Body Orientation Research Articles

Experimental investigations on robotic linear stage traverse error using draw wire sensor

Measuring linear displacement and rotation in robotic joints is vital for end effector positioning and producing the desired trajectory. The output pulse produced by driver system may not be completely converted into rotary motion of the stepper motor due to elevated loading conditions. This necessitates the gauging of stage traverse taking into consideration the effects of minor plays, guide screw pitch non uniformity, ill responses to pulses provided by the driver etc.The current paper presents a technique of measuring the errors occurring in displacement of a ball screw driven linear stage using a draw wire sensor (DW sensor) mounted on a stationary platform. The procedure involves proper design of mounting platform, ensuring orthogonal orientation of the sensor body, wire straightness check in both perpendicular planes and fabrication of wire fixtures. The output pulses from the DW sensor are acquired through NI Labview software using NI USB 6225 Data acquisition system. A mechanical dial gauge with 1 µm resolution and a laser displacement sensor is used to cross verify the obtained data. The results are then used to study the positioning accuracy of the developed 4 axis robotic arm.

The neural coding of face and body orientation in occipitotemporal cortex

Face and body orientation convey important information for us to understand other people's actions, intentions and social interactions. It has been shown that several occipitotemporal areas respond differently to faces or bodies of different orientations. However, whether face and body orientation are processed by partially overlapping or completely separate brain networks remains unclear, as the neural coding of face and body orientation is often investigated separately. Here, we recorded participants’ brain activity using fMRI while they viewed faces and bodies shown from three different orientations, while attending to either orientation or identity information. Using multivoxel pattern analysis we investigated which brain regions process face and body orientation respectively, and which regions encode both face and body orientation in a stimulus-independent manner. We found that patterns of neural responses evoked by different stimulus orientations in the occipital face area, extrastriate body area, lateral occipital complex and right early visual cortex could generalise across faces and bodies, suggesting a stimulus-independent encoding of person orientation in occipitotemporal cortex. This finding was consistent across functionally defined regions of interest and a whole-brain searchlight approach. The fusiform face area responded to face but not body orientation, suggesting that orientation responses in this area are face-specific. Moreover, neural responses to orientation were remarkably consistent regardless of whether participants attended to the orientation of faces and bodies or not. Together, these results demonstrate that face and body orientation are processed in a partially overlapping brain network, with a stimulus-independent neural code for face and body orientation in occipitotemporal cortex.

Upright versus supine MRI: effects of body position on craniocervical CSF flow

BackgroundCerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation between the brain and spinal canal, as part of the glymphatic system, provides homeostatic support to brain functions and waste clearance. Recently, it has been observed that CSF flow is strongly driven by cardiovascular brain pulsation, and affected by body orientation. The advancement of MRI has allowed for non-invasive examination of the CSF hydrodynamic properties. However, very few studies have addressed their relationship with body position (e.g., upright versus supine). It is important to understand how CSF hydrodynamics are altered by body position change in a single cardiac phase and how cumulative long hours staying in either upright or supine position can affect craniocervical CSF flow.MethodsIn this study, we investigate the changes in CSF flow at the craniocervical region with flow-sensitive MRI when subjects are moved from upright to supine position. 30 healthy volunteers were imaged in upright and supine positions using an upright MRI. The cranio-caudal and caudo-cranial CSF flow, velocity and stroke volume were measured at the C2 spinal level over one cardiac cycle using phase contrast MRI. Statistical analysis was performed to identify differences in CSF flow properties between the two positions.ResultsCSF stroke volume per cardiac cycle, representing CSF volume oscillating in and out of the cranium, was ~ 57.6% greater in supine (p < 0.0001), due to a ~ 83.8% increase in caudo-cranial CSF peak velocity during diastole (p < 0.0001) and extended systolic phase duration when moving from upright (0.25 ± 0.05 s) to supine (0.34 ± 0.08 s; p < 0.0001). Extrapolation to a 24 h timeframe showed significantly larger total CSF volume exchanged at C2 with 10 h spent supine versus only 5 h (p < 0.0001).ConclusionsIn summary, body position has significant effects on CSF flow in and out of the cranium, with more CSF oscillating in supine compared to upright position. Such difference was driven by an increased caudo-cranial diastolic CSF velocity and an increased systolic phase duration when moving from upright to supine position. Extrapolation to a 24 h timeframe suggests that more time spent in supine position increases total amount of CSF exchange, which may play a beneficial role in waste clearance in the brain.

