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Hopping and landing performance in male youth soccer players: Effects of age and maturation
Get PDFQuantifying hopping and landing performances can assist coaches in identifying young male soccer players who may be at increased risk of injury. The influence of chronological age and maturation on these measures in this population is unknown. Single leg hop for distance (SLHD) and 75% horizontal hop and stick landing force (75%Hop) were examined in a cross-sectional sample (N=400) of elite male youth soccer players. Between-group differences for both chronological age (U11–U18) and stage of maturation (pre-, circa- or post-peak height velocity (PHV)) were analyzed. Absolute 75%Hop increased with both age and maturation. Apart from the U18s, pre-PHV and U11–U12 players displayed the greatest relative landing forces compared to all other groups (p<0.001; d=0.56–0.93). Absolute and relative SLHD were greatest in the U18s and post-PHV players (p<0.001; d=0.35–2.04). A trend showed increased SLHD with each consecutive age group although a reduction in performance was identified in the U13s (d=0.50–0.59). High volumes of accumulated soccer participation in the U18s may lead to altered landing strategies indicative of high injury risk. A temporary reduction in hop performance in the U13s may also be linked to a period of adolescent awkwardness
The Benefits and the Costs of Using Auditory Warning Messages in Dynamic Decision Making Settings
Get PDFThe failure to notice critical changes in both visual and auditory scenes may have important consequences for performance in complex dynamic environments, especially those related to security such as aviation, surveillance during major events, and command and control of emergency response. Previous work has shown that a significant number of situation changes remain undetected by operators in such environments. In the current study, we examined the impact of using auditory warning messages to support the detection of critical situation changes and to a broader extent the decision making required by the environment. Twenty-two participants performed a radar operator task involving multiple subtasks while detecting critical task-related events that were cued by a specific type of audio message. Results showed that about 22% of the critical changes remained undetected by participants, a percentage similar to that found in previous work using visual cues to support change detection. However, we found that audio messages tended to bias threat evaluation towards perceiving objects as more threatening than they were in reality. Such findings revealed both benefits and costs associated with using audio messages to support change detection in complex dynamic environments
Metaplasticity rendered visible in paint: How matter ‘matters’ in the lifeworld of Human action
Get PDFRecent theoretical and philosophical movements within the study of material culture are more carefully attending to the variety of ways in which human artefacts, institutions, and cultural developments extend, shape and alter human cognition over time. Material Engagement Theory (MET) in particular has set out to map, explore and understand the relational nature of mind and material world as can be read through cultural artefacts. Within the context of MET, the neurological concept of metaplasticity has been expanded to include the affective domains of technology, materials, and things in the neurological development and architecture of the plastic human mind; a ‘transactional’ relationship between a plastic mind and a plastic material world that are correlated at the ontological level. The challenges of mapping this metaplasticity of mind lie in understanding how the mind and material culture should be understood in relation to the constantly changing lifeworlds of humans over time; the ecological, social, technological and environmental contexts that form the historical specificity of cognitive development. This paper explores how the historical specificity of metaplasticity can be made tangible through the study of material culture, focusing upon the particular activity of oil painting. It will be argued that paintings can provide clues to the historical specificity of the mind that crosses the lifeworld of human action; the technological, phenomenological, philosophical, material, and social conditions underpinning the creation of a painted mark. Drawing from a range of sources that have a root within a Deleuzian process philosophy, the paper builds an account of painting that can be read as expressing the encultured and historical manipulation of paint as an expressive material in itself; an action rendered visible that express the historical emergence of mind
This machine could bite: On the role of non-benign art robots
Get PDFThe social robot's current and anticipated roles as butler, teacher, receptionist or carer for the elderly share a fundamental anthropocentric bias: they are designed to be benign, to facilitate a transaction that aims to be both useful to and simple for the human. At a time when intelligent machines are becoming a tangible prospect, such a bias does not leave much room for exploring and understanding the ongoing changes affecting the relation between humans and our technological environment. Can art robots – robots invented by artists – offer a non-benign-by-default perspective that opens the field for a machine to express its machinic potential beyond the limits imposed by an anthropocentric and market-driven approach? The paper addresses these questions by considering and contextualising early cybernetic machines, current developments in social robotics, and art robots by the author and other artists
Somability: movement, independence and social engagement for adults with complex needs
Get PDFThis paper will report on Somability, a project developed with a day centre for adults with complex disabilities.
Objective: Somability uses camera and projection technologies to translate full body movement into graphical outputs. The overarching objective is to make movement irresistible by rewarding the most tentative of actions with bold, playful and dynamic effects. Working within adult services posed many challenges - staff lacked confidence with technology, and had limited scope for meaningful recreational experiences due to time pressure and the constraints of physical space. Thus, our goal was to create a playful experience that could enhance the well-being of service users and their carers, whilst at the same time improve access to technologies.
