{"id":382,"date":"2013-10-12T11:50:34","date_gmt":"2013-10-12T15:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhumag.dev.173.166.187.154.xip.io\/?p=382"},"modified":"2014-06-02T15:22:01","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T19:22:01","slug":"juggling-just-fun-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/10\/juggling-just-fun-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Juggling: Not Just Fun and Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eye
Eye On The Ball: By analyzing juggling, researchers hope to find clues to improving prosthetics and physical
rehabilitation programs, says Noah Cowan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Juggling is usually viewed as little more than a fun pastime.<\/p>\n

But now, researchers at the Whiting School, armed with a portion of a three-year $600,000 National Science Foundation grant, are taking a serious look at that avocation.<\/p>\n

The aim of the study isn\u2019t to produce more skilled circus performers or street-corner entertainers. It\u2019s to tease apart the mechanisms that human nervous systems and brains use to constantly make adjustments when we engage in rhythmic behaviors, from juggling to walking and running.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of juggling as a system of study is that it is a mathematically simplified version\u00a0of human locomotion,\u201d says Noah<\/span>\u00a0Cowan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Locomotion in Mechanical and Biological Systems (LIMBS) laboratory. \u201cWhen we walk down the street we have to constantly adjust what we are doing to avoid falling. How do we do that? Looking at juggling lets us examine how our
\nnervous systems perform this task; it might seem simple, but it is really astonishingly complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s results hold important implications for improving prosthetics, designing\u00a0more effective physical rehabilitation<\/span>\u00a0programs, and enhancing the design of bioinspired robots.<\/p>\n

Though Cowan\u2014an accomplished juggler who can deftly handle everything from balls to clubs to chainsaws\u2014believes most people can learn to juggle, he isn\u2019t asking study subjects to do the real thing. Instead, they juggle \u201cvirtually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they do in the study is similar to playing a video game. Subjects hold a \u2018paddle\u2019 that is specially designed to give them tactile feedback, and then we ask them to \u2018juggle\u2019 using that paddle to hit a virtual ball that appears on a screen in front of them,\u201d explains Cowan. \u201cThe paddle and ball physics are simulated in on a computer, and the people in the study can see, hear, and feel the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

By carefully manipulating the virtual reality environment (including varying the amount of haptic feedback the juggler gets), Cowan\u2019s graduate students Mert Ankarali and Robert Nickl\u00a0are examining the neuromechanical<\/span>
\ncomponents involved in the juggler\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>ability to control the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, we have a motor in the paddle that provides an impulse to simulate touch feedback when the ball hits the paddle. We can virtually \u2018numb\u2019 the study subjects\u2019 hands by not providing the impulse to the paddle when they hit the ball, so they have visual feedback on the screen but no feeling in the hand,\u201d Cowan says. \u201cWe can also do things like simulate a gust of wind, and then we study how people recover and maintain control of what they are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team is analyzing this data using a theoretical and computational framework being developed in collaboration with\u00a0Tim Kiemel and Norman Wereley<\/span>\u00a0at the University of Maryland, College Park, and John Jeka at Temple University. Cowan\u2019s team will combine its juggling data with data being generated by Kiemel, Wereley, and Jeka, who are using the same tools to study walking.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding how animals\u00a0<\/span>control rhythmic behavior\u2014such\u00a0as walking, running, playing music, and juggling\u2014is one of the grand challenges in neuroscience,\u201d Cowan says, adding, \u201cWe hope that this study will help take us one step closer, metaphorically speaking!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Juggling is usually viewed as little more than a fun pastime. But now, researchers at the Whiting School, armed with a portion of a three-year $600,000 National Science Foundation grant, are taking a serious look at that avocation. The aim of the study isn\u2019t to produce more skilled circus performers or street-corner entertainers. It\u2019s to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-ideas","issue-winter-2014"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJuggling: Not Just Fun and Games - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/10\/juggling-just-fun-games\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Juggling: Not Just Fun and Games - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Juggling is usually viewed as little more than a fun pastime. 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