Boys Town National Research Hospital Taps Vicon Motion Capture Technology to Advance Research Within its Center on Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning
OXFORD – December 4, 2024 – Vicon, a pioneer in motion capture technologies, announced today that Boys Town National Research Hospital, one of the largest nonprofit, nonsectarian child and family care organizations in the United States, has implemented its motion capture hardware and software to drive research being conducted at its Center for Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning.
Located in Omaha, Nebraska, Boys Town Research Hospital provides evidence- based assessment and treatment for children with language disorder and hearing impairment, as well as those with behavioral, emotional and physical problems. The Language in Motion Lab, housed in the Center for Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning, is led by Endowed Chair, Lisa Goffman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. Dr. Goffman is using a powerful combination of Vicon’s cameras and software to collect upper lip, lower lip and jaw data that is synchronized with an analog acoustic signal. From these recordings, Dr. Goffman’s research team can study the patterning stability and structure of articulatory motion as children learn words and produce sentences.
Additionally, Dr. Goffman will collect hand motion synchronized with a video signal as part of her team’s studies on how non-linguistic activity, such as the production of musical motion (like drumming), hand patterns and gesture/sign language sequences are learned by young children with, and without, developmental language disorder.
“The Language in Motion lab used a different motion capture provider for over 25 years, and with Vicon, we’re thrilled to now be able to capture data from children with wireless markers,” said Dr. Goffman. “The ability to record hand motion and speech motion simultaneously is also a game changer. The possibilities are seemingly endless as my team and I look to further explore how toddlers and preschoolers develop the language and speech motor skills that, in tandem, are required for language production.”
