Due to the fact that our university is a 'University of Applied Sciences',  my so-called 'research activities' are focused mainly on conception, development and evaluation of innovative interactive media and/or information applications, based on state of the art media and software technologies.

We always do our 'research' in cooperation with partners from industry/business or public media institutions.

Therefore, our research projects are very close to the real life implementation but are also focused on the  future use of new and upcoming media technolgies and interaction techniques.

And because our research is so close to the applied field, I like to describe it as 'practice-based'.

Hence, my current and recent 'Practice-based research' is:

  • Conception and Evaluation of Multimodal Interaction Techniques by Extended Reality (XR) Applications
  • Aspects of appropriate Place and Amount of Information as well as of appropriate Multimedia Artefacts bei Augmented / Mixed Reality Applications
  • Potentials of Interactive Storytelling and XR/360 Degree Media for Documentary, Information and formal as well as informal Learning Purposes, but also for fiction
  • Useful and effective Connection between linear / non-linear / online Video / Multimedia Content and XR Media --> Hybrid Media Approach
  • Potentials of Edutainment Elements for informal Learning Scenarios
  • Importance of appropriate Visualisation for effective Information Perception and Learning

2 Projects: 'BERGRETTAR' 

Project 1: for mobile devices
Project 2: for HoloLens

Keywords: Augmented / Mixed Reality, HoloLens, Mobile Devices, Interactive Storytelling, Edutainment, TV Series, Companion App

Cooperation Partner: ZDF - the second public broadcasting station in Germany 

Timeslot: 2016 - 2017/2018

Short Description: The aim of the project was to create a companion application for a quite successful 'action' TV series in Germany, 'Die Bergretter' (the Mountain Rescuer), which is currently on its 12th season and has an average of 4.5 up to 5 Mio viewers per episode.

We started in 2016 with an Augmented Reality application for mobile devices. The idea was to provide an engaging entertainment AR based application with strong gamification aspects for a broader audience. An important criteria was to create an intuitive (easy to use) interface and game interaction.

The main concept of the AR based companion app was the so-called 'Game in Game' approach with a number of small challenges. The player should 'jump' and carry out a variety of tasks (i.e rescue missions) as one of the three characters from the TV series.

In 2017, we created a Mixed Reality version, based on HoloLens 1 with new challenges especially designed for the MR glasses and their interaction possibilities.

We presented the project very successfully at various exhibitions and symposia/workshops, for example at the IFA 2016 and 2017 in Berlin, at the Long Night of Sciences 2017, at the EBU Production Technology Seminar 2018 in Genf, at the ICAT-EGVE conference 2018 in Cyprus and more. The feedback we received was extremely positive!

Application State: exemplary application but with no commercial implementation

mobile-AR
mobileAR-Tisch
ZDF-MR-jugendlicherSpielt
ZDF-MR-kleinerHelikopter
Martin-mit-Hololens
ZDF-MR-zuhause
Vergleich-real-3D

Project: 'Compatible Interaction Techniques for Different XR Devices'

Keywords: Interaction Techniques, UX, Gestures, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, XR, HoloLens, Mobile Devices

Cooperation Partner: SAP Immersion Lab - Walldorf

Timeslot: 2018

Short Description: The aim of the project was to analyse and to develop / apply 'cross plattform' compatible interaction techniques and gestures. This includes different XR devices - for smartphones/tablets, AR glasses and VR goggles - to unify similar gestures on different devices. The purpose was to set the learning effort at a minimum and to make the use of the 'same' XR scenarios on different devices as intuitive as possible.

The goal is to be able to use unified interactions in similar situations on various XR devices.

Application State: number of small exemplary prototype applications...

XR-UX_HoloLens
XR-UX_Meta
XR-UX_VR
SAP-Project-2018

More projects descriptions will follow soon...