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Participants - Fraunhofer-IGD |
Fraunhofer-Institut für Graphische Datenverarbeitung
http://www.igd.fhg.de
Fraunhofer-IGD (Fraunhofer-Institut für Graphische Datenverarbeitung), headed by Prof. Dr. h.c. Dr.-Ing. José L. Encarnação, was founded in 1987, at first as a provisional working group with the support of the German State of Hessen and the Fraunhofer Society (FhG). In 1992 the working group became a full Fraunhofer Institute. The Fraunhofer-IGD is one of 48 research institutes of the Fraunhofer Society.
Nowadays is Fraunhofer-IGD one of the biggest, best-equipped and most successful groups in the world in the area of computer graphics. The “House of Computer Graphics” comprises three leading institutions in the field of computer graphics: the Interactive Graphics Systems Group of the THD (THD-GRIS), ZGDV, and Fhg-IGD.
IGD does applied research with the aim of further developing the technology of computer graphics and of making the results of the new technology available for applications. This is done by relying on basic research and methods, by using the results of computer graphics in applications, by implementing new applications with a trend-setting or forwarding-looking character, and by realizing prototypes (in software, firmware, and hardware), which serve as preliminary stages for products offered by resellers or used directly by end user organizations.
Through the transfer of knowledge from research to practical applications the IGD contributes to the technological furtherance of European trade and industry. The IGD is involved in other CEC projects, as project coordinator in some, and has produced significant results in these projects.
The broad range of applications in which the techniques of computer graphics are used is one of IGD's great advantages. For many clients this variety allows synergies to be discovered and explored, taking advantage of in-house contacts and cooperation. This synergy is illustrated by IGD's several demonstration centres, which exist to make the potential value of the showcased technology visible to our clients.
IGD conducts applied contract research in medium- and long-term projects requiring complex infrastructure, technical support and professional project management. Most of the work carried out by IGD is industry driven research and development. As a link between academic research and business practice, IGD contributes considerably to the technology transfer between universities and industry.
The “Virtual and Augmented Reality” Department achieved pioneer work in Virtual-Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). The VR activities in cooperation with the car industry lead to the development of a complete VR system, which is now commercialised through the spin-off company VRCom. Three years ago, members of the department started the open-source initiative OpenSG (www.opensg.org), which consists in developing a flexible high level rendering scenegraph for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications. The department also developed on all its software components, such as the ones used in the industrial augmented-reality project ARVIKA (www.arvika.de).
Dr. Didier Stricker is the head of the “Virtual and Augmented Reality” Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD) in Darmstadt, Germany.
Before joining the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics in 1997, he worked as a researcher and software developer at the Institute for Pattern Recognition in Karlsruhe, Germany. He participated to several projects in the area of computer vision and augmented reality, such as Cumuli, The Augmented-Man or ArcheoGuide, LifePlus. He is the coordinator of the European project ARIS (Augmented Reality and Image Synthesis) and technical coordinator of the ARVIKA-consortium, Augmented Reality for Services and Maintenance (www.arvika.de).
He also served as general chair of the “IEEE&ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality” (ISMAR) 2002 and as reviewers of different journals and conferences. His research interests are technologies for virtual and augmented reality, computer vision, edutainment, and multimedia information services.
Ulrich Bockholt received his diploma degree in Mathematics from the University Mainz (Germany) in 1997. From 1997 to 2001 he has been researcher at the Interactive Graphics Systems Group (GRIS) of the Darmstadt University of Technology. Since 2001 he has been working at the “Virtual and Augmented Reality” Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (Fraunhofer-IGD) in Darmstadt (Germany). He was and is involved in a number of projects in the areas of Augmented Reality (AR) and Wearable Computing. His research projects include preoperative surgical planning and intra-operative support by AR technologies. Since 2002 he has lead the Augmented Reality group in the “Virtual and Augmented Reality” Department.
Role:
The IGD will lead the development of the Visualisation Module and location deduction software.
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IGD submitted a paper to the VAST2008 conference in Braga, Portugal in December ( http://www.vast2008.org ).The paper has been accepted.
The paper title is "Reality Filtering: A Visual Time Machine in Augmented Reality". Here is an abstract of the paper:
We present Reality Filtering, an application that makes it possible to visualize original content like drawings or paintings of buildings and frescos seamlessly superimposed on reality by using filtered augmented reality. This enables simple and inexpensive applications in the cultural heritage and architecture area.
The main idea is that the video stream showing the reality is filtered on the fly to acquire the same presentation style as the virtual objects.
This allows for a better integration of original historic content and creates the impression of a virtual time journey.
The registration of the virtual objects in the video images is provided by a robust 6DOF tracking framework based on two technologies that work in tandem: an initialization step based on Randomized Trees and a frame-to-frame tracking phase based on KLT. For the initialization, we present the novel concept of temporally distributed computational load (TDCL), which is able to automatically detect and register multiple objects while maintaining a constant video frame