Loughborough University is a top-ten rated university in England for research intensity (REF2014) and an outstanding 66% of the work of Loughborough’s academic staff who were eligible to be submitted to the REF was judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, compared to a national average figure of 43%. In choosing Loughborough for your research, you’ll work alongside academics who are leaders in their field. You will benefit from comprehensive support and guidance from our Doctoral College, including tailored careers advice, to help you succeed in your research and future career. Kinesemiotics is the study of motivated movement informed by Linguistics, Engineering, and Computer Science. The foundation of Kinesemiotics relies on effective data collection of sensor information relating to dance performance, the development of a suitable linguistic Functional Grammar model for Dance (FGD) from which to understand dance discourse, and the development of software to analyse, store and visualise such data through that model. The heritage of dance and ballet is carried and transmitted by both practitioners and audiences; however, for all parties we are restricted to two primary sources of data: paper based notations (Labanotation, Benesh, etc), accessible only to a restricted elite of notators; video recording, with issues with perspective, resolution, accuracy, interactivity, and lacks any link to further semantic information relating to the performance in question. An initial collaboration with the English National Ballet showed the potential benefits and applications of sensor-based notation systems, particularly for classical ballet. Such an approach also opens up the potential for novel interaction mechanisms with the data generated, including the exploitation of virtual reality technology and considerable advancements in the modelling of a theory of movement based communication with great applicative potential. The main objective of this project is to develop a software which interfaces with a motion capture sensor suit, coupled to a commercial grade gaming engine for data manipulation and augmentation with additional semantic data based on the FGD. The PhD will be working in research labs and will be able to access to equipment resources as appropriate.