Motor Learning in Virtual Reality: From Motion to Augmented Feedback

Hülsmann F. Motor Learning in Virtual Reality: From Motion to Augmented Feedback. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2019.Sports and fitness exercises are an important factor in health improvement. The acquisition of new movements - motor learning - and the improvement of techniques for already learned ones are a vital part of sports training. Ideally, this part is supervised and supported by coaches. They know how to correctly perform specific exercises and how to prevent typical movement errors. However, coaches are not always available or do not have enough time to fully supervise training sessions. Virtual reality (VR) is an ideal medium to support motor learning in the absence of coaches. VR systems could supervise performed movements, visualize movement patterns, and identify errors that are performed by a trainee. Further, feedback could be provided that even extends the possibilities of coaching in the real world. Still, core concepts that form the basis of effective coaching applications in VR are not yet fully developed. In order to diminish this gap, we focus on the processing of kinematic data as one of the core components for motor learning. Based on the processing of kinematic data in real-time, a coaching system can supervise a trainee and provide varieties of multi-modal feedback strategies. For motor learning, this thesis explores the development of core concepts based on the usage of kinematic data in three areas. First, the movement that is performed by a trainee must be observed and visualized in real-time. The observation can be achieved by state-of-the-art motion capture techniques. Concerning the visualization, in the real world, trainees can observe their own performance in mirrors. We use a virtual mirror as a paradigm to allow trainees to observe their own movement in a natural way. A well established feedback strategy from real-world coaching, namely improvement via observation of a target performance, is transfered into the virtual mirror paradigm. Second, a system that focuses on motor learning should be able to assess the performance that it observes. For instance, typical errors in a trainee's performance must be detected as soon as possible in order to react in an effective way. Third, the motor learning environment should be able to provide suitable feedback strategies based on detected errors. In this thesis, real-time feedback based on error detection is integrated inside a coaching cycle that is inspired from real-world coaching. In a final evaluation, all the concepts are brought together in a VR coaching system. We demonstrate that this system is able to help trainees in improving their motor performance with respect to specific error patterns. Finally, based on the results throughout the thesis, helpful guidelines in order to develop effective environments for motor learning in VR are proposed

Computer-supported movement guidance: investigating visual/visuotactile guidance and informing the design of vibrotactile body-worn interfaces

This dissertation explores the use of interactive systems to support movement guidance, with applications in various fields such as sports, dance, physiotherapy, and immersive sketching. The research focuses on visual, haptic, and visuohaptic approaches and aims to overcome the limitations of traditional guidance methods, such as dependence on an expert and high costs for the novice. The main contributions of the thesis are (1) an evaluation of the suitability of various types of displays and visualizations of the human body for posture guidance, (2) an investigation into the influence of different viewpoints/perspectives, the addition of haptic feedback, and various movement properties on movement guidance in virtual environments, (3) an investigation into the effectiveness of visuotactile guidance for hand movements in a virtual environment, (4) two in-depth studies of haptic perception on the body to inform the design of wearable and handheld interfaces that leverage tactile output technologies, and (5) an investigation into new interaction techniques for tactile guidance of arm movements. The results of this research advance the state of the art in the field, provide design and implementation insights, and pave the way for new investigations in computer-supported movement guidance

A bibliography experiment on research within the scope of industry 4.0 application areas in sports: Sporda endüstri 4.0 uygulama alanları kapsamında yapılan araştırmalar üzerine bir bibliyografya denemesi

Developed countries develop their production sites within the scope of industry 4.0 technology components and experience constant change and transformation to establish economic superiority. This situation allows them to produce more in various fields and thus to rise to a more advantageous position economically. Industry 4.0 technology affects areas within the scope of the sports industry such as sports tourism, athlete performance, athlete health, sports publishing, sports textile products, sports education and training, sports management and human resources, and creates an international competition environment in terms of production and performance. In this study, it is aimed to examine the researches about the usage areas of industry 4.0 in sports. From this point on, researches in the context of the subject have been presented with bibliographic method. In the conclusion section, the weaknesses and possibilities of youth sociology were discussed, and efforts were made to present a projection on what to do about the field. In this respect, a youth sociology evaluation has been tried to be made on the prominent topics, forgotten aspects and themes left incomplete in youth sociology studies. ​Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.   Özet Gelişmiş ülkeler endüstri 4.0 teknolojisi bileşenleri kapsamında üretim sahalarını geliştirmekte ve ekonomik üstünlük kurmak amacıyla sürekli değişim ve dönüşüm yaşamaktadır. Bu durum onların çeşitli alanlarda daha fazla üretmelerine dolayısıyla ekonomik yönden daha avantajlı konuma yükselmelerine olanak sağlamaktadır. Endüstri 4.0 teknolojisi spor turizmi, sporcu performansı, sporcu sağlığı, spor yayıncılığı, spor tekstil ürünleri, spor eğitimi ve öğretimi, spor yönetimi ve insan kaynakları gibi spor endüstrisi kapsamındaki alanları etkilemekte üretim ve performans yönünden ülkeler arası bir rekabet ortamı oluşturmaktadır. Bu çalışmada endüstri 4.0’ın sporda kullanım alanları ile ilgili araştırmaların incelenmesi hedeflenmektedir. Bu noktadan hareketle konu bağlamındaki araştırmalar bibliyografik metodla ortaya konmuştur. Sonuç bölümünde ise sporda endüstri 4.0 kullanım alanları tartışılmış, alana olan katkıları ve olumuz etkilerinin değerlendirilmesi yapılmıştır. &nbsp

