Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Conference Proceeding (37)
- Contribution to a Periodical (5)
- Bachelor Thesis (4)
- Article (reviewed) (3)
- Part of a Book (3)
- Working Paper (3)
- Book (1)
- Doctoral Thesis (1)
- Master's Thesis (1)
- Article (unreviewed) (1)
Conference Type
- Konferenzartikel (30)
- Konferenzband (5)
- Sonstiges (2)
- Konferenz-Poster (1)
Language
- English (60) (remove)
Keywords
- Optik (4)
- Photonik (4)
- Communication Systems (3)
- Information Systems (3)
- Licht (3)
- Robotics (3)
- Virtuelle Realität (3)
- E-Learning (2)
- Education in Optics and Photonics (2)
- Gamification (2)
- Roboter (2)
- Robots (2)
- Social Robots (2)
- Unity (2)
- 3D virtual reality (1)
- AI (1)
- AVD (1)
- Android (1)
- Art and Photonics (1)
- Artificial Intelligence (1)
- Artistic Research (1)
- Assistive Technologies (1)
- Astronomical events (1)
- Audiovisual Performance (1)
- Augenfolgebewegung (1)
- Ausbildung (1)
- Automobile After-Sales Service (1)
- Banking (1)
- Bedrohungsanalyse (1)
- Bloom filters (1)
- Brain Tissue (1)
- COVID-19 (1)
- Cloud Security (1)
- Cloud Service Provider (1)
- Cloud User (1)
- Computer Science (1)
- Computersicherheit (1)
- Computerspiel (1)
- Context-awareness (1)
- Corona (1)
- DMD (1)
- DVRIP (1)
- Data privacy (1)
- Deaf-Blindness (1)
- Design (1)
- Diffusion (1)
- Digitalisierung (1)
- Economic Impact (1)
- Education (1)
- Erweiterte Realität <Informatik> (1)
- Flüssigkristall (1)
- Game Development (1)
- Generative Art (1)
- Gestaltung (1)
- HR (1)
- Human Computer Interaction (1)
- Human Computrer Interaction (1)
- Human Resources (1)
- Human-Robot Interaction (1)
- Implementation (1)
- Implementierung (1)
- Improvisation (1)
- Industrie 4.0 (1)
- Interactive Documentary (1)
- International Day of Light, IDL (1)
- International Year of Light, IYL (1)
- Kryptographie (1)
- Laboratory Exercises (1)
- Leap Motion Controller (1)
- Lehre (1)
- Live Broadcasting (1)
- Loneliness (1)
- Maschinenbau (1)
- Mass Diffusion (1)
- Media Ecology (1)
- Mikrocontroller (1)
- Mobile Applications (1)
- Mobiles Endgerät (1)
- Netzwerk (1)
- Onboarding (1)
- Optics and Photonics (1)
- Phontonik (1)
- Physik (1)
- Porous Media Theory (1)
- Privatsphäre (1)
- Refugee Migration (1)
- RoboCup (1)
- Robot-Assisted Training (1)
- STRIDE (1)
- Security (1)
- Sexual Orientation (1)
- Simulation (1)
- Simulation-based Interaction (1)
- Smart Grid (1)
- Smart wearables (1)
- Social Isolation (1)
- Software Architecture (1)
- Sound Synthesis (1)
- Soziale Roboter (1)
- Spiel (1)
- Spiel-Engine (1)
- Taxonomy (1)
- Threat Modeling (1)
- Tissue (1)
- Topology (1)
- Trust (1)
- UX (1)
- Unemployment (1)
- Unity3D (1)
- User Experience (1)
- User Studies (1)
- VR (1)
- Verteiltes System (1)
- Videogame (1)
- Videospiel (1)
- Virtual Reality (1)
- Wearables (1)
- Web Development (1)
- Web-Entwicklung (1)
- Wissenschaft (1)
- analysis (1)
- binary (1)
- bloom filters (1)
- cloud computing (1)
- dahua (1)
- data malleability (1)
- data processing (1)
- differential mode-delay (1)
- e-learning (1)
- education and research (1)
- eye-tracking-movement (1)
- homomorphic encryption (1)
- m-learning (1)
- mobile learning (1)
- multimode fibre (1)
- multimode fibre connectors (1)
- optics (1)
- outsourced computation (1)
- photonics (1)
- power distribution (1)
- protocol (1)
- research-oriented education (1)
- set operations (1)
- set relations (1)
- teaching and learning culture (1)
- wireless sensor network (1)
Institute
- Fakultät Medien und Informationswesen (M+I) (bis 21.04.2021) (60) (remove)
Open Access
- Open Access (60) (remove)
The aim of the smart grid is to achieve more efficient, distributed and secure supply of energy over the traditional power grid by using a bidirectional information flow between the grid agents (e.g. generator node, customer). One of the key optimization problems in smart grid is to produce power among generator nodes with a minimum cost while meeting the customer demand, known as Economic Dispatch Problem (EDP). In recent years, many distributed approaches to solve EDP have been proposed. However, protecting the privacy-sensitive data of individual generator nodes has been largely overlooked in the existing solutions. In this work, we show an attack against an existing auction-based EDP protocol considering a non-colluding semi-honest adversary. We briefly introduce our approach to a practical privacy-preserving EDP solution as our work in progress.
