Engineering with First Class Honors in 2008 from Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand, where I received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering. My research interests are primarily in the area of biomedical signal processing and classification notably EMG (electromyography signal), EOG (electrooculography signal), and EEG (electroencephalography signal), image analysis notably breast cancer analysis and optical coherence tomography, and rehabilitation engineering. I became a student member of IEEE in 2008. During October 2011-March 2012, I had worked at School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom. In addition, during a B.Eng. I had been a visiting research student at Faculty of Computer Science, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain for three months.\n\nI have published over 40 papers during 5 years in refereed journals, books, and conference proceedings in the areas of electro-physiological signals processing and classification, notably EMG and EOG signals, fractal analysis, wavelet analysis, texture analysis, feature extraction and machine learning algorithms, and assistive and rehabilitative devices. I have several computer programming language certificates, i.e. Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform 1.4 (SCJP), Microsoft Certified Professional Developer, Web Developer (MCPD), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, .NET Framework 2.0 Web (MCTS). I am a Reviewer for several refereed journals and international conferences, such as IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Optic Letters, Measurement Science Review, and also a member of the International Advisory Committee for 2012 IEEE Business Engineering and Industrial Applications and 2012 IEEE Symposium on Business, Engineering and Industrial Applications.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Joseph Fourier University",country:{name:"France"}}},{id:"55578",title:"Dr.",name:"Antonio",middleName:null,surname:"Jurado-Navas",slug:"antonio-jurado-navas",fullName:"Antonio Jurado-Navas",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/55578/images/4574_n.png",biography:"Antonio Jurado-Navas received the M.S. degree (2002) and the Ph.D. degree (2009) in Telecommunication Engineering, both from the University of Málaga (Spain). He first worked as a consultant at Vodafone-Spain. From 2004 to 2011, he was a Research Assistant with the Communications Engineering Department at the University of Málaga. In 2011, he became an Assistant Professor in the same department. From 2012 to 2015, he was with Ericsson Spain, where he was working on geo-location\ntools for third generation mobile networks. Since 2015, he is a Marie-Curie fellow at the Denmark Technical University. His current research interests include the areas of mobile communication systems and channel modeling in addition to atmospheric optical communications, adaptive optics and statistics",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"University of Malaga",country:{name:"Spain"}}}],filtersByRegion:[{group:"region",caption:"North America",value:1,count:5681},{group:"region",caption:"Middle and South America",value:2,count:5161},{group:"region",caption:"Africa",value:3,count:1683},{group:"region",caption:"Asia",value:4,count:10200},{group:"region",caption:"Australia and Oceania",value:5,count:886},{group:"region",caption:"Europe",value:6,count:15610}],offset:12,limit:12,total:117096},chapterEmbeded:{data:{}},editorApplication:{success:null,errors:{}},ofsBooks:{filterParams:{sort:"dateendthirdsteppublish"},books:[],filtersByTopic:[{group:"topic",caption:"Agricultural and Biological Sciences",value:5,count:9},{group:"topic",caption:"Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology",value:6,count:18},{group:"topic",caption:"Business, Management and Economics",value:7,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Chemistry",value:8,count:7},{group:"topic",caption:"Computer and Information Science",value:9,count:10},{group:"topic",caption:"Earth and Planetary Sciences",value:10,count:5},{group:"topic",caption:"Engineering",value:11,count:14},{group:"topic",caption:"Environmental Sciences",value:12,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Immunology and Microbiology",value:13,count:5},{group:"topic",caption:"Materials Science",value:14,count:4},{group:"topic",caption:"Mathematics",value:15,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Medicine",value:16,count:63},{group:"topic",caption:"Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials",value:17,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Neuroscience",value:18,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science",value:19,count:6},{group:"topic",caption:"Physics",value:20,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Psychology",value:21,count:3},{group:"topic",caption:"Robotics",value:22,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Social