Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The requested equipment consists of two identical camera-to-computer packages for video recording and two items needed for video editing. This equipment augments the PI's existing research facility and makes possible the multidisciplinary examination of the production and perception of communicative behavior undertaken by the P.I. and his collaborators at UBC. The camera package is state of the art for professional digital video recording; yet inexpensive, mobile, and well-suited for examining 1) the multimodal production and multisensory perception of spoken language as it occurs both naturally and spontaneously and as mediated through machine interfaces, 2) the behavior of young children and infants as they interact with their environment and 3) communicative interaction in spoken and musical performance.   The proposal is well-timed. After more than 10 years of development, we now have software tools for acquiring accurate measures of biological motion from video image sequences. These tools replace physically restrictive marker-based motion capture systems, making it possible, for example, to measure the motion of small children. Using multiple cameras in conjunction with  non-invasive force plates, the motions of the face, head, and body can now be simultaneously measured for multiple participants in a communicative interaction. Recent NSERC awards to the PI and Fels (with the PI as co-applicant) explicitly require such recordings.   The two camera packages each consist of 1) a high definition camera (Panasonic AG-HPX500), lens (Canon KJ16ex7.7 KRSD) and accessories, 2) a hardware video encoder (AJA IOHD) that compresses high definition video in real time without introducing artifacts or loss of image quality and 3) an Apple MacBookPro that writes the compressed video directly to disk via Apple's Firewire 800 linked to the AJA. This system has more than twice the spatial and temporal resolution of standard video, making possible the accurate measurement of hand and face motion. Finally, for video editing, we request an Apple monitor (Cinema HD) and software (Final Cut Studio) that will be installed on an existing workstation. Total funds needed are $91,041.