Conservation of Resources through Context-dependent Machine-to-Machine Communication
Sustainable handling of limited natural resources and raw materials as well as reducing CO2 emissions are both an ecological and economical necessity, and a social challenge. In future, efficient usage of resources such as energy, water, air, and valuable raw materials will mainly be software-driven and realized through technical communication between IT-systems.
My role in SemProM is twofold. As "Module Coordinator", I'm coordinating research performed in the numerous work packages by all project partners. In addition, I'm researching the interaction between user and the envisioned system, which combines virtual information sources and services with physical artifacts in the user's environment.
Semantic Product Memory: Products keep a diary
Smart labels give products a memory and support intelligent logistics. Within the IKT-2020 research program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Innovation Alliance "Digital Product Memory" is developing key technologies for the Internet of Things in the cooperative project SemProM. By using integrated sensors, relations in the production process become transparent and supply chains as well as environmental influences are retraceable. The producer is supported and the consumer gets superior product information. The innovative concept of SemProM is based on semantic technologies, machine-to-machine communication, intelligent sensor networks, instrumented environ-ments, RFID-technology, and multimodal interaction. The technical basis for SemProM is formed by miniaturized embedded elements, which are integrated in arbitrary, everyday objects. Invisible for the common user, these elements support the capturing and processing of product-related observations on the level of individual objects.
My role in SemProM was twofold. As "Module Coordinator", I was responsible for coordinating research performed in the numerous work packages by all project partners. In addition, I researched the interaction between user and digital product memory.
Sharing Augmented Personal Memories in Intelligent Environments
SharedLife addresses the question of how the sharing of augmented personal memories can contribute to the communication within small, potentially ad-hoc formed groups in instrumented environments. We want to create an application that enables an automated or semi-automated sharing of memories within such groups, and allows users to extend their perception with the other ones of the group and to provide the group with their perceptions. Such an exchange mechanism must not only take into account situated access constraints on privacy and trust (e.g., in order to distinguish between situations of the everyday life and emergency cases), but also the structure of the group (e.g., to define experts or opinion leaders). Users should be put in a position to control such complex constraints. In addition, we want to assist them with mechanisms that extract sharing constraints from the behavior of group members. Furthermore, since we expect users to have unique memory structures, mechanisms will be required which allow them to explore different structures from their own.
In addition to the project lead, my activities in SharedLife comprised research on methods which enable the user to keep control of information exchange and the integration of foreign memories with personal memories. In addition, I devoted special attention to user interfaces supporting the interaction of the user with shared memories.
Research on SharedLife was being sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under contract 01 IW F03 from January 2006 through December 2008.
SPECTER is a personal assistant that keeps track of its user's actions in an intelligent environment. It creates a personal journal, an episodic memory which, together with a user model learned on the basis of it, supports the generation of context-appropriate recommendations and actions. The user gains access to and control of these processes by means of an reflection and introspection component.
Application scenarios for SPECTER include visits of company representatives to other companies, participation in trade fairs, and assistance during shopping trips. In order to demonstrate the project goals, a prototype was developed which combines semantic web technology with state-of-the-art sensor technology.
My role in SPECTER comprised project lead, research on the extension of the user's perception through digital memories, and research on methods supporting reflection and introspection on the basis of such memories.
Research on SPECTER was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under contract 524-40001-01 IW C03 from January 2003 through December 2005.
This project is all about using virtual characters as dialog partners, e.g., in tutoring systems. Virtual Human was funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (2002-2006, FKZ 01 IMB 01A) and conducted by several German research institutes. I was involved in the work package "Specification and Control of Multimodal Articulators". Briefly spoken, this package addresses the question of how instructions produced by a dialog planning system can be mapped to instructions for the virtual characters, which can be processed by a rendering system. This question includes tasks such as gesture selection, lips synchronization, expression of emotions, and much more.
Valuable input to that task was provided by a first demonstrator of the system, which was presented to the public in July 2003. We used our experience gathered during the design of that prototype to set up an XML-based communication protocol, which will enable a flexible handling of the identified communication tasks. After finishing that job, with the end of October 2003 I moved to the project Specter in order to deal there with the presentation of the personal journal - a task closer related to my previous research activities.