Practical exercises are a crucial part of many curricula. Even simple exercises can improve the understanding of the underlying subject. Most experimental setups require special hardware. To carry out e. g. a lens experiments the students need access to an optical bench, various lenses, light sources, apertures and a screen. In our previous publication we demonstrated the use of augmented reality visualization techniques in order to let the students prepare with a simulated experimental setup. Within the context of our intended blended learning concept we want to utilize augmented or virtual reality techniques for stationary laboratory exercises. Unlike applications running on mobile devices, stationary setups can be extended more easily with additional interfaces and thus allow for more complex interactions and simulations in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The most significant difference is the possibility to allow interactions beyond touching a screen. The LEAP Motion controller is a small inexpensive device that allows for the tracking of the user’s hands and fingers in three dimensions. It is conceivable to allow the user to interact with the simulation’s virtual elements by the user’s very hand position, movement and gesture. In this paper we evaluate possible applications of the LEAP Motion controller for simulated experiments in augmented and virtual reality. We pay particular attention to the devices strengths and weaknesses and want to point out useful and less useful application scenarios. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
In many scientific studies lens experiments are part of the curriculum. The conducted experiments are meant to give the students a basic understanding for the laws of optics and its applications. Most of the experiments need special hardware like e.g. an optical bench, light sources, apertures and different lens types. Therefore it is not possible for the students to conduct any of the experiments outside of the university’s laboratory. Simple optical software simulators enabling the students to virtually perform lens experiments already exist, but are mostly desktop or web browser based.
Augmented Reality (AR) is a special case of mediated and mixed reality concepts, where computers are used to add, subtract or modify one’s perception of reality. As a result of the success and widespread availability of handheld mobile devices, like e.g. tablet computers and smartphones, mobile augmented reality applications are easy to use. Augmented reality can be easily used to visualize a simulated optical bench. The students can interactively modify properties like e.g. lens type, lens curvature, lens diameter, lens refractive index and the positions of the instruments in space. Light rays can be visualized and promote an additional understanding of the laws of optics. An AR application like this is ideally suited to prepare the actual laboratory sessions and/or recap the teaching content.
The authors will present their experience with handheld augmented reality applications and their possibilities for light and optic experiments without the needs for specialized optical hardware.
While prospect of tracking mobile devices' users is widely discussed all over European countries to counteract COVID-19 propagation, we propose a Bloom filter based construction providing users' location privacy and preventing mass surveillance.
We apply a solution based on Bloom filters data structure that allows a third party, a government agency, to perform some privacy-preserving set relations on a mobile telco's access logfile.
By computing set relations, the government agency, given the knowledge of two identified persons, has an instrument that provides a (possible) infection chain from the initial to the final infected user no matter at which location on a worldwide scale they are.
The benefit of our approach is that intermediate possible infected users can be identified and subsequently contacted by the agency. With such approach, we state that solely identities of possible infected users will be revealed and location privacy of others will be preserved. To this extent, it meets General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)requirements in this area.
Strings
(2020)
This article presents the currently ongoing development of an audiovisual performance work with the title Strings. This work provides an improvisation setting for a violinist, two laptop performers, and two generative systems. At the core of Strings lies an approach that establishes a strong correlation among all participants by means of a shared physical principle. The physical principle is that of a vibrating string. The article discusses how this principle is used in both natural and simulated forms as main interaction layer between all performers and as natural or generative principle for creating audio and video.
Communication protocols enable information exchange between different information systems. If protocol descriptions for these systems are not available, they can be reverse-engineered for interoperability or security reasons. This master thesis describes the analysis of such a proprietary binary protocol, named the DVRIP or Dahua private protocol from Dahua Technology. The analysis contains the identification of the DVRIP protocol header format, security mechanisms and vulnerabilities inside the protocol implementation. With the revealing insights of the protocol, an increase of the overall security is achieved. This thesis builds the foundation for further targeted security analyses.
The Paper presents the design and development of a blended learning concept for an engineering course in the field of color representation and display technologies. A suitable learning environment is crucial for the success of the teaching scenario. A mixture of theoretical lectures and hands-on activities with practical applications and experiments, combined with the advantages of modern digital media is the main topic of the paper. Blended learning describes the didactical change of attendance periods and online periods. The e-learning environment for the online period is designed toward an easy access and interaction. Present digital media extends the established teaching scenarios and enables the presentation of videos, animations and augmented reality (AR). Visualizations are effective tools to impart learning contents with lasting effect. The preparation and evaluation of the theoretical lectures and the hands-on activities are stimulated and affects positively the attendance periods. The tasks and experiments require the students to work independently and to develop individual solution strategies. This engages and motivates the students, deepens the knowledge. The authors will present their experience with the implemented blended learning scenario in this field of optics and photonics. All aspects of the learning environment will be introduced.
Monitors are in the center of media productions and hold an important function as the main visual interface. Tablets and smartphones are becoming more and more important work tools in the media industry. As an extension to our lecture contents an intensive discussion of different display technologies and its applications is taking place now. The established LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology and the promising OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology are in the focus.
The classic LCD is currently the most important display technology. The paper will present how the students should develop sense for display technologies besides the theoretical scientific basics. The workshop focuses increasingly on the technical aspects of the display technology and has the goal of deepening the students understanding of the functionality by building simple Liquid Crystal Displays by themselves.
The authors will present their experience in the field of display technologies. A mixture of theoretical and practical lectures has the goal of a deeper understanding in the field of digital color representation and display technologies. The design and development of a suitable learning environment with the required infrastructure is crucial. The main focus of this paper is on the hands-on optics workshop “Liquid Crystal Display in the do-it-yourself”.
