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In this paper we discuss how group processes can be influenced by designing specific tools in computer supported collaborative leaning. We present the design of a shared workspace application for co-constructive tasks that is enriched by certain functions that are able to track, analyze and feed back parameters of collaboration to group members. Thereby our interdisciplinary approach is mainly based on an integrative methodology for analyzing collaboration behavior and patterns in an implicit manner combined with explicit surveyed data of group members’ attitudes and its immediate feedback to the groups. In an exploratory study we examined the influence of this feedback function. Although we could only analyze ad-hoc groups in this study, we detected some benefits of our methodology which might enrich real life Learning Communities’ collaboration processes. The data analysis in our study showed advantages of this feedback on processes of a group’s well-being as well as parameters of participation. These results provide a basis for further empirical work on problem solving groups that are supported by means of parallel interaction analysis as well as its re-use as information resource.
Resource Usage in Online Courses: Analyzing Learner’s Active and Passive Participation Patterns
(2015)
The paper analyzes the experience with an open university course for a very heterogeneous target group in which MOOC-like materials and activities were used. The course was conducted in a specifically prepared and extended Moodle environment. The analysis involves questionnaires as well as performance data that reflect the resource access on the learning platform. A special focus is put on the participants’ acceptance and usage of student-generated versus teacher-provided learning content. Network analysis techniques have been used to identify "interest clusters" of students around certain resources.
We present an architecture based on the Dynamic Field Theory for the problem of scene representation. At the core of this architecture are three-dimensional neural fields linking feature to spatial information. These three-dimensional fields are coupled to lower-dimensional fields that provide both a close link to the sensory surface and a close link to motor behavior. We highlight the updating mechanism of this architecture, both when a single object is selected and followed by the robot's head in smooth pursuit and in multi-item tracking when several items move simultaneously
This paper discusses the efforts carried out related to the design and development of a web-based framework that allows designing, deploying and executing mobile data collecting applications. Furthermore, it also allows analyzing and presenting the data that is generated during the mentioned process. The fact that the framework is completely web-based provides a platform independent execution of the mobile application on any mobile device with a web-browser. As a result that the whole life-cycle of creating, executing and discussing a mobile learning activity is implemented in pure web-based manner separates this work from similar efforts. In the course of this work, the current state of development of two of the components, the authoring tool and the mobile application is presented. This framework was introduced to teachers in an activity to follow up an initial study. On the basis of a workshop with teachers, we performed an explorative study regarding the technology acceptance and usability of two components of the proposed framework. The results are discussed and analyzed in this paper.
This paper presents a web-based framework that allows the creation and deployment of mobile learning activities. We present an authoring tool that allows not-technically skilled persons to design mobile learning tasks and deploy them as a web-based mobile application. Since the presented approach is based exclusively on web-technologies, the deployed mobile application can be executed via a mobile browser and therefore is platform independent. Despite previous research efforts carried out in this domain, few of the projects have addressed this course of actions from a purely web-based perspective. Through the latest development of web technologies, mobile applications have access to internal sensors like camera, microphone and GPS and therefore allow data collection within web-applications. In order to validate whether the proposed framework can be applied in educational settings, we conducted a pilot study with experienced teachers and present the results of these efforts in this paper.
This paper describes the design and development stages of a web-based framework, aiming to support the creation of mobile applications within the context of mobile learning. The suggested approach offers the opportunity to deploy and execute these applications on mobile devices. This web-based solution additionally offers the possibility to visualize the data collected by the mobile applications in a web-browser. Despite previous research efforts carried out in this domain, few of the projects have addressed these processes from a purely web-based perspective. Currently, a prototype of an authoring tool for creating mobile data collection applications is already implemented. In order to integrate and validate this solution in everyday educational settings, we are collaborating with a network of high schools. On the basis of workshops with teachers we will carry out, refinements and requirements for further enhancements will be collected and will be used to guide our coming efforts.
Methods of red-hot rod shape testing require a robust non-contact measurement principle as a touch point could lead to damages to the rod and the detection unit. Therefore a new basic approach based on high frequency eddy current (HFEC) has been investigated. Due to the robustness and the ability to determine the rod shape even above the Curie temperature this principle is especially well suited and can be implemented in the production process directly. The first automatic measurement setup was successfully developed with promising results. Hereby a defect of ovality was detected with a parallel RLC-oscillator. The capacity of this RLC-oscillator is constant whereas the inductance is the measurement part that varies due to eddy current interactions with the rod.
For the rod shape measurement of hot rolled round steel bars (rods) the high frequency eddy current method is especially well suited as it requires no contact point and is not limited to below the Curie temperature. Defects of the rod's shape can be detected by measuring the impedance spectrum of the RLC-oscillator. In the first laboratory setup an Agilent impedance analyser was used for initial tests. Nevertheless, this setup cannot be applied in a steel plant due to the difficult environmental conditions. Hence, a vector network analyser for passive impedance measurement that is applicable in these surroundings was developed.
The first robots are currently appearing on the consumer market. Initially they are targeted at rather simple applications such as entertainment and home convenience. For more complex areas, these robots will need to collaborate and interactively communicate with their human users, which requires appropriate man-machine interaction technologies and considerable cognitive abilities on the robot's side. Consumer acceptance will strongly depend on the integrated system. Thus, system integration and evaluation of the integrated system is becoming increasingly important. This paper describes our approach to construct a robotic assistance system. We present experience with an integrated technology demonstration and exposure of the integrated system to the public.
To reduce the number of traffic accidents and to increase the drivers comfort, the thought of designing driver assistance systems arose in the past years. Fully or partly autonomously guided vehicles, particularly for road traffic, pose high demands on the development of reliable algorithms. Principal problems are caused by having a moving observer in predominantly natural environments. At the Institut fur Neuroinformatik methods for analyzing driving relevant scenes by computer vision are developed in cooperation with several partners from the automobile industry. We present a solution for a driver assistance system. We concentrate on the aspects of video-based scene analysis and organization of behavior.
Temporal stabilization of discrete movement in variable environments: An attractor dynamics approach
(2009)
The ability to generate discrete movement with distinct and stable time courses is important for interaction scenarios both between different robots and with human partners, for catching and interception tasks, and for timed action sequences. In dynamic environments, where trajectories are evolving online, this is not a trivial task. The dynamical systems approach to robotics provides a framework for robust incorporation of fluctuating sensor information, but control of movement time is usually restricted to rhythmic motion and realized through stable limit cycles. The present work uses a Hopf oscillator to produce discrete motion and formulates an online adaptation rule to stabilize total movement time against a wide range of disturbances. This is integrated into a dynamical systems framework for the sequencing of movement phases and for directional navigation, using 2D-planar motion as an example. The approach is demonstrated on a Khepera mobile unit in order to show its reliability even when depending on low-level sensor information.
Relax yourself - Using Virtual Reality to enhance employees mental health and work performance
(2019)
This paper presents work-in-progress aiming to develop an actively adapting virtual reality (VR) relaxation application. Due to the immersive nature of VR technologies, people can escape from their real environment and get into a relaxing state. Goal of the application is to adapt to the users' physiological signals to foster the positive effect. Until now, a first version of the VR application was constructed and is currently evaluated in an experiment. Preliminary results of this study demonstrate that people appreciate the immersion into the virtual environment and escape from reality. Moreover, participants highlighted the option to adapt users' needs and preferences. Based on the final study data, the constructed application will be enhanced with regard to adoption and surrounding factors.
Why do barriers to the exchange of open knowledge resources change in public administrations? Experts in the public sector have been interviewed and outlined antecedents of change to certain barriers. The results are an initial step towards theorizing on barrier change and stepping beyond the current trend of categorizing difficulties to e-Learning and use of open knowledge resources. Categorizing only shows the range of potential challenges. Whether and how the barriers change, however, is seldom addressed in previous literature. The results presented in this study thus provide a new perspective on the phenomenon. Results are part of a longitudinal study about open e-Learning in the public sector across four European countries. They will provide fresh empirical input for discussions at the World Conference on E-Learning how to advance future research and practices in the domain
The paper provides a contextualization process to adapt Open Knowledge Resources for the need of public administrations. By help of a matching strategy, culture and context profiles of learners and learning resources are compared. The comparison allows to draw inferences how to contextualize an open knowledge resource for own learning needs. An example is illustrated and future research fields are proposed.
Mobile devices, in the form of smartphones, are endowed with rich capabilities in terms of multimedia, sensors and connectivity. The wide adoption of these devices allows using them across different settings and situations. One area in which mobile devices become more and more prominent is within the field of mobile learning. Here, mobile devices provide rich possibilities for the contextualization of the learner, by using the set of sensors available in the device. On the one hand, the usage of mobile devices enables participation in learning activities independent of time and space. Nevertheless, developing mobile learning applications for the heterogeneity of mobile devices available in the market becomes a challenge. Not only this is a problem related to form factor aspects, but also the large number of different operating systems, platforms and app infrastructures (app stores) are aspects to be considered. In this paper we present our initial efforts with regard to the development of cross-platform mobile applications to support the contextualization of learning content.
In this paper we present an approach for People-to-People recommendations based on a Rich Context Model (RCM). We consider personal user information as contextual information used for our recommendations. The evaluation of our recommendation approach was performed on a social network of students. The obtained results do show a significant increase in performance while, at the same time, a slight increase in quality in comparison to a manual matching process. The proposed approach is flexible enough to handle different data types of contextual information and easy adaptable to other recommendation domains.
Fat content of liver is an essential parameter to decide whether a liver is suitable for transplantation or not. The determination of fat content is often challenging and usually there is not enough time to bring a specimen to a pathologic laboratory. That is why transplantation clinics need a technique to measure the fat content of a graft. In this paper the theoretical basics and an existing laboratory setup are presented.
The mathematical competence of first year students is an important success factor at least for technical studies. As a significant percentage of students do not have sufficient mathematical skills, universities often utilise blended learning courses to increase these skills prior to the start of studies. Due to the diversity of students and their educational backgrounds, individual strategies are needed to achieve the necessary competence for successfully managing their studies. This paper describes our approach at the University of Applied Sciences Ruhr West, where we are using personalized blended learning concepts based on the measurement of individual mathematical competences at the beginning of a coaching process. This is used to gain a better matching between the individual learner level and the adapted learning concepts. We combine individual presence learning groups and a personalized e-learning environment. This environment is adapted based on mathematical skills of each stud ent. It uses individual learning advices, short-term optical feedback and up to date e-learning material in a Moodle-based LMS (learning management system). The coaching concept is approved by the results of summative and formative evaluations.
Durch Anpassung der Mathematik-Qualifizierungsmaßnahmen in der Studieneingangsphase an die einzelnen Kompetenzen der Studienanfängerinnen und Studienanfänger wird die individuelle Passgenauigkeit der Maßnahmen erhöht und ein hoher Lernfortschritt erzielt. Dies führt zu einer wesentlichen Verbesserung der
Eingangsqualifikation im Bereich der Mathematik und zu einer Homogenisierung der Leistungsfähigkeit von
Studierenden
Increasing economic viability and safety through structural health monitoring of wind turbines
(2017)
Serious accidents with property damage or even human casualties, result from structural flaws in wind turbine rotor blades. Common maintenance practices result in long downtimes and do not lead to the required results. Therefore, the Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences and the iQbis Consulting GmbH, currently research a new structural health monitoring method for wind turbine rotor blades. The goal of this project is to build a sensor system that can detect structural weaknesses inside of rotor blades without the need of downtime for industrial climbers. This technology has the potential to prevent accidents, save lives, extend the useful life of wind turbines and optimize the production of green energy.
We present a pipeline for recognizing dynamic freehand gestures on mobile devices based on extracting depth information coming from a single Time-of-Flight sensor. Hand gestures are recorded with a mobile 3D sensor, transformed frame by frame into an appropriate 3D descriptor and fed into a deep LSTM network for recognition purposes. LSTM being a recurrent neural model, it is uniquely suited for classifying explicitly time-dependent data such as hand gestures. For training and testing purposes, we create a small database of four hand gesture classes, each comprising 40 × 150 3D frames. We conduct experiments concerning execution speed on a mobile device, generalization capability as a function of network topology, and classification ability ‘ahead of time’, i.e., when the gesture is not yet completed. Recognition rates are high (>95%) and maintainable in real-time as a single classification step requires less than 1 ms computation time, introducing freehand gestures for mobile systems.
In this contribution we present a novel approach to transform data from time-of-flight (ToF) sensors to be interpretable by Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). As ToF data tends to be overly noisy depending on various factors such as illumination, reflection coefficient and distance, the need for a robust algorithmic approach becomes evident. By spanning a three-dimensional grid of fixed size around each point cloud we are able to transform three-dimensional input to become processable by CNNs. This simple and effective neighborhood-preserving methodology demonstrates that CNNs are indeed able to extract the relevant information and learn a set of filters, enabling them to differentiate a complex set of ten different gestures obtained from 20 different individuals and containing 600.000 samples overall. Our 20-fold cross-validation shows the generalization performance of the network, achieving an accuracy of up to 98.5% on validation sets comprising 20.000 data samples. The real-time applicability of our system is demonstrated via an interactive validation on an infotainment system running with up to 40fps on an iPad in the vehicle interior.
Automotive user interfaces and, in particular, automated vehicle technology pose a plenty of challenges to researchers, vehicle manufacturers, and third-party suppliers to support all diverse facets of user needs. To give an example, they emerge from the variation of different usergroups ranging from inexperienced, thrill-seeking young novice drivers to elderly drivers with all their natural limitations. To allow assessing the quality of automotive user interfaces and automated driving technology already during development and within virtual test processes, the proposed workshop is dedicated to the quest of finding objective, quantifiable quality criteria for describing future driving experiences. The workshop is intended for HCI, AutomotiveUI, and “Human Factors" researchers and practitioners as well for designers and developers. In adherence to the conference main topic “Spielend einfach interagieren “, this workshop calls in particular for contributions in the area of human factors and ergonomics (user acceptance, trust, user experience, driving fun, natural user interfaces, etc.) and artificial intelligence (predictive HMIs, adaptive systems, intuitive interaction).
Automotive user interfaces and, in particular, automated vehicle technology pose a plenty of challenges to researchers, vehicle manufacturers, and third-party suppliers to support all diverse facets of user needs. To give an example, they emerge from the variation of different user groups ranging from inexperienced, thrill-seeking young novice drivers to elderly drivers with all their natural limitations. To allow assessing the quality of automotive user interfaces and automated driving technology already during development and within virtual test processes, the proposed workshop is dedicated to the quest of finding objective, quantifiable quality criteria for describing future driving experiences. The workshop is intended for HCI, AutomotiveUI, and "Human Factors" researchers and practitioners as well for designers and developers. In adherence to the conference main topic "Spielend einfach interagieren" this workshop calls in particular for contributions in the area of human factors and ergonomics (user acceptance, trust, user experience, driving fun, natural user interfaces etc.) and artificial intelligence (predictive HMIs, adaptive systems, intuitive interaction).
5th Workshop Automotive HMI
(2016)
Benutzerschnittstellen im Fahrzeug stellen eine besondere Herausforderung in Konzeption und Entwicklung dar, steht doch eine sichere Bedienung in allen Fahrsituationen von Fahrerassistenzsystemen wie auch Komfort- und Unterhaltungsfunktionen im Vordergrund. Zugleich treffen durch zunehmende Vernetzung die langen Entwicklungszyklen von Kraftfahrzeugen auf die hochdynamische Welt von Mobiltelefonen und Internet. Ein- und Ausgabetechnologien gehören des Weiteren zu den zentralen Mitteln der Hersteller, die Wertigkeit der im Fahrzeug eingebauten Systeme hervorzuheben. Passend zu dem Tagungsmotto „Sozial Digital – Gemeinsam Auf Neuen Wegen“ wurden in diesem Workshop insbesondere Arbeiten und Visionen präsentiert, die das Automobil bzw. HMIs im Fahrzeug als Teil einer vernetzten digitalen Welt verstehen – einer neuen Art eines sozialen Mensch-Maschine Ökosystems. Die zentrale Frage, die im Workshop diskutiert wurde war, wie Systeme in Zukunft aussehen müssen, um sowohl den Menschen als auch die Maschine optimal zu unterstützen (angelehnt an das MABA-MABA Paradigma von Fitts, 1954). Der Workshop war wiederum interdisziplinär aufgesetzt und hat Konzepte und technische Lösungen von und mit Designern, Entwicklern und „Human Factors“-Experten aus Universitäten/Hochschulen, Forschungsinstituten und der Automobilindustrie aus ganzheitlicher Sicht diskutiert.
Automotive user interfaces and automated vehicle technology pose numerous challenges to support all diverse facets of user needs. These range from inexperienced, thrill-seeking, young novice drivers to elderly drivers with a mostly opposite set of preferences together with their natural limitations. To allow assessing the (hedonic) quality of automotive user interfaces and automated driving technology (i. e., UX) already during development, the proposed workshop is dedicated to the quest of finding objective, quantifiable criteria to describe future driving experiences. The workshop is intended for HCI, AutomotiveUI, and “Human Factors” researchers and practitioners as well for designers and developers. In adherence to the conference main topic “Interaktion – Verbindet – Alle”, this workshop calls in particular for contributions in the areas of human factors and ergonomics (user acceptance, trust, user experience, driving fun, natural user interfaces, etc.) with focus on hedonic quality and design of user experience to enhance the safety feeling in ADS.
Even though many aspects of automated driving have not yet become reality, many human factors issues have already been investigated. However, recent discussions revealed common misconceptions in both research and society about vehicle automation and the levels of automation levels. This might be due to the fact that automated driving functions are misnamed (cf. Autopilot) and that vehicles integrate functions at different automation levels (L1 lane keeping assistant, L2/L3 traffic jam assist, L4 valet parking). The user interface is one of the most critical issues in the interaction between humans and vehicles--and diverging mental models might be a major challenge here. Today's (manual) vehicles are ill-suited for appropriate HMI testing for automated vehicles. Instead, virtual or mixed reality might be a much better playground to test new interaction concepts in an automated driving setting.
Im Zentrum dieses Workshops stehen Erkenntnisse zur Mensch-Computer-Interaktion in sicherheitskritischen Anwendungsgebieten. Da in solchen Feldern – etwa Katastrophenmanagement, Verkehr, Produktion oder Medizin – immer häufiger MCI stattfindet, sind viele wissenschaftliche Gebiete, unter anderem die Informatik, zunehmend gefragt. Die Herausforderung besteht darin, bestehende Ansätze und Methoden zu diskutieren, anzupassen und innovative Lösungsansätze zu entwickeln.
Die spezifischen Herausforderungen des Fachgebiets bedürfen jedoch auch weiterhin einer Diskussion und der Entwicklung neuer Methoden und Ansätze zur Gestaltung von Informationssystemen. Diese sollen dieses Jahr adressiert werden. Generell fokussieren wir eher auf die Effekte von Technologien auf realweltliche Praktiken, als auf die isolierte Technologie. Auch der auf diesen Beiträgen basierende Workshop legt aktuelle Entwicklungen und Fragestellungen offen und gibt neue Impulse für das Forschungsgebiet. Der Workshop wird dabei zweigeteilt gestaltet: Innerhalb des ersten Teils wird den Vortragenden die Möglichkeit gegeben die eigenen Forschungsarbeiten zu präsentieren. Dabei sind sowohl designorientierte, praxisbasierte Analysen und Studien, als auch entwickelte und evaluierte Prototypen neuer Technologien von Interesse. Es wird den Vortragenden die Möglichkeit gegeben die eigenen Forschungsarbeiten teilweise in einem eher frühen Stadium in kompakter Form zu präsentieren und anschließend in Hinblick auf deren Weiterentwicklung diskutieren.
Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion in sicherheitskritischen Systemen ist ein für die Informatik und die jeweiligen Anwendungsdomänen in der Bedeutung weiter zunehmendes Thema. Dieser Workshop der GI-Fachgruppe „Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion in sicherheitskritischen Systemen" innerhalb des Fachbereichs Mensch-Computer-Interaktion soll aktuelle Entwicklungen und Fragestellungen offenlegen und neue Impulse für das Forschungsgebiet geben.
Integrating Orientation Constraints into the Attractor Dynamics Approach for Autonomous Manipulation
(2010)
Generating collision free reaching movements for redundant manipulators using dynamical systems
(2010)
For autonomous robots to manipulate objects in unknown environments, they must be able to move their arms without colliding with nearby objects, other agents or humans. The simultaneous avoidance of multiple obstacles in real time by all link segments of a manipulator is still a hard task both in practice and in theory. We present a systematic scheme for the generation of collision free movements for redundant manipulators in scenes with arbitrarily many obstacles. Based on the dynamical systems approach to robotics, constraints are formulated as contributions to a dynamical system that erect attractors for targets and repellors for obstacles. These contributions are formulated in terms of variables relevant to each constraint and then transformed into vector fields over the manipulator joint velocity vector as an embedding space in which all constraints are simultaneously observed. We demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by implementing it on a real anthropomorphic 8-degrees-of-freedom redundant manipulator. In addition, performance is characterized by detecting failures in a systematic simulation experiment in randomized scenes with varying numbers of obstacles.
Generating flexible collision-free reaching move-
ments is a standard task for autonomous articulated robots that
is critical especially when such systems interact with humans in
a service robotics setting. Current solutions are still challenging
to put into practice. Here we generalize an approach
first
used to plan end-effector movement that is based on attractor
dynamical systems. We show, how different contributions to
the motion planning dynamics can be formulated in constraint-
specific reference frames and then transformed into the frame
of the joint velocity vector. We implement this system on an
8 DoF redundant manipulator and show its feasibility in a
simulation. A systematic experiment with randomly generated
obstacle scenes characterizes the performance of the system.
Especially challenging confi
gurations of obstacles are discussed
to illustrate how the method solves these cases
The detection of soil erosion processes in dams, hydraulic heave failure or corrosion processes of reinforcing steel in concrete are a small selection of measuring applications in civil engineering where the impedance analysis can be used to determine the measurand. Those measuring applications are having high requirements for the measuring hardware. For example a common interface for fast data exchange, high resolution, independent functionality and easy customizability to suit the measuring application. For that reason, a well-known application for steel-mill process monitoring can be used as a development platform. This hardware platform is based on a vector network analyzer and is meeting the requirements mainly. However, a couple of modifications has to be made, like replacing the ADC for a higher sample rate, Ethernet for easy and fast data exchange and the microcontroller for more calculation power.
Process diagnosis is an important method for improving product quality in rolling mills. In addition, the measurement of process variables such as roll gap, cross-sectional area, velocity, and volume flow of the material during production enables the implementation of model-based control concepts to improve product quality. The non-contact speed measurement of hot wire and bar is still a big challenge due to the rough environmental conditions and is solved mainly with optical measuring methods in production. The alternative measurement principle with eddy current sensors presented in this paper enables velocity measurement at locations in a rolling mill where optical measurement methods are not suitable.
Process Monitoring in Steel-Mills using Impedance Analysis: VNA Improvement for Data Acquisition
(2017)
The process automation extends over every manufacturing step of a product in the steel-mill to increase the quality, quantity and energy efficiency. The product dimensions are an important part of the quality control; these must maintain the specified tolerances. Additional to the cross-sectional-area, the measured data contains much more information about the manufacturing process, e.g. eccentricity, condition of the rolls and defects of the rod. For analyzing the measured data and to gather more information about the manufacturing process it is necessary to increase the speed of the data acquisition by performing some modifications of the VNA, e.g. faster analog to digital converter and microcontroller, improved firmware and optimized values of the passive electrical components for faster time constants and transient responses.