Superimposing 3D Virtual Self + Expert Modeling for Motor Learning: Application to the Throw in American Football

Abstract

We learn and/or relearn motor skills at all ages. Feedback plays a crucial role in this learning process, and Virtual Reality (VR) constitutes a unique tool to provide feedback and improve motor learning. In particular, VR grants the possibility to edit 3D movements and display augmented feedback in real time. Here we combined VR and motion capture to provide learners with a 3D feedback superimposing in real time the reference movements of an expert (expert feedback) to the movements of the learner (self feedback). We assessed the effectiveness of this feedback for the learning of a throwing movement in American football. This feedback was used during (concurrent feedback) and/or after movement execution (delayed feedback), and it was compared with a feedback displaying only the reference movements of the expert. In contrast with more traditional studies relying on video feedback, we used the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm coupled to motion capture to measure the spatial characteristics of the movements. We also assessed the regularity with which the learner reproduced the reference movement along its path. For that, we used a new metric computing the dispersion of distance around the mean distance over time. Our results show that when the movements of the expert were superimposed on the movements of the learner during learning (i.e., self + expert), the reproduction of the reference movement improved significantly. Furthermore, providing feedback about the movements of the expert only did not give rise to any significant improvement regarding movement reproduction.

Visual Cue Based Corrective Feedback for Motor Skill Training in Mixed Reality: A Survey

“…We observed this for example in the work of Yu et al [79], who measured completion time and movement error. Aside from that, similar metrics can be found in the approaches of Cao et al [8], Kosmalla et al [31], Barioni et al [24], Sekhavat et al [62], Sousa et al [65], H ülsmann et al [26], Naour et al [45], Tang et al [69], Trajkova et al [71] and Waltemate et al [75].…”

Investigating and acquiring motor expertise using virtual reality

“…Likewise, 3D immersive VR should support many, if not all, the motoric degrees of freedom of real-world tasks [cf. 40,[63][64][65]. Finally, the VR task should engage the full spectrum of cognitive resources called upon in real world tasks (e.g., [57][58][59]66]; Fig.…”

Investigating and acquiring motor expertise using virtual reality

“…Likewise, 3D immersive VR should support many, if not all, the motoric degrees of freedom of real-world tasks [cf. 40,[63][64][65]. Finally, the VR task should engage the full spectrum of cognitive resources called upon in real world tasks (e.g., [57][58][59]66]; Fig.…”