Intelligent Multimedia Application Generator
The IMAGEN project is developing an integrated set of tools for publication and distribution of personalised digital media content over the Internet.
IMAGEN will provide software tools for multimedia authors, designers and publishers to generate intelligent content-packaging applications. These will deliver personalised, dynamic content, with minimal human intervention, according to individual user preferences. Content providers will be able to 'create once, publish anytime, anywhere', and the system will make it easy to re-purpose, adapt, update and customise their offerings to serve different audiences through multiple channels such as PCs and mobile devices.
From a technical point of view, IMAGEN consists of three major components: a Content Manager (CM), a Layout Manager (LM), and a Transaction Manager (TM).
The CM, developed by Bar-Ilan University and by e-business consultancy CBE, is responsible for the personalised selection and packaging of content. A high-level content specification, defined by the content provider, gives the system broad guidance for the choice of content. The CM will then collect feedback from users and thus develop profiles which capture the users' specific interests and preferences. These profiles are also reviewed by the LM.
The LM's main task is to ensure layout consistency of the personalised content packages that have been compiled from individual media assets or pre-configured packages. Developed by the DFKI using constraint processing techniques, the module aims at an near-optimal compromise between the publisher's layout specifications, and constraints imposed by the user's layout preferences and presentation platform. The output of the LM is a multimedia product that is ready for rendering on the target platform after its delivery by the TM.
The TM, developed by software company MediaSec, is invoked whenever content is selected that requires payment or copyright clearance. It records the transaction for the purpose of tracking copyright and license agreements, thereby providing a mechanism to ensure that royalties are raised for the IP rights owner. The Transaction Manager uses digital watermarking to protect the contents of the material from illicit use.
Intelligent Multimedia Authoring Tools for Electronic Publishing
The goal of IMAP was the development of software tools that will radically simplify and accelerate the authoring process for creation of electronic presentation (e.g., electronic magazines) by automating the complex, time-consuming tasks of multimedia content selection and layout design.
IMAP was conducted by DFKI in collaboration with Bar-Ilan University (BIU). The project was founded by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF); the project began in 01/99 and ended in 12/01.
The IMAP system consists of two modules, a Content Manager (CM) and a Layout Manager (LM). The CM, developed at the BIU, receives the raw, media-rich data input to the system. Based on the author's specifications and the interests of the users of the presentation, the CM selects appropriate content and submits it to the LM. User feedback is collected by intelligent agents and stored in a user profile, which is submitted to the CM.
The LM, the DesignComposer developed at the DFKI, produces a near-optimal layout for the content provided by the CM. The layout production is based on style sheets, which contain constraints and rules describing the content providers layout preferences. The production is controlled by a user profile, which captures the presentation user's hardware and software preferences.
DFKI and BIU have integrated their modules. One sample scenario includes a layout server, which enables the layout production on demand. A demonstration of this application is shown in one of my Ph.D. movies.
Adaptives Layout von dynamischen Webseiten
(Adaptive Layout of Dynamic Web Pages)
In my Ph.D. thesis, constraint and other AI techniques are combined to achieve a layout generator that enables adaptive layout of Web pages with dynamic content. The DesignComposer, a software completely written in Java, implements the ideas of this work. The thesis was founded by the Landesgraduiertenförderung (graduate foundation) of the German state Saarland, and was successfully finished in 12/00. I continued working on the DesignComposer in the project IMAP.
Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen zur Implementierung eines Constraint-Systems zur Paginierung Gelber Seiten - Realisierung des Constraint-Solvers
(Algorithms and Data Structures for the Implementation of a Constraint System for the Pagination of Yellow Page Directories - Realization of the Constraint Solver)
My diploma thesis comprised the design and implementation in C++ of a fast constraint-based layout generator. It was part of the project YPPS performed by DFKI in cooperation with PrePress International (now net-linx), and was successfully finished in 02/96.