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ASCENSION'S REACTOR
2 IS KEY IN ANALYZING HUMAN
MOVEMENT AT RUTGERS
BURLINGTON, VERMONT;OCTOBER
12, 2004: ReActor
2 – Ascension’s active-optical
motion-capture system - is
being used by Rutgers
University to gather
quantitative data on the visual
perception of movement. For
researchers there, ReActor
2 has quickly become a critical
tool in exploring how visual
experience, motor experience,
and social processes all contribute
to the visual analysis of
human movement.
Led by Rutgers Psychology
Department’s Dr. Maggie Shiffrar
and funded by the National
Eye Institute, the research
focuses on visual analysis
of human action. “The goal
of my research is to understand
how the visual system interprets
moving objects. To aid our
understanding of visual system
function, members of my laboratory
examine the relationships
between visual physiology
and visual perception,” says
Shiffrar.
Shiffrar chose ReActor 2
after searching and evaluating
several systems. She liked
it best because it presents
no marker occlusion problems.
“Since we are interested in
whole body movements, we couldn’t
pick a system that fell apart
every time a marker was hidden
from a camera,” Shiffrar says.
She also points out that because
some of their studies involve
people walking on treadmills,
a magnetic tracking system
might encounter interference
from metals present in the
treadmill.
ReActor’s motion-capture
cube enables Shiffrar’s team
to both project life-size
displays on one side of the
cube and then examine how
people perceive the motion
seen on the display. ReActor
2 performs two tasks: first
its motion capture outputs
provide the ‘movies’ of human
actions for the subjects to
watch; secondly it measures
the subjects’ physical responses
to those movies.
To measure these physical
responses, Shiffrar’s lab
uses two different measurement
techniques. “The first is
a conscious measure,” explains
Shiffrar. “We ask people to
make perceptual judgments
such as ‘How fast is that
person walking? Is it a man
or a woman? Is this the same
person who you saw in the
previous display?’” The second
measure is “unconscious.”
Using the ReActor2 system,
researchers measure how subjects
unconsciously change their
own movements in response
to what they see.
For more information about
ReActor 2 and other Ascension
motion tracking products,
visit www.ascension-tech.com.
For more information about
Rutgers University Psychology
Department project, visit
www.psych.rutgers.edu.
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