Sciences",value:23,count:3},{group:"topic",caption:"Technology",value:24,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Veterinary Medicine and Science",value:25,count:2}],offset:0,limit:12,total:null},popularBooks:{featuredBooks:[{type:"book",id:"9208",title:"Welding",subtitle:"Modern Topics",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"7d6be076ccf3a3f8bd2ca52d86d4506b",slug:"welding-modern-topics",bookSignature:"Sadek Crisóstomo Absi Alfaro, Wojciech Borek and Błażej Tomiczek",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9208.jpg",editors:[{id:"65292",title:"Prof.",name:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi",middleName:"C. Absi",surname:"Alfaro",slug:"sadek-crisostomo-absi-alfaro",fullName:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi Alfaro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9139",title:"Topics in Primary Care Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ea774a4d4c1179da92a782e0ae9cde92",slug:"topics-in-primary-care-medicine",bookSignature:"Thomas F. Heston",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9139.jpg",editors:[{id:"217926",title:"Dr.",name:"Thomas F.",middleName:null,surname:"Heston",slug:"thomas-f.-heston",fullName:"Thomas F. Heston"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8697",title:"Virtual Reality and Its Application in Education",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ee01b5e387ba0062c6b0d1e9227bda05",slug:"virtual-reality-and-its-application-in-education",bookSignature:"Dragan Cvetković",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8697.jpg",editors:[{id:"101330",title:"Dr.",name:"Dragan",middleName:"Mladen",surname:"Cvetković",slug:"dragan-cvetkovic",fullName:"Dragan Cvetković"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9785",title:"Endometriosis",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"f457ca61f29cf7e8bc191732c50bb0ce",slug:"endometriosis",bookSignature:"Courtney Marsh",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9785.jpg",editors:[{id:"255491",title:"Dr.",name:"Courtney",middleName:null,surname:"Marsh",slug:"courtney-marsh",fullName:"Courtney Marsh"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9343",title:"Trace Metals in the Environment",subtitle:"New Approaches and Recent Advances",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ae07e345bc2ce1ebbda9f70c5cd12141",slug:"trace-metals-in-the-environment-new-approaches-and-recent-advances",bookSignature:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar, Hugo Saldarriaga-Noreña and Agnieszka Saeid",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9343.jpg",editors:[{id:"255959",title:"Dr.",name:"Mario Alfonso",middleName:null,surname:"Murillo-Tovar",slug:"mario-alfonso-murillo-tovar",fullName:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7831",title:"Sustainability in Urban Planning and Design",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c924420492c8c2c9751e178d025f4066",slug:"sustainability-in-urban-planning-and-design",bookSignature:"Amjad Almusaed, Asaad Almssad and Linh Truong - Hong",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7831.jpg",editors:[{id:"110471",title:"Dr.",name:"Amjad",middleName:"Zaki",surname:"Almusaed",slug:"amjad-almusaed",fullName:"Amjad Almusaed"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8468",title:"Sheep Farming",subtitle:"An Approach to Feed, Growth and Sanity",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"838f08594850bc04aa14ec873ed1b96f",slug:"sheep-farming-an-approach-to-feed-growth-and-sanity",bookSignature:"António Monteiro",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8468.jpg",editors:[{id:"190314",title:"Prof.",name:"António",middleName:"Cardoso",surname:"Monteiro",slug:"antonio-monteiro",fullName:"António Monteiro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8816",title:"Financial Crises",subtitle:"A Selection of Readings",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6f2f49fb903656e4e54280c79fabd10c",slug:"financial-crises-a-selection-of-readings",bookSignature:"Stelios Markoulis",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8816.jpg",editors:[{id:"237863",title:"Dr.",name:"Stelios",middleName:null,surname:"Markoulis",slug:"stelios-markoulis",fullName:"Stelios Markoulis"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9376",title:"Contemporary Developments and Perspectives in International Health Security",subtitle:"Volume 1",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b9a00b84cd04aae458fb1d6c65795601",slug:"contemporary-developments-and-perspectives-in-international-health-security-volume-1",bookSignature:"Stanislaw P. Stawicki, Michael S. Firstenberg, Sagar C. Galwankar, Ricardo Izurieta and Thomas Papadimos",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9376.jpg",editors:[{id:"181694",title:"Dr.",name:"Stanislaw P.",middleName:null,surname:"Stawicki",slug:"stanislaw-p.