Associate Professor in Residence, Muqueem Khan, demonstrating the motion capture technology during the TED@Doha talk.
DOHA: Researchers at Northwestern University - Qatar (NU-Q) through a grant winning project is working to capture and preserve traditional ‘ardha’ dance through advanced motion sensors.
The national grant-winning proposal by co-principal investigators from NU-Q - Sandra Richards, who serves as director of the school’s liberal arts programme, and Muqueem Khan, Associate Professor in Residence – will capture the traditional ‘ardha’ sword dance with motion-sensing technology.
The research, entitled ‘Kinesthetic Learning System for Arabic Indigenous Dances,’ was awarded a $1.05m grant last week by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and holds the potential to capture the spirit of a broad range of indigenous culture across several Gulf states.
Led by NU-Q, the project will be carried out in collaboration with Qatar Museums Authority, which will contribute its expertise in Gulf heritage and museum spaces in which the research will be conducted.
According to Richards, using museum spaces as a ‘live lab’ will allow researchers to see how people in Qatar interface with advanced technology, and also provide museum-goers with an opportunity to learn something new.
“Coupling these ideas of heritage with advanced motion-sensing technology sends a strong message to young people that traditional activities and going to the museum no longer have to be low-tech or inhibitive. They can be ‘cool’ and enjoyable too,” she said.
Dean and CEO of NU-Q Everette Dennis, said: “This is NU-Q’s first major grant under QNRF and involves an enviable collaboration with one of the country’s great cultural institutions, the Qatar Museums Authority. Professors Khan and Richards are gifted researchers who are taking up an important study that will address cultural heritage issues while using the benefits of new media technology.”
Researchers will feed the measured dance movements into a prototype that they hope will ultimately teach people unfamiliar with the ‘ardha’ dance how to perform it using an avatar and multiple motion sensors.
“The ‘ardha’ (traditional sword dance) has always interested me, and I saw a tremendous opportunity to explore cultural heritage through this dance using emerging media; I had already published three research papers on a similar topic,” said Khan, who has worked on visual effects on films such as Armageddon, Flubber, George of the Jungle and Final Fantasy (The Spirits Within).
Khan came up with the idea for his research after a TED@Doha talk he gave on how to use technology to keep heritage alive.
“I am convinced that motion sensing technologies will become our future, and that computers will be reacting to our body movements rather than be controlled in the tactile way they are now,” he explained.
“I realised right after giving my talk to so many young people that I have to come up with a way to use this technology to preserve and document these aspects of Middle Eastern culture.
The Peninsula