Methods: We adopted a research through design methodology, collaborating on generating concepts that amplified ordinary actions, making them the source of highly visceral creative exchanges between peers and carers. A process of iterative prototyping led to a focus on three core movements: reach, balance and flow, and a customisable interface that offered video mirroring, as well as options to extrapolate extraneous detail so that only traces of movement exist.
Results: Staff at the centre conducted regular evaluations of Somability using a framework that measured the independence of service users. Results revealed that even those with poor self-awareness and limited movement were able to interact independently. Dramatic increases in dynamic movement were also reported. Carers expressed that they also felt creative, to the extent that the service participated in two public performances of the Somability project.
Conclusion: Reduced funding for the arts, together with limitations on time and space mean that opportunities to enjoy creative movement are minimal within day services. The impact of a sedentary lifestyle is well understood, yet for some people the idea of an exercise regime is onerous. Our approach was to make simple movements the trigger for playful exploration. The focus on fun, rather than task, opened up opportunities to experiment with technology without fear or failure, and for individual movements for have value, thus empowering those with profound disabilities to participate using their own movement in meaningful ways
Understanding Grip Shifts: How Form Factors Impact Hand Movements on Mobile Phones
Get PDFIn this paper we present an investigation into how hand usage is affected by different mobile phone form factors. Our initial (qualitative) study explored how users interact with various mobile phone types (touchscreen, physical keyboard and stylus). The analysis of the videos revealed that each type of mobile phone affords specific handgrips and that the user shifts these grips and consequently the tilt and rotation of the phone depending on the context of interaction. In order to further investigate the tilt and rotation effects we conducted a controlled quantitative study in which we varied the size of the phone and the type of grips (Symmetric bimanual, Asymmetric bimanual with finger, Asymmetric bimanual with thumb and Single handed) to better understand how they affect the tilt and rotation during a dual pointing task. The results showed that the size of the phone does have a consequence and that the distance needed to reach action items affects the phones’ tilt and rotation. Additionally, we found that the amount of tilt, rotation and reach required corresponded with the participant’s grip preference. We finish the paper by discussing the design lessons for mobile UI and proposing design guidelines and applications for these insights
Information extraction in emergency management missions: an adaptive multi-agent approach
Get PDFWith increasing demands for autonomous agents to work alongside humans in emergency management response (EMR), considerations of translations of human to machine language (and the converse) are timely. We present a prototype where the translation is dealt with by restricting communications to occur through a form of controlled natural language (CNL) (Fuchs and Schwitter, 1995). The prototype is new in that it allows for communications between both physical and virtual autonomous agents, agents are assigned different levels of autonomy, and it includes a level of information hiding that allows for information to be passed to relevant agents, whilst keeping those (humans) involved anonymous. A real-life mission is then used to exemplify how information is retrieved and communicated in the prototype. Finally, some usability experimental results are presented
Exploring care for children with autism in Wales using creative writing as a research method in a collaborative pilot study
Get PDFThis article comes out of a recent project conducted by the Autism Collaborative Research Group (ACRe), using writing workshops to capture the experiences of clinicians, educators and parents of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) of the ASD care pathways in South Wales. ACRe is an interdisciplinary group comprised of six researchers across a range of subject areas (creative writing, healthcare, psychology, logistics, education and mathematics) who are interested in the use of interdisciplinary research methods to explore autism care
The physiological response to drawing and Its relation to attention and relaxation
Get PDFThe main purpose of this study was to analyze the physiological response of participants during a creative activity and compare the results to their physiological response during states of high attention and relaxation. Our interest was not only about the relationship between creativity and attention, but also about the role of valence and arousal. We used heart rate variability (HRV) as our physiological measure. We asked twenty-two participants to undertake three activities: a stroop test; a relaxation activity; and a drawing activity. After each activity, the participants were asked to reflect on their levels of attention, relaxation and enjoyment. The results showed significant physiological differences between the three activities: mean heart rate, F(2, 42) = 8.96, p = 0.001; log-transformed low frequency HRV power, F(1.43, 30.07) = 18.12, p < 0.001; and log-transformed high frequency HRV power, F(2, 42) = 6.25, p = 0.004. Overall, the results suggested that participants had high levels of attention during the drawing activity, with positive valence. The results also suggested that participants’ levels of arousal differed between the three activities. The implications of these results are described in the discussion
The importance of measuring body composition in professional football players: A commentary
Get PDFProfessional football players are not considered to be excessively fat, but there is continuous
pressure made by managers, coaches and physiotherapists to monitor player’s body
composition to help reach optimal performance potential. Consequently, it is not uncommon
for sport scientists to assume responsibility for monitoring and managing their players’ body
composition over the playing season. As body fat is one of the main factors affecting body
composition, the knowledge and understanding of whole body density and how it inluences
the body could be useful to quantify the effectiveness of a prescribed training programme and/
or optimal performance potential