Williams Center lab boosts its performance
Released: September 29, 2004
Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical studies of the human body would have revolutionized the science of the 16th century had they been published. Da Vinci worked with an anatomist in 1510, dissecting corpses to understand the interplay of bones, muscles and tendons in order to more accurately depict the human figure in his renderings. Today, similar analyses are being taught and researched in the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Williams Center Human Performance Lab.
The human performance lab run by the department of health, physical education, recreation and coaching (HPERC), has gone through a major upgrade in 2004 that expands its facilities and improves its technology. This expansion includes a new motion analysis lab, at a cost of $82,000, paid for by lab modification funds. The upgrade has increased the department’s ability to teach and do research in the areas of kinesiology, the study of mechanics and anatomy in relation to human movement, and biomechanics, the physics of human movement.
Steven Albrechtsen, professor for HPERC, said he hopes to be able to serve larger numbers of students with the new lab. “The major has been steadily increasing in the last five to six years, with it doubling in the last decade,” said Albrechtsen. “This upgrade increases undergrad research possibilities which should give students a real advantage when they move on from here.”
The $82,000 paid for establishing a second room for classroom purposes, new anatomical and skeletal models, a force platform, laptop computers and a motion analysis computer system. The force platform accurately records forces applied to it, such as a foot walking. The pressure data recorded from the foot falling on the platform can be used to calculate internal leg stress on muscles, bones, and joints and how the muscles react to the movement and force.
William Skelly, assistant professor for HPERC, commented on the improvements to the lab saying, “Most of our money went to upgrading our motion analysis system and upgrading our ability to teach the students.” Skelly added, “We’re getting it back into a functional state.”
Comparable research is being done at companies like Microsoft who use this method and data to create more realistic computer animation movements. Microsoft uses multiple human actors, wearing magnetic sensors, moving around in several actions and activities, then takes that data and applies it to a computer generated 3-D rigid-body skeleton over which body detailing will be done later.
“There are two ways to do these analyses,” said Skelly. “You can take information from an activity and analyze what happened. Or knowing what an action looks like, you can take that data and reverse it, making forward solutions and simulating movement. Collected data allows a computer to project an image that is making the same movements.”
The core courses that will be using these improved laboratories include kinesiology, biomechanics, exercise physiology, and structural functions. “This improvement will allow larger numbers of students a much better hands-on experience,” said Albrechtsen.
- Jon Minnick ,minnickjf01@uww.edu
