Studying With Corey

Today, after years of encouragement, I finally gave in to Corey's doctors and my pocketbook and had Corey undergo a Gait Study. The study consisted of four hours of hooking Corey up to devices, then hooking him up to more devices, and then adjusting devices that Corey unintentionally unhooked. Great fun!

Actually we had a great time. There's nothing quite like watching medical personnel interact with Corey for the very first time, especially when they are held captive by Corey for hours on end.

Yeah, it's kind of amazing how Corey tells you the difference between Kelvin and Fahrenheit initially, and wow, listen to him read that Biohazard sign! An hour later Corey is explaining how to utilize a weighted storage cube with an aperture sign on it in a Portal game and yeah, doc is getting a little exasperated. By hour three Corey has read every sign in the room aloud and showed the staff how he spells out words by twisting his fingers into Corey sign language. By hour four, the doctor is trying everything he can to keep Corey on track, just ten more minutes and it could all be over with if Corey would just STOP EXPLAINING THE MERITS OF COMIC SANS VS. TIMES NEW ROMAN!!!!

Anyhow.... measurements were taken of Corey for quite a while and then he was fitted with a little motherboard on his back that resembled a jet pack. Wires ran from this box to various muscles on Corey's legs. Corey had to do a few passes along a path surrounded by about twelve cameras and a bunch of computer equipment, and he did just fine. It looked something like this:

Why does this make me think of the Jetsons?

Then came the cool part. Corey was striped down and suited up with a bunch of reflectors and made to walk along the same path. The data was then transferred to a computer which gave the doctors an amazing rendition of just how Corey's gait affects all areas of his body. Initially Corey looked like this:

A case of the bumps.

What the computer saw resembled something like this, minus Corey's body:


Corey, still and in motion.

This is the same technique used in the movies to do computer animation, and it was fascinating to watch but it is very repetitive. Unfortunately Corey, with his not so subtle gait, often knocked off the reflectors which required us to stop often for an adjustment or two or five.

Going...

Growing frustrated and adjustment time.