Jumping with adhesion: landing surface incline alters impact force and body kinematics in crested geckos

Arboreal habitats are characterized by a complex three-dimensional array of branches that vary in numerous characteristics, including incline, compliance, roughness, and diameter. Gaps must often be crossed, and this is frequently accomplished by leaping. Geckos bearing an adhesive system often jump in arboreal habitats, although few studies have examined their jumping biomechanics. We investigated the biomechanics of landing on smooth surfaces in crested geckos, Correlophus ciliatus, asking whether the incline of the landing platform alters impact forces and mid-air body movements. Using high-speed videography, we examined jumps from a horizontal take-off platform to horizontal, 45° and 90° landing platforms. Take-off velocity was greatest when geckos were jumping to a horizontal platform. Geckos did not modulate their body orientation in the air. Body curvature during landing, and landing duration, were greatest on the vertical platform. Together, these significantly reduced the impact force on the vertical platform. When landing on a smooth vertical surface, the geckos must engage the adhesive system to prevent slipping and falling. In contrast, landing on a horizontal surface requires no adhesion, but incurs high impact forces. Despite a lack of mid-air modulation, geckos appear robust to changing landing conditions.

Effects of Task Constraints on Kinematic Characteristics of Body Segments in Children with Cerebral Palsy and Children with Typical Development during Hand-Reaching

Background: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) have difficulty in managing postural control during functional reaching tasks, although children with different postural control ability are able to come up with different motor solutions to cope with different task demands. This study examined the effect of task constraint on postural control performance in children with cerebral palsy and typical development (TD) in terms of different postural control abilities. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was used. Twelve children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (mean age: 107.8 months) and 16 typically developing children (mean age: 110.9 months) participated in this study. Individually, all subjects were seated in a height-adjusted chair and were requested to reach for target(s) located at three different directions (medial, anterior, and lateral). A six-camera Qualisys Motion Capture System was used to capture motion data. Kinematic data in terms of body alignment and angular changes were analyzed. Results: Children with cerebral palsy demonstrated different postural control strategies to complete different reaching tasks compared to typically developing children by preparing postural alignment in advance, coordinating different body orientation movements during reaching after showing difficulty in managing reach medially. Conclusions: Children with cerebral palsy perceive their insufficient ability and prepare their alignment in advance to adapt to the task demanded and decrease the postural challenges of the task. Even though children with cerebral palsy self-generate different motor solutions to reach without falling, these alternative strategies might not be the most efficient adaptation.

The Effects of Continuous vs. Intermittent Prism Adaptation Protocols for Treating Visuospatial Neglect: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Visuospatial neglect may interfere with activities of daily living (ADL). Prism adaptation (PA) is one treatment option and may involve two components: recalibration (more strategic) and realignment (more implicit). We examined whether recalibration or realignment is the driving force in neglect rehabilitation using PA. In a randomized controlled trial with two recruitment series and a cross-over design, 24 neglect patients were allocated to a continuous (PA-c) or intermittent (PA-i) PA procedure. During the PA-c condition, goggles were worn without doffing. In the PA-i condition, patients donned goggles twice (first series of patients) or three times (second series) during training to induce more recalibrations. Primary outcome parameters were performance (omissions) on the Apples Cancellation Test and ADL scores. To assess the efficacy of the PA treatment, we compared effect sizes of the current study with those from three groups from previous studies at the same rehabilitation unit: (1) a passive treatment with a similar intensity, (2) a placebo treatment with a similar intensity, and (3) a PA treatment with fewer therapy sessions. Treatment conditions did not significantly predict scores on primary and most secondary outcome parameters. However, the spontaneous ipsilesional body orientation improved only in patients receiving the PA-i condition and this improvement also appeared in patients showing a strong after-effect (irrespective of condition). Effect sizes for the Apples Cancellation Test and the Functional Independence Measure were larger for both PA treatment protocols than the historical control groups. We conclude that more recalibrations during an intermittent PA treatment may have a beneficial effect on spontaneous body orientation but not on other aspects of neglect or on ADL performance.Clinical Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register, identifier: DRKS00018813, DRKS00021539.

Two new species of Byrrhinus Motschulsky, 1858 (Coleoptera, Limnichidae, Limnichinae) from Negros, Philippines.

