Early Attempts at Integrating Animation
and Gait Analysis
Although sequential images contain significant material for all biomechanics
researchers, the graphic nature of a printed book cannot
convey the feeling of motion. This was recognised by the great
French physiologist Etienne Jules Marey who used some of the
Muybridge sequences as strips for a zoetrope. Also known as the
wheel of life, the zoetrope had been invented in 1834 by William
Horner of Bristol, England: A revolving drum with slits in its sides
exploited the principle of the persistence of vision to simulate movement
(Solomon, 1989). More recently, Cavanagh (1988), in accepting
the Muybridge Medal from the International Society of Biomechanics,
animated some of the Muybridge sequences to illustrate
his own work on locomotion. In 1990, the Addison Gallery in
Andover, Massachusetts, took all of Muybridges sequences and
recorded them onto a videodisk. This disk, together with its educational
software, has recently been made commercially available by
the Voyager Company of Santa Monica, CA, and should provide
students of human movement with an outstanding learning resource.