Can motion capture make the cut?

ICMS Director Hing Chao believes that the use of motion-capture technology makes it easier for students to grasp the complex martial arts techniques. "Technology provides new analytical perspectives on the martial arts and helps us understand the complex principles involved, not the least through the use of animated annotations that can help break down complex movements into easy-to-follow sequences, communicating in a way that is visually direct and intuitive," he says.

Chao hopes that motion-capture technology can also help to establish a comprehensive training system that unites all the different Lingnan martial arts styles, thus allowing the performers to "mix and match" elements from different families. The first step toward achieving this is to put together a digital library of animated movements. Hong Kong Baptist University academic Jeffrey Shaw's invention, Linear Navigator, demonstrates how this could be done.