The authors explain a developed concept for research-oriented education in optics and photonics. It is presented which goals are to be achieved, which strategies have been developed and how these can be implemented in a blended learning scenario. The goal of our education is the best possible qualification of the students on the basis of a strong scientific and research-oriented education, which also includes the acquisition of important interdisciplinary competences. All phases of a research process are to be mapped in the learning process and offer students an insight into current research topics in optics and photonics.
In this article, we present a taxonomy in Robot-Assisted Training; a growing body of research in Human–Robot Interaction which focuses on how robotic agents and devices can be used to enhance user’s performance during a cognitive or physical training task. Robot-Assisted Training systems have been successfully deployed to enhance the effects of a training session in various contexts, i.e., rehabilitation systems, educational environments, vocational settings, etc. The proposed taxonomy suggests a set of categories and parameters that can be used to characterize such systems, considering the current research trends and needs for the design, development and evaluation of Robot-Assisted Training systems. To this end, we review recent works and applications in Robot-Assisted Training systems, as well as related taxonomies in Human–Robot Interaction. The goal is to identify and discuss open challenges, highlighting the different aspects of a Robot-Assisted Training system, considering both robot perception and behavior control.
In the area of cloud computing, judging the fulfillment of service-level agreements on a technical level is gaining more and more importance. To support this we introduce privacy preserving set relations as inclusiveness and disjointness based ao Bloom filters. We propose to compose them in a slightly different way by applying a keyed hash function. Besides discussing the correctness of set relations, we analyze how this impacts the privacy of the sets content as well as providing privacy on the sets cardinality. Indeed, our solution proposes to bring another layer of privacy on the sizes. We are in particular interested how the overlapping bits of a Bloom filter impact the privacy level of our approach. We concretely apply our solution to a use case of cloud security audit on access control and present our results with real-world parameters.
In the work at hand, we state that privacy and malleability of data are two aspects highly desired but not easy to associate. On the one hand, we are trying to shape data to make them usable and editable in an intelligible way, namely without losing their initial information. On the other hand, we are looking for effective privacy on data such that no external or non-authorized party could learn about their content. In such a way, we get overlapping requirements by pursuing different goals; it is trivial to be malleable without being secure, and vice versa. We propose four “real-world” use cases identified as scenarios where these two contradictory features are required and taking place in distinct environments. These considered backgrounds consist of firstly, cloud security auditing, then privacy of mobile network users and industry 4.0 and finally, privacy of COVID-19 tracing app users. After presenting useful background material, we propose to employ multiple approaches to design solutions to solve the use cases. We combine homomorphic encryption with searchable encryption and private information retrieval protocol to build an effective construction for the could auditing use case. As a second step, we develop an algorithm to generate the appropriate parameters to use the somewhat homomorphic encryption scheme by considering correctness, performance and security of the respective application. Finally, we propose an alternative use of Bloom filter data structure by adding an HMAC function to allow an outsourced third party to perform set relations in a private manner. By analyzing the overlapping bits occurring on Bloom filters while testing the inclusiveness or disjointness of the sets, we show how these functions maintain privacy and allow operations directly computed on the data structure. Then, we show how these constructions could be applied to the four selected use cases. Our obtained solutions have been implemented and we provide promising results that validate their efficiency and thus relevancy.
This thesis deals with the implementation of character controls and combat system of the Action Adventure 'Scout 3D'. The game development was realized with the game engine Unity 3D. In the first part, the architecture of a typical game engine is explained. The single components are describes step by step. Then, five well-known game engines are compared and evaluated. In the next chapter, a short overview about design and architecture patterns is worked out. The features of Unity, that are used for the implementation, and Unity's animation system 'Mecanim, are described finally. The second part includes the requirement definitions for the game 'Scout COD' which define player input, different conditions that allow or disallow several activities and the behaviour of enemies. With the help of patterns the architecture of the game is designed. Then, the implementation is explained by means of code snippets.
G.R.E.C is a adventure game, set in an dystopien industrial world, where you are a scavenger for hire. Explore the village of Vankhart Valley and grab everything valuable you can get your hands on.
Your trusty old jump boots will help you avoiding the nasty and deadly spores that changed the world of G.R.E.C forever.
OVVL (the Open Weakness and Vulnerability Modeller) is a tool and methodology to support threat modeling in the early stages of the secure software development lifecycle. We provide an overview of OVVL (https://ovvl.org), its data model and browser-based UI. We equally provide a discussion of initial experiments on how identified threats in the design phase can be aligned with later activities in the software lifecycle (issue management and security testing).
Prof. Gitte Lindgaard, from the University of Carleton, Canada, says that viewing only some milliseconds of the first page of a website defines our general opinion about it [1]. For an online-shop, it would therefore be essential to have a first page that is not only pleasing to the eye, but also understandable enough to not loose the attention of the user. More and more companies are nowadays using the Internet not only as a showcase anymore, but as a full-strength selling tool, needing thus to convince their users and clients at first glance. This paper shows the analysis of two online-shops in the magazines’ field thanks to eye-tracking. With the analysis of the testers’ glances and their comments during and after the test, the usability of these two websites has been evaluated.
