A Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) Approach to Human Development and Evolution. The Echo of the Universe.

In the present work we demonstrate that the current Child-Computer Interaction paradigm is not potentiating human development to its fullest – it is associated with several physical and mental health problems and appears not to be maximizing children’s cognitive performance and cognitive development. In order to potentiate children’s physical and mental health (including cognitive performance and cognitive development) we have developed a new approach to human development and evolution. This approach proposes a particular synergy between the developing human body, computing machines and natural environments. It emphasizes that children should be encouraged to interact with challenging physical environments offering multiple possibilities for sensory stimulation and increasing physical and mental stress to the organism. We created and tested a new set of computing devices in order to operationalize our approach – Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) devices: “Albert” and “Cratus”. In two initial studies we were able to observe that the main goal of our approach is being achieved. We observed that, interaction with the Biosymtic device “Albert”, in a natural environment, managed to trigger a different neurophysiological response (increases in sustained attention levels) and tended to optimize episodic memory performance in children, compared to interaction with a sedentary screen-based computing device, in an artificially controlled environment (indoors) - thus a promising solution to promote cognitive performance/development; and that interaction with the Biosymtic device “Cratus”, in a natural environment, instilled vigorous physical activity levels in children - thus a promising solution to promote physical and mental health

Mapping Muscles Activation to Force Perception during Unloading

It has been largely proved that while judging a force humans mainly rely on the motor commands produced to interact with that force (i.e., sense of effort). Despite of a large bulk of previous investigations interested in understanding the contributions of the descending and ascending signals in force perception, very few attempts have been made to link a measure of neural output (i.e., EMG) to the psychophysical performance. Indeed, the amount of correlation between EMG activity and perceptual decisions can be interpreted as an estimate of the contribution of central signals involved in the sensation of force. In this study we investigated this correlation by measuring the muscular activity of eight arm muscles while participants performed a quasi-isometric force detection task. Here we showed a method to quantitatively describe muscular activity ("muscle-metric function") that was directly comparable to the description of the participants' psychophysical decisions about the stimulus force. We observed that under our experimental conditions, muscle-metric absolute thresholds and the shape of the muscle-metric curves were closely related to those provided by the psychophysics. In fact a global measure of the muscles considered was able to predict approximately 60% of the perceptual decisions total variance. Moreover the inter-subjects differences in psychophysical sensitivity showed high correlation with both participants' muscles sensitivity and participants' joint torques. Overall, our findings gave insights into both the role played by the corticospinal motor commands while performing a force detection task and the influence of the gravitational muscular torque on the estimation of vertical forces

Experimental identification of the behaviour of and lateral forces from freely-walking pedestrians on laterally oscillating structures in a virtual reality environment

AbstractModelling pedestrian loading on lively structures such as bridges remains a challenge. This is because pedestrians have the capacity to interact with vibrating structures which can lead to amplification of the structural response. Current design guidelines are often inaccurate and limiting as they do not sufficiently acknowledge this effect. This originates in scarcity of data on pedestrian behaviour on vibrating ground and uncertainty as to the accuracy of results from previous experimental campaigns aiming to quantify pedestrian behaviour in this case. To this end, this paper presents a novel experimental setup developed to evaluate pedestrian actions on laterally oscillating ground in the laboratory environment while avoiding the implications of artificiality and allowing for unconstrained gait. A biologically-inspired approach was adopted in its development, relying on appreciation of operational complexities of biological systems, in particular their adaptability and control requirements. In determination of pedestrian forces to the structure consideration was given to signal processing issues which have been neglected in past studies. The results from tests conducted on the setup are related to results from previous experimental investigations and outputs of the inverted pendulum pedestrian model for walking on laterally oscillating ground, which is capable of generating self-excited forces

The kinesfield : a study of movement-based interactive and choreographic art

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/680 on 14.03.2017 by CS (TIS)Through the exploration of practice and theory, this thesis aims to elucidate the characteristics of movement-based interactive art and the kinesfield, a term developed during the course of the research to describe the publics' body-medium. Movement-based interactive art is based on choreographed movements of the body, media and specialized technologies which facilitate new forms of participatory movement experience. This emergent art form has initiated new methods of experiencing and presenting dance in the public domain. lt is argued that this leads to new artistic developments which may constitute a paradigm shift of the concept of the body-medium in the field of dance. To understand whether the shift is indeed paradigmatic, and to contribute to the development of dance and technology, this study introduces and applies the concept of the kinesfield to extend the theory of the body-medium as kinesphere, first proposed by Laban, and to challenge its characteristics in the context of movement-based interactive art. The concept of the kinesfield is employed to describe the relational dynamic of movement interactions which traverse the body and material forms in unbounded space. By this account, the body-medium is not defined geometrically, as in Laban's theory, but as a temporal and spatial field. The kinesfield accounts for a complexity of movement characteristics which pertain to the dynamic and relational experiences which occur between the biological body and its natural and atmospheric surroundings, natural forces, and its socio-cultural milieu. The argument unfolds as a triangulation of three movement-based interactive artworks (Shifting Ground, trajets, and Raumspielpuzzle) presented during the course of the thesis, my physical and experiential knowledge in the field of dance and an interdisciplinary literature investigation in the fields of dance, physiology/psychology/cognitive science, philosophy and sociology, plastic arts and cinema. This written document is accompanied by a CD-ROM which serves as an electronic appendix including images, videos and diagrams of the works referenced in the written thesis.This thesis is a discussion of the experiential and conceptual characteristics which underpin the choreographic research of three movement-based interactive artworks I, Shifting Ground ( 1999), trajets (2000) and Raumspielpuzzle (2003). 2 In addition to elucidating an emergent mode of choreographic practice,3 this thesis proposes a new term which offers a description of the body-medium4 materialised in choreographic movement-based interactive art, namely the kinesfield

Perceptual-motor recalibration is intact in older adults

From an ecological perspective, perceptual-motor recalibration should be a robust and adaptable process, but there are suggestions that older adults may recalibrate slower. Therefore, this study investigated the age-related temporal effects in perceptual-motor recalibration after motor disturbances. In three experiments, we disturbed young and older adults’ perception-action by fitting weights around their ankles and asking them to walk up stairs or cross obstacles repeatedly. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 26) climbed stairs with different ankle weights. An innovative methodology was applied, identifying the timeline of recalibration as the point where a stable movement pattern emerged. Experiment 1 showed that older adults recalibrated slower than young adults in lighter (but not heavier) weight conditions. In Experiment 2, participants (n = 24) crossed obstacles with different ankle weights. Results showed that older adults recalibrated faster than young adults. Finally, in Experiment 3, participants (n = 24) crossed obstacles of unpredictable and varying heights with heavy ankle weights. Again, results showed that older adults recalibrated faster than young adults. Taken together these results show that although older adults had reduced muscle strength and flexibility, they recalibrated quickly especially when the task was more challenging