Visual movement is a vital source of knowledge about what is happening in the immediate environment. Visual signals generated by human bodies in movement (‘biological motion’) convey social signals about meaning, intent and emotional disposition. I will describe some of my research on the visual perception of human body movement. The talk will summarise the results of a project to investigate how we estimate the speed at which a figure in the visual field is walking or running. I will also show the results of some related research into judgements of intent by football referees, and into judgements of walking speed in crowds of figures.

Professor George Mather