The development of secure software systems is of ever-increasing importance. While software companies often invest large amounts of resources into the upkeeping and general security properties of large-scale applications when in production, they appear to neglect utilizing threat modeling in the earlier stages of the software development lifecycle. When applied during the design phase of development, and continuously during development iterations, threat modeling can help in following a “Security by Design” approach. This approach allows issues relating to IT security to be found early during development, reducing the need for later improvement – and thus saving resources in the long term. In this thesis the current state of threat modeling is investigated. Based on this analysis, requirements for a new tool are derived. These requirements are then used to develop a new tool, called OVVL, which utilizes all main components of current threat modeling methodologies, as well as functionality not available in existing solutions. After documenting the development process and OVVL in general, this newly developed tool is used to conduct two case studies in the field of e-commerce and IoT.
Bank and trust – two words but one meaning in customers’ minds. When interacting with financial service providers, customers are consistently looking for “trust signals” that comfort their decisions and “distrust signals” which create doubt. Therefore, service providers need a deep understanding of the customers’ requirements and wishes. To identify trust and distrust signals, we combine established user experience research methods with a new testing procedure to gain helpful recommendations for optimizing the online appearance of banks. The contribution is divided into three parts: Firstly, we investigate current approaches in the financial service industry. Secondly, we provide a corpus describing the relationship between the customers’ perception of a bank’s website and trust. Thirdly, an empirical study based on qualitative user experience testing with banking website customers shows the value gained by optimizing the banks’ virtual interface by enhancing “trust signals” and avoiding “distrust signals”.
Logging information is more precious as it contains the execution of a system; it is produced by millions of events from simple application logins to random system errors. Most of the security related problems in the cloud ecosystem like intruder attacks, data loss, and denial of service, etc. could be avoided if Cloud Service Provider (CSP) or Cloud User (CU) analyses the logging information. In this paper we introduced few challenges, which are place of monitoring, security, and ownership of the logging information between CSP and CU.
Also we proposed a logging architecture to analyze the behaviour of the cloud ecosystem, to avoid data breaches and other security related issues at the CSP space. So that we believe our proposed architecture can provide maximum trust between CU and CSP.
In the age data digitalization, important applications of optics and photonics based sensors and technology lie in the field of biometrics and image processing. Protecting user data in a safe and secure way is an essential task in this area. However, traditional cryptographic protocols rely heavily on computer aided computation. Secure protocols which rely only on human interactions are usually simpler to understand. In many scenarios development of such protocols are also important for ease of implementation and deployment. Visual cryptography (VC) is an encryption technique on images (or text) in which decryption is done by human visual system. In this technique, an image is encrypted into number of pieces (known as shares). When the printed shares are physically superimposed together, the image can be decrypted with human vision. Modern digital watermarking technologies can be combined with VC for image copyright protection where the shares can be watermarks (small identification) embedded in the image. Similarly, VC can be used for improving security of biometric authentication. This paper presents about design and implementation of a practical laboratory experiment based on the concept of VC for a course in media engineering. Specifically, our contribution deals with integration of VC in different schemes for applications like digital watermarking and biometric authentication in the field of optics and photonics. We describe theoretical concepts and propose our infrastructure for the experiment. Finally, we will evaluate the learning outcome of the experiment, performed by the students. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The economic dispatch (ED) problem is a large-scale optimization problem in electricity power grids. Its goal is to find a power output combination of all generator nodes that meet the demand of the customers at minimum operating cost. In recent years, distributed protocols have been proposed to replace the traditional centralized ED calculation for modern smart grid infrastructures with the most realistic being the one proposed by Binetti et al. (2014). However, we show that this protocol leaks private information of the generator nodes. We then propose a privacy-preserving distributed protocol that solves the ED problem. We analyze the security of our protocol and give experimental results from a prototype implementation to show the feasibility of the solution.
In this work we provide an overview of gamification, i.e. the application of methods from game design to enrich non-gaming processes. The contribution is divided into five subsections: an introduction focusing on the progression of gamification through the hype cycle in the recent years (1), a brief introduction to gamification mechanics (1) and an overview of the state of the art in established areas (3). The focus is a discussion of more recent attempts of gamification in service and production (4). We also discuss the ethical implications (5) and the future perspectives (6) of gamified business processes. Gamification has been successfully applied in the domains education (serious games) and health (exergames) and is spreading to other areas. In recent years there have been various attempts to “gamify” business processes. While the first efforts date back as far as the collection of miles in frequent flyer programs, we will portray some of the more recent and comprehensive software-based approaches in the service industry, e.g. the gamification of processes in sales and marketing. We discuss their accomplishments as well as their social and ethical implicatio. Finally a very recent approach is presented: the application of gamification in the domain of industrial production. We discuss the special requirements in this domain and the effects on the business level and on the users. We conclude with a prognosis on the future development of gamification.
Deafblindness is a condition that limits communication capabilities primarily to the haptic channel. In the EU-funded project SUITCEYES we design a system which allows haptic and thermal communication via soft interfaces and textiles. Based on user needs and informed by disability studies, we combine elements from smart textiles, sensors, semantic technologies, image processing, face and object recognition, machine learning, affective computing, and gamification. In this work, we present the underlying concepts and the overall design vision of the resulting assistive smart wearable.
