Coaches' perceptions of golf swing kinematics

Using a computer-based videotape analysis system, a randomized series of golf swings was presented to 10 professional and 10 amateur golf coaches in an attempt to determine differences m their internal model of golf swing kinematics. A global measure was obtained by having coaches independently inspect the swings of eight golfers and estimate their golf handicaps. A micro level of analysis was undertaken by requiring participants to indicate what they considered to be 'ideal' swing characteristics using 17 predetermined limb, club, and body position angles for various phases of the swing Videotaped swings for a highly skilled and beginner level golfer were used for this task. Although the training requirements for professional coaches are much more demanding and their playing ability higher, evidence of internal model differences was not found in the handicap estimation task. It was also established that a golfer's swing may be perceived to have deficiencies but still produce sufficient accuracy to engender a low handicap On the second task, only one of the 17 estimated swing angles showed a significant difference between the coach groups. When, however, the two coach groups indicated their preferred angles for the highly skilled golfer and the beginner, 6 of the 17 angles were significantly different. The implications of these findings are that the two coach groups had similar ability to identify fundamental characteristics of the golf swing, but their model of the ideal swing was influenced by the observed golfer's skill level.

Role of daylight in preserving identities in heritage context

The narrow alleys and the small neighbourhood squares are the most recognisable urban configuration forms that highlight the fabrics of Old Cairo. Parts of Old Cairo are currently going through major conservation projects. The extent of the success of some of these projects in preserving the identity of the Cairene context is currently under scrutiny and has created a debate among local residents, professionals, and politicians. Preliminary investigation has been conducted to assess the rehabilitation strategy of the selected case of el-Darb el-Asfar in relation to its context. Daylight is an essential contextual ingredient that characterises particular places from its counterparts. The rehabilitation project, using new finishing materials, has led to changes in daylight levels and reflections in the space and hence modify the visual perception and the identity of the place itself. This paper aims to assess the impact of the proposed intervention on the visual perception and the identity of the selected built heritage. Daylight variables in open spaces, a combination of sunlight, skylight and the reflected light from the facades and the ground, are identified. Using TOWNSCOPE, daylight's components are calculated pre and after the implementation of the project. The performance of reflected component is traced by simulating the impact of the original and recently used materials. The paper concludes by suggesting a set of measures to achieve an appropriate daylight performance to achieve a sustainable development in the area and maintain the identity of the old city.

Information-based regulation of high-velocity foot-targeting tasks

Judging time-to-contact with a target is an important criterion for avoiding harm in everyday walking and running tasks, and maximizing performance in high-velocity sporting tasks. The information-based regulation of step length and duration during target-directed locomotion was examined in relation to gait mode, approach velocity, target task, expertise, and sporting performance during a series of four experiments. The first three experiments examined novice performers (Each n=12, 6 males, 6 females), whilst the last experiment examined expert gymnasts (n=5). Two reference strips with alternating 50cm black and white intervals were placed on either side of the approach strip for all of the experiments. One 50Hz-panning video camera filmed the approach from an elevated position. In Experiment 4, two stationary 250Hz cameras filmed the post-flight performance of the gymnastic vaults and, in addition, two qualified judges provided a performance score for each vaulting trial. The panning video footage in each experiment was digitized to deduce the gait characteristics. In Experiment 4, the high-speed video footage was analyzed three-dimensionally to obtain the performance measures such as post-flight height. The utilization of visual stimulus in target-directed locomotion is affected by the observer's state of motion as characterized by the mode of locomotion and also often the speed of locomotion. In addition, experience plays an important role in the capacity of the observer to utilize visual stimulus to control the muscular action of locomotion when either maintaining or adjusting the step mechanics. The characteristics of the terrain and the target also affect the observer's movement. Visual regulation of step length decreases at higher approach speeds in novice performers, where as expert performers are capable of increasing visual regulation at higher approach speeds. Conservatism in final foot placement by female participants accounts for the observed increase in distance from the critical boundary of the obstacle relative to toe placement. Behavioural effects of gender thus affect the control of final foot placement in obstacle-directed locomotion. The visual control of braking in target-directed locomotion is described by a tau-dot of-0.54. When tau-dot is below -0.54 a hard collision with the obstacle will occur, however, when tau-dot is above -0.54, a soft collision with the target will occur. It is suggested that the tau-dot margin defining the control of braking reveals the braking capacity of the system. In the target-directed locomotion examined a tau-dot greater than -0.70 would possibly exceed the braking capacity of the system, thus, leading to injury if performed. The approach towards the take-off board and vaulting horse in gymnastics is an example of target-directed locomotion in sport. Increased visual regulation of the timing and length of each step is a requirement for a fast running approach, a fundamental building block for the execution of complex vaults in gymnastics. The successful performance of complex vaults in gymnastics leads towards a higher judge's score. Future research suggestions include an investigation of visual regulation of step length in curved target-directed locomotion.

