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May 2009 - present
March 1994 - August 2012
Publications
Publications (179)
Behavioral realism plays a crucial role in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). Various avatar animation techniques, ranging from full-body motion capture to single-point inverse kinematics (IK), offer different levels of realism. While the animation of a user’s own avatar influences embodiment, the perceived realism of others’ avatars is equally...
Staying socially connected is vital for older adults’ well-being. This study explores how wearable augmented reality (AR) can enhance their communication experiences. N=16 older adults from Germany used a prototype wearable AR communication system to engage in a conversation task with a realistic avatar representing a remote communication partner....
Behavioral realism plays a crucial role in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). Various avatar animation techniques, ranging from full-body motion capture to single-point inverse kinematics (IK), offer different levels of realism. While the animation of a user’s own avatar influences embodiment, the perceived realism of others’ avatars is equally...
To achieve realistic lighting in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and similar applications especially with stringent realtime constraints, environmental lighting is often captured and stored in light probes, which are strategically placed throughout the scene. This study explores the optimal positioning of light probes to enhance the r...
The Audiovisual Multimodal Interaction Suite (AMIS) is an open source dataset and accompanying Unity-based demo implementation designed to aid research on immersive media communication and social XR environments. AMIS features synchronized audiovisual recordings of three actors performing monologues and participating in dyadic conversations across...
The field of space mission has been growing rapidly in recent years, with a multitude of projects and initiatives being undertaken by various organizations around the world. One critical aspect of such endeavors is the ability to simulate and visualize the complex environments and scenarios that space missions may encounter. This paper presents the...
Given the profound impact of staying socially connected on the well-being of older adults, this study explores the potential of augmented reality (AR) systems to enrich their social lives. A wearable AR communication system prototype was developed and tested in a user study involving N = 16 older adults from Germany. Participants wore an AR headset...
The appearance of virtual humans (avatars and agents) has been widely explored in immersive environments. However, virtual humans’ movements and associated sounds in real-world interactions, particularly in Augmented Reality (AR), are yet to be explored. In this paper, we investigate the influence of three distinct movement patterns (circle, side-t...
Augmented reality (AR) presents vivid opportunities for interpersonal communication. With the growing diversity of social AR users, understanding their unique needs and perceptions becomes crucial. This study delves into how younger, middle-aged, and older adults perceive avatars with different aging attributes and degrees of realism, focusing on t...
The combination of smartphone Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) makes it possible for on-site and remote users to jointly and simultaneously explore a physical space and its digital twin through an asymmetric Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE). In this paper, we investigate two spatial awareness visualizations to enable joint exp...
Integrating taste in AR/VR applications has various promising use cases - from social eating to the treatment of disorders. Despite many successful AR/VR applications that alter the taste of beverages and food, the relationship between olfaction, gustation, and vision during the process of multisensory integration (MSI) has not been fully explored...
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are pushing from the labs towards consumers, especially with social applications. These applications require visual representations of humans and intelligent entities. However, displaying and animating photo-realistic models comes with a high technical cost while low-fidelity representations may evoke...
Communication technologies play an important role in maintaining the grandparent-grandchild (GP-GC) relationship. Based on Media Richness Theory, this study investigates the frequency of use (RQ1) and perceived quality (RQ2) of established media as well as the potential use of selected innovative media (RQ3) in GP-GC relationships with a particular...
Background:
Loneliness and social isolation in older age are considered major public health concerns and research on technology-based solutions is growing rapidly. This scoping review of reviews aims to summarize the communication technologies (CTs) (review question RQ1), theoretical frameworks (RQ2), study designs (RQ3), and positive effects of t...
In recent years, various depth sensors that are small enough to be used with mobile hardware have been introduced. They provide important information for use cases like 3D reconstruction or in the context of augmented reality where tracking and camera data alone would be insufficient. However, depth sensors may not always be available due to hardwa...
When operating a conditionally automated vehicle, humans occasionally have to take over control. If the driver is out of the loop, a certain amount of time is necessary to gain situation awareness. This work evaluates the potential of stereoscopic 3D (S3D) dashboards for presenting smart S3D take-over-requests (TORs) to support situation assessment...
How do Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) systems recognize the actions of users? How does a VR or AR system know where the user is? How can a system track objects in their movement? What are proven input devices for VR and AR that increase immersion in virtual or augmented worlds? What are the technical possibilities and limitations?...
What is Virtual Reality (VR)? What is Augmented Reality (AR)? What is the purpose of VR/AR? What are the basic concepts? What are the hard- and software components of VR/AR systems? How has VR/AR developed historically? The first chapter examines these questions and provides an introduction to this textbook. This chapter is fundamental for the whol...
This chapter discusses output devices and technologies for Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). The goal of using output devices is to enable the user to dive into the virtual world or to perceive the augmented world. Devices for visual output play a crucial role here, they are of central importance for the use of VR and AR. First and f...
This chapter covers specific topics of Augmented Reality (AR). After an introduction to the basic components and a review of the different types of AR, the following sections explain the individual components in more detail, as far as they were not already part of previous chapters. This includes in particular the different manifestations of regist...
This chapter deals with the authoring of VR and AR applications. The focus here is on the use of authoring tools in the form of software development kits (SDKs) or game engines. First, the actual authoring process will be briefly discussed before selected authoring tools for VR and AR are reviewed. Subsequently, the authoring process and the use of...
This comprehensive textbook offers a scientifically sound and at the same time practical introduction to Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR). Readers will gain the theoretical foundation needed to design, implement or enhance VR/AR systems, evaluate and improve user interfaces and applications using VR/AR methods, assess and enrich user experienc...
The grandparent-grandchild (GP-GC) relationship is a relevant factor for the wellbeing of both grandchildren and grandparents. Digital communication technologies play an important role in maintaining it, especially when face-to-face interactions are not possible, e.g., due to living far from each other or pandemic contact restrictions. The aim of t...
Recent developments in augmented reality for TV productions encouraged broadcasters to enhance interaction with virtual content for moderators. However, traditional interaction methods are considered distracting and not intuitive. To overcome these issues, we performed a gesture elicitation study with a follow-up evaluation. For this, we considered...
Depth estimation is one of the basic building blocks for scene understanding. In the case of monocular depth estimation using neural networks, many such approaches are highly hardware dependent because they result in a task- and environment-specific optimizing problem. Most DNN methods use commonly available datasets which leads to overfitting on p...
The reconstruction of real-world surfaces is on high demand in various applications. Most existing reconstruction approaches apply 3D scanners for creating point clouds which are generally sparse and of low density. These points clouds will be triangulated and used for visualization in combination with surface normals estimated by geometrical appro...
The reconstruction of real-world surfaces is on high demand in various applications. Most existing reconstruction approaches apply 3D scanners for creating point clouds which are generally sparse and of low density. These points clouds will be triangulated and used for visualization in combination with surface normals estimated by geometrical appro...
Many virtual reality (VR) applications rely on passive haptics where virtual objects have a real counterpart that provides tactile feedback. In addition to that, many VR applications do not provide accurate hand representations, especially when there is a high chance of occlusion as this makes vision-based tracking problematic. Hence, we investigat...
State-of-the-art methods for diminished reality propagate pixel information from a keyframe to subsequent frames for real-time inpainting. However, these approaches produce artifacts, if the scene geometry is not sufficiently planar. In this article, we present InpaintFusion, a new real-time method that extends inpainting to non-planar scenes by co...
Environment textures are used for the illumination of virtual objects within a virtual scene. Using these textures is crucial for high-quality lighting and reflection. In the case of an augmented reality context, the lighting is very important to seamlessly embed a virtual object within the real world scene. To ensure this, the lighting of the envi...
In recent years, stereoscopic 3D (S3D) displays have shown promising results on user experience, for navigation, and critical warnings when applied in cars. However, previous studies have only investigated these displays in non-interactive use-cases. So far, interacting with stereoscopic 3D content in cars has not been studied. Hence, we investigat...
Dieses Kapitel behandelt spezifische Themen der Augmentierten Realität (AR). Nach einer Übersicht über die grundlegenden Bestandteile und der Betrachtung der verschiedenen Ausprägungen von AR werden in den anschließenden Unterkapiteln die einzelnen Komponenten näher erläutert, soweit diese nicht bereits Bestandteil vorheriger Kapitel waren. Dazu ge...
Was ist Virtuelle Realität (VR)? Was versteht man unter Augmentierter Realität (AR)? Wozu dienen VR/AR? Welche Grundkonzepte gibt es? Wie sind VR/AR – Systeme aufgebaut? Wie hat sich VR/AR geschichtlich entwickelt? Diesen Fragen geht das erste Kapitel nach und vermittelt so eine Einführung in das vorliegende Lehrbuch. Das Kapitel ist grundlegend fü...
Wie erkennen Systeme der Virtual Reality und der Augmented Reality die Aktionen von Nutzern? Woher weiß ein VR- oder AR-System, wo sich der Nutzer befindet? Wie kann ein System Objekte in ihrer Bewegung verfolgen? Welche technischen Möglichkeiten und Einschränkungen gibt es dabei? Wie sehen bewährte VR- und AR-Systeme aus, die ein Eintauchen in Vir...
Wie können virtuelle Inhalte in etwas sinnlich Erfahrbares umgewandelt und ausgegeben werden? Welche Möglichkeiten und Alternativen gibt es, einzelne Sinne anzusprechen? Ausgabegeräte dienen dazu, Nutzern über eine entsprechende Reizerzeugung die Virtuelle Welt darzustellen bzw. die reale Welt zu erweitern. In diesem Kapitel werden Ausgaberäte für...
Dieses Kapitel befasst sich mit der Erstellung von VR- und AR-Anwendungen. Im Zentrum der Betrachtung steht hierbei die Nutzung von Autorenwerkzeugen in Form von Softwarepaketen oder (Game) Engines. Zunächst soll kurz auf den eigentlichen Autorenprozess eingegangen werden, bevor ausgewählte Autorenwerkzeuge für VR und AR betrachtet werden. Anschlie...
Calling while driving poses a severe safety risk. When more than two people are involved in a call-a conference call-this risk increases even more. Intelligent vehicles could offer support systems that ease the cognitive burden of such a multiparty calls. We explore the possibilities of such advanced driving assistant systems (ADAS) in two ways: fi...
Trust in self-driving cars is considered to ensure appropriate usage of such vehicles. Representing the automation system as an anthropomorphic virtual assistant that communicates the system's behavior could help to build and maintain trust. To explore such assistants, a prototype of an anthropomorphic virtual assistant was designed and integrated...
When operating a conditionally automated vehicle, humans occasionally have to take over control. If the driver is out-of-the-loop, a certain amount of time is necessary to gain situation awareness. This work evaluates the potential of smart stereoscopic 3D (S3D) dashboard visualizations to support situation assessment and by that, take-over perform...
The ongoing digitalization of our world also offers an increasing amount of information to the human. To present this data to a driver, visualization strategies are necessary going beyond traditional displays. In this paper we investigate the effect of stereoscopic 3D (S3D) visualization and the influence of the S3D contents’ locations on the dashb...
Die aktualisierte und erweiterte Zweitauflage dieses umfassenden Lehrbuchs bietet Studierenden, Lehrenden, Forschenden, Anwendern und Interessierten einen wissenschaftlich fundierten und dabei auch gleichzeitig praxisnahen Einstieg in die Grundlagen und Methoden der Virtuellen und Augmentierten Realität (VR/AR). Die Leser erhalten das theoretische...
Glossy reflections of the surroundings play a major role when trying to achieve a seamless fusion of real and virtual objects in Mixed Reality (MR) environments. Traditionally, the necessary information about the ambiance is captured using mirrored balls, HDR cameras, fish-eye lenses, RGB-D cameras or 360-degree cameras. While these approaches allo...
In the sharing-economy, users do not necessarily own a car but use commercial services to rent a car according to their needs, requirements, and liking. To provide the best driving experience and safety, it is necessary that they understand the car and its functionality. Assuming that future vehicles will facilitate mostly screens for information p...
Presents the introductory welcome message from the conference proceedings. May include the conference officers' congratulations to all involved with the conference event and publication of the proceedings record.
Presents the introductory welcome message from the conference proceedings. May include the conference officers' congratulations to all involved with the conference event and publication of the proceedings record.
The ongoing digitalization is a huge chance for retailers and stores to make
shopping more convenient and by that, increase their overall turnout. It may also be valuable for customers to have a pleasant and stress-free shopping experience. Mixed Reality (MR) could support this by merging virtual elements with the real shopping environment. One pos...
The ongoing digitalization is a huge chance for retailers and stores to make shopping more convenient and by that, increase their overall turnout. It may also be valuable for customers to have a pleasant and stress-free shopping experience. Mixed Reality (MR) could support this by merging virtual elements with the real shopping environment. One pos...
Recently released consumer head-mounted displays (HMD), such as the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, or the Sony PlayStation VR, hyped up the market of virtual reality, particularly affecting the gaming industry. Although the technology is now publicly accessible, it is not yet mature enough to guarantee its users an absolutely pleasant experience. Side...
The amount of available information and functionality in cars is increasing rapidly. Academia and industry are working tirelessly on technologies to integrate both in automotive user experience while providing high usability and safety. A large stereoscopic 3D dashboard could offer binocular disparity as a depth cue and by this, support these effor...
Physically-based approaches are increasingly used in a wide field of computer graphics. By that, modern graphic engines can provide a realistic output using physical correct values instead of an analytical approximation. Such applications apply the final lighting on a geometry buffer to reduce the complexity. Using this approach for Mediated Realit...
Recently, quite a number of approaches came up to reconstruct 3D volumes from RGB or RGBD camera input. However, most of these approaches are rather inflexible regarding the initial camera position with respect of the reconstruction volume and the overall size of the area to be reconstructed. This severly limits the usability of those approaches. I...
The research and discussion on technology in crisis communication suffers from at least two limitations: the focus on external instead of internal crisis communication and the predominance of the internet/social media at the expense of other technologies in regard to the gathering, sharing, and dissemination of information in the context of crises...
While anticipated in Hollywood movies and sci-fi literature, a perfect artifical reality – i.e. the ultimate VR environment – will probably not become real within the next couple of years. However, using Augmented Reality (AR) technologies in order to seamlessly embed artificial content into the real environment, might be a much more feasible way t...
While image inpainting has recently become widely available in image manipulation tools, existing approaches to video inpainting typically do not even achieve interactive frame rates yet as they are highly computationally expensive. Further, they either apply severe restrictions on the movement of the camera or do not provide a high-quality coheren...
Methods and apparatuses for removing a visual object from a visual data stream. A live visual data stream containing present and subsequent images is received. A visual object is selected by defining a contour. A binary mask based on said contour is determined. Starting at the coarsest layer, regions outside the mask for replacing a region within t...
Wie erkennt ein VR-System die Aktionen eines Nutzers? Wie kann ein VR-System Objekte in ihrer Bewegung verfolgen? Welche technischen Möglichkeiten und Einschränkungen gibt es dabei? Wie sehen bewährte VR-Systeme aus, die ein Eintauchen in Virtuelle Welten unterstützen? Aufbauend auf den notwendigen Grundlagen, die Begriffe wie Freiheitsgrade, Genau...
1In this paper we discuss how spatially separated sexual intercourse between humans might be realized in the future. Given by the anticipated progress with respect to the imitation of human interaction by robots, as well as in the areas of digital taste and scent technology, we present an imaginary future sex scenario with sex puppets allowing for...
While global illumination is a crucial issue for most computer graphics applications fostering photo realistic rendering, fast and efficient implementations remain challenging for real-time applications. One approach to approximate indirect illumination is to distribute virtual point lights (VPL) at surfaces that emit indirect light. This distribut...
Das umfassende Lehrbuch bietet Studierenden eine anschauliche Begleit- und Nachschlaglektüre zu Lehrveranstaltungen, die Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality (VR/AR) thematisieren, z.B. im Bereich Informatik, Medien oder Natur- und Ingenieurwissenschaften. Der modulare Aufbau des Buches gestattet es, sowohl die Reihenfolge der Themen den Anforderung...
Dieses Kapitel behandelt den Themenkomplex der Augmentierten Realität (AR). Nach einer Übersicht über die grundlegenden Bestandteile, einer Definition und der Betrachtung der grundlegenden Ausprägungen von AR werden in den anschließenden Unterkapiteln die einzelnen Bestandteile näher erläutert. Dazu gehören insbesondere die unterschiedlichen spezie...
Wie erkennt ein VR-System die Aktionen eines Nutzers? Wie kann ein VR-System Objekte in ihrer Bewegung verfolgen? Welche technischen Möglichkeiten und Einschränkungen gibt es dabei? Wie sehen bewährte VR-Systeme aus, die ein Eintauchen in Virtuelle Welten unterstützen? Aufbauend auf den notwendigen Grundlagen, die Begriffe wie Freiheitsgrade, Genau...
Feature based tracking approaches become more and more common for Augmented Reality (AR). However, most upcoming AR solutions are designed for mobile devices, in particular for smartphones and tablet computers, lacking sufficient performance for the execution of state-of-the art feature based approaches at interactive frame rates. In this paper we...
Diminished Reality (DR) allows to remove objects from a video stream while preseving a frame to frame coherence. Some approaches apply a pseudo-DR, allowing for the removal of objects only, while their background can be observed by a second camera. Most real DR approaches are highly computational expensive, not even allowing for interactive rates a...
For seamless integration of virtual content into real scenes, realizing mutual global lighting effects between both worlds belongs to the most important and challenging goals. Therefore, plenty of global illumination approaches exist, which mostly share the same restriction: the real scene is approximated by a static model, which was built in advan...
Designing Augmented Reality location aware games requires an understanding of how form and content issues impact on presence. A study of 60 players was conducted using questionnaires, video analysis and interviews. The results indicate that content including: moral dilemmas, strong narratives, using real locations effectively and applying simple ph...
The seamless integration of the real and the virtual content is the ultimate yet unreached goal of Mixed Reality applications. Among others it requires mutual blocking and lighting between real and virtual objects. In this paper we present our approach of applying a low-cost depth camera, such as Kinect, allowing for an easy acquisition of depth im...
In the gaming area, augmented reality (AR) and especially mobile augmented reality provides unique opportunities. Unlike traditional
video games, mobile augmented reality games are not imprisoned in the screen-space but provide for interaction with the world
that surrounds us. They incorporate real locations and objects into the game, therefore tap...
Augmented Reality (AR) tries to seamlessly integrate virtual content into the real world of the user. Ideally, the virtual
content would behave exactly like real objects. This requires a correct and precise estimation of the user’s viewpoint (respectively
that of a camera) with respect to the coordinate system of the virtual content. This can be ac...
We present a novel technique implementing barehanded interaction with virtual 3D content by employing a time-of-flight camera. The system improves on existing 3D multi-touch systems by working regardless of lighting conditions and supplying a working volume large enough for multiple users. Previous systems were limited either by environmental requi...
While tracking technologies based on fiducial markers have dominated the development of Augmented Reality (AR) applications for almost a decade, various real-time capable approaches to markerless tracking have recently been presented. However, most existing approaches do not yet achieve sufficient frame rates for AR on mobile phones or at least req...