Social robots are robots interacting with humans not only in collaborative settings, but also in personal settings like domestic services and healthcare. Some social robots simulate feelings (companions) while others just help lifting (assistants). However, they often incite both fascination and fear: what abilities should social robots have and what should remain exclusive to humans? We provide a historical background on the development of robots and related machines (1), discuss examples of social robots (2) and present an expert study on their desired future abilities and applications (3) conducted within the Forum of the European Active and Assisted Living Programme (AAL). The findings indicate that most technologies required for the social robots' emotion sensing are considered ready. For care robots, the experts approve health-related tasks like drawing blood while they prefer humans to do nursing tasks like washing. On a larger societal scale, the acceptance of social robots increases highly significantly with familiarity, making health robots and even military drones more acceptable than sex robots or child companion robots for childless couples. Accordingly, the acceptance of social robots seems to decrease with the level of face-to-face emotions involved.
Differences in Unemployment due to Sexual Orientation: Evidence from the Swedish Labour Market
(2021)
The right to engage in work and choose an occupation to freely work at, is declared a fundamental human right in the EU. Behaviour that restrains somebody from doing so, due to sexual orientation discrimination for example, is prohibited. Inquiries on the dimension of this particular behaviour, as well as the magnitude of harm it causes in the population, is of vital importance for policy makers and the entire civil society. A growing number of research pertaining to labour market outcomes due to sexual orientation has been conducted rececently. Most of the studies have been carried out in western countries, where annual income, hourly wages, labour market participation and employment decisions have been in the focus of researchers. Ahmet, Andersson and Hammarstedt have been the pioneering scientists in this field in Sweden and contributed by extending their inquiries from the individual to the couple level (Ahmed, et al., 2011a) and to field experiments (Ahmed, et al., 2011b) in detecting discrimination against homosexuals. The present paper aims to contribute to the labour market discrimination literature by estimating the differences in the employment probabilities and in the duration of unemployment by sexual orientation in Sweden using survival analysis techniques. Time-to-event data is rare in social sciences, which is particularly valid for data sets where the sexual orientation of individuals is observable. Due to this scarcity, the present study represents the first paper investigating the effect of sexual preferences on the duration in unemploymnet using survival analysis techniques. In contrast to other estimation methods, survival techniques enable us to incorporate the particular nature of time-to-event data, such as its particular skewness, strict non- negative nature, as well as censoring and truncation. Separately Zero Inflated Negative Binomial regression has been conducted to the duration in unemployment and Probit estimation to the event of getting employed, where differing significant outcomes by sexual orientation have been detected for some specifications. The remainder of the article is organized as follows. A detailed literature review is provided in section 2. Section 3 comprises the theoretical framework of the investigation, while section 4 contains the methodical framework and research design. Data and descriptive statistics are presented in section 5, followed by the results of the estimation in section 6. Section 7 concludes with the final discussion.
During the year 2015 almost 1.4 million refugees arrived in Europe (eurostat, 2020). Germany was with 1.1 million individuals the major destination (Statista, 2018). A huge political divide occurred over this influx. While welcoming scenes dominated the media in the advent of the so called ‘refugee crisis’, criticism over the ‘We’ll-make-it policy’ by Angela Merkel increased also among Christian Democrats.1A sudden human influx of such size into a society might not only have political, cultural and social impacts, but may also lead to economic disruptions. Human beings embody consumers as well as labour force. A significant increase in population might thus cause an increase in demand for commodities and in labour supply, which ceteris paribus simultaneously lead to increasing GDP and decreasing wages. Previous literature utilized quasi-natural experiments which can be exploited in social sciences for the detection of causal relations and the usage of methods, not applicable otherwise. The present paper applies the synthetic control methodology to wages, unemployment and economic growth in Germany in order to measure the causal impact of the 2015- refugee influx on these economic key elements. No impact on either of the economic factors has been found.
European Union labour market and welfare policies are concerned with the protection of European citizens from disruptive processes. Falling wages and increasing unemployment, as well as decreasing production and consumption embody highly disruptive political potential. Thus, the findings concerning the impact of refugee migration into the European Union might influence EU-policies in the prospect of increased migration to Europe in the upcoming century due climate change and new crises. The remainder of the article is organized as follows: The lessons from the key literature concerning quasi- natural experiments and the impact of migration on wages, unemployment and economic growth are provided in section 2. Section 3 comprises the theoretical framework concerning the differences between refugees and economic migrants. Section 4 introduces the estimation strategy, while section 5 presents data and descriptive statistics. Section 6 shows the simulation results, followed by the concluding discussion in section 7.
In addition to traditional methods in product development, the increasing availability of two new 3D digital technologies, namely digital manufacturing (3D-printing) and digitizing of surfaces (3D-scanning), offer new opportunities in product development processes today. With regard to the systematic implementation of these technologies in the education of students in the field of product development, however, only a small number of approaches exist so far. This paper explores several ways in which 3D digital technologies can productively be used in design education. The innovative aspects here include that the students assemble and install the 3D-printers themselves, and that they are introduced to an approach that combines 3D-scanning followed by 3D-printing.
For e-commerce retailers it is crucial to present their products both informatively and attractively. Virtual reality (VR) systems represent a new marketing tool that supports customers in their decision-making process and offers an extraordinary product experience. Despite these advantages, the use of this technology for e-commerce retailers is also associated with risks, namely cybersickness. The aim of the study is to investigate the occurrence of cybersickness in the context of the customer’s perceived enjoyment and the perceived challenge of a VR product presentation. Based on a conceptual research framework, a laboratory study with 533 participants was conducted to determine the influence of these factors on the occurrence of cybersickness. The results demonstrate that the perceived challenge has a substantially stronger impact on the occurrence of cybersickness, which can only be partially reduced by perceived enjoyment. When realizing VR applications in general and VR product presentations in particular, e-commerce retailers should therefore first minimize possible challenges instead of focusing primarily on entertainment aspects of such applications.