Material thinking : the theory and practice of creative research

This intimate account of how ideas get turned into artwork—including dance performance, film, sound installation, sculpture, and painting—looks at how the material thinking that art embodies produces new understandings about individuals, their histories, and the cultures they inhabit. Discussing the philosophy of signs (images, text, and their interaction), the psychology of visual perception, and the overarching notion of mythopoeic place-making, this intellectually wide-ranging and anecdotally narrated primer provides a fresh perspective to the concept of inventing. All active practitioners in the fields of performance, media, film, museum, painting, sculpture, and cultural studies will benefit from this look at how artists participate in the conceptual invention of their world.

Determinants of time-to-contact judgements

The experiments reported in this thesis investigated the visual information used by observers to judge the time-to-contact (TTC) of approaching objects. The results provide support for the proposition that TTC judgements are based on retinal image expansion rate and observers' prior experience with the objects.

The behaviour of infants/toddlers at 'falling-off' places

Toddlers were observed as they freely explored different 'falling-off' places on a visual cliff. Toddlers played extensively with wet / non-rigid surfaces (e.g. water) and briefly explored dry / rigid surfaces. Edges were crossed intentionally and unintentionally, either as an extension or consequence of edge engagement, by a sub-group of toddlers. The findings have implications for drowning / injury prevention.

Daylight for sustainable development of historic sites

Consideration of daylight is one of the contextual ingredients for maintaining a sustainable identity when intervening in a heritage site. Appropriate consideration of daylighting ensures not only visual and thermal comfort in the urban setting, but also contributes to the preservation of the place visual identity. The historic district of el Darb al-Asfar is undergoing a rehabilitation project that raises questions about the new ‘sparking’ look of the place. The ongoing cultural debate in old Cairo on the extent of success of the rehabilitation efforts in preserving the place identity identified a gap in literature regarding the ingredients that constitute identity in heritage settings. The paper argues that the project using new finishing materials of facades has led to changes in daylight levels in the space and hence the visual perception of the place itself. This paper aims to assess the impact of such intervention on the visual perception and the space identity. A digital model is built utilising a combination of photogrammetric and 3D digital technique. The TOWNSCOPE simulation package is used to trace the performance of direct, diffused, and reflected components of daylight within the original and recently resorted scenes. The output of the simulation exercise has been validated by empirical data. The paper concludes by suggesting a set of measures for achieving an appropriate daylight performance in heritage sites Eastern Mediterranean climatic conditions.

Maternity

Fruiting bodies represents human engagement with and consciousness of a corresponding presence in our landscape. ʻFruiting Bodiesʼ is an instance of the application of this practice employed to ask the viewer to consider how strange is the phenomenon of the fruiting tree. Is it promiscuous to offer your seed openly to the elements, to any who will take it. Is this forbidden? Is it profligate to hide your progeny inside gifts so tempting in their appeal to that most primitive desire, hunger? Is this wholly mere biological expedience evolved to ensure the widest migration of your offspring? Or does it derive from some boundless cosmic generosity? These images invite you to come close to the tree, where within its arms you will find shelter from the sun at its zenith and from the autumnal rains. Fruit is the focus of Jamesʼs lens as it circles deep into the embrace of limbs and leaves.

Luxe

Fruiting bodies represents human engagement with and consciousness of a corresponding presence in our landscape. ʻFruiting Bodiesʼ is an instance of the application of this practice employed to ask the viewer to consider how strange is the phenomenon of the fruiting tree. Is it promiscuous to offer your seed openly to the elements, to any who will take it. Is this forbidden? Is it profligate to hide your progeny inside gifts so tempting in their appeal to that most primitive desire, hunger? Is this wholly mere biological expedience evolved to ensure the widest migration of your offspring? Or does it derive from some boundless cosmic generosity? These images invite you to come close to the tree, where within its arms you will find shelter from the sun at its zenith and from the autumnal rains. Fruit is the focus of Jamesʼs lens as it circles deep into the embrace of limbs and leaves.