Two new species of Limnichidae beetles, Byrrhinusnegrosensissp. nov. and Byrrhinusvillarinisp. nov., are described from the Island of Negros in the Philippines. The adult specimens of the new species can be differentiated by patterns of body punctation, colour and orientation of elytral pubescence, posterolateral angle of pronotum, tarsomere length ratio and aedeagal form. Two clades, representing the two new species, were retrieved in the Maximum Likelihood gene tree using the 3’-end of the COI gene. Maximum genetic divergence within B.negrosensis sp. nov. and B.villarini sp. nov. were recorded to be 2.3% and 1.3%, respectively, while the mean interspecific divergence between the two new species was 19.7%. Morphological descriptions, digital photographs and COI sequences were provided for the two species. The state of knowledge of Byrrhinus is reviewed and an updated Philippine checklist is provided. By coupling morphological and molecular data, this paper provides the first additional new species of Philippine Byrrhinus in the last 28 years.

In situ measurements of reef squid polarization patterns using two-dimensional polarization data mapped onto three-dimensional tessellated surfaces.

Reef squids belong to a group reputed for polarization sensitivity, yet polarization patterns of reef squid have not been quantified in situ. To quantify polarization patterns from video polarimetric data, we developed a protocol to map two-dimensional polarization data onto squid-shaped three-dimensional tessellated surfaces. This protocol provided a robust data container used to investigate three-dimensional regions-of-interest, producing data lineouts derived from the squid's geometry. This protocol also extracted polarimeter and squid body orientations and the solar heading from polarization images. When averaged over the solar heading, the ventral midline gave a low degree of polarization (2.4 ± 5.3%), and the area between the ventral and flank midlines had higher values (9.0 ± 5.3%). These averaged data had a large discontinuity in the angle of polarization (AoP) at the mantle's ventral midline (64 ± 55°), with larger discontinuities measured on individual squid. Ray-tracing calculations demonstrated that the AoP pattern was not related to the squid's surface-normal geometry. However, the AoP followed virtual striation axes on the squid's surface oriented 24° to the squid's long axis, similar in angle (27°) to the striations of birefringent collagen fibres documented in other squid species' skin.

Representation of Body Orientation in Vestibular-Defective Patients Before and After Unilateral Vestibular Loss.

Introduction: The unilateral vestibular syndrome results in postural, oculomotor, perceptive, and cognitive symptoms. This study was designed to investigate the role of vestibular signals in body orientation representation, which remains poorly considered in vestibular patients.Methods: The subjective straight ahead (SSA) was investigated using a method disentangling translation and rotation components of error. Participants were required to align a rod with their body midline in the horizontal plane. Patients with right vestibular neurotomy (RVN; n =8) or left vestibular neurotomy (LVN; n = 13) or vestibular schwannoma resection were compared with 12 healthy controls. Patients were tested the day before surgery and during the recovery period, 7 days and 2 months after the surgery.Results: Before and after unilateral vestibular neurotomy, i.e., in the chronic phases, patients showed a rightward translation bias of their SSA, without rotation bias, whatever the side of the vestibular loss. However, the data show that the lower the translation error before neurotomy, the greater its increase 2 months after a total unilateral vestibular loss, therefore leading to a rightward translation of similar amplitude in the two groups of patients. In the early phase after surgery, SSA moved toward the operated side both in translation and in rotation, as typically found for biases occurring after unilateral vestibular loss, such as the subjective visual vertical (SVV) bias.Discussion and Conclusion: This study gives the first description of the immediate consequences and of the recovery time course of body orientation representation after a complete unilateral vestibular loss. The overall evolution differed according to the side of the lesion with more extensive changes over time before and after left vestibular loss. It is noteworthy that representational disturbances of self-orientation were highly unusual in the chronic stage after vestibular loss and similar to those reported after hemispheric lesions causing spatial neglect, while classical ipsilesional biases were reported in the acute stage. This study strongly supports the notion that the vestibular system plays a major role in body representation processes and more broadly in spatial cognition. From a clinical point of view, SSA appeared to be a reliable indicator for the presence of a vestibular disorder.