Virtual reality in the hotel industry: assessing the acceptance of immersive hotel presentation
(2019)
In the hotel industry, it is crucial to reduce the inherent information asymmetry with regard to the goods offered. This asymmetry can be minimised through the use of smartphone-based virtual reality applications (SBVRs), which allow virtual simulation of real experiences and thus enable more efficient information retrieval. The aim of the study is to determine for the first time the user acceptance of these immersive hotel presentations for assessing the performance of a travel accommodation. For this purpose, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to explain the acceptance behaviour for this new technology. A virtual reality application was specially developed, in which the participants could explore a hotel virtually. A total of 569 participants took part in the study. The structural equation model and the hypotheses were tested using a Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis. The results illustrate that the immersive product experience leads to more efficient information gathering. The perceived usefulness significantly affects the attitude towards using the technology as well as the intention to use it. In contrast to the traditional TAM, the perceived ease of use of SBVRs has no effect on the perceived usefulness or attitude towards using the technology.
This paper describes the concept and some results of the project "Menschen Lernen Maschinelles Lernen" (Humans Learn Machine Learning, ML2) of the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg. It brings together students of different courses of study and practitioners from companies on the subject of Machine Learning. A mixture of blended learning and practical projects ensures a tight coupling of machine learning theory and application. The paper details the phases of ML2 and mentions two successful example projects.
Android is the most popular mobile operating system. Its omnipresence leads to the fact that it is also the most popular target amongst malware developers and other computer criminals. Hence, this thesis shows the security-relevant structures of Android’s system and application architecture. Furthermore, it provides laboratory exercises on various security-related issues to understand them not only theoretically but also deal with them in a practical way. In order to provide infrastructure-independent education, the exercises are based on Android Virtual Devices (AVDs).
New employees are supposed to quickly understand their tasks, internal processes and familiarize with colleagues. This process is called “onboarding” and is still mainly realized by organizational methods from human resource management, such as introductory events or special employee sessions. Software tools and especially mobile applications are an innovative means to support provide onboarding processes in a modern, even remote, way. In this paper we analyze how the use of gamification can enhance onboarding processes. Firstly, we describe a mobile onboarding application specifically developed for the young, technically literate generations Y and Z, who are just about to start their career. Secondly, we report on a study with 98 students and young employees. We found that participants enjoyed the gamified application. They especially appreciated the feature “Team Bingo” which facilitates social integration and teambuilding. Based on the OCEAN personality model (“Big Five”), the personality traits agreeableness and openness revealed significant correlations with a preference for the gamified onboarding application.
A recognizable division appears between students with a comprehensive knowledge of the Web and those that are less certain about its resources. This is where, the teaching innovation Web Mentoring: Peer-to-Peer has been developed to help the students to cope better with the demands of media education. Furthermore, this presents the opportunity for master’s degree students to begin mentoring undergraduate students. Mentoring sessions have already been carried out successfully in the previous two semesters and are being presented, evaluated and discussed.
Should social robots become part of our society?
Embedded in an exciting crime story, the science comic by Oliver Korn and Jonas Grund conveys the current state and outlook of science on social robots.
The story takes place in the near future: In an international project, scientists are researching the requirements for social robots for the health sector. Shortly before the prototype of a nursing robot is used in a field study, it disappears without a trace. In her first major case, the young inspector Kira embarks on a journey into the world of science. In the process, she learns a lot about social robots, AI and the world of international scientific cooperation. Again and again, critical voices are heard: anti-robot activists protest against automation and a dwindling of humanity and empathy. Even in the Commissioner's family, the possible care of elderly people by robots is controversially discussed.
The overarching goal is to build knowledge across all age groups so that the advantages and disadvantages of these new technologies can be discussed controversially but knowledgeably. "Social Robots - a Science Comic" is a contribution to an informed discussion in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, ethics and politics and is thus also suitable as a teaching and learning tool.
The comic was conceived and designed for young people and adults. In particular, however, for those who have hardly come into contact with social robots and artificial intelligence so far. Another target group are people working in the health care sector, because the care and nursing of elderly people are considered to be one of the most important areas of application for social robots in the future.
DINA4 portrait format, hardcover thread stitching, published in German and English. Self-published by the Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI), Offenburg University.
With our society moving towards Industry 4.0, an increasing number of tasks and procedures in manual workplaces are augmented with a digital component. While the research area of Internet-of-Things focuses on combining physical objects with their digital counterpart, the question arises how the interface to human workers should be designed in such Industry 4.0 environments. The project motionEAP focuses on using Augmented Reality for creating an interface between workers and digital products in interactive workplace scenarios. In this paper, we summarize the work that has been done in the motionEAP project over the run-time of 4 years. Further, we provide guidelines for creating interactive workplaces using Augmented Reality, based on the experience we gained.
Automobile premium brands operate globally, which is undoubtedly required, because, for the most part, domestic markets are either decreasing or stagnating. China has become today the most important and biggest car market. Recently selling has become challenging because urban areas are well penetrated, and in poorly penetrated rural areas, incomes are low. This is particularly alarming for German brands, because of their premium orientation. Simultaneously, the after-sales market in China has been growing continuously. As a result, this market has a huge potential, which is likewise attractive because it has been scientifically proven across industries that after-sales services are high-margin profit drivers. Despite its great significance, the Chinese automobile after-sales market remains insufficiently researched, especially in terms of critical success factors and cultural influences, which therefore was the starting point for a study. The results will presented and interpreted now in this new working-paper.
