Hosted by the Bristol Vision Institute (BVI)
Bristol Vision Institute brings together researchers with an interest in vision from all academic disciplines across the university. In this launch event for this year's seminar programme, members of BVI will introduce the aims and activities of BVI, present examples of interdisciplinary research, and describe opportunities to become involved with this active and enthusiastic research centre.
Motion and vision are tightly interlinked – would vision even exist without the need to move? Are we all motion scientists as well? Should we rebrand Bristol Vision Institute as Bristol Motion Institute? Motion unites vision researchers: think eye movements, dynamic visual scenes, autonomous systems that interact with the world, motion capture, and healthcare through rehabilitation and disease impact, to name a few themes. Not everything needs visual systems, for example hills do not have eyes, but there seems to be a strong correlation between movement and vision – which will be our main topic for this panel. To explore the topic through different viewpoints, we picked a panel of:
- Casimir Ludwig, Reader in the School of Psychological Science, studies how visual information is used in the control of behaviour, as manifest in motor actions, for example eye movements. One of Casimir’s research areas is understanding the decision processes that lead to gaze shifts: every time you fixate on a region in a visual scene and take some information from it, your visual system decides about when you move on and how long you stay based on the information you acquired. His research combines eye tracking, visual psychophysics, motion capture, virtual reality, and computational modelling, leading to an expertise in modelling a diverse range of movements and linking them to vision.
- Jeremy Burn, Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering. Jeremy studies gait kinematics and locomotion in several biological systems, including humans and horses. Research topics comprise how humans approach urban versus natural scenes, and equine locomotion characteristics during different gaits, for example walk versus trot. By mixing biology and engineering, Jeremy brings a perspective of biomechanics to the table.
- Edith-Clare Hall, PhD student in the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology and member of the Bristol Robotics Lab. She works on designing robotic upper limb orthoses (devices supporting limbs), including wearable soft robotics is aimed to tackle motor neuron diseases, e.g., ALS. Edith is a lead in Women in Robotics UK, promoting a diverse and inclusive environment within robotics. Through her knowledge in biomimetics, she brings a perspective of how the study of biological motion leads to improvements in human healthcare.
Laszlo Talas will host the panel. The event will be followed by drinks and nibbles.