News

Alain Pagani hat am 13.06.2014 seine Dissertation mit der wissenschaftlichen Aussprache erfolgreich abgeschlossen.

Seine Doktorarbeit trägt den Titel „Reality models for efficient registration in Augmented Reality“.  In seiner Arbeit befasste sich Alain Pagani mit mathematischen Modellen realer Objekte oder Szenen, um das Problem der Kameraregistrierung im Forschungsfeld  Erweiterte  Realität zu behandeln. Die vorgeschlagenen bildbasierte Verfahren ermöglichen  eine effiziente Kamerapose-Berechnung  in unterschiedlichen Szenarien und lösen somit eine grundliegende Herausforderung der erweiterten Realität.

Gutachter der Arbeit sind Prof. Dr. Didier Stricker und Prof. Dr. Michael Felsberg (Linköping University).

Wir gratulieren Alain Pagani herzlich zu diesem Erfolg!

A Franco-German TV Network ARTE (ARTE FUTUREMAG) interviewed Prof. Dr. Didier Stricker to the european project AlterEGO.

The full interview is available in german and french languages (see links below)

• ARTE FUTUREMAG Interview AlterEGO German Language
• ARTE FUTUREMAG Interview AlterEGO French Language

Recently two publications resulting from research work within the Augmented Vision Group were accepted at the WSCG 2014 conference (http://www.wscg.cz/). Both publications address image-based 3D reconstruction relying on perspective respectively spherical images.

Oliver Wasenmüller, Bernd Krolla, Francesco Michielin, Didier Stricker
Correspondence Chaining for Enhanced Dense 3D Reconstruction
The paper proposes and evaluates a new algorithm to fuse existing dense two-view 3D reconstruction algorithms to a multi-view reconstruction, where each 3D point is estimated from multiple images. This leads to an enhanced precision and reduced redundancy of the reconstructed model.

Bernd Krolla, Christiano Couto Gava, Alain Pagani, Didier Stricker
Consistent Pose Uncertainty Estimation for Spherical Cameras
The paper discusses and evaluates the reliability of first order uncertainty propagation results in context of spherical Structure from Motion, concluding that they are not valid without restrictions, but depend on the choice of the objective function.

The “International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision” (WSCG) takes place for the 22nd time and will be held from June 2nd to June 5th in Pilzen (Czech Republic).

Think Outside the Box:
Nils Petersen will give a talk on „Augmented Reality in Service & Support” at Service Desk World 2014
When: 6th May 2014, 13:10 – 13:30
Where: InterContinental Düsseldorf, Königsallee 59, 40215 – Düsseldorf

Save the date: Professor Stricker has been invited by the Fundación Innovación Bankinter to give a talk about SuperHumans at the XXI Future Trends Forum (link not available anymore) on April 29th in Madrid.

Alexander Schweitzer – Minister für Soziales, Arbeit, Gesundheit und Demografie des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz lässt sich am DFKI-Stand das Exponat „TrackMe meets GeoVisualizer” erklären

FastMRO – If you are visiting CeBIT 2014 and are interested in the latest results on Augmented Vision for the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul of Agricultural Machines, visit us at Hall 9, Booth D44. Our colleagues are happy to show you how helpful AV can be.

If you cannot make it, check it out here.

If you are interested in Wearable Computing and Human Analytics, visit us at Hall 9, Booth F43 and experience our latest results from the European research project EASY-IMP.

Don’t miss it!

In the context of DFKI’s SmartCity Living Lab opening on February, 5th, 2014 in Kaiserslautern, the department Augmented Vision presented results from the EU project EASY-IMP. The researchers have chosen the general title “Human Analytics – TrackMe meets GeoVisualizer” to showcase a mobile sensing Android app called TrackMe and the visualization toolkit GeoVisualizer. The TrackMe app collects, analyzes and stores a variety of sensor data. Furthermore, the smart phone app is able to broadcast the collected data to a standardized web service, e.g. for real time monitoring.

The research group Augmented Vision receives the Google Research Award for development new 3D Scanning methods.

See press release in German: Link

Sonys European Technology Center (EuTEC), located in Stuttgart (Germany) initiated a collaboration with the Augmented Vision Group in April 2012.
Within the cooperation, the work of PhD- and Masterstudents is funded to research new 3D reconstruction technologies.
Sony EuTECs bi-annual PhD-Roundtable furthermore allows for interdisciplinar discussion of PhD-students from different research areas, preparing the ground for new innovations.

Link: Sony EuTec

Researchers from the Augmented Vision group at DFKI have developed a novel approach for automatic video-based traffic analysis.
First, entry and exit zones of complex crossroads or roundabouts are defined interactively.Then, each car is tracked individually by computing the trajectory based solely on the video content.
This provides unique data for traffic analysis and in particularfor supporting simulations for improved traffic solutions.

Feel free to check out the demonstration videos on our YouTube channel: Traffic Analysis

In this paper we present a one-button photo-realistic scanning system which provides a realistic 3D (usable!) representation of a given object. The paper will be presented at the Digital Heritage Conference from the 28th October – 1st November 2013 in Marseille, France. Feel free to check out the demonstration videos on our YouTube channel:

• 3D Reconstructions Representation
• OrCaM System demonstration

We are very proud to announce that we have won the Google Research Award for our research in 3D scanning, object reconstruction and appearance modelling. With this award Google supports cutting-edge research in Computer Science and Engineering with the aim of identifying and supporting world-class, full-time research of mutual interests. The award was granted to the Augmented Vision group for their outstanding work in new methods to fast and systematic 3D modelling and rendering of object appearance.For more information on the OrCaM-system, please visit our project page under http://av.dfki.de/orcam or check out our videos on YouTube:

• 3D Reconstructions Representation
• OrCaM System demonstration

In this paper we present a novel approach for a user supported tracking framework which combines automatic tracking and minimal user input for error free tracking results suitable for interactive video production. We present our results on the CVMP, the 10th European Conference on Visual Media Production on the 6-7th November 2013 in London. You can download the paper here or browse our list of publications.

Twelve different partners from industry and research meet on the 17 & 18th of October at the DFKI in Kaiserslautern for the kickoff meeting of the EASY-IMP project.

Scanning people with a Kinect is still a challenging problem. In this poster we demonstrate an approach for a fully automatic, full body scanning, combining state of the art super-resolution and registration algorithms with a novel approach for shape completion to reconstruct the human body.

For a copy of the poster, please contact Yan Cui.

Two papers have been accepted for the upcoming International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC):

Attila Reiss, Gustaf Hendeby, Didier Stricker

Confidence-based Multiclass AdaBoost for Physical Activity Monitoring

IEEE 17th International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), September 9-12, 2013, Zurich, Switzerland.

Attila Reiss, Didier Stricker

Personalized Mobile Physical Activity Recognition

IEEE 17th International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), September 9-12, 2013, Zurich, Switzerland.

For the conference program and the papers’ abstract, please visit: http://www.iswc.net/iswc13/program.html.

The first two projects of the software-cluster EMERGENT and SWINNG have been successfully evaluated by DLR and BMBF. In addition to the generally positive review the BMBF reviewers chose a small selection of “gems”, among them AV’s AR-Handbook for their novel approach to Augmented Reality maintenance assistance.

In the next two years the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and  the Institute for Applied Scientific Training (IAT) will work together on the use of novel technologies in professional sports. German press release

Motion sensors are becoming incredibly cheap and are already fully integrated. Chaining them allows fully new applications in the area of body and tools tracking.

For a full copy of the work, please contact Markus Miezal.