The department Augmented Vision is a common group of DFKI and the University of Kaiserslautern (Germany) working in the area of Digital Technologies and providing R&D capability from basic research up to validation of prototypes. The research topics include:

Learning Computer Vision Systems: The interpretation of visual information requires a high degree of abstraction, which is nowadays efficiently achieved by learning systems. The research work is based on the recognition of isolated image features to a fully understood scene in general situations. Methods of Deep-Learning are combined with 3-D geometry and optimization approaches in order to create advanced vision systems applied to application areas, such as autonomous driving, robotics, intelligent manufacturing and new media.

Cognitive Augmented Reality: Augmented vision will establish itself as a natural user interface in the coming years, both at home and at work. The Augmented Reality (AR) systems move from traditional applications (AR manual or revitalization of ruins) to new solutions that have an understanding of the user’s actions, interactions and intentions as well as the given context in order to provide adaptively specific and thus useful supporting information.

AI-based Body Sensor Networks: Through hardware miniaturization and new embedded algorithms, body sensor networks can nowadays be used on a daily basis. The inference of biomechanically based models allow the identification of high quality parameters that are of high relevance for areas such as health (rehabilitation, intelligent orthosis systems) or industrie 4.0 (ergonomic and workflow analysis).

The work is carried out in the context of basic research grants, publicly founded national and European projects, and direct orders from the industry. As provider of technology, DFKI-AV’s contributions are independent from the applications areas. Current projects are anchored in high-impact contexts, including Factory of the Future (Industry 4.0), Health, Smart City, Cognitive Robotic Systems, New Media, Safety and Security. The research department has been founded in 2008, is located in Kaiserslautern and directed by Prof. Dr. Didier Stricker.