Recording Movement with Motion Capture Animation Technology: A Field Test

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The ability to record human movements for later analysis is essential to a variety of topics in anthropology, including research on locomotion and gestural communication. Videotape, the method normally used to record such movements, is of limited usefulness for this purpose. For example, simple videotaping does not create a record of the movements that can be digitally analyzed or that can be evaluated without the risk that human raters will be influenced by such extraneous features as subjects' physical appearance. This project will explore the potential of motion capture animation technology to improve the way anthropologists record motion in field settings. Motion capture technology is most commonly used to create the movements of animated characters in films, but it is also widely in use as a research tool for studies of motion, gesture, and facial expression. Until recently, motion capture technology was rather cumbersome, sometimes even requiring that the performer be tethered to a computer or wear an elaborate motion-sensing suit. Now, however, it is possible to create detailed and lifelike animations using only an array of video cameras with strobe lights, a laptop computer, and small reflectors on the performer's joints and extremities. The new technology makes it possible to set up a motion capture studio in virtually any setting.This study will build upon the Rutgers Jamaican Symmetry Project, which has been recording physical and behavioral data for almost a decade. A motion capture studio will be established in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, to record dance performances. Using motion capture technology to record dances will provide the researchers with records of the performances that can then be assessed independently of the individual's appearance. In addition to the animations, they will also be collecting a series of physical measures of the performers and administering a questionnaire about health and reproductive status. The focus on dance will also allow the researchers to connect this research at a theoretical level with signaling theory, sexual selection theory, and dance ethnography and to test hypotheses derived from those theories. This project will generate a variety of benefits and broader impacts. It will be the first use of motion capture technology in an anthropological field setting. In the future this technology may prove useful for data collection on many topics other than dance, including locomotion and gestural communication. The involvement of both computer scientists and anthropologists will foster partnerships between these two fields, enriching them both. Given that dance is a popular topic to which many lay people can relate, this project is also likely to receive widespread attention and so enhance public understanding of science.