Analysis of the backpack loading efects on the human gait

Gait is a simple activity of daily life and one of the main abilities of the human being. Often during leisure, labour and sports activities, loads are carried over (e.g. backpack) during gait. These circumstantial loads can generate instability and increase biomechanicalstress over the human tissues and systems, especially on the locomotor, balance and postural regulation systems. According to Wearing (2006), subjects that carry a transitory or intermittent load will be able to find relatively efficient solutions to compensate its effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Classification of motor errors to provide real-time feedback for sports coaching in virtual reality - A case study in squats and Tai Chi pushes (Data)

Hülsmann F, Göpfert JP, Hammer B, Kopp S, Botsch M. Classification of motor errors to provide real-time feedback for sports coaching in virtual reality - A case study in squats and Tai Chi pushes (Data). Bielefeld University; 2018.This data publication contains the training data for the following work: For successful fitness coaching in virtual reality, movements of a trainee must be analyzed in order to provide feedback. To date, most coaching systems only provide coarse information on movement quality. We propose a novel pipeline to detect a trainee's errors during exercise that is designed to automatically generate feedback for the trainee. Our pipeline consists of an online temporal warp of a trainee's motion, followed by Random-Forest-based feature selection. The selected features are used for the classification performed by Support Vector Machines. Our feedback to the trainee can consist of predefined verbal information as well as automatically generated visual augmentations. For the latter, we exploit information on feature importance to generate real-time feedback in terms of augmented color highlights on the trainee's avatar. We show our pipeline's superiority over two popular approaches from human activity recognition applied to our problem, k-Nearest Neighbor, combined with Dynamic Time Warping (KNN-DTW), as well as a recent combination of Convolutional Neural Networks with a Long Short-term Memory Network. We compare classification quality, time needed for classification, as well as the classifiers' ability to automatically generate augmented feedback. In an exemplary application, we demonstrate that our pipeline is suitable to deliver verbal as well as automatically generated augmented feedback inside a CAVE-based sports training environment in virtual reality

Sports Performance and Health

Sports performance is primarily associated with elite sport, however, recreational athletes are increasingly attempting to emulate elite athletes. Performance optimization is distinctly multidisciplinary. Optimized training concepts and the use of state-of-the-art technologies are crucial for improving performance. However, sports performance enhancement is in constant conflict with the protection of athletes’ health. Notwithstanding the known positive effects of physical activity on health, the prevention and management of sports injuries remain major challenges to be addressed. Accordingly, this Special Issue on "Sports Performance and Health" consists of 17 original research papers, one review paper, and one commentary, and covers a wide range of topics related to fatigue, movement asymmetries, optimization of sports performance by training, technique, and/or tactics enhancements, prevention and management of sports injuries, optimization of sports equipment to increase performance and/or decrease the risk of injury, and innovations for sports performance, health, and load monitoring. As this Special Issue offers several new insights and multidisciplinary perspectives on sports performance and health, readers from around the world who work in these areas are expected to benefit from this Special Issue collection

Epidemiology of Injury in English Women's Super league Football: A Cohort Study

INTRODUCTION: The epidemiology of injury in male professional football has been well documented (Ekstrand, Hägglund, & Waldén, 2011) and used as a basis to understand injury trends for a number of years. The prevalence and incidence of injuries occurring in womens super league football is unknown. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence and incidence of injury in an English Super League Women’s Football squad. METHODS: Following ethical approval from Leeds Beckett University, players (n = 25) signed to a Women’s Super League Football club provided written informed consent to complete a self-administered injury survey. Measures of exposure, injury and performance over a 12-month period was gathered. Participants were classified as injured if they reported a football injury that required medical attention or withdrawal from participation for one day or more. Injuries were categorised as either traumatic or overuse and whether the injury was a new injury and/or re-injury of the same anatomical site RESULTS: 43 injuries, including re-injury were reported by the 25 participants providing a clinical incidence of 1.72 injuries per player. Total incidence of injury was 10.8/1000 h (95% CI: 7.5 to 14.03). Participants were at higher risk of injury during a match compared with training (32.4 (95% CI: 15.6 to 48.4) vs 8.0 (95% CI: 5.0 to 10.85)/1000 hours, p 28 days) of which there were three non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. The epidemiological incidence proportion was 0.80 (95% CI: 0.64 to 0.95) and the average probability that any player on this team will sustain at least one injury was 80.0% (95% CI: 64.3% to 95.6%) CONCLUSION: This is the first report capturing exposure and injury incidence by anatomical site from a cohort of English players and is comparable to that found in Europe (6.3/1000 h (95% CI 5.4 to 7.36) Larruskain et al 2017). The number of ACL injuries highlights a potential injury burden for a squad of this size. Multi-site prospective investigations into the incidence and prevalence of injury in women’s football are require