Thesis proposals for 2013-2014

ArtVis - Exploring Information Through Advanced Visualisation Techniques

The ArtVis project investigates advanced visualisation techniques in combination with a tangible user interface to explore a large source of information (Web Gallery of Art) about European painters and sculptors from the 11th to the mid-19th century. Specific graphical and tangible controls allow the user to explore the vast amount of artworks based on different dimensions (faceted browsing) such as the name of the painter, the museum where an artwork is located, the type of art or a specific period of time.The name ArtVis reflects the fact that we bring together artworks and the field of Information Visualisation (InfoVis) in order to achieve a playful and highly explorative user experience. Our ArtVis application enables the efficient browsing and exploration of data based on advanced visualisation techniques and futher helps users to get a broader understanding of the collection of artworks.

CAdE-games - Toward Cognitive Adaptive Edu-games

The first purpose of this project is to investigate the cognitive processing involved in edu-games and its impact on learning. The second purpose is to investigate how we can influence these cognitive processes by using adaptive techniques. More in particular we will investigate the impact of the emotional status of a tutor-avatar on the learning effect, as well as the motivational aspects of learning by manipulating task difficulty and attainability of goals.

Cross-Media Information Spaces and Architectures

We investigate conceptual models and architectures for the representation and integration of information across media boundaries. It is time to question existing document formats which are very much based on the simulation of paper on static desktop computers and to come up with innovative information concepts for the representation of open and fluid cross-media "documents".

E-learning

Different research topics and projects of WISE are related to e-learning.

Friendly ATTAC - Adaptive Technological Tools Against Cyberbullying

Friendly ATTAC will study and develop an innovative ICT tool to help youngsters deal with cyberbullying issues. By means of highly personalized virtual experience scenarios, providing players with immediate feedback in a safe computer-mediated environment, we will attempt to modify relevant determinants of behaviours related to the roles of bullies, bystanders and victims.

iPaper - Interactive Paper Framework for Paper-Digital Integration

iPaper is a platform for interactive paper applications that has been realised as an extension of the iServer cross-media link server. The iPaper framework supports the rapid prototyping, development and deployment of interactive paper applications.

iServer - Cross-Media Link Server

The iServer platform supports the integration of cross-media resources based on the resource-selector-link (RSL) model. iServer not only enables the definition of links between different types of digital media, but can also be used for integrating physical and digital resources.

MindXpres - An Extensible Content-driven Cross-Media Presentation Tool

Existing presentation tools such as Microsoft's PowerPoint, Apple's Keynote or OpenOffice Impress represent a de facto standard for giving presentations. We question these existing slide-based presentation solutions due to some of their inherent limitations. Our new MindXpres presentation tool addresses these problems by introducing a radically new presentation format. In addition to a clear separation of content and visualisation, our HTML5 and JavaScript-based presentation solution offers advanced features such as the non-linear traversal of the presentation, hyperlinks, transclusion, semantic linking and navigation of information, multimodal input, dynamic interaction with the content, the import of external presentations and more.

MobiCraNT - Second Generation Mobile Cross-media Applications - Scalability, Heterogeneity and Legacy

The MobiCraNT project aims at the development of software engineering principles and patterns for the development of mobile cross-media applications that operate in a heterogenous distributed setting and interact using cross-media technology.

Mudra - A Unified Multimodal Interaction Framework

Mudra is a unified multimodal interaction framework supporting the integrated processing of low-level data streams as well as high-level semantic inferences. Our solution is based on a central fact base in combination with a declarative rule-based language to derive new facts at different abstraction levels. The architecture of the Mudra framework consists of three layers: At the infrastructure level, we support the incorporation of any arbitrary input modalities, including skeleton tracking via Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect, multi-touch via TUIO and Midas, voice recognition via CMU Sphinx and accelerometer data via SunSPOTs. In the core layer a very efficient inference engine (CLIPS) was substantially extended for the continuous processing of events. The application layer provides flexible handlers for end-user applications or fission frameworks, with the possibility to feed application-level entities back to the core layer.

Multimodal and Multi-Touch Interaction

We are developing multimodal and multi-touch interaction frameworks with a focus on the declarative definition of gestures and interaction patterns and the reusability as well as extensibility of existing gestures. Our solution supports the rapid prototyping and investigation of novel multimodal and multi-touch gestures.

Semantic Web Languages and Technology

Semantic Web technology and languages (like RDF(S) and OWL) is an important area in Web Engineering and for semantic interoperability. WISE is mainly using the results of research done in this domain, but we also contribute to it in the context of different research project.  

Serious Games

The purpose of this research topic is to perform research on development methods for serious games, which are games used for training, advertising, simulation, or education.  

WSDM - Web Semantic Design Method

WISE developed as one of the first few a Web site design method, called WSDM (1998). This method followed a completely new approach in designing Web applications, called the ‘audience driven’ approach, which is nowadays followed by many Web design methods. The original WSDM method, and its associated modeling formalisms has evolved over the years to a complete ‘semantic’ web design method, both applying and deploying semantic web technology, and supporting the generation of semantic annotations. Different master student and PhD students have considered and still consider a variety of additional design issues, such as adaptivity, localization, accessibility, and social tagging, while others have focused on code generation and tool support.