In the past decades, developments in the fields of medicine, new media, and biotechnologies challenged many representations and practices, questioning the understanding of our corporeal limits. Using concrete examples from literary fiction, media studies, philosophy, performance arts, and social sciences, this collection underlines how bodily models and transformations, thought until recently to be only fictional products, have become a part of our reality. The essays provide a spectrum of perspectives on how the body emerges as a transitional environment between fictional and factual elements, a process understood as faction.
Critical theory and philosophy across many fields in the humanities has become awash with what has been characterised as ‘the material turn’. This material turn, which seems to involve varying combinations of what is known as Object Orientated Ontology (Harman), Actor-Network Theory (Latour), process philosophy (Whitehead), speculative realism (Bryant), or agential realism (Barad), emphasises some move toward a posthuman understanding of what the world is, and our relation to it.
In 2000 the iSign project started as a virtual web-based laboratory for students of study program electrical engineering. Continuous development in the last years led to a heterogeneous learning environment offering learning material, adaptive user settings and access to a simulation tool. Access is available via web and wireless devices such as PCs, Laptops, PDAs, smartphones and mobile phones. Our attempt to adapt the content to the user's needs and the currently used device led us to a XML based data structure. This report shows our research results about content adaptation based on XML data. The two main aspects for that process are: the device capabilities and the adaptation methods using XML data.
Not only is the number of new devices constantly increasing, but so is their application complexity and power. Most of their applications are in optics, photonics, acoustic and mobile devices. Working speed and functionality is achieved in most of media devices by strategic use of digital signal processors and microcontrollers of the new generation. Considering all these premises of media development dynamics, the authors present how to integrate microcontrollers and digital signal processors in the curricula of media technology lectures by using adequate content. This also includes interdisciplinary content that consists of using the acquired knowledge in media software. These entries offer a deeper understanding of photonics, acoustics and media engineering.
This paper describes the new Sweaty humanoid adult size robot trying to qualify for the RoboCup 2014 adult size humanoid competition. The robot is built from scratch to eventually allow it to run. One characteristic is that to prevent the motors from overheating, water evaporation is used for cooling. The robot is literally sweating which has given it its name. Another characteristic is, that the motors are not directly connected to the frame but by means of beams. This allows a variable transmission ratio depending on the angle.
We present our twenty years of experience in the live broadcasting of astronomical events, with the main focus on total lunar eclipses. Our efforts were motivated by the great impact and high number of viewers of these events. Visitors from over a hundred countries watched our live broadcasts. Our viewer record was set on July 27, 2018, with the live transmission of the total lunar eclipse from the Feldberg, the highest mountain in the Black Forest, attracting nearly half a million viewers in five hours.
An especially challenging activity was the live observing of the Mercury transit on 9 May 2016, which we presented as ‘live astronomy’ with hands-on telescope. The main goal of this event was to awake our students enthusiasm for optics and astronomy.
Furthermore, we report on our experiences with the photography of optical phenomena such as polar lights and green flash.
Art and Photonics
(2019)
In this paper we report on our continuous efforts to apply optics and photonics in art. This results in interdisciplinary projects which sometimes lead to concrete art installations.
We presented some of these projects at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, at the opening ceremony of the International Year of Light and the inaugural ceremony of the International Day of Light.
Some newer projects, such as “A Maze: Ingenious Pipes” and “The Power of Your Eyes,” are also presented in this paper.
Theoretical details about optics and photonics are not common knowledge nowadays. Physicists are keen to scientifically explain ‘light,’ which has a huge impact on our lives. It is necessary to examine it from multiple perspectives and to make the knowledge accessible to the public in an interdisciplinary, scientifically well-grounded and appealing medial way. To allow an information exchange on a global scale, our project “Invisible Light” establishes a worldwide accessible platform. Its contents will not be created by a single instance, but user-generated, with the help of the global community. The article describes the infotainment portal “Invisible Light,” which stores scientific articles about light and photonics and makes them accessible worldwide. All articles are tagged with geo-coordinates, so they can be clearly identified and localized. A smartphone application is used for visualization, transmitting the information to users in real time by means of an augmented reality application. Scientific information is made accessible for a broad audience and in an attractive manner.
Photonics meet digital art
(2014)
The paper focuses on the work of an interdisciplinary project between photonics and digital art. The result is a poster collection dedicated to the International Year of Light 2015. In addition, an internet platform was created that presents the project. It can be accessed at http://www.magic-of-light.org/iyl2015/index.htm. From the idea to the final realization, milestones with tasks and steps will be presented in the paper. As an interdisciplinary project, students from technological degree programs were involved as well as art program students. The 2015 Anniversaries: Alhazen (1015), De Caus (1615), Fresnel (1815), Maxwell (1865), Einstein (1905), Penzias Wilson, Kao (1965) and their milestone contributions in optics and photonics will be highlighted.
Mobile learning (m-learning) can be considered as a new paradigm of e-learning. The developed solution enables the presentation of animations and 3D virtual reality (VR) on mobile devices and is well suited for mobile learning. Difficult relations in physics as well as intricate experiments in optics can be visualised on mobile devices without need for a personal computer. By outsourcing the computational power to a server, the coverage is worldwide.
