Open Access

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 International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies 2015 (IYL 2015) was celebrated around the world. Worldwide activities were organized to highlight the impact of optics and photonics on life, science, economics, arts and culture, and also in education. With most of our activities at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences (Offenburg/Germany), we reached our own students and the general population of our region: - University for Children: “The Magic of Light“ winter lecture program and “Across the Universe with Relativity and Quantum Theory” summer lecture program - “Students Meet Scientists” - “A Century of General Relativity Theory” lecture program Nevertheless, with some of our activities we also engaged a worldwide audience: - IYL 2015 art poster collection (Magic of Light and No Football, Just Photonics) - Smart Interactive Projection - Twitter Wall - “Invisible Light” - Live broadcasting of the total lunar eclipse - Film Festival Merida Mexico The authors will highlight recent activities at our university dedicated to promote, celebrate, and create a legacy for the IYL 2015.

Walking interfaces offer advantages in navigation of VE systems over other types of locomotion. However, VR helmets have the disadvantage that users cannot see their immediate surroundings. Our publication describes the prototypical implementation of a virtual environment (VE) system, capable of detecting possible obstacles using an RGB-D sensor. In order to warn users of potential collisions with real objects while they are moving throughout the VE tracking area, we designed 4 different visual warning metaphors: Placeholder, Rubber Band, Color Indicator and Arrow. A small pilot study was carried out in which the participants had to solve a simple task and avoid any arbitrarily placed physical obstacles when crossing the virtual scene. Our results show that the Placeholder metaphor (in this case: trees), compared to the other variants, seems to be best suited for the correct estimation of the position of obstacles and in terms of the ability to evade them.

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 den letzten Jahren nahm die Anzahl der Sensoren, die unsere Mobilität zu Land, zu Wasser oder zu Luft erfordert, rapide zu. Immer mehr Sensoren helfen uns, unter schwierigen und zeitkritischen Bedingungen Entscheidungen zu treffen. Und immer mehr optische Sensoren ersetzen klassische elektrische Sensoren. Einerseits weisen optische Sensoren eine bessere elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit auf, werden also nicht von externen Quellen beeinflusst, andererseits sind sie sehr robust und haben eine längere Lebenszeit als ihre elektrischen Pendants.