A Computational View of the Skill of Juggling

Abstract

This research has as its basic premise the belief that physical and mental skills are highly similar, enough so in fact that computation paradigms such as the ones used in Artificial Intelligence research about predominantly mental skills can be usefully extended to include physical skills. This thesis is pursued experimentally by categorization of "juggling bugs" via detailed video observations. A descriptive language for juggling movements is developed and a taxonomy of bugs is presented. The remainder of the paper is concerned with an empirical determination of the characteristics of an ultimate theory of juggling movements. The data presented is relevant to the computational issues of control structure, naming, addressing and subprocedurization.