A new view on grasping

Reaching out for an object is often described as consisting of two components that are based on different visual information. Information about the object’s position and orientation guides the hand to the object, while information about the object’s shape and size determines how the fingers move relative to the thumb to grasp it. We propose an alternative description, which consists of determining suitable positions on the object — on the basis of its shape, surface roughness, and so on — and then moving one’s thumb and fingers more or less independently to these positions. We modelled this description using a minimum jerk approach, whereby the finger and thumb approach their respective target positions approximately orthogonally to the surface. Our model predicts how experimental variables such as object size, movement speed, fragility, and required accuracy will influence the timing and size of the maximum aperture of the hand. An extensive review of experimental studies on grasping showed that the predicted influences correspond to human behaviour

Relativistic Aberration for Accelerating Observers

We investigate the effects of the aberration of light for a uniformly accelerating observer. The observer we consider is initially at rest with respect to a luminous spherical object--a star, say--and then starts to move away with constant acceleration. The main results we derive are the following: (i) The observer always sees an initial increase of the apparent size of the object; (ii) The apparent size of the object approaches a non-zero value as the proper time of the observer goes to infinity. (iii) There exists a critical value of the acceleration such that the apparent size of the object is always increasing when the acceleration is super-critical. We show that, while (i) is a purely non-relativistic effect, (ii) and (iii) are effects of the relativistic aberration of light and are intimately connected with the Lorentzian geometry of Minkowksi spacetime. Finally, the examples we present illustrate that, while more or less negligible in everyday life, the three effects can be significant in the context of space-flight.Comment: 7 figures; subject: special relativity; pedagogical article; replaced to match version appearing in Am. J. Phy

Multiple Specification of an Object’s Size for Picking it up.

Subjects were asked to pick up disks. The apparent size of the disks was manipulated by a visual illusion. Of the two aspects of the action which depend on the objects size, only one was affected by the illusion. We conclude that different aspects of an action are controlled independently, instead of being co-ordinated on the basis of one perceptual variable