David Benqué

Following the exchange with Dr. Luc Berthouze and the 4 week Science and Society project (brief set by Tobie Kerridge and Elio Caccavale). Here are some early design outcomes which still need to be refined to bring the project to its full potential.

The discussion with Dr. Berthouze, who is studying the motion of very young babies (2 months old) as a marker of motor development (which, if some normative data can be obtained, could turn into an early marker of motor disorders such as Cerebral Palsy), outlined the major problem his team has to deal with: the lack of subjects to analyse. Basically, not enough parents are bringing their babies in to gather significant data from which to build a complex model.

My first reaction to this was that infra-red technology, used to capture the motion using reflective markers, is now available in a common home entertainment device: the Nintendo Wii. Maybe if parents aren’t willing to bring their babies to the lab, the lab could come to them in a more casual way.

My idea is to create a new kind of “baby keepsake”, something young parents seem eager to spend time doing to preserve the memory of their child as a baby.

The object(s) would be visual representations of the baby’s early motions, captured with the Wii-Remote’s IR camera. 3D printing could be used to create sculptures or paper weights, and algorithms could generate posters. The data would then also be sent to the lab and used for research. This idea of using data from casual fun games to help research was partly inspired by Games With A Purpose.

first sketch of a baby playground fitted with infra-red camera arrays

Wii-Remote mat to capture your baby’s first steps

Array of infra-red LEDs

Keepsake object modelled after actual data from Dr. Berthouze’s lab

Further development of the project will be done from 2 sides:

- Speculation : taken for granted that the cameras in the Wii-remote could gather precise enough data (the setup at Dr. Berthouze’s lab now has a much higher resolution, recording 50+ markers in 3D at 200fps), I would like to explore which key-moments of the child’s development would become meaningful for the parents to capture. Also, if such objects and data were kept in the home, what would happen when the child grew to be a famous dancer or footballer ? Would museums exhibit luxurious re-prints of a “David beckham’s first kick” equivalent ?

- Public Engagement: Following Dr. Berthouze’s enthusiast reaction to the project, I would like to try and produce a few keepsakes, in different forms, and actually give them to parents as an incentive to bring their child to the lab.

to be continued …

Kjen Wilkens, fellow interactionist at the RCA, and I had the chance to visit Dr Luc Berthouze’s lab at the Wolfson Center in London last thursday (University of Sussex and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Unit (DCNU), at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), University College London).

Dr Berthouze’s research involves recording the movements of 2 month old babies and studying the data in order to be able to diagnose neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy at an early age. He was kind enough to give us a demonstration of the equipment in the lab, namely 6 Infra Red cameras, capable of recording data at 200 frames/sec, IR markers (more than 50 to fit on a tiny baby) and a range of 3D software to capture and analyse the data.

Luc was very excited to hear about the couple of ideas we had come up with since our phone conversation 2 weeks ago, and his feedback really pushed the projects forward. The Science and Society brief, within which our exchange with Dr Berthouze is framed, finishes this week, so we are currently working hard at producing design outcomes that place his research in a social context.

Tobbie Kerridge and Elio Caccavale are the visiting tutors running the project

further reading :

- University of Sussex press release (with video clip)

- Kinematics Lab