The Biomotion Lab
Directed by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Troje,
the lab is located at Queen's
University in Kingston, Ontario.
Doing grad studies? The BioMotionLab is accepting new graduate students for 2010! Click here for more info!
Goals
We are working on several aspects of visual perception and cognition. Our major interest is focussed on questions concerning the biology and psychology of social recognition. That is:
- . detection of animate agents
- . conspecific recognition
- . gender recognition
- . individual recognition
- . recognition of an agent's actions
- . recognition of emotions, personality traits and intentionality
- . face recognition
Methods & Equipment
We are equipped with a Qualisys Motion Capture System consisting of an array of 24 CCD high speed cameras. The system is capable to track in real time an array of small, reflective markers attached to the body of humans. The system is set up in a 90 m2 room providing enough space for complex human motions to be recorded. A second optical motion capture system (Vicon, 12 cameras) is set up in a different laboratory and used to record motion from pigeons and other animals. Several graphics workstations provide the hardware for the generation of sophisticated visual stimuli. We extensively use Matlab as a development tool, and we make heavy use of Flash for demonstrations and formal experiments. We program graphics under openGL and we use professional animation packages (Autodesk's Maya and 3DMax, WorldViz' Vizard) for computer animation and virtual reality applications. Eye tracking technology and head mounted displays complement the equipment.
Network
The laboratory is integrated into the Queen's Biological Communications Centre and the Centre for Neuroscience Studies at Queen's University. Hosted by the Department of Psychology, the lab has an intensive exchange with the School of Computing at Queens University. We are also a member of the Canadian Action and Perception Network CAPnet.
Currently active collaborations outside of Queen's:
- . Harvard University Vision Sciences Lab (Ken Nakayama)
- . University of Toronto, Computer Science (David Fleet, Geoffrey Hinton)
- . Concordia University, Department of Psychology (Rick Gurnsey)
- . Ruhr University, Department of Psychology (Johannes Michalak, Silja Vocks)
- . McGill University, Dept. of Ophtalmology (Robert Hess)
- . Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Shlomo Bentin)
- . University of Minneapolis (Sheng He)
- . University College Dublin (Nuala Brady)
- . Cognition Lab, University of Vienna (Ludwig Huber)