Exploring the role of the body in communicating ironic stance

Performing and understanding conversational irony requires a complex management of multiple viewpoints. To communicate and negotiate these intricate viewpoint shifts, speakers (and addressees) often use nonverbal means (e.g. gaze shifts, shrugs, shifts in body orientation, hand gestures, etc.) next to verbal viewpoint strategies. In the present paper we zoom in on the perspective of the speaker and try to describe and quantify bodily behavior in ironic utterances compared to non-ironic ones. To this end, we use data from a video-corpus of three-party interactions with participants wearing mobile eye-tracking devices that allow for precise eye gaze data. Our results show that speakers display more of the multimodal resources under scrutiny in ironic cases compared to non-ironic cases. More specifically, the involvement of bodily resources is mainly manifested in the use of laughter, head movements and body repositionings. We further show how those resources cluster into certain multimodal packages, and how the exact timing of the bodily behavior is relevant (i.e. the gaze behavior at the end of an ironic segment differs most notably from the end of a non-ironic one). Next to a quantitative analysis of the resources used in ironic talk in interaction, we also illustrate our findings with qualitative descriptions of relevant examples.

Reuleaux Triangle–Based Two Degrees of Freedom Bipedal Robot

This paper presents the design, modeling, analysis, and experimental results of a novel bipedal robotic system that utilizes two interconnected single degree-of-freedom (DOF) leg mechanisms to produce stable forward locomotion and steering. The single DOF leg is actuated via a Reuleaux triangle cam-follower mechanism to produce a constant body height foot trajectory. Kinematic analysis and dimension selection of the Reuleaux triangle mechanism is conducted first to generate the desired step height and step length. Leg sequencing is then designed to allow the robot to maintain a constant body height and forward walking velocity. Dynamic simulations and experiments are conducted to evaluate the walking and steering performance. The results show that the robot is able to control its body orientation, maintain a constant body height, and achieve quasi-static locomotion stability.

Vascular and Neural Changes During Body Inversion: Preliminary Findings

This report examines the influence of gravity on physiological fluid pressures within the body. The interest in the influence of gravity on ocular struc­tures and function is topical not only because of the current fashion of body inversion devices as forms of exercise, but also the ocular consequence of a cephalic redistribution of blood with its subsequent effect on IOP during the micro-gravity environment of space­flight. For the ophthalmic practitioner, the effect of body orientation on intra­ocular pressure and on the blood supply to the eye is of practical importance. In this paper the influence of pre­cisely controlled body positions on the intraocular pressure, central retinal artery pressure, and systemic blood pressure is presented. Deficits in visual neural function resulting from body inversion are documented. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

A deep learning framework for modelling left-turning vehicle behaviour considering diagonal-crossing motorcycle conflicts at mixed-flow intersections

With heterogeneous traffic agents moving at unprotected phase, severe crossing conflicts are witnessed at mixed-flow intersections, especially when left-turning vehicles are confronted with motorcycles. However, for modelling vehicle turning behaviour, potential conflicts involving diagonal-crossing motorcycles are seldom investigated in existing studies. To explore these scenes, we present a novel interaction-aware deep-learning framework. Firstly, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) based network is employed to encode vehicle historical motion features. Secondly, each vehicle’s potential target lanes are identified with a probabilistic method, followed by a pooling module that extracts and summarizes intention features. Thirdly, Graph Attention Network (GAT) and a synthesized network are introduced to model vehicle-vehicle interaction and vehicle-motorcycle interaction respectively. Finally, multiple kinds of obtained features are sent to a LSTM based decoder module, where both future displacement and body orientation of vehicles are predicted. In short-time simulation experiments, average displacement error is reduced by 47.7% and 20.0% compared to baseline and state-of-the-art methods, with ablation studies conducted to quantify the efficacy of each kind of feature. Moreover, regarding recursive simulation, our model shows availability of reproducing lane-selecting and motorcycle-evasive behaviours. Distributions of post-encroachment time further indicate that the proposed framework can serve as a promising method to realize reliable motion planning for autonomous vehicles.

Grooming site preferences in black capuchin monkeys: Hygienic vs. social functions revisited.

When primates groom each other, they tend to concentrate on those parts of the body they cannot efficiently self-groom (i.e., not visually accessible), and prefer to intensify grooming in areas with high hair density, thus suggesting a hygienic function. However, preferences for some body sites over others during social grooming may also result from different degrees of social bonding and relative dominance. To assess the relative importance of physical (hygienic) and social factors, we examined grooming interactions in two groups of wild black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus) during 15 nonconsecutive months. We evaluated the distribution of social grooming across body sites according to their accessibility by self-grooming and hair density. At the same time, we assessed whether the degree of dyadic social bonding affects the relative body orientation between groomer and groomee and the access to vulnerable body sites (e.g., face, throat, groin) during grooming. As expected, capuchins preferentially groomed inaccessible body sites (e.g., back and head), with a disproportionate effort directed to the tufts of their partners. We found that dyadic social bond strength, together with rank distance, significantly affected the proportion of grooming in ventro-ventral body relative orientation only in dominant-subordinate groomer-groomee dyads. This may indicate that, when two individuals differ in rank but are strongly bonded, the level of uncertainty related to the social context is already resolved and thus grooming per se is no longer perceived by the subordinate as an uncertain/risky situation. We found no effect of social bonding on grooming vulnerable body sites for any type of dyad. Our findings suggest that grooming site preferences in black capuchin monkeys simultaneously reflect hygienic and social functions.

