Although visual perception is dominant on motor perception, control and learning, auditory information can enhance and modulate perceptual as well as motor processes in a multifaceted manner. During last decades new methods of auditory augmentation had been developed with movement sonification as one of the most recent approaches expanding auditory movement information also to usually mute phases of movement. Despite general evidence on the effectiveness of movement sonification in different fields of applied research there is nearly no empirical proof on how sonification of gross motor human movement should be configured to achieve information rich sound sequences. Such lack of empirical proof is given for (a) the selection of suitable movement features as well as for (b) effective kinetic-acoustical mapping patterns and for (c) the number of regarded dimensions of sonification. In this study we explore the informational content of artificial acoustical kinematics in terms of a kinematic movement sonification using an intermodal discrimination paradigm. In a repeated measure design we analysed discrimination rates of six everyday upper limb actions to evaluate the effectiveness of seven different kinds of kinematic-acoustical mappings as well as short-term learning effects. The kinematics of the upper limb actions were calculated based on inertial motion sensor data and transformed into seven different sonifications. Sound sequences were randomly presented to participants and discrimination rates as well as confidence of choice were analysed. Data indicate an instantaneous comprehensibility of the artificial movement acoustics as well as short-term learning effects. No differences between different dimensional encodings became evident thus indicating a high efficiency for intermodal pattern discrimination for the acoustically coded velocity distribution of the actions. Taken together movement information related to continuous kinematic parameters can be transformed into the auditory domain. Additionally, pattern based action discrimination is obviously not restricted to the visual modality. Artificial acoustical kinematics might be used to supplement and/or substitute visual motion perception in sports and motor rehabilitation.

No abstract

The automatic segmentation and classification of an unknown motion data stream according to given motion categories constitute an important research problem with applications in computer animation, medicine and sports sciences. In this paper, the scenario of trampoline motions is considered, where an athlete performs a routine consisting of sequence of jumps that belong to predefined motion categories such as pike jumps or somersaults. As main contribution, a fully automated approach for capturing, segmenting, and classifying trampoline routines according to these categories is introduced. Since trampoline motions are highly dynamic and spacious, optical motion capturing is problematic. Instead, it is reverted to a small number of inertial sensors attached to the athlete's body. To cope with measurement noise and performance differences, suitable feature and class representations are introduced that are robust to spatial and temporal variations while capturing the characteristics of each motion category. The experiments show that the approach reliably classifies trampoline jumps across different athletes even in the presence of significant style variations.

Reaching movements are usually initiated by visual events and controlled visually and kinesthetically. Lately, studies have focused on the possible benefit of auditory information for localization tasks, and also for movement control. This explorative study aimed to investigate if it is possible to code reaching space purely by auditory information. Therefore, the precision of reaching movements to merely acoustically coded target positions was analyzed. We studied the efficacy of acoustically effect-based and of additional acoustically performance-based instruction and feedback and the role of visual movement control. Twenty-four participants executed reaching movements to merely acoustically presented, invisible target positions in three mutually perpendicular planes in front of them. Effector-endpoint trajectories were tracked using inertial sensors. Kinematic data regarding the three spatial dimensions and the movement velocity were sonified. Thus, acoustic instruction and real-time feedback of the movement trajectories and the target position of the hand were provided. The subjects were able to align their reaching movements to the merely acoustically instructed targets. Reaching space can be coded merely acoustically, additional visual movement control does not enhance reaching performance. On the basis of these results, a remarkable benefit of kinematic movement acoustics for the neuromotor rehabilitation of everyday motor skills can be assumed.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

This paper describes the development of simple robotic reactive responses for the tabletop robot Haru. While reactive responses in organisms are associated with a biological purpose, they may also play a role in conveying agency in the sense of aliveness. In this paper, we are therefore interested in the design of simple reflexive behaviors that can convey a sense of agency for the Haru robot (see Fig. 1). To this end, we explore what kind of reactive responses humans find appropriate for a platform like Haru in different situations. Specifically, we conducted an elicitation study in which participants were asked to design Haru's reactive response similar to either (1) that of a human, (2) a pet animal, or (3) in a freestyle manner befitting its design. Since Haru is neither clearly anthropomorphic nor zoomorphic, it is not straightforward what model would be most suitable to drive its behaviors. Our results show that, while participants design different types of behavior depending on their experimental group, it is possible to identify a range of behaviors used by all. This indicates that it is possible to design intuitively understandable reactive behaviors for a novel companion robot whose form has no clear analogue in nature. These behaviors are unique to Haru but contain elements from human and pet animal behaviors.