Motion capture pioneer James Walton visits Headingley for a reunion

One of our esteemed alumni, Dr James (Jim) Walton, graduated from the Carnegie College of Physical Education in 1968 before moving to the United States, where he obtained Master’s degrees from Michigan State University and Stanford University and his PhD from Pennsylvania State University.

During his time as a student at Carnegie, Jim conducted experiments with fellow gymnasts on twisting somersaults using strings of flash-light bulbs held over body segments by strips of elastic. These early experiments were the first step in Jim’s journey to becoming one of the most influential scientists working on motion capture in biomechanics.

Jim first described how to reconstruct motion in 3-D in 1976. This was during the Commonwealth Games held in Edmonton, Canada. In 1979, he began work in the General Motors Research Laboratories and in 1981 he described the first industrial use of "motion capture".

In 1982, Jim received a call from the MIT Strobe Lab; The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) had asked them if they could track the flight of a baseball for TV. As a result, NBC accepted a proposal to use synchronised strobe photography and four Nikon 35 mm cameras. Jim calibrated the space and reconstructed the flight of various pitches delivered by a member of the Baltimore Orioles. NBC described the results during the 1982 World Series, which was picked up by the US media and went everywhere. Suddenly, Jim’s work became well-known.

By 1985, Jim’s work and his PhD thesis had become fairly popular. In April of that year he received a call from a new, small, high-tech business called Motion Analysis Corporation. They were working with Nike and wanted a 3-D motion measurement system to measure ankle motions. Jim joined Motion Analysis in May of 1985 and worked with them to develop one of the first motion capture systems. While he was at Motion Analysis, Jim began to develop applications for the technology. In September 1988, he left Motion Analysis (as Vice President) to start his own company, 4DVideo.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jim was involved quite heavily with the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). He was also awarded a major contract by NASA to develop motion capture technology for measuring helicopter blade vibrations in their wind tunnels. He also captured data for the Atlanta Olympic Games Organising Committee. They wanted to produce a three-screen video clip showing a runner entering the 1984 Olympic stadium in Los Angeles, then evolving into an animated runner emerging in the proposed Atlanta stadium. This video was subsequently shown to the International Olympic Committee as part of Atlanta's successful bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.

Jim has been acknowledged in academic circles also for his work on motion capture. In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of SPIE (The International Society for Optics and Photonics) and in 2010, the Michigan State University’s Department of Kinesiology presented him with a lifetime achievement award. Jim is also listed in various editions of "Who's Who" and similar reference works.

While Jim studied at Penn State and Michigan State Universities, he served as an assistant gymnastics coach. In 1974, he suggested to Gene Whettstone (US Olympic Coach, 1948) that there was a better way to score gymnastics competitions. At that time, competitions were scored with a pencil, prepared score-sheets – and an eraser! Trying to keep track of six individual events, the best all-round performers, and the best team was a major challenge. With gymnasts, coaches, and the media breathing down their necks, embarrassing mistakes were often made, and it took a team of score-takers to keep it all straight.

With the help of a colleague, Jim and his team put together software routines to handle everything. All of the isolated scores were fed in real-time from the floor of the gym to a mainframe computer on the campus. These, in turn, were accessible from terminals placed in the locker rooms, the media centre, and so on. Then, using the routines they had developed, anyone could ask for the status of any event, any individual, and so on. It was a great hit with everyone – except the judges. This was particularly true after they developed functions to statistically evaluate bias in the judging! Regardless, the routines created were adopted first by the Big 10 Conference and then by the NCAA for national competitions. Today, scoring a gymnastics meet with a pencil and paper would be frowned upon; back then, Jim’s team claimed to be the first to use a computer in this way.