Applying kinesthetic real-time interactive technology to develop a martial arts learning system

Martial arts are one of China's traditional cultures and sports, practiced not only for self-defense but also for physical fitness and longevity. In modern Chinese society, where health consciousness has been gradually popular, more and more people are engaged in martial arts. By employing the hardware, i.e., Microsoft Xbox Kinect, the authors developed a 3D kinesthetic learning and evaluation system for martial arts. The system provides real-time feedbacks so that learners can understand immediately adjust their postures; meanwhile, it evaluates their learning performance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be adopted to explore the different performances resulting from this system, the traditional method, and common multimedia computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Thereafter, the scores given by the automatic evaluation system would be compared with those given by traditional human evaluation. It is expected that this study can contribute to CAI-based physical education as well as for the martial arts promotion in the future.