545 - Exploratory factor analysis of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale.

Background:Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) is a brief cognitive test, appropriate for people with minimum completed level of education and sensitive to multicultural contexts. It could be a good instrument for cognitive impairment (CI) screening in Primary Health Care (PHC). It comprises the following areas: recent memory, body orientation, praxis, executive functions and language.Research Objective:The objective of this study is to assess the construct validity of RUDAS analysing its internal consistency and factorial structure.Method:Internal consistency will be calculated using ordinal Cronbach’s α, which reflects the average inter-item correlation score and, as such, will increase when correlations between the items increase. Exploratory Factor Analysis will be used to arrange the variables in domains using principal components extraction. The factorial analysis will include the extraction of five factors reflecting the neuropsychological areas assessed by the test. The result will be rotated under Varimax procedure to ease interpretation.Exploratory factor analysis will be used to arrange the variables in domains using principal components extraction. The analysis will include Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Estimations will be based based on Pearson’s correlations between indicators using a principal component analysis and later replicated with a tetrachoric correlation matrix. The variance in the tetrachoric model will be analysed to indentify convergent iterations and their explicative power.Preliminary results of the ongoing study:RUDAS is being administered to 321 participants older than 65 years, from seven PHC physicians’ consultations in O Grove Health Center. The data collection will be finished by August 2021 and in this poster we will present the final results of the exploratory factor analysis.Conclusions:We expect that the results of the exploratory factor analysis will replicate the results of previous studies of construct validity of the test in which explanatory factor weights were between 0.57 and 0.82, and all were above 40%. Confirming that RUDAS has a strong factor construct with high factor weights and variance ratio, and 6-item model is appropriate for measurement will support its recommendation as a valid screening instrument for PHC.

The taquito hot seat: Socializing monolingual bias through error correction practices in a Portuguese language classroom

AbstractPortuguese language students in the United States typically also speak Spanish, and Portuguese programs, influenced by ideologies of linguistic purism, ceaselessly battle against its interference. This article describes a qualitative study of the treatment of Spanish utterances—called taquitos by participants—in a beginner‐level Portuguese class. It presents the classroom as a space of language socialization where students are apprenticed into a culture of strict language separation that demonstrates our field's monolingual bias. Microanalysis of videorecorded classes shows how error correction practices socialize students into upholding monolingual immersion through constant vigilance and mobilization against taquitos. Gaze, body orientation, and gestures as attention markers reveal a taquito hot seat that marginalizes and places Spanish‐speaking students in intense negative focus for not producing Portuguese in “uncontaminated” forms. Given the harm such practices may cause, the article urges the field to examine our rigid insistence upon artificial classroom monolingual immersion and promote flexible, strategic translanguaging for more effective world language pedagogy.

The light’s in my eyes: optical modeling demonstrates wind is more important than sea surface-reflected sunlight for foraging herons

Multiple lineages of birds have independently evolved foraging strategies that involve catching aquatic prey by striking at them through the water’s surface. Diurnal, visual predators that hunt across the air-water interface encounter several visual challenges, including sun glint, or reflection of sunlight by the water surface. Intense sun glint is common at the air-water interface, and it obscures visual cues from submerged prey. Visually-hunting, cross-media predators must therefore solve the problem of glint to hunt effectively. One obvious solution is to turn away from the sun, which would result in reduction of glint effects. However, turning too far will cast shadows over prey, causing them to flee. Therefore, we hypothesized that foraging herons would orient away from, but not directly opposite to the sun. Our ability to understand how predators achieve a solution to glint is limited by our ability to quantify the amount of glint that free-living predators are actually exposed to under different light conditions. Herons (Ardea spp.) are a good model system for answering questions about cross-media hunting because they are conspicuous, widely distributed, and forage throughout a variety of aquatic habitats, on a variety of submerged prey. To test our hypothesis, we employed radiative transfer modeling of water surface reflectance, drawn from optical oceanography, in a novel context to estimate the visual exposure to glint of free-living, actively foraging herons. We found evidence that Ardea spp. do not use body orientation to compensate for sun glint while foraging and therefore they must have some other, not yet understood, means of compensation, either anatomical or behavioral. Instead of facing away from the sun, herons tended to adjust their position to face into the wind at higher wind speeds. We suggest that radiative transfer modeling is a promising tool for elucidating the ecology and evolution of air-to-water foraging systems.

