| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/G64534/01 |
| Title: |
OPTIC CONSTRAINTS FOR ACTION |
| Principal Investigator: |
Lee, Professor DN |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Department: |
Sch of Philosophy Psychology & Language |
| Organisation: |
University of Edinburgh |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
16 February 1992 |
Ends: |
15 August 1995 |
Value (£): |
86,459
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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To determine optical information required by humans for timing interceptive action and controlling velocity of approach and to develop and test computational mechanisms for picking up the information.Progress:Good progress has been made on all three strands of the proposed research, viz:(1) human perceptuo-motor experiments on how interceptive acts are timed and how velocity of approach to a destination is controlled (at Edinburgh),(2) related experiments using a special driving simulator (at Edinburgh), and(3) developing and testing computational mechanisms for picking up the the relevant perceptual information (at Sussex). The tau theory of prospective control of action (Lee 1976) served as a working hypothesis. Under (1), we studied the following basic skills, in an attempt to discover common underlying principles of control: (a) Visual control of braking, using an instrumented Jaguar car loaned by Ford/Jaguar and also by video analysis of city traffic; (b) visual and non-visual control of reaching, catching and hitting; (c) visual and vestibular control of gaze shifts involving eye, head and body movements; (d) control of shifts of ocular accommodation and vergence (in progress); (e) control of body movements in shifting balance and locomoting. Control in all these different actions was generally consistent with the tau theory and suggested ways in which the theory can be extended. Under (2), we built a special fixed-base driving simulator and have used it to study control of braking to both stationary and moving objects, manipulating the visual information. Again braking control was consistent with the tau theory but was less accurate than on the road. We are therefore investigating how much this is due to the lack of normal deceleration forces on the body and how, in line with our results on non-visual control, this might be compensated for. We are also manipulating the display in the light of the following computational results to try to determine basic optic structures used in control. Under (3), the theory of first-order optic flow has been extended, by showing how the dilation, rotation and shear components relate to quantities for controlling action, such as time-to-collision with a surface. Reliable and efficient measurement of first-order flow in an image sequence has been achieved using a combination of log-polar sampling and the grey-level gradient constraint equation. This has minimal computational overheads and provides good flow estimates in the context of a foveal vision system.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.ed.ac.uk |