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Pattern recognition technology allows for more intuitive control of myoelectric prostheses. However, the need to collect electromyographic data to initially train the pattern recognition system, and to re-train it during prosthesis use, adds complexity that can make using such a system difficult. Although experienced clinicians may be able to guide users to ensure successful data collection methods, they may not always be available when a user needs to (re)train their device. Here we present an engaging and interactive virtual reality environment for optimal training of a myoelectric controller. Using this tool, we evaluated the importance of training a classifier actively (i.e., moving the residual limb during data collection) compared to passively (i.e., maintaining the limb in a single, neutral orientation), and whether computational adaptation through serious gaming can improve performance. We found that actively trained classifiers performed significantly better than passively trained classifiers for non-amputees (P < 0.05). Furthermore, collecting data passively with minimal instruction, paired with computational adaptation in a virtual environment, significantly improved real-time performance of myoelectric controllers. These results further support previous work which suggested active movements during data collection can improve pattern recognition systems. Furthermore, adaptation within a virtual guided serious game environment can improve real-time performance of myoelectric controllers.

Electromyography (EMG) is the standard technology for monitoring muscle activity in laboratory environments, either using surface electrodes or fine wire electrodes inserted into the muscle. Due to limitations such as cost, complexity, and technical factors, including skin impedance with surface EMG and the invasive nature of fine wire electrodes, EMG is impractical for use outside of a laboratory environment. Mechanomyography (MMG) is an alternative to EMG, which shows promise in pervasive applications. The present study used an exerting squat-based task to induce muscle fatigue. MMG and EMG amplitude and frequency were compared before, during, and after the squatting task. Combining MMG with inertial measurement unit (IMU) data enabled segmentation of muscle activity at specific points: entering, holding, and exiting the squat. Results show MMG measures of muscle activity were similar to EMG in timing, duration, and magnitude during the fatigue task. The size, cost, unobtrusive nature, and usability of the MMG/IMU technology used, paired with the similar results compared to EMG, suggest that such a system could be suitable in uncontrolled natural environments such as within the home.

Weiss et al investigate a Kwilu Pende statue of a Belgian colonial officer through the combined perspectives of historical events, an unusual wealth of relevant documentation, and technical analysis. Its origin stems from the chance encounter now more than 40 years ago by which Herbert Weiss, a political scientist and student of protest movements in the Congo, was able to acquire the work and learn the identity of the subject. More recently, examination by curator Richard Woodward and conservator Kathy Gillis at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts revealed a series of extraordinary channels--carefully planned and executed in the freshly carved green wood. These discoveries prompted further investigation and dialogue by Weiss, Woodward, and Z. S. Strother, a scholar of Pende art history, in wrestling with understanding this unusual work and seizing a rare opportunity to recover a fragment of African art history.

West African metal-working technologies are being featured in a traveling exhibition of sculpture. The exhibition, \"Dynasty and divinity : Ife art in ancient Nigeria,\" is a collaboration between the New Museum for African Art in New York and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums nad Monuments. It focuses on Yoruba culture in the 12th through 16th centuries and will tour Spain, England, and the United States.

[...] the supreme being, Oludomare, filled them with his divine breath. [...] in Yoruba thought, the human body is a sculpture animated by a soul, and Obatala is the patron of Yoruba artists.

Talking to Lynch can be like interviewing a teen-ager. He uses words such as ''neat,'' ''thrilling'' and ''coolest,'' as in describing two of his favorite directors: ''Kubrick is the coolest, and Marty'' -Scorsese - ''is right next door.'' Lynch shies away from critical analysis, either for fear that he will jam the flow of images or because he honestly doesn't know where(Continued on Page 30) his ideas come from. ''They're based in abstraction or nature,'' he says vaguely, although a high sugar intake is another explanation. Isabella Rossellini, who played the tortured [Dorothy Vallens] in ''Blue Velvet'' and is now Lynch's romantic companion, calls him ''seraphic, blissed. Most people have strange thoughts, but they rationalize them. David doesn't translate his images logically, so they remain raw, emotional. Whenever I ask him where his ideas come from, he says it's like fishing. He never knows what he's going to catch.'' ''It's not a hardship for me. It's a hardship only if I see I'm hurting other people. But maybe they were holding me back.'' (He has remained on good terms with his former wives and his children. Next month, Jennifer Lynch, his 21-year-old daughter, will make her debut as a director with ''Boxing Helena,'' a film she wrote herself. The story of a girl whose boyfriend cuts off her arms and legs and keeps her in a box, it is, in her words, ''an obsessive modern-day love story.'' Asked about how much this plot may owe to the influence of her father, she says: ''Actually, he was quite offended by the subject matter. But he thinks I've written a hell of a script.'') ''Eraserhead'' took five years to complete because Lynch kept running out of money; it was finished with help from many people, including his parents. In 1977, it opened at the Cinema Village in New York for a midnight show and, after a slow start, became a hit on on the horror circuit in Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. That same year, Lynch married [Jack Fisk]'s sister Mary (in 1982 they had a son, Austin) and, living in Los Angeles, began what could be called his ''shed building'' or ''early Bob's Big Boy'' period. As his only job he had taken a paper route delivering The Wall Street Journal and, with wood he collected on the streets, he built L-shaped, gable-roofed, and Egyptian-style additions to the garage in which they lived. He was perfectly content; he had discovered sugar, which he calls ''granulated happiness.'' But two years later, restlessness took him back to film as one of the writers of ''The Elephant Man.'' After every studio turned down the script, [Mel Brooks] decided that his company, Brooksfilms, would produce it. When Lynch's name came up as a possible director, Brooks went to see ''Eraserhead.'' After the screening, with Lynch waiting nervously outside, Brooks came out yelling ''You're a madman, I love you, you're in.''

The caped crusader is only one of many cartoon characters headed for the big screen. Dave Thomas and Sally Kellerman are starring as ''Boris and Natasha,'' those two nogoodniks from ''The Bullwinkle Show.'' ''Brenda Starr,'' a film made in 1986 and featuring Brooke Shields and Timothy Dalton, is finally slated for release this year. Arnold Schwarzenegger, often regarded as something of a cartoon figure himself despite or maybe because of his 3-D body, will star as ''Sgt. Rock.'' An animated feature of ''The Jetsons'' is scheduled for Christmas. Feature films about Spiderman and Archie are in the pipeline; ''Tales From the Crypt'' and ''Return of the Swamp Thing'' will reprise the horror comics of the 50's. James Belushi and Rick Moranis are interested in playing Fred and Barney of ''The Flintstones'' - itself a comics version of television's ''Honeymooners.'' ''Starmites'' steals good-naturedly from ''Star Wars,'' ''The Wizard of Oz,'' Tolkien's ''Lord of the Rings,'' Wagner's ''Ring'' cycle and Mozart's ''Magic Flute.'' It is not surprising that the composer and lyricist, Barry Keating, grew up reading comic books and watching Broadway musicals, or that he has been reading Joseph Campbell, the late scholar of heroic myths whose books spurred George Lucas to write his successful space trilogy. ''Comic books are the way we accept mythology today,'' says Mr. Keating. ''We need this stuff.'' To match such Broadway flops as ''Superman,'' ''Snoopy,'' and ''Doonesbury,'' backers for a show can dwell on the success of ''L'il Abner'' (1956), ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'' (an enormous Off Broadway hit first mounted in 1967), and ''Annie,'' one of the most successful musicals in Broadway history - and for which there has been much talk of a sequel. Television and The Quest for Camp