What is it to Lose Trust? Covid-19 Pandemic, Extended Minds and Shared Feelings

Since the emergence of the Covid-19 outbreak, the world has faced profound changes, with different levels of impact on human experience. Besides immediate health, economic, and political issues, psychological and existential impacts have also emerged. It is no exaggeration to say that even our taken-for-granted, embodied being in the world has profoundly changed, with collectively felt impacts. In this paper, I argue for a general description of the Covid-19 experience. I suggest that loss of trust emerges as a pervasive dimension of these strange times, de-structuring the whole web of human relations since then. As an essentially affective category, trust can be described at the most basic level as a pre-intentional bodily orientation towards ourselves, others, and the world in general. A critical point is that loss of trust cannot be described as an internal and individual emotion, but rather, as an essentially relational and socially extended affective phenomenon. Another critical point is that, due to social distancing measures, loss of trust has to be understood mostly as a technologically scaffolded form of emotional sharing. I end by calling attention to the potential and present mental health impacts of losing trust.

Estimating Lower Body Kinematics Using a Lie Group Constrained Extended Kalman Filter and Reduced IMU Count

Goal: Gait monitoring is useful for diagnosing movement disorders or assessing surgical outcomes. This paper presents an algorithm for estimating pelvis, thigh, shank, and foot kinematics during walking using only two or three wearable inertial sensors. Methods: The algorithm makes novel use of a Lie-group-based extended Kalman filter. The algorithm iterates through the prediction (kinematic equation), measurement (pelvis position pseudo-measurements, zero-velocity update, and flat-floor assumption), and constraint update (hinged knee and ankle joints, constant leg lengths). Results: The inertial motion capture algorithm was extensively evaluated on two datasets showing its performance against two standard benchmark approaches in optical motion capture (i.e., plug-in gait (commonly used in gait analysis) and a kinematic fit (commonly used in animation, robotics, and musculoskeleton simulation)), giving insight into the similarity and differences between the said approaches used in different application areas. The overall mean body segment position (relative to mid-pelvis origin) and orientation error magnitude of our algorithm ( n=14 participants) for free walking was 5.93 ± 1.33 cm and 13.43 ±1.89 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> when using three IMUs placed on the feet and pelvis, and 6.35 ± 1.20 cm and 12.71 ±1.60 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> when using only two IMUs placed on the feet. Conclusion: The algorithm was able to track the joint angles in the sagittal plane for straight walking well, but requires improvement for unscripted movements (e.g., turning around, side steps), especially for dynamic movements or when considering clinical applications. Significance: This work has brought us closer to comprehensive remote gait monitoring using IMUs on the shoes. The low computational cost also suggests that it can be used in real-time with gait assistive devices.

The Dialogue of Creativity: Teaching the Creative Process by Animating Student Work as a Collaborating Creative Agent

Material artifacts play an important role in many learning environments. Such artifacts can include sketches, manipulatives, 3D models, toys and games, or the scrap materials found in makerspaces. Some theorists have argued that material artifacts, even though they do not move or talk, should be considered to have autonomous agency and to interact as equals with human participants. But there have been few empirical studies that explore whether or how material artifacts are attributed agency by human participants. This paper contributes to this issue by analyzing interactions between professor and student in design studio classrooms, where the student’s created work is the central focus. I analyze the close coordination of talk—including syntactic constructions and verb aspect—with nonverbal action, including eye gaze, gesture, body orientation, and body position. In the first set of findings, I identify six interactional mechanisms that attribute agency to the work, in both verbal and nonverbal modalities. I demonstrate that through the use of these six laminated multimodal resources, the student’s creative work is socially constructed as an agentive participant. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of artifact agency in social practices. In the second set of findings, I show how professors enlist these six practices in discursive patterns that scaffold students in mastering the dialogue of creativity: a process that distributes creative agency between the student and their unfolding work. These dialogues model for students a creative process characterized by iteration, ambiguity, exploration, and emergence. I conclude by discussing the implications for our understanding of teaching and learning for creativity.