A team of researchers 吃瓜网 University鈥檚 (BVI) has been awarded the grant to establish a joint research facility.
One of the main research aims of BVI is to study how motor behaviour such as, locomotion and eye-hand co-ordination, is controlled by visual information. Achieving a level of realism and control in such research requires extensive facilities for real-time visual stimulus and behavioural measurements.
Dr Casimir Ludwig, the project鈥檚 principal investigator, said: 鈥淥ur aim is to create a state-of-the-art facility in which we can put humans in an artificial visual 鈥渨orld鈥� and measure consequent motor behaviour in real-time. This is an essential step for vision science.鈥�
The new facility will include a 12-camera motion capture system for fast and accurate measurement of position and movement of body segments in 3D space. A treadmill with integrated force platform will be used to measure the biomechanical response to visual stimulation.
In addition, the researchers will need to know an observer鈥檚 point of gaze in order to determine whether and what visual signals have been picked up. A mobile eye tracker will be used, so that participants can move freely within their environment. The treadmill will be surrounded by a group of screens used for stereo projection of a visual scene, together with a head-mounted display (HMD) to provide a 鈥榬icher鈥� visual environment.
Once established, the new laboratory will oversee a diverse range of collaborative research projects, such as:
- Assessments of the relationship between movement, attention and vision in children with cerebral visual impairment;
- The connection between posture and gait with visual processing in dementia;
- The role of vision in controlling movement;
- Human-structure interactions.
Professor David Bull, Director of BVI, added: 鈥淰ision is studied by a wide range of experts including physiologists, psychologists, biologists, engineers and computer scientists. Only by combining methods from these varied disciplines can we hope to get a full understanding of the complex underlying issues.鈥�
The team of academics who will lead the research include: Dr Casimir Ludwig, EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow in the ; Dr J Burn, Senior Lecturer in the and ; Dr Ute Leonards, Senior Lecturer in the and David Bull, Professor of Signal Processing in the .