-stawicki",fullName:"Stanislaw P. Stawicki"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7769",title:"Medical Isotopes",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"f8d3c5a6c9a42398e56b4e82264753f7",slug:"medical-isotopes",bookSignature:"Syed Ali Raza Naqvi and Muhammad Babar Imrani",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7769.jpg",editors:[{id:"259190",title:"Dr.",name:"Syed Ali Raza",middleName:null,surname:"Naqvi",slug:"syed-ali-raza-naqvi",fullName:"Syed Ali Raza Naqvi"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9279",title:"Concepts, Applications and Emerging Opportunities in Industrial Engineering",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"9bfa87f9b627a5468b7c1e30b0eea07a",slug:"concepts-applications-and-emerging-opportunities-in-industrial-engineering",bookSignature:"Gary Moynihan",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9279.jpg",editors:[{id:"16974",title:"Dr.",name:"Gary",middleName:null,surname:"Moynihan",slug:"gary-moynihan",fullName:"Gary Moynihan"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7807",title:"A Closer Look at Organizational Culture in Action",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"05c608b9271cc2bc711f4b28748b247b",slug:"a-closer-look-at-organizational-culture-in-action",bookSignature:"Süleyman Davut Göker",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7807.jpg",editors:[{id:"190035",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Süleyman Davut",middleName:null,surname:"Göker",slug:"suleyman-davut-goker",fullName:"Süleyman Davut Göker"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],offset:12,limit:12,total:5126},hotBookTopics:{hotBooks:[],offset:0,limit:12,total:null},publish:{},publishingProposal:{success:null,errors:{}},books:{featuredBooks:[{type:"book",id:"9208",title:"Welding",subtitle:"Modern Topics",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"7d6be076ccf3a3f8bd2ca52d86d4506b",slug:"welding-modern-topics",bookSignature:"Sadek Crisóstomo Absi Alfaro, Wojciech Borek and Błażej Tomiczek",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9208.jpg",editors:[{id:"65292",title:"Prof.",name:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi",middleName:"C. Absi",surname:"Alfaro",slug:"sadek-crisostomo-absi-alfaro",fullName:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi Alfaro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9139",title:"Topics in Primary Care Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ea774a4d4c1179da92a782e0ae9cde92",slug:"topics-in-primary-care-medicine",bookSignature:"Thomas F. Heston",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9139.jpg",editors:[{id:"217926",title:"Dr.",name:"Thomas F.",middleName:null,surname:"Heston",slug:"thomas-f.-heston",fullName:"Thomas F. Heston"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8697",title:"Virtual Reality and Its Application in Education",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ee01b5e387ba0062c6b0d1e9227bda05",slug:"virtual-reality-and-its-application-in-education",bookSignature:"Dragan Cvetković",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8697.jpg",editors:[{id:"101330",title:"Dr.",name:"Dragan",middleName:"Mladen",surname:"Cvetković",slug:"dragan-cvetkovic",fullName:"Dragan Cvetković"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9785",title:"Endometriosis",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"f457ca61f29cf7e8bc191732c50bb0ce",slug:"endometriosis",bookSignature:"Courtney Marsh",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9785.jpg",editors:[{id:"255491",title:"Dr.",name:"Courtney",middleName:null,surname:"Marsh",slug:"courtney-marsh",fullName:"Courtney Marsh"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9343",title:"Trace Metals in the Environment",subtitle:"New Approaches and Recent Advances",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ae07e345bc2ce1ebbda9f70c5cd12141",slug:"trace-metals-in-the-environment-new-approaches-and-recent-advances",bookSignature:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar, Hugo Saldarriaga-Noreña and Agnieszka Saeid",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9343.jpg",editors:[{id:"255959",title:"Dr.",name:"Mario