scholarly journals Fifteen ways of looking at a pointing gesture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kensy Cooperrider
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Milestone ◽  
Stepping Stone ◽  
Diagnostic Window ◽  
Litmus Test ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Human Pointing ◽  
Intentional Movement

The human pointing gesture may be viewed from many angles. On a neutral description, it is an intentional movement, often of the hand, by which one person tries to direct another’s attention—it is, in short, a bodily command to look. But this bland definition is only a start. Pointing may also be seen as a semiotic primitive, a philosophical puzzle, a communicative workhorse, a protean universal, a social tool, a widespread taboo, a partner of language, a part of language, a fixture of art, a graphical icon, a cognitive prop, a developmental milestone, a diagnostic window, a cross-species litmus test, and an evolutionary stepping-stone. These fifteen ways of looking highlight the diverse dimensions of one our most unassuming, ubiquitous behaviors. Pointing appears so widely, and in so many guises, because of what it embodies: a distinctively human preoccupation with attention.

Temporal and Spatial Aspects of Pointing Gestures

2010 ◽  
pp. 166-186
Author(s):  
Christian Müller-Tomfelde ◽  
Fang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Dwell Time ◽  
Spatial Organisation ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Temporal Domain ◽  
Pointing Gestures ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
The Right ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Human Pointing

The detailed and profound understanding of the temporal and spatial organisation of human pointing actions is key to enable developers to build applications that successfully incorporate multimodal human computer interaction. Rather than discussing an ideal detection method for manual pointing we will discuss crucial aspects of pointing actions in time and space to develop the right solution for a particular application. One core element of pointing in the temporal domain is the so called dwell-time, the time span that people remain nearly motionless during pointing at objects to express their intention. We also discuss important findings about the spatial characteristics of the target representation for the pointing gesture.The findings foster better understanding of the role of pointing gestures in combination with other modalities and inform developer with substantial knowledge about the temporal-spatial organisation of the pointing gesture.

scholarly journals Ontogenetic origins of infant pointing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Liszkowski ◽  
Johanna Rüther
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Gaze Following ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Developmental Factors ◽  
Social Shaping ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Review Current ◽  
Human Pointing

Human pointing is foundational to language acquisition and sociality. The current chapter explores the ontogenetic origins of the human pointing gesture in infancy. First, the authors define infant pointing in terms of function, cognition, motivation, and morphology. Then, the authors review current evidence for predictors of infant pointing on child and caregiver levels, because any predictors provide insights into the basic developmental factors. From this review, the authors introduce and discuss a number of pertinent accounts on the emergence of pointing: social shaping accounts (pointing-from-reaching; pointing-from-non-communicative pointing) and social cognition accounts (pointing-from-imitation; pointing-from-gaze-following). The authors end by presenting a synthesis, which holds that child-level cognitive factors, specifically directedness and social motivation, interact with caregiver-level social factors, specifically responsiveness and assisting actions relevant to infants’ directed activity. The interaction of these factors creates social goals and formats that scale up to pointing acts expressing triadic relations between infant, caregiver, and entities at a distance in the context of joint activity and experience.

Dogs fail to recognize a human pointing gesture in two-dimensional depictions of motion cues

2021 ◽  
pp. 104425
Author(s):  
Carla J. Eatherington ◽  
Paolo Mongillo ◽  
Miina Lõoke ◽  
Lieta Marinelli
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Human Pointing

scholarly journals Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nawroth ◽  
Zoe Martin ◽  
Alan G. McElligott
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Capra Hircus ◽  
Middle Position ◽  
Object Choice ◽  
Pointing Gestures ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Choice Task ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Human Pointing

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are extremely adept in interpreting human-given cues, such as the pointing gesture. However, the underlying mechanisms on how domestic non-companion species use these cues are not well understood. We investigated the use of human-given pointing gestures by goats (Capra hircus) in an object-choice task, where an experimenter surreptitiously hid food in one of two buckets. Subjects first had to pass a pre-test where the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by a proximal pointing gesture. Subjects that succeeded in the use of this gesture were transferred to the actual test. In these subsequent test trials, the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by using three different pointing gestures: proximal pointing from a middle position (distance between target and index finger: 30 cm), crossed pointing from the middle position (distance between target and index finger: 40 cm), asymmetric pointing from the position of the non-baited bucket (distance between target and index finger: 90 cm). Goats succeeded in the pointing gestures that presented an element of proximity (proximal and crossed) compared to when the experimenter was further away from the rewarded location (asymmetric). This indicates that goats can generalise their use of the human pointing gesture but might rely on stimulus/local enhancement rather than referential information. In addition, goats did not improve their responses over time, indicating that no learning took place. The results provide a greater understanding of human-animal interactions and social-cognitive abilities of livestock, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions.

scholarly journals Target Identification Through Human Pointing Gesture Based on Human-Adaptive Approach

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Tamura ◽  
◽  
Masao Sugi ◽  
Tamio Arai ◽  
Jun Ota
Keyword(s):  
Linear Function ◽  
Probabilistic Model ◽  
Target Identification ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Adaptive Approach ◽  
Action Sequences ◽  
Initial Placement ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Human Pointing

We propose a human-adaptive approach for calculating human pointing targets, integrating (1) calculating the user’s subjective pointing direction from finger direction, (2) integrating sensory information obtained from user pointing and contextual information such as user action sequences, and (3) arranging target candidates based on the user’s characteristics of pointing and action sequences. The user's subjective pointing direction is approximated by the linear function with the finger direction. Integration of sensory and contextual information using a probabilistic model enables the system to calculate the target accurately. Using a force-directed approach, we obtained good placement in which false estimations are decreased and not moved much from initial placement. Experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of our proposal.

Origins of the human pointing gesture: a training study

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 817-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Matthews ◽  
Tanya Behne ◽  
Elena Lieven ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Training Study ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Human Pointing

scholarly journals Domestic Dogs Use Contextual Information and Tone of Voice when following a Human Pointing Gesture

PLoS ONE ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. e21676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Scheider ◽  
Susanne Grassmann ◽  
Juliane Kaminski ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Domestic Dogs ◽  
Tone Of Voice ◽  
Pointing Gesture ◽  
Human Pointing
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