The basic time management mechanisms by which a skill integrates perception and action

Action can be seen as a combination of three things:

• the geometry of joint angles
• the timing of changes in joint angles
• the joints with their joint angles

Perception can be seen as a combination of three things:

• the geometry of the perception
• the timing of changes in the perception
• the identification of objects in the content of the perception

Basic timing is similar between visual perception and physical action. Images less than 50msec apart tend to get integrated. Neural information gets renewed at intervals of 10msec or more.

• Basic video runs at 24 frames/sec, which is about 40msec apart. We can use the concept of frames for both action and perception to simplify the simulation models.

Skills as stored instructions for an information-processing system: in general I don't care whether skills are hard-wired into the brain and neural system, whether they are software, or whether they are a combination of the two. However, since my background and experience is primarily with software, I shall use that as primary analogy. I shall focus on the system design, looking at architecture and feasibility. The hardware / software question then becomes an implementation issue.

Perception of gravity is 'always on', and does not appear to require any action. It provides a vector from approximately the eyes to the centre of the earth. (For modeling convenience, we shall also assume such a vector from the waist (centre of gravity) to the centre of the earth.