Rugby Tutorial: The Spin Pass

Introduction

For a long time the traditional structure of training has not been questioned. Whether it be the academic setting or the athletic setting, the mode of instruction has been typically a classroom/practice setting. This meant a majority of training from professionals was accessible for a short period of time during the day and if you wanted to train outside of that you would be unable to utilize a teacher or coach’s instruction. However, through incredible leaps in technology this idea has been challenged. Most college courses are now implementing some online/video component that has been shown to aid students in understanding the subject material. My hope was to take this new online/video component and integrate concepts of athletics, specifically the sport rugby into the new method of training. The plan was to make an instructional video teaching the spin pass in rugby using video/audio from a traditional camera, Google Glass, and images captured on the structure sensor. Although instructional videos for sports are a brand new concept, upon searching the internet I was unable to find extensive rugby instructional videos. Therefore the goal of this paper will be to evaluate this experience of making the instruction video using the DH tools (structure sensor and Google Glass), and evaluate how effective they were in creating an adequate training video.

I wanted to do a training video for rugby because it is a rapidly growing sport. It is a sport I love and I have worked on in my town back home to develop my high school program further since I have graduated. My target audience was young developing rugby players and coaches of youth rugby. My hope is with this instructional video I will be able to assist players in acquiring the basic skills of rugby and enhance rugby nationwide.

The Process

To set a foundation for this paper I will first explain the role each tool played in the creation of the video. First, I took the structure sensor and scanned a 3D image of a person in each of the 3 major steps of the spin pass: cocking back the ball, bringing it across the body, and releasing the ball. Once I completed the 3D scans using the “Room Capture” app I moved onto the video phase of my plan. I wrote an outline of the subject material that I wished to cover and prepared dialogue for the 7 scenes that were to be shot with a traditional video camera. After shooting those clips, I then went onto to the phase with the Google Glass. The aim of implementing the Google Glass was to capture video of the pass from the first person perspective. Where a lot of instructional videos seem to fail is that the audience is watching instruction from an outside perspective only. Therefore I shot five clips of the pass, two shot from the position of the passer and three from the position of receiving a pass. Once I completed all of my shots to a satisfactory level, I edited the video/images and created the instructional video.

 

The Plan

Before creating this video, I had a very specific idea for how the structure sensor and Google Glass were to come into play. I had hoped for slightly better results from the structure sensor. After a fair amount of time trouble shooting to create an effective 3D model of Jason Girouard, my rugby player model, I emailed the 3D models to myself. I believed that when I went to my computer and opened the document I had just sent to myself it would be a 3D image. However, to my peril it turned out that it simply sent a 2D image to my email. At this point in time, the 2D image was blurry and basically useless. Had I been able to open it as a 3D image I would’ve used a screen capture device to record a narration of 3D image discussing its various elements. The Google Glass was slightly more successful in accomplishing what I had hoped it would. I wanted to record passes from the first person perspective and for the most part I was able to. One problem I ran into was that it was somewhat difficult to show passing form from the first person when you are the passer. This is because the first person view doesn’t allow you to be able to see very much of the actual pass you are completing. When you pass the ball you are supposed to be looking at your target and not looking at your arms, hands, feet, etc. However, it was successful in showing that you are supposed to look at the person you are passing to. That is an often over-looked technical point and can be the cause of a lot of bad rugby practices if not addressed early in development.

Limitations

Although I was eventually able to create a product with both DH tools, they were quite difficult to use and very frustrating. The structure sensor didn’t have the simplest of instructions in the app or on the web to aid you in the creation of a model. It left you to guess you way through its use and didn’t allow you to save work right to the app or IPad. Several times it timed out after creating a model, and when you went to re-open the app all of the data you just captured was lost. The Google Glass, although fostered better results, was far more frustrating to use. The Glass constantly timed out. The screen would go blank in the middle of what you were doing for no apparent reason. After recording a video, it is really difficult to play it back to yourself and the voice control often mistook the phrase “play this video” for “delete this video” leading to some obvious frustration. In addition to this it was hard to line up to your eye, and when you did get it lined up looking at the lens caused discomfort and headaches. After much troubleshooting, I was able to shoot several useful clips, but even at that the device will only record 10 second clips unless you extend the clip, which proved to be difficult as well. I understand that the DH tools were given to us under the guise that we should figure out how to use them on our own and use that as an education experience. However, I believe that the time we have them signed out for is such a short amount of time that some addition in class training would’ve served me well in preventing limitations cause by unfamiliarity with the devices.