The University for Children is a very successful event aiming to spark children‧s interest in science, in this particular lecture in Optics and Photonics. It is from brain research that we know about the significant dependence of successful learning on the fun factor. Researchers in this field have shown that knowledge acquired with fun is stored for a longer time in the long-term memory and can be used both more efficiently and more creatively [1], [2]. Such an opportunity to inspire the young generation for science must not be wasted. The world of Photonics and Optics provides us with a nearly inexhaustible source of opportunities of this kind.
Diffusion plays a decisive role in brain function. In treating brain disorders, where diffusion is often compromised, understanding the transport of molecules can be essential to effective drug delivery. It became apparent that the classical laws of diffusion, cast in the framework of porous media theory, can deliver an accurate quantitative description of the way that molecules are transported through the brain tissue.
The United Nations have declared 2015 as the International Year of Light (IYL2015) and light-based technologies [1]. As a main result, the public interest is focused on both the achievements and the new frontiers of optics and photonics. This opens up new perspectives in the teaching and training of optics and photonics. In the first part of the paper, the author presents the numerous anniversaries occurring in the International Year of Light 2015 together with their importance to the development of science and technology. In the second part, we report on an interactive video projection at the opening ceremony of the IYL2015 in Paris on January 19-20, 2015. Students of Offenburg University have established an interactive video projection which visualizes Twitter and Facebook messages posted with the hashtag #iyl2015 in a mapping technique. Thus, the worldwide community can be interactively part of the opening ceremony. Finally, upcoming global community projects related to optics and astronomy events are presented.
Recent developments in information and communication technology, along with advanced displaying techniques and high computational performance open up new visualisation methods to both scientists and lecturers. Thus simulations of complex processes [1] can be computed and visualised in image sequences. The particular idea in our approach is the outsourcing of computationally intensive calculations to servers which then send the results back to mobile users. In order to improve interpretations of the visualised results, users can view them in a 3D-perspective or stereoscopically, given the technical requirements. Today’s technology even permits to view these visualisations on a mobile phone. An example for such a computationally intensive calculation originating from the theory of relativity is depicted in Figure 4.1-1.
The developed solution enables the presentation of animations and 3D virtual reality (VR) on mobile devices and is well suited for mobile learning, thus creating new possibilities in the area of e-learning worldwide. Difficult relations in physics as well as intricate experiments in optics can be visualised on mobile devices without need for a personal computer.
In short-reach connections, large-diameter multimode fibres allow for robust and easy connections. Unfortunately, their propagation properties depend on the excitation conditions. We propose a launching technique using a fibre stub that can tolerate fabrication tolerances in terms of tilts and off-sets to a large extent. A study of the influence of displaced connectors along the transmission link shows that the power distributions approach a steady-state power distribution very similar to the initial distribution established by the proposed launching scheme.
The findings presented in this article were obtained through a preliminary exploratory study conducted at the Offenburg University as part of the Fighting Loneliness project promoted by the institution’s Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI) from October 2019 to February 2020. The initiative’s main objective was to answer the research question “How should an app be designed to reduce loneliness and social isolation among university students?” with the collaboration of the institution’s students.
Covert and Side-Channels have been known for a long time due to their versatile forms of appearance. For nearly every technical improvement or change in technology, such channels have been (re-)created or known methods have been adapted. For example the introduction of hyperthreading technology has introduced new possibilities for covert communication between malicious processes because they can now share the arithmetic logical unit (ALU) as well as the L1 and L2 cache which enables establishing multiple covert channels. Even virtualization which is known for its isolation of multiple machines is prone to covert and side-channel attacks due to the sharing of resources. Therefore itis not surprising that cloud computing is not immune to this kind of attacks. Even more, cloud computing with multiple, possibly competing users or customers using the same shared resources may elevate the risk of unwanted communication. In such a setting the ”air gap” between physical servers and networks disappears and only the means of isolation and virtual separation serve as a barrier between adversary and victim. In the work at hand we will provide a survey on weak spots an adversary trying to exfiltrate private data from target virtual machines could exploit in a cloud environment. We will evaluate the feasibility of example attacks and point out possible mitigation solutions if they exist.
The TriRhenaTech alliance presents a collection of accepted papers of the cancelled tri-national 'Upper-Rhine Artificial Intelligence Symposium' planned for 13th May 2020 in Karlsruhe. The TriRhenaTech alliance is a network of universities in the Upper-Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region comprising of the German universities of applied sciences in Furtwangen, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, and Offenburg, the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Loerrach, the French university network Alsace Tech (comprised of 14 'grandes écoles' in the fields of engineering, architecture and management) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. The alliance's common goal is to reinforce the transfer of knowledge, research, and technology, as well as the cross-border mobility of students.
The TriRhenaTech alliance universities and their partners presented their competences in the field of artificial intelligence and their cross-border cooperations with the industry at the tri-national conference 'Artificial Intelligence : from Research to Application' on March 13th, 2019 in Offenburg. The TriRhenaTech alliance is a network of universities in the Upper Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region comprising of the German universities of applied sciences in Furtwangen, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, and Offenburg, the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Loerrach, the French university network Alsace Tech (comprised of 14 'grandes écoles' in the fields of engineering, architecture and management) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. The alliance's common goal is to reinforce the transfer of knowledge, research, and technology, as well as the cross-border mobility of students.