Eye-hand coordination: adding complexity

我们人类能够以惊人的准确性伸手抓住物体。如果你需要什么东西，比如一杯咖啡，通常很简单，看看你记得把它放在哪里，伸手把它捡起来。但想想这个过程实际上有多复杂，而你做得又有多好。当你伸手去拿咖啡杯时，你不仅把手臂指向杯子，而且你的手和手指的姿势在接触之前就已经预测到了杯子的大小、形状和方向。使这成为可能的因素之一是您敏锐的视觉。 马尼托巴大学的乔纳森·马洛塔博士和他的同事提出了这样一个观点， 大脑中独立的视觉通路已经进化为处理视觉信息，用于识别物体和指导我们的行动。其他研究人员经常忽视的是，这两种途径并不是孤立的。尽管这些感知系统和行动系统之间有明确的分工，但这种分工代表了这两个系统在产生有意义的行为方面发挥的互补作用。有许多连接允许两个通路之间的“串扰”和相互作用。Marotta博士认为，这一研究领域的下一个大问题是确定这些途径之间的相互作用如何运作。 为了研究视觉是如何用来控制手和手臂的运动的，Marotta博士使用了专门的运动跟踪系统，该系统可以跟踪眼睛的视线，并确定手臂、手和手指在伸手时的路径。这项研究的见解不仅将为我们提供对这一重要人类技能的重要见解，而且还将有助于开发更有效的机器人、远程操作和远程辅助控制系统，特别是在目标对象的相关特征的情况下。或任务必须在没有操作员帮助的情况下指定（即盲人或身体受损者的设备）。

We humans can reach out and grasp objects with amazing accuracy. If you need something, like a cup of coffee, it is usually a simple matter to look where you remember leaving it, reach out and pick it up. But think about how complicated that process actually is and how remarkably well you do it. When you reach out to pick up the cup of coffee, not only do you direct your arm towards the cup, the posture of your hand and fingers anticipates the size, shape and orientation of the cup well before contact is made. One of the things that make this possible is your keen sense of vision. Dr. Jonathan Marotta, at the University of Manitoba, and his colleagues have advanced the idea that separate visual pathways in the brain have evolved to process visual information for use in recognizing objects and guiding our actions. What is often overlooked by other researchers is that these two pathways do not act in isolation. Even though there is a clear division of labour between these perception and action systems, this division represents the complementary role that the two systems play in the production of meaningful behaviour. There are many connections that allow for "cross talk" and interaction between the two pathways. Dr. Marotta believes that the next big question in this area of research is to determine how the interactions between the pathways operate. To study how vision is used to control the movements of the hand and arm, Dr. Marotta uses specialized motion tracking systems that track where the eyes are looking and determines the path of the arm, hand and fingers during a reach. Insights from this research will not only provide us with critical insights into this important human skill but will also assist in the development of more efficient control system for robotics, tele-operations, and tele-assistance, particularly where the relevant features of a goal object or task have to be specified without assistance from the operator (i.e. devices for the blind or physically impaired).