Interdisziplinäres BGC-Kolloquium
Veranstaltet vom Berlin Gesture Center in Kooperation mit

Vortrag von Robert Rein (Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln):

Spatial registration of deictic gestures using motion capturing / Räumliche Registrierung von Zeigebewegung mit Hilfe der Kinematographie

Freitag, 12. Februar, 19 Uhr, Projektron, Gneisenaustr. 2, 10961 Berlin-Kreuzberg (U-Bahnhof Mehringdamm)

Gestures are a natural way to convey spatial information and actors are known to use significantly more gestures when talking about spatial information compared to when talking about non-spatial information. Therefore analysis of gestures made by actors whilst describing paths between locations appear to present a fruitful research paradigm for gesture research. In the present study we propose an experimental paradigm combining classical gesture research with motion capturing. Using an electromagnetic marker system the hand gestures of actors whilst describing the walking path between two locations will be recorded. According to the literature two different viewpoints for the description of the path can be expected. Actors should either use a character viewpoint describing the necessary walking path in a screen like manner or actors use an observer viewpoint describing the path using a virtual map. As motion capturing allows recording of the hand movements with a precise metric this research aims at first at two questions. First, the naïve question is, whether the metrics of the “real”-path are preserved in the gestural path, e.g. are relationships between sub-paths the same compared to the actual path. Further, character- and observer-viewpoint can be mapped to the concepts of allocentric and egocentric coordinates respectively. These are known to be based on different neuronal circuitry and entail different precision demands. Therefore, the second question investigates whether these varying demands are represented in the hand gestures. Thus, allocentric coordinates describing relative positions of object with regard to each other should display path metrics with smaller precision compared to egocentric coordinates, which are known to underlie actions in a direct manner demanding greater precision. We hope that through such an experimental approach we can gain further insights about the cognitive processes underlying gesture production.