HIT Team UoB's video: STS Lord Nelson Rigging MOCAP Trial

EESE MSc Project Reaches New Heights EESE MSc student Stefan Roth joined members of the Department’s Human Interface Technologies Team to test a new form of wearable motion capture (MOCAP) technology known as the Perception Neuron, not in the lab, but in the wind and the rain, at a height of some 34m! With the invaluable support of the Jubilee Sailing Trust (http://jst.org.uk/) and the crew of their tall ship, the STS Lord Nelson (http://jst.org.uk/our-tall-ships/lord-nelson/), the Perception Neuron “suit” was tested to its limits. The Lord Nelson is one of only two tall ships in the world designed to be sailed by a crew with wide range of physical abilities and possesses a host of impressive onboard features to allow individuals with disabilities ranging from being wheelchair-bound to totally blind to take part in dayto-day activities at sea, including setting the sails, going aloft and taking the helm. In essence, the Perception Neuron suit takes the form of a flexible “exoskeleton” comprising small Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) each containing a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. The suit can be worn over other clothing and the movement data collected from each IMU is transferred via a mini-USB cable to a lightweight laptop, in this case, contained within a low-profile backpack worn by the subject. For the purposes of the trial onboard the Lord Nelson, Bosun’s Mate Beth Goss was “volunteered” to be kitted out with the device, and she was also required to wear two 360o panoramic cameras, to record her activities as she went aloft. Despite the appalling conditions in London’s Canary Wharf on the day, Beth took to the rigging of the ship’s main mast and undertook two climbs – one to the very top of the mast and a second to the firststage platform, whereupon she transited out along the main yard carrying out actions as if to unfurl one of the mainsails. The aim of the exercise was to capture realistic crew motions during rigging ascent, descent and sail preparation activities, and to use the MOCAP data later for animating the movements of simulated crewmembers onboard the HIT Team’s Virtual Mayflower, being constructed as part of the UK’s Mayflower 400 celebrations scheduled for 2020. In much the same way as computer-generated characters are exploited in many of today’s cinematic film productions, the ability to represent accurate human-like movements, especially for characters at a distance from the viewer, is an important feature in enhancing the believability of interactive virtual environments. Prof Bob Stone, the HIT Team’s Director said, “We are incredibly grateful to Andy Spark, Beth and the rest of the crew of the Jubilee Sailing Trust’s STS Lord Nelson, for making their incredible ship available to us in between its busy schedule of providing such memorable sailing experiences for abled and disabled people alike. Although the crew wondered at first who and what they had let onboard, their interest in the project soon became evident and the help we received to make the MOCAP trials a success, especially given the appalling weather in Canary Wharf, was nothing short of fantastic”.