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

联合行动是指两个或两个以上的人在一个共同的奋进协调“身体和思想一起移动。“谈话是一个共同的行动，就像钢琴的共同举起和移动，或者职业网球中的激烈集会一样。众所周知，实时联合行动很难研究，因为测量两个或多个人的协调认知和身体活动非常复杂。尽管如此，人们每天都参加联合活动，而且这些活动往往具有巨大的实际意义，例如一组空中交通管制员在空中引导客机。最近的研究提出了一个切入点：在联合行动中，参与者之间的身体和眼睛运动变得密切同步。因此，同步的测量可以揭示协调的性质和维持联合行动中协调的微妙变化。成功还取决于世纪后半叶发展起来的新的同步数学和无线传感器技术的最新发展。无线传感器技术使研究人员能够对运动进行精确测量，而无需数十根连接线产生的复杂系绳。这项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，迈克尔·莱利博士、凯文·肖克利博士和盖伊·货车·奥登博士将购买最先进的无线运动捕捉和眼动跟踪技术，以客观地测量联合活动中移动身体和眼动的协调性。最多可同时跟踪四个人的身体、肢体和眼睛运动，并记录下来，以便日后分析，量化协调性。这些强大的传感器技术与新的数学分析技术相结合，定义了下一代科学仪器，以研究联合行动。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员团队合作执行联合任务的应用环境中联合行动的实用知识。如果在联合行动中出现的认知和感知运动协调与增强团队绩效有关，那么可以通过刺激协调来提高绩效。在国家科学基金会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，在那里，来自心理学，生物学，生物医学工程，电气工程，医学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方面的其他特定主题（平衡、步态、运动障碍和康复）。新配备的实验室还将加强持续的努力，以吸引学生到干学科，特别是从谁是在科学代表性不足，但在辛辛那提大学的本科学习代表性很好的群体。许多学生被动作捕捉技术所吸引，这种技术被用来制作动画电影和视频游戏，但却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.