 

Conclusion

Outside of additional training, I believe there isn’t a lot else that this project needs to satisfy my original intended objective of creating an instruction video for how to pass the rugby ball. The purpose of including the traditional video was to compare its ability to complete this objective to the ability of the structure sensor and Google Glass. The conclusion I have been able to come to is the structure sensor is basically useless in the creation of a tutorial video teaching a pass in rugby and Google Glass was mildly helpful, but not significantly. Even if I had created a screen capture of me spinning a 3D model of the stance, you could’ve gotten the same results simply from taking a camera and walking around the person in that stance once. Doing this would’ve taken far less time and far less frustration. Second, google glass did capture a good first person view of the rugby pass, but it wasn’t until actually capturing the first person view that I realized how it wasn’t very useful in teaching the pass. The Google Glass could however be useful in future, more advanced instructional videos. Having a first person clip of open field rugby play and decision making skills when incorporation defending would actually be very helpful in instruction. The structure sensor may not be an effective tool for athletic tutorial videos but perhaps the Google Glass could be, in more extreme circumstances

 

Omnipotence and the Digital Humanities

In my first blog post I discussed the implications of digital humanities in relation to the medical field. The past several years we have seen incredible developments involving digital humanities that have culminated with 3-D printer technology so advanced that we are artificially producing skin tissue, organs, and even appendages. However, little too often do we stop and take the time to look at this subject matter from a philosophical point of view. This post’s aim is to tackle the question, “are the digital humanities intrinsically bad” by tackling two smaller questions first: “is the implementation of digital humanities us playing God; and is THAT intrinsically bad?” This will be done through the analysis of digital humanities impact in the storage of knowledge, and application to medicine.

Whether you are religious, agnostic, or a person without a faith you most-likely understand the underlying concepts behind religion. Although most religions differ in their beliefs, the basic premise is as follows: an omnipotent being (or beings) was involved in the creation of life, and this being is (most of the time) all knowing. However, the digital humanities is challenging the perception of whether those abilities are exclusive to an omnipotent being.

All throughout the history of humans we have fought against death. It is encoded into our very DNA to survive the longest we possibly can, to reproduce and continue our species. However, are we taking it too far? With recent developments in medicine and technology humans have the longest life span in recorded history. As the digital humanities enter the medical field with technologies such as 3-D printing, highly advanced medical devices and artificial organs are being created quicker and cheaper than ever. At first glance one might this is a purely positive effect. However, that would be a too simplistic view of the matter. As we increase the life span of people we are causing a potentially unsustainable population size. With increasing scarcity of resources and the growing population we are nearing critical levels that could led to a worldwide disaster. So we ask, should humans play God and provide life after life?

The second example of humans taking on God-like abilities would come in the ability to know all. The recording of human history has been an element of our life for thousands of years. Now that we’ve enter an era where a seemingly infinite amount of information is at our finger tips we must ask the question, “are we taking it too far?” With recent developments in the digital humanities that have made anything from storing detailed 3-D models of ancient ruins to recording digital copies over millions of books easier and quicker than ever, we have truly reached a point in which humans are recording all of history. Although quite obviously this is a good thing it does have one major negative side effect. It is destroying the novelty of information. With any and all information at our finger tips information no longer needs to be worked for. The average person no longer needs to think critically and question things, and this is removing the human element from knowledge. What makes us human is that we think in such an advanced form. If we can simply know anything at any time in an instance, we no longer are required to think thus losing the unique human nature.

For a long time humans have tried to live forever and know all. We have never taken the time to stop and think about what that would actually mean. As we near a reality in which those attributes are not very far-fetched it is important to think: perhaps in the pursuit of god-like abilities, we have lost our humanity.

3D Printing

Of the many technological advancements in the digital humanities, few have greater capabilities and applications than 3D printing. 3D printing is the process of turning a digital model on the computer into a physical three-dimension item. These items can be built in a variety of materials ranging from metals, plastics, and even synthetic human body parts infused with real human cells. This technological advancement could be used to build cars, homes, other large scale items faster and cheaper than ever before. But the implications only just begin there.
3D printing in context of the classics. Something that is often discussed in digital humanities is classical studies. Many of the technologies that have been introduced the last several years have revolutionized how classical buildings, items, and entire civilizations have been recorded. Before this modern technology, much of the recording process was extremely manual. Drawing, writing, non-digital photography. In recent years, software has been developed that allows historians to create digital models of the items and even buildings they are surveying. These 3D images were revolutionary and allow these structures to be recorded in ways they never had before. This is where the 3D printer comes into play. With 3D printers we can now put these 3D images into physical models to the exact parameters of the structure. Not only can we create these models, we can create them to whatever scale we wish. This can be done incredibly quickly now, and to higher degrees of accuracy than even before.
There are infinite medical applications of 3D printing technology. We’ve already begun printing prosthetic limbs for people that fit better and function better than ever. In addition to this, these prosthetics can be printed so cheap and quickly that they are making high quality prosthetics accessible to more people than ever. Scientist have even begun printing synthetic material infused with human cells. This medical application could be absolutely groundbreaking. There are major problems with transplantation in medicine. It can be extremely difficult to find a transplant donor, and even if you manage to find one and get to the top of the list there still is the chance that your body could reject it. 3D printed body parts/organs (kidneys,ears,eyes,etc) are fused with cells from your body. This greatly increases the likelihood of your body accepting the part. This could save so many lives, while simultaneously making healthcare far more affordable.
The current applications of the 3D printing process are amazing, and the capabilities are endless. What I truly love about 3D printing is “If there is a will, there is a way.” Anything and everything imaginable is achievable. If you wanted to 3D print a scale model replica of the Colosseum in rainbow colored plastic, you could literally print it out. It would take a long time perhaps, but it can be printed and made more quickly than ever. The technology continues to advance at a seemly exponential rate. I am so excited to see what 3D printing technology will bring our world in the coming years.