Ambient Systems

Certain elements of development are quite visible, such as advances in miniaturisation of information and communications technologies that open the doors to totally new facets of human life: developments in computers from mainframes of the 1960s and 1970s to PCs of the 1980s and 1990s and now mobile minicomputers in the form of smartphones and tablet PCs. What is less visible, though, are far-reaching advances that arise from the immersion of computers into our daily environment.

Smart objects are rapidly taking over our living environment. Examples include parking lots that automatically show free spots and their locations, washing machines that optimise soap and water usage based on the fill level and type of wash, car seats that automatically find the best position for multiple drivers, etc. This is referred to as pervasive embedding (pervasive, embedded, or invisible computing), which leads to ubiquitous computing (immersion of computing devices and interconnected networks in the real environment). These new technologies makes sense only if (1) if every object can be identified and networked (Internet of things), (2) if smart nodes / smart dust with sensors analyse the environment of objects for actions (context awareness) and (3) if new forms of multimedia actions (e.g. haptic, acoustic, or visual) and multimodal actions (e.g. touch, language, gestures, facial expressions) are created for human users (ambient user interfaces).

Focus of research in informatics at Lübeck

Ambient Systems

Certain elements of development are quite visible, such as advances in miniaturisation of information and communications technologies that open the doors to totally new facets of human life: developments in computers from mainframes of the 1960s and 1970s to PCs of the 1980s and 1990s and now mobile minicomputers in the form of smartphones and tablet PCs. What is less visible, though, are far-reaching advances that arise from the immersion of computers into our daily environment.

Smart objects
are rapidly taking over our environment. Examples include parking lots that automatically show free spots and their locations, washing machines that optimise soap and water usage based on the fill level and type of wash, car seats that automatically find the best position for multiple drivers, etc. This is referred to as pervasive embedding, pervasive / embedded / invisible computing
), which leads to the immersion of computing devices and interconnected networks in the real environment, known as
ubiquitous computing
. These new technologies make sense only if (1) every object can be identified and networked via the
Internet of Things
), and (2)
smart nodes
/
smart dust
with sensors analyse the environment of objects for actions via
context awareness,
and (3) if new forms of multimedia actions (e.g. haptic, acoustic, or visual) and multimodal actions (e.g. touch, language, gestures, facial expressions) are created for human users as
ambient user interfaces
.

The bandwidth of our research

At the Universität zu Lübeck, the informatic programme delves into the entire structure and diversity of challenges faced in achieving
ambient systems
:

• Ambient awareness
  

  Mapping and supporting mental models in intelligent environments.
  

• Ambient computing
  

  Context-sensitive and adaptive software infrastructures.
  

• Ambient intelligence
  

  Modelling and support of cognitive processes.
  

• Embedded systems
  

  Reliable computing systems embedded in products.
  

• Interactive ambient systems
  

  Innovative operating concepts with natural interactions.
  

• Mixed reality systems
  

  Linking the real physical world with virtual digital information.
  

• Organic computing
  

  Self-organising systems that copy nature.
  

• Signal processing
  

  Algorithms to process and interpret sensor signals.
  

• Distributed sensor systems
  

  Data formats, algorithms and protocols for autonomous networks of sensor nodes.
  

We are not only developing technical components and processes in the aforementioned fields, but also diverse application scenarios:

• Ambient assisted living
  

  Assistive systems for an aging society
  

• Ambient learning spaces
  

  Intelligent, networked learning spaces
  

• Ambient health
  

  Complete healthcare on-site
  

• Security-critical applications
  

  Potentially high-risk areas of work
  

• Smart homes
  

  Technologies for future living
  

• Smart cities
  

  Intelligent services in urban environments
  

Partner institutes

Institute for Multimedia and Interactive Systems

Prof. Dr. Michael Herczeg

Signal Processing Institute

Prof. Dr. Alfred Mertins

Institute for Technical Informatics

Prof. Dr. Erik Maehle

Institute for Telematics

Prof. Dr. Stefan Fischer
Ambient Computing Workgroup
Prof. Dr. Andreas Schrader

Additional references

Ruge, L., Schrader, A. (2013)
Persuasion Mobility in Ambient Intelligence
. In: Third International Conference on Ambient Computing, Applications, Services and Technologies (Ambient’2013), Portugal, September 2013.

Carlson, D., Rothenpieler, P., Schrader, A. (2013)
An Open Infrastructure and Platform for AAL Services
. In: International Conference on Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions (DAPI), July 2013.

Carlson D., Schrader A. (2012).
Dynamix: An Open Plug-and-Play Context Framework for Android
. In: IoT'2012, 3rd International Conference for Industry and Academia (Internet of Things 2012), Wuxi, China, 2012.

Liu, J.; Levis, P.; Römer, K. (eds.):
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems
. ACM Sensys 2011, ACM Press, Seattle 2011

Müller F., Mertins A. (2011).
Contextual invariant-integration features for improved speaker-independent speech recognition
. Speech Communication, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 830 – 841.

Schmitt F., Cassens J., Kindsmüller M.C., Herczeg M. (2011).
Mental Models of Ambient Systems: A Modular Research Framework
. In Beigl, M (Ed.) Modelling and Using Context: 7th International and Interdisciplinary Conference, CONTEXT 2011, Karlsruhe, Germany, September 26-30 2011; Proceedings. Vol. 6967. Springer. 278-291. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6967.

Winkler T., Ide M., Herczeg M. (2010).
Teaching Teachers to Teach with Body- and Space-related Technologies: Programmable Clothing in Performative Teaching Processes
. In Gibson, D & Dodge, B (Eds.) Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2010 (SITE). AACE. 3038-3045.

Science prizes and awards

Scientists from partner institutes have won a host of national and international awards for their research. These prizes honour not only their outstanding scientific papers, posters and theses, but also their services in technology transfer. Examples of these are: Best Demo Award Percom’2013
Carlson, D., Altakrouri, A., Schrader, A.
Reinventing the Share Button for Physical Spaces.
In: Demo Session at IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication (PerCom), March 2013.
More...
1st and 2nd Place IOT Challenge Competition 2012
Darren Carlson, Bashar Altakrouri & Andreas Schrader
AmbientWeb: Bridging the Web's Cyber-Physical Gap

Ioannis Chatzigiannakis, Henning Hasemann, Marcel Karnstedt, Oliver Kleine, Alexander Kröller, Myriam Leggieri, Dennis Pfisterer, Kay Römer, Cuong Truong
True self-configuration for the IoT

Both in:
IoT'2012, 3rd International Conference for Industry and Academia (Internet of Things 2012), Wuxi, China, Oct. 2012.
More...

ISH Transfer Award 2010 and 2012