Coordinated Action in 3-D Space
Abstract
Unique hardware and novel software were developed to study natural patterns of head and eye movements during inspection and manipulation of objects in nearby 3-D space. Emphasis was placed on natural tasks in which subjects looked at and handled real objects in a natural visual environment with the head and torso free to move naturally. Two quite different mechanistic models of gaze control were tested: (a) an 'on-line' feedback model and (b) a 'single packet' model that bases accurate gaze control on preplanned patterns of coordinated movements of the head and eyes. We found that the VOR was not turned-off during gaze-shifts, as currently believed, but that it was not effective in compensating for abrupt displacements of the head as had been believed previously. The speed and accuracy of button presses produced by tapping and the correlation of these performance measures with binocular gaze-errors were also studied. These studies were performed to determine how accurate binocular fixation must be in order to insure rapid and accurate tapping in nearby 3-D space. We found that effective performance was possible with binocular gaze- errors about the size of the human fovea (2 deg - 3 deg). VOR, Gaze-shifts, Fixation accuracy, Visuomotor.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 31, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA281284
Entities
People
- Robert M. Steinman
Organizations
- University of Maryland