Alfonso",middleName:null,surname:"Murillo-Tovar",slug:"mario-alfonso-murillo-tovar",fullName:"Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8468",title:"Sheep Farming",subtitle:"An Approach to Feed, Growth and Sanity",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"838f08594850bc04aa14ec873ed1b96f",slug:"sheep-farming-an-approach-to-feed-growth-and-sanity",bookSignature:"António Monteiro",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8468.jpg",editors:[{id:"190314",title:"Prof.",name:"António",middleName:"Cardoso",surname:"Monteiro",slug:"antonio-monteiro",fullName:"António Monteiro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8816",title:"Financial Crises",subtitle:"A Selection of Readings",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6f2f49fb903656e4e54280c79fabd10c",slug:"financial-crises-a-selection-of-readings",bookSignature:"Stelios Markoulis",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8816.jpg",editors:[{id:"237863",title:"Dr.",name:"Stelios",middleName:null,surname:"Markoulis",slug:"stelios-markoulis",fullName:"Stelios Markoulis"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7831",title:"Sustainability in Urban Planning and Design",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c924420492c8c2c9751e178d025f4066",slug:"sustainability-in-urban-planning-and-design",bookSignature:"Amjad Almusaed, Asaad Almssad and Linh Truong - Hong",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7831.jpg",editors:[{id:"110471",title:"Dr.",name:"Amjad",middleName:"Zaki",surname:"Almusaed",slug:"amjad-almusaed",fullName:"Amjad Almusaed"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9376",title:"Contemporary Developments and Perspectives in International Health Security",subtitle:"Volume 1",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b9a00b84cd04aae458fb1d6c65795601",slug:"contemporary-developments-and-perspectives-in-international-health-security-volume-1",bookSignature:"Stanislaw P. Stawicki, Michael S. Firstenberg, Sagar C. Galwankar, Ricardo Izurieta and Thomas Papadimos",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9376.jpg",editors:[{id:"181694",title:"Dr.",name:"Stanislaw P.",middleName:null,surname:"Stawicki",slug:"stanislaw-p.-stawicki",fullName:"Stanislaw P. Stawicki"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7769",title:"Medical Isotopes",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"f8d3c5a6c9a42398e56b4e82264753f7",slug:"medical-isotopes",bookSignature:"Syed Ali Raza Naqvi and Muhammad Babar Imrani",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7769.jpg",editors:[{id:"259190",title:"Dr.",name:"Syed Ali Raza",middleName:null,surname:"Naqvi",slug:"syed-ali-raza-naqvi",fullName:"Syed Ali Raza Naqvi"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],latestBooks:[{type:"book",id:"8468",title:"Sheep Farming",subtitle:"An Approach to Feed, Growth and Health",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"838f08594850bc04aa14ec873ed1b96f",slug:"sheep-farming-an-approach-to-feed-growth-and-health",bookSignature:"António Monteiro",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8468.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"190314",title:"Prof.",name:"António",middleName:"Cardoso",surname:"Monteiro",slug:"antonio-monteiro",fullName:"António Monteiro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9523",title:"Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5eb6ec2db961a6c8965d11180a58d5c1",slug:"oral-and-maxillofacial-surgery",bookSignature:"Gokul Sridharan",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9523.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"82453",title:"Dr.",name:"Gokul",middleName:null,surname:"Sridharan",slug:"gokul-sridharan",fullName:"Gokul Sridharan"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9785",title:"Endometriosis",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"f457ca61f29cf7e8bc191732c50bb0ce",slug:"endometriosis",bookSignature:"Courtney Marsh",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9785.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"255491",title:"Dr.",name:"Courtney",middleName:null,surname:"Marsh",slug:"courtney-marsh",fullName:"Courtney Marsh"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9018",title:"Some RNA Viruses",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"a5cae846dbe3692495fc4add2f60fd84",slug:"some-rna-viruses",bookSignature:"Yogendra Shah and Eltayb Abuelzein",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9018.