Projects |

EVOCATION

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

SMOOTH

Fri, 06 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In the past years, there has been a growing interest in telepresence communication systems, which create the impression of being present at a place different from the true location. A major challenge in this area is to process the acquired imagery at the sender site into a high-quality 3D representation of the scene in real time. High quality approaches usually require intensive offline processing. Then again, methods that work in real time produce 3D representations at a low grade. In recent systems this is caused by the application of low-cost depth sensors, such as Microsoft Kinect, which deliver 3D representations in real time but still exhibit considerable amounts of disturbing artifacts. The flickering nature of artifacts is often not considered. To understand their strong temporal component, we will start with experimentally developing a statistical model for the distortions of common depth sensors. In contrast to existing work in this field, we will also consider the temporal aspects of the matter. Guided by the results of analyzing the gained data, we will develop a new real-time spatio-temporal filter to simultaneously stabilize distorted depth data in the spatial and temporal domains. Therefore, we suggest a composition of a novel depth outlier detection method, motion estimation for depth cameras and 3D-filtering. Our idea is to smooth every depth pixel based on its 3D spatial and temporal neighborhood. In order to identify temporally related neighbors in the stream of depth frames, we will estimate the motion of scene objects to trace back the history of every depth pixel. As depth images are too unstable for this task, we suggest to rather perform motion estimation on the color images, usually delivered alongside by current depth sensors. By the fixed close spatial relation between color and depth camera we can transfer the estimation results to the depth images. After compiling the spatio-temporal 3D neighborhood of all depth pixels in a frame, we will insert a robust outlier detection and removal step using 6D linear regression. Here, an essential amount of research will be invested into the question on how to implement a least median of squares approach, which, on the one hand, is suitable to solve the task but, on the other hand, is difficult to do in real time. After cleaning away the outliers, filtering the 3D depth neighborhood will remove the inherent Gaussian noise. Our new approach will be integrated into a telepresence prototype system comprising an array of RGB-D cameras. Here, we plan to cross-validate the corrected depth data from multiple cameras by extending our previous work towards dynamic 3D representations. For the evaluation of our proposed method, testing data will be generated alongside with ground truth either obtained from predefined scenery or from artificial imagery with added hardware-conform noise.

ARGuide

Tue, 16 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

During payload operations astronauts are guided by sequential directives displayed on a laptop computer using an exocentric presentation scheme for task guiding. Such an approach forces the astronaut to constant changes of focus that can cause loss of concentration and attention, as well as can be the primary reason for sequence errors resulting in a faulty task termination. To ease astronauts’ work and ensure successful task performance new interface technologies are required. By bridging the gap between the physical reality and digital information, Augmented Reality (AR) keeps the focus on the task to fulfill and offers user- centered operations by an egocentric display. Beside the display, AR interface can differ in providing the visual information for localizing users’ attention. While egocentric visualizations maintain the principal characteristic required for AR interfaces by 3D registered information, exocentric visualizations are presented as head-up display information and approved methods to navigate the user towards off-screen objects. Using a visuomotor task (visual search, operation task) we will investigate the influence of altered gravity on human performance and workload by comparing exocentric with egocentric displays and presentation schemes in a within-subject user study. To differentiate visuomotor deficits we will use common performance metrics. Workload effects will assess with subjective, physiological and secondary task performance. For evaluating the physiological workload we intend to assess and analyze cardiovascular parameters such as the heart rate variability, the heart frequency and the blood pressure. We expect that under altered gravity, especially under short-term microgravity, the egocentric presentation of task directives using the Augmented Reality condition outperforms exocentric conditions by increased performance and decreased workload. We will also perform head movement analysis resulted from the visual search process and expect significant findings for the AR condition that offers visual search by egocentric navigation providing head movements in given horizontal, vertical and oblique directions.

3DPick

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This project is a collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and explores the influence of micro- and hypergravity in parabolic flight during the performance of selecting virtual objects in Augmented Reality (AR) environments, which enable the enrichment of the physical world with virtual information. Such interfaces should enhance the user’s perception of the real world and thereby supply support for service and maintenance tasks at complex technical facilities. One important aspect of research in AR environments investigates the user’s interaction with real and virtual objects in an intuitive and natural manner.

Pointing to a virtual object in 3D physical reality is one of the basic interaction techniques in virtual environments. Using common input devices (e.g., mice, keyboard) is not suitable for mapping control tasks in 3D AR environments. To apply AR user interfaces to space flight missions has a great potential for future space operations. During a mission the astronaut’s handling of displays and control items depends on an easy and intuitive usability. Our experiment will investigate the ability of a human to pick virtual objects in 3D space under micro-g and hyper-g conditions during parabolic flight. This will enable the measurement of the quality and quantification while performing this task in order to evaluate human performance in virtual object selection in physical reality.

We have developed an experimentation task that includes pointing to a virtual keyboard to investigate different arrangements modalities of interactive AR interfaces. The results of the experiment will allow the identification of special requirements and early consideration of the influence of different acceleration conditions (micro-g, hyper-g) during our currently development stage of AR user interfaces for future aerospace applications.

Supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) we have carried out parabolic flight experiments in May 2012 and June 2013.

DIVA

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The DIVA Project is an Initial Training Network (ITN) funded by the EU within the 7th Framework Programme. It brings together six full partner institutions and eight associated partners from six different EU countries.

The main goal of the network is to train the next generation of researchers in the fields of 3D data presentation and understanding, with a primary focus on data intensive application environments. The people in this program are mostly Early-Stage european scientific Researchers who in the future will lead the development of novel Data Intensive Visualization and Analysis (DIVA) methodologies in data-driven science and technology application domains.

For more information visit the .

Telepresence

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The Extended Window Metaphor is a novel tele-presence approach that extends the window metaphor by combining large high-resolution LCD walls with multi-camera 3D video. We propose to integrate an array of cameras into the bezels of the wall to support flexible camera placement for optimized video acquisition. The users’ 3D video representation combined with the high-resolution LCD wall provides local and remote users with a shared virtual space in an extended life-size window metaphor.

One of our central ideas is the integration of cameras directly into the LCD wall by utilizing the ”unused“ bezel space between individual display panels. Integrating cameras directly into the display wall provides us with a number of interesting new options. We are able to capture free-viewpoint 3D video with multiple cameras that are facing the user directly.

MuSAMA

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The DFG Research Training Group MuSAMA (Multimodal Smart Appliance Ensembles for Mobile Applications) is based on the hypothesis that ubiquitous machine intelligence, envisioned for our future everyday environments, will be provided by dynamic ensembles: Local agglomerations of smart appliances, whose composition is prone to frequent, unforeseeable, and substantial changes. Members of such ensembles need to be able to cooperate spontaneously and without human guidance in order to achieve their joint goal of assisting the user. The resultant concept of autonomous cooperative assistance poses new challenges for the research on ubiquitous and ambient information technology.

Large high-resolution displays (LHRDs) are used in a wide application area like product engineering, geospatial imaging or scientific visualization. The advantage of scientific visualization on high-resolution displays is the presentation of complex data in a higher level of detail as well as in the context of surrounding information. The focus of this project is the development of methods and techniques for integrating large high-resolution display environments in smart appliance ensembles. The thesis focuses on the investigation of multi-modal 3D interaction techniques. The display environment can be used as an (inter-) active or passive device, depending on the user’s current position, task, and workload.

For more information visit the .