MRI: Acquisition of Motion Capture and Eye Tracking Equipment to Enable Innovative Research on Joint Action

联合行动包括两个或更多的人在共同的努力中协调一致，“身体和思想一起运动”。谈话是一种共同的行为，就像共同举起和移动钢琴，或者在职业网球场上激烈的比赛一样。众所周知，实时联合动作很难研究，因为测量两个或更多人协调的认知和身体活动非常复杂。然而，人们每天都在参与联合活动，而且这些活动往往具有巨大的实际意义，比如一组空中交通管制员引导客机通过空域。最近的研究为这个棘手的话题提供了一个切入点：参与者在联合动作中身体和眼睛的运动变得密切同步。因此，对同步的测量可以揭示协调的本质以及在联合行动中维持协调的细微变化。成功还取决于20世纪后半叶发展起来的新的同步数学和最近无线传感器技术的发展。无线传感器技术使研究人员能够在不使用由数十根连接线形成的复杂系绳的情况下，对运动进行精确测量。新技术允许受试者在联合活动中自由移动，同时进行密集的实时测量。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。Michael Riley、Kevin Shockley和Guy Van Orden将购买最先进的无线动作捕捉和眼球追踪技术，以客观地测量运动身体的协调性和关节活动期间的眼球运动。最多可以同时跟踪四个人的身体、肢体和眼球运动，并记录下来，供以后分析以量化协调性。这些强大的传感器技术，结合新的数学分析技术，定义了下一代科学仪器来研究联合行动。该仪器提供了无与伦比的细节，以解决有关联合行动的基本问题，并提供了在需要操作人员团队协作完成联合任务的应用环境中联合行动的实用知识。如果在联合行动中产生的认知和感知运动协调与提高团队绩效有关，那么可以通过刺激协调来提高绩效。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下购买的设备还将加强辛辛那提大学的本科生和研究生培训，在辛辛那提大学，来自心理学、生物学、生物医学工程、电子工程和医学的跨学科研究人员网络研究人类活动协调的基础和应用方面。主题包括联合认知活动、学习和发展、人体工程学以及运动协调（平衡、步态、运动障碍和康复）方面的其他特定主题。新装备的实验室还将加强吸引学生进入STEM学科的持续努力，特别是那些在辛辛那提大学本科学习中代表性不足但在科学领域代表性很好的群体。许多学生被动作捕捉技术所吸引，它被用来制作动画电影和视频游戏，但不知道它的科学应用。

Joint actions involve two or more people coordinated in a common endeavor "bodies and minds moving together." A conversation is a joint action, as is the shared hefting and moving of a piano, or a blistering rally in professional tennis. Real-time joint action has been notoriously difficult to study because of the complexity of measuring coordinated cognitive and bodily activity across two or more people. Nevertheless, people participate in joint activities on a daily basis, and they often have enormous practical significance, as when a team of air-traffic controllers shepherds passenger planes through air space. Recent research suggests a point of entry into this difficult topic: body and eye movements become closely synchronized between participants in joint actions. Thus measurements of synchronization may reveal the nature of the coordination and the subtle changes that sustain coordination in joint action. Success also depends on the new mathematics of synchronization developed across the last half of the 20th century and on very recent developments in wireless sensor technology. Wireless sensor technology allows researchers to take precise measurements of movement without the elaborate tethers created by dozens of connecting wires. The new technology allows subjects to move freely in joint activities while a dense array of real-time measurements are taken.With the support of the National Science Foundation, Drs. Michael Riley, Kevin Shockley and Guy Van Orden will purchase state-of-the-art wireless motion-capture and eye-tracking technology to objectively measure coordination of moving bodies and of eye movements during joint activities. Body, limb, and eye movements of up to four people can be tracked simultaneously and recorded for later analysis to quantify coordination. These powerful sensor technologies, combined with new mathematical analysis techniques, define the next generation of scientific instrumentation to investigate joint action. This instrumentation provides unparalleled detail to address basic questions about joint action and provides practical knowledge of joint actions in applied settings requiring teams of operators to collaborate on joint tasks. If cognitive and perceptual-motor coordination that arises during joint action is related to enhanced team performance, then performance can be improved by stimulating coordination.The equipment purchased with National Science Foundation support will also enhance undergraduate and graduate training at the University of Cincinnati, where an interdisciplinary network of researchers from psychology, biology, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, and medicine study basic and applied aspects of coordination in human activity. Topics include joint cognitive activities, learning and development, ergonomics, and other specific topics in motor coordination (balance, gait, movement disorders, and rehabilitation). The newly equipped laboratory will also enhance ongoing efforts to attract students to STEM disciplines, especially from groups who are underrepresented in science but well represented in undergraduate studies at the University of Cincinnati. Many students are attracted to motion-capture technology it is used to create animated films and video games but are unaware of its scientific applications.