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"278914",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Yogendra",middleName:null,surname:"Shah",slug:"yogendra-shah",fullName:"Yogendra Shah"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8816",title:"Financial Crises",subtitle:"A Selection of Readings",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6f2f49fb903656e4e54280c79fabd10c",slug:"financial-crises-a-selection-of-readings",bookSignature:"Stelios Markoulis",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8816.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"237863",title:"Dr.",name:"Stelios",middleName:null,surname:"Markoulis",slug:"stelios-markoulis",fullName:"Stelios Markoulis"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9585",title:"Advances in Complex Valvular Disease",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ef64f11e211621ecfe69c46e60e7ca3d",slug:"advances-in-complex-valvular-disease",bookSignature:"Michael S. Firstenberg and Imran Khan",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9585.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"64343",title:null,name:"Michael S.",middleName:"S",surname:"Firstenberg",slug:"michael-s.-firstenberg",fullName:"Michael S. Firstenberg"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10150",title:"Smart Manufacturing",subtitle:"When Artificial Intelligence Meets the Internet of Things",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"87004a19de13702d042f8ff96d454698",slug:"smart-manufacturing-when-artificial-intelligence-meets-the-internet-of-things",bookSignature:"Tan Yen Kheng",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10150.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"78857",title:"Dr.",name:"Tan Yen",middleName:null,surname:"Kheng",slug:"tan-yen-kheng",fullName:"Tan Yen Kheng"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9386",title:"Direct Numerical Simulations",subtitle:"An Introduction and Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"158a3a0fdba295d21ff23326f5a072d5",slug:"direct-numerical-simulations-an-introduction-and-applications",bookSignature:"Srinivasa Rao",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9386.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"6897",title:"Dr.",name:"Srinivasa",middleName:"P",surname:"Rao",slug:"srinivasa-rao",fullName:"Srinivasa Rao"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9139",title:"Topics in Primary Care Medicine",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ea774a4d4c1179da92a782e0ae9cde92",slug:"topics-in-primary-care-medicine",bookSignature:"Thomas F. Heston",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9139.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"217926",title:"Dr.",name:"Thomas F.",middleName:null,surname:"Heston",slug:"thomas-f.-heston",fullName:"Thomas F. Heston"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9208",title:"Welding",subtitle:"Modern Topics",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"7d6be076ccf3a3f8bd2ca52d86d4506b",slug:"welding-modern-topics",bookSignature:"Sadek Crisóstomo Absi Alfaro, Wojciech Borek and Błażej Tomiczek",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9208.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"65292",title:"Prof.",name:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi",middleName:"C. Absi",surname:"Alfaro",slug:"sadek-crisostomo-absi-alfaro",fullName:"Sadek Crisostomo Absi Alfaro"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},subject:{topic:{id:"527",title:"System Automation",slug:"system-automation",parent:{title:"Artificial Intelligence",slug:"computer-and-information-science-artificial-intelligence"},numberOfBooks:1,numberOfAuthorsAndEditors:31,numberOfWosCitations:6,numberOfCrossrefCitations:9,numberOfDimensionsCitations:14,videoUrl:null,fallbackUrl:null,description:null},booksByTopicFilter:{topicSlug:"system-automation",sort:"-publishedDate",limit:12,offset:0},booksByTopicCollection:[{type:"book",id:"2046",title:"Machine Vision",subtitle:"Applications and Systems",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"a5e8fcd36ede802fd6462fb9fa996838",slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",bookSignature:"Fabio Solari, Manuela Chessa and Silvio P. Sabatini",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/2046.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"13366",title:"Dr.",name:"Fabio",middleName:null,surname:"Solari",slug:"fabio-solari",fullName:"Fabio Solari"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}],booksByTopicTotal:1,mostCitedChapters:[{id:"33564",doi:"10.5772/34023",title:"Towards the Optimal Hardware Architecture for Computer Vision",slug:"towards-the-optimal-hardware-architecture-for-computer-vision",totalDownloads:2053,totalCrossrefCites:4,totalDimensionsCites:5,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Alejandro Nieto, David López Vilarino and Víctor Brea Sánchez",authors:[{id:"2541",title:"Mr.",name:"Alejandro",middleName:null,surname:"Nieto",slug:"alejandro-nieto",fullName:"Alejandro Nieto"},{id:"103915",title:"Dr.",name:"David",middleName:null,surname:"López Vilariño",slug:"david-lopez-vilarino",fullName:"David López Vilariño"},{id:"103916",title:"Dr.",name:"Víctor M.",middleName:null,surname:"Brea Sánchez",slug:"victor-m.-brea-sanchez",fullName:"Víctor M. Brea Sánchez"}]},{id:"33559",doi:"10.5772/35150",title:"Methods for Ellipse Detection from Edge Maps of Real Images",slug:"methods-for-ellipse-detection-from-edge-maps-of-real-images",totalDownloads:2491,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:3,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Dilip K. Prasad and Maylor K.H. Leung",authors:[{id:"103174",title:"Dr.",name:"Dilip",middleName:"Kumar",surname:"Prasad",slug:"dilip-prasad",fullName:"Dilip Prasad"}]},{id:"33556",doi:"10.5772/34160",title:"Real-Time Processing of 3D-TOF Data in Machine Vision Applications",slug:"real-time-processing-of-3d-tof-data-in-machine-vision-applications",totalDownloads:2672,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:2,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Stephan Hussmann, Torsten Edeler and Alexander Hermanski",authors:[{id:"6250",title:"Prof. Dr.-Ing.",name:"Stephan",middleName:null,surname:"Hussmann",slug:"stephan-hussmann",fullName:"Stephan Hussmann"}]}],mostDownloadedChaptersLast30Days:[{id:"33553",title:"Bio-Inspired Active Vision Paradigms in Surveillance Applications",slug:"bio-inspired-active-vision-paradigms-in-surveillance-applications",totalDownloads:1868,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:1,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Mauricio Vanegas, Manuela Chessa, Fabio Solari and Silvio Sabatini",authors:[{id:"13366",title:"Dr.",name:"Fabio",middleName:null,surname:"Solari",slug:"fabio-solari",fullName:"Fabio Solari"}]},{id:"33556",title:"Real-Time Processing of 3D-TOF Data in Machine Vision Applications",slug:"real-time-processing-of-3d-tof-data-in-machine-vision-applications",totalDownloads:2672,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:2,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Stephan Hussmann, Torsten Edeler and Alexander Hermanski",authors:[{id:"6250",title:"Prof. Dr.-Ing.",name:"Stephan",middleName:null,surname:"Hussmann",slug:"stephan-hussmann",fullName:"Stephan Hussmann"}]},{id:"33562",title:"Discontinuity Detection from Inflection of Otsu’s Threshold in Derivative of Scale-Space",slug:"discontinuity-detection-from-inflection-of-otsu-s-threshold-in-the-derivative-of-scale-space",totalDownloads:1714,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Rahul Walia, David Suter and Raymond A. Jarvis",authors:[{id:"70415",title:"Mr.",name:"Rahul",middleName:null,surname:"Walia",slug:"rahul-walia",fullName:"Rahul Walia"},{id:"119864",title:"Prof.",name:"Raymond A",middleName:null,surname:"Jarvis",slug:"raymond-a-jarvis",fullName:"Raymond A Jarvis"},{id:"119865",title:"Prof.",name:"David",middleName:null,surname:"Suter",slug:"david-suter",fullName:"David Suter"}]},{id:"33558",title:"Characterization of the Surface Finish of Machined Parts Using Artificial Vision and Hough Transform",slug:"characterization-of-surface-finish-of-machined-parts-using-artificial-vision-and-hough-transform",totalDownloads:2501,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Alberto Rosales Silva, Angel Xeque-Morales, L.A. Morales -Hernandez and Francisco Gallegos Funes",authors:[{id:"2941",title:"Dr.",name:"Alberto",middleName:"Jorge",surname:"Rosales-Silva",slug:"alberto-rosales-silva",fullName:"Alberto Rosales-Silva"},{id:"11317",title:"Dr.",name:"Francisco J.",middleName:null,surname:"Gallegos-Funes",slug:"francisco-j.-gallegos-funes",fullName:"Francisco J. Gallegos-Funes"},{id:"103334",title:"MSc.",name:"Angel",middleName:null,surname:"Xeque",slug:"angel-xeque",fullName:"Angel Xeque"},{id:"103340",title:"Dr.",name:"Luis",middleName:null,surname:"Morales",slug:"luis-morales",fullName:"Luis Morales"}]},{id:"33559",title:"Methods for Ellipse Detection from Edge Maps of Real Images",slug:"methods-for-ellipse-detection-from-edge-maps-of-real-images",totalDownloads:2491,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:3,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Dilip K. Prasad and Maylor K.H. Leung",authors:[{id:"103174",title:"Dr.",name:"Dilip",middleName:"Kumar",surname:"Prasad",slug:"dilip-prasad",fullName:"Dilip Prasad"}]},{id:"33563",title:"Reflectance Modeling in Machine Vision: Applications in Image Analysis and Synthesis",slug:"reflectance-modeling-in-machine-vision-applications-in-image-analysis-and-synthesis",totalDownloads:2107,totalCrossrefCites:2,totalDimensionsCites:1,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Robin Gruna and Stephan Irgenfried",authors:[{id:"67059",title:"Mr.",name:"Robin",middleName:null,surname:"Gruna",slug:"robin-gruna",fullName:"Robin Gruna"},{id:"74290",title:"MSc.",name:"Stephan",middleName:null,surname:"Irgenfried",slug:"stephan-irgenfried",fullName:"Stephan Irgenfried"}]},{id:"33557",title:"Rotation Angle Estimation Algorithms for Textures and Their Implementations on Real Time Systems",slug:"rotation-angle-estimation-algorithms-for-textures-and-their-real-time-implementation-",totalDownloads:1958,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:1,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Cihan Ulas, Onur Toker and Kemal Fidanboylu",authors:[{id:"67465",title:"Mr.",name:"Cihan",middleName:null,surname:"Ulas",slug:"cihan-ulas",fullName:"Cihan Ulas"},{id:"127960",title:"Dr.",name:"Onur",middleName:null,surname:"Toker",slug:"onur-toker",fullName:"Onur Toker"},{id:"127961",title:"Prof.",name:"Kemal",middleName:null,surname:"Fidanboylu",slug:"kemal-fidanboylu",fullName:"Kemal Fidanboylu"}]},{id:"33555",title:"Fast Computation of Dense and Reliable Depth Maps from Stereo Images",slug:"fast-computation-of-dense-and-reliable-depth-maps-from-stereo-images",totalDownloads:2653,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:0,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"M. Tornow, M. Grasshoff, N. Nguyen, A. Al-Hamadi and B. Michaelis",authors:[{id:"102462",title:"Dr.",name:"Michael",middleName:null,surname:"Tornow",slug:"michael-tornow",fullName:"Michael Tornow"},{id:"103726",title:"MSc.",name:"Thien-Nghia",middleName:null,surname:"Nguyen",slug:"thien-nghia-nguyen",fullName:"Thien-Nghia Nguyen"},{id:"103727",title:"Prof.",name:"Bernd",middleName:null,surname:"Michaelis",slug:"bernd-michaelis",fullName:"Bernd Michaelis"},{id:"137516",title:"MSc.",name:"Michael",middleName:null,surname:"Grasshoff",slug:"michael-grasshoff",fullName:"Michael Grasshoff"}]},{id:"33560",title:"Detection and Pose Estimation of Piled Objects Using Ensemble of Tree Classifiers",slug:"detection-and-pose-estimation-of-piled-objects-using-ensemble-of-tree-classifiers",totalDownloads:2112,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Masakazu Matsugu, Katsuhiko Mori, Yusuke Mitarai and Hiroto Yoshii",authors:[{id:"96123",title:"Dr.",name:"Masakazu",middleName:null,surname:"Matsugu",slug:"masakazu-matsugu",fullName:"Masakazu Matsugu"},{id:"100026",title:"Mr.",name:"Katsuhiko",middleName:null,surname:"Mori",slug:"katsuhiko-mori",fullName:"Katsuhiko Mori"},{id:"100027",title:"Mr.",name:"Yusuke",middleName:null,surname:"Mitarai",slug:"yusuke-mitarai",fullName:"Yusuke Mitarai"},{id:"100034",title:"Mr.",name:"Hiroto",middleName:null,surname:"Yoshii",slug:"hiroto-yoshii",fullName:"Hiroto Yoshii"}]},{id:"33554",title:"Stereo Matching Method and Height Estimation for Unmanned Helicopter",slug:"stereo-matching-method-and-height-estimation-for-unmanned-helicopter",totalDownloads:1663,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:1,book:{slug:"machine-vision-applications-and-systems",title:"Machine Vision",fullTitle:"Machine Vision - Applications and Systems"},signatures:"Kuo-Hsien Hsia, Shao-Fan Lien and Juhng-Perng Su",authors:[{id:"78819",title:"Dr.",name:"Kuo-Hsien",middleName:null,surname:"Hsia",slug:"kuo-hsien-hsia",fullName:"Kuo-Hsien Hsia"},{id:"85733",title:"Prof.",name:"Juhng-Perng",middleName:null,surname:"Su",slug:"juhng-perng-su",fullName:"Juhng-Perng Su"},{id:"85735",title:"MSc.",name:"Shao-Fan",middleName:null,surname:"Lien",slug:"shao-fan-lien",fullName:"Shao-Fan Lien"}]}],onlineFirstChaptersFilter:{topicSlug:"system-automation",limit:3,offset:0},onlineFirstChaptersCollection:[],onlineFirstChaptersTotal:0},preDownload:{success:null,errors:{}},aboutIntechopen:{},privacyPolicy:{},peerReviewing:{},howOpenAccessPublishingWithIntechopenWorks:{},sponsorshipBooks:{sponsorshipBooks:[{type:"book",id:"10176",title:"Microgrids and Local Energy Systems",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"c32b4a5351a88f263074b0d0ca813a9c",slug:null,bookSignature:"Prof. Nick Jenkins",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10176.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"55219",title:"Prof.",name:"Nick",middleName:null,surname:"Jenkins",slug:"nick-jenkins",fullName:"Nick Jenkins"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],offset:8,limit:8,total:1},route:{name:"profile.detail",path:"/profiles/15586/min-zhu",hash:"",query:{},params:{id:"15586",slug:"min-zhu"},fullPath:"/profiles/15586/min-zhu",meta:{},from:{name:null,path:"/",hash:"",query:{},params:{},fullPath:"/",meta:{}}}},function(){var e;(e=document.currentScript||document.scripts[document.scripts.length-1]).parentNode.removeChild(e)}()