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PublicationIndustrial Metaverse: Supporting remote maintenance with avatars and digital twins in collaborative XR environments( 2023)We present a 5G mixed reality toolbox that supports hands-free remote assistance in industrial settings. It provides mixed reality and virtual reality views for on-site and office workers linked via a shared digital space. Working on actual machines in a real production line, our system uses the actual CAD-data of those machines to provide for a realistic prototyping-environment. We focus on data-scarcity with cloud-services to protect intellectual property, while embracing the possibilities offered by new technology, such as remote rendering over wireless networks. The presented prototype exhibits several key characteristics of an industrial metaverse application.
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PublicationDigital Support for Bridge Inspectors through Mixed Reality BIM Data Visualizations( 2022)We describe an interactive augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) system that supports bridge inspectors during in-office preparation, on-site inspection, and follow-up work back in the office using building information modeling (BIM) data. Originating from the process steps required to perform a digitally supported bridge inspection, we focus on our prototypes’ implementation, a combination of VR and AR methods in a prototypical development. Our goal is thus to present one possible realization of these processes on a technological level. Therefore, the collaborative aspect between on-site inspection and in-office preparation and debriefing plays an important role. Several issues of data synchronization and communication techniques need consideration and proper integration into the entire system. It is essential to consider the bridge inspectors’ needs, requirements, and working environment to avoid losing track of the target group of such an application. Low initial hurdles and user-friendliness require seamless integration of different tools and additional resources. For that reason, we aim to link engineering tools and game engine environments in an operationally and reliable application. We believe that our application may serve as a starting point for further discussions on user-friendly digital support and broader usage of innovative technologies bearing in mind the evolution and tradition of structural inspections.
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PublicationMixed Reality Support for Bridge Inspectors( 2022)Bridge inspectors work for the safety of our infrastructure and mobility. In regular intervals, they conduct structural inspections - a manual task with a long-lasting and firmly normed analogue tradition. We propose a mixed analogue and digital workflow that includes Mixed Reality views that can be ready-to-hand for bridge inspectors during their work at and in a bridge. Our presented demonstrator was iteratively designed in a collaborative research project and turned into a tablet-based application to digitally support that work. It employs BIM data that contains 3D geometry-data and additional data about the structure, such as previous damage reports.
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PublicationSplash! Identifying the Grand Challenges for WaterHCI( 2022)Bodies of water can be a hostile environment for both humans and technology, yet they are increasingly becoming sources, sites and media of interaction across a range of academic and practical disciplines. Despite the increasing number of interactive systems that can be used in-, on-, and underwater, there does not seem to be a coherent approach or understanding of how HCI can or should engage with water. This workshop will explicitly address the challenges of designing interactive aquatic systems with the aim of articulating the grand challenges faced by WaterHCI. We will first map user experiences around water based on participants' personal experiences with water and interactive technology. Building on those experiences, we then discuss specific challenges when designing interactive aquatic experiences. This includes considerations such as safety, accessibility, the environment and well-being. In doing so, participants will help shape future work in WaterHCI.
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PublicationCurrent Practices, Challenges, and Design Implications for Collaborative AR/VR Application Development( 2021)Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) is still a fragmented space to de- sign for due to the rapidly evolving hardware, the interdisciplinarity of teams, and a lack of standards and best practices. We interviewed 26 professional AR/VR designers and developers to shed light on their tasks, approaches, tools, and challenges. Based on their work and the artifacts they generated, we found that AR/VR application creators fulfill four roles: concept developers, interaction designers, content authors, and technical developers. One person often incorporates multiple roles and faces a variety of challenges during the design process from the initial contextual analysis to the deployment. From analysis of their tool sets, methods, and artifacts, we describe critical key challenges. Finally, we discus s the importance of prototyping for the communication in AR/VR development teams and highlight design implications for future tools to create a more usable AR/VR tool chain.
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PublicationVom Büro ins Bauwerk - Kooperationsmöglichkeiten mit Mixed Reality( 2021)Die Digitalisierung erreicht das Bauhandwerk und betrifft nun bald den kompletten Lebenszyklus von Gebäuden, Bauwerken und der gesamten Verkehrsinfrastruktur. Neuartige Begriffe machen die Runde: vom digitalen Zwilling, über künstliche Intelligenz bis hin zu Virtual, Augmented und Mixed Reality, sowie kollaborativem Arbeiten auf Basis von BIM-Daten. Doch welche Chancen ergeben sich daraus und wo kriegt man das her? Dieser Kurzbeitrag skizziert meinen im Rahmen des 1. Fachkongress „Digitale Transformation im Lebenszyklus der Verkehrsinfrastruktur“ im Juni 2021 an der Technischen Akademie in Esslingen gehaltenen Plenarvortrag. Er versucht aus der Historie der Informatik heraus eine gemeinsame, die Disziplinen übergreifende Perspektive für die Bauwirtschaft und die Informatik zu zeichnen und damit Orientierung zur Digitalisierung zu bieten. Denn die zunehmend geforderte mobile Kollaborationsunterstützung am und im Bauwerk muss nicht auf der grünen Wiese geschaffen werden, sondern kann sich auf eine reiche Forschungstradition in den Bereichen CSCW, HCI und Mixed Reality stützen.
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PublicationSocio-technical challenges in the digital gap between building information modeling and industry 4.0( 2017)Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Industry 4.0 are complex application domains. Doing interdisciplinary research with architects, engineers and computer scientists at the intersection of the domains is both challenging and promising, since many relevant research problems need multi-perspective views and cooperatively designed solution strategies. In this paper, we envision a sociotechnical solution strategy, based on the common understanding that communication and cooperation is mission-critical for the overall success of the deployed information system, the design process and the final result of the mission, the building. To that end, we sketch the challenges and discuss a running construction project as a real application scenario. Our solution includes the use of serious gaming strategies, near real-time collaboration and mixed reality. The results show that despite the tough cost and time restrictions, innovative and relevant research in interdisciplinary research and development teams is feasible.
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PublicationWhat's going on in energy efficiency research? A platform to enhance the transparency of energy research funding in Germany( 2017)
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PublicationEnArgus: Zentrales Informationssystem Energieforschungsförderung( 2015)
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PublicationNatural Europe educational games suite: Using structured museum-data for creating mobile educational games( 2014)This paper presents a suite for configuring and deploying mobile, location-based educational games for natural history museums. We propose a novel approach that uses structured museum-data as game-content and present an initial study thereof. The overall aim is to enable domain-experts, like teachers or museum educators, to create educational games for off-the-shelf mobile phones without requiring neither bespoke programming skills nor expensive setups. Our approach builds on the combination of two strands of work: 1.) structuring and providing museum-assets as linked data, and 2.) template-based content creation for mobiles games. This is thought to facilitate reuse of existing data and foster its maintenance on the one hand, as well as providing a timely and engaging mobile interface to museum content on the other hand. Our study is based on two rounds of user-tests with think-aloud observations and questionnaires, and on the developers' notes and reflections that stem from introductory workshops at four natural history museums from the Natural Europe project consortium. We found that both, the workflow for content-creation and the mobile end-user app have high hedonic as well as pragmatic qualities. Thus, the test results indicate that our approach might provide guidance for future work in this domain.