Lust

Fruiting bodies represents human engagement with and consciousness of a corresponding presence in our landscape. ʻFruiting Bodiesʼ is an instance of the application of this practice employed to ask the viewer to consider how strange is the phenomenon of the fruiting tree. Is it promiscuous to offer your seed openly to the elements, to any who will take it. Is this forbidden? Is it profligate to hide your progeny inside gifts so tempting in their appeal to that most primitive desire, hunger? Is this wholly mere biological expedience evolved to ensure the widest migration of your offspring? Or does it derive from some boundless cosmic generosity? These images invite you to come close to the tree, where within its arms you will find shelter from the sun at its zenith and from the autumnal rains. Fruit is the focus of Jamesʼs lens as it circles deep into the embrace of limbs and leaves.

Glance

Fruiting bodies represents human engagement with and consciousness of a corresponding presence in our landscape. ʻFruiting Bodiesʼ is an instance of the application of this practice employed to ask the viewer to consider how strange is the phenomenon of the fruiting tree. Is it promiscuous to offer your seed openly to the elements, to any who will take it. Is this forbidden? Is it profligate to hide your progeny inside gifts so tempting in their appeal to that most primitive desire, hunger? Is this wholly mere biological expedience evolved to ensure the widest migration of your offspring? Or does it derive from some boundless cosmic generosity? These images invite you to come close to the tree, where within its arms you will find shelter from the sun at its zenith and from the autumnal rains. Fruit is the focus of Jamesʼs lens as it circles deep into the embrace of limbs and leaves.

Vision, ambiguity and perceptual possibility : why pictures matter in the critique of stereo-immersive VR

The acquisition of three-dimensional immersive space through advanced digitial imaging technology, suggests a profound shift from the relatively impoverished representational stratgies of two-dimensional pictorial imagery.  This entails an epistemological shift from pictorial representation, to the presentation of actual three-dimensional space through stereoscopic (3D) imagery.  Moreover, it suggests that visuality rather than 'virtuality' is the core issue in understanding the nature of the epistemological shift associated with stereo-immersive VR.

A shift in visual epistemology from 'flat' pictorial representation to three-dimensional stereo-immersion suggests a gainful move toward a visuality imbued with spatial possibilities.  In quantitative terms, these visual-spatial gains may seem self-evident.  However, certain aspects peculiar to pictorial representation are missing from stereo-immersive imaging.  That is lost in stereo-immersive imaging, and how it can be measured?

This thesis proposes that the inherent ambiguity of two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional spatial structure in pictures, invokes a perceptual response in which pictorial spaces elicit 'perceptual possibility'.  The robust three-dimentional spatiality of stereo-immersvie VR foreclosures such possibility.  Through examining stereo-immersive VR in terms of its visuality, the thesis develops a new appraoch to understanding VR that solves some of the issues associated with the problematic concept of 'virtuality'.  In addition, the thesis finds that by placing stereo-immersive VR and pictures within the shared paradigm of 'the visual', an important dimension of pictures that has been overlooked in past analyses re-emerges : the thesis proposes the concept of 'artifactuality' to account for the way pictures are fundamentally, and in the first instance, aesthetic objects for visual perception.  It is in their manner of appearing as pictures, that they are perceived as pictures of something.  It is from this fundamental basis that their many levels of meaning and signification - their manifold 'realisms' - can arise.

This thesis therefore addresses two intersecting problems within the paradigm of the visual: it proposes 1) that analyses of 'the virtual' be grounded in the 'artifactuality' of pictorial perception, and 2) that the spatiality of stereo-immersive VR be reinvigorated by purposefully 'under-contraining' its key percept - the robust, 'solid' stereoscopic structuring of visual space.  This approach opens up the discourse of stereo-immersive VR to new visual paradigms.  The thesis proposes that these be modelled not on the impossibility of 'the virtual', but on the possibilities of visual ambiguity drawn from the analysis of pictorial perception.

Corporate entrepreneurship and innovation part 2 : a role- and process-based approach

Purpose – To extend the discussion held in part 1, and develop a two-tier fifth-generation model of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. Design/methodology/approach – The components that have been synthesized from a review of the literature in Part 1 are extended using evidence from the literature. These components are used to construct a two-tier model of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation; a macro model which presents the high-level environmental drivers of innovation and a micro model that discusses the contextual factors that underpin the corporate entrepreneurship and innovation process. Findings – From the analysis conducted in part 1 it is evident that there is a strong relationship between the role of the corporate entrepreneur and the innovation process. It is suggested that by separating the corporate entrepreneur from the innovation process previous models have been overly reductionist in their construction, and their utility has, as a consequence, been severely constrained. The study therefore combines the role and activities of the entrepreneur with the innovation process into a unified framework. In doing so the paper develops a two-tier fifth-generation model of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. The final sections of the paper present the model's implications for management and suggestions for further research. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified gap in the literature, namely the development of a new holistic model of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, which illustrates the environmental and contextual relationships between the corporate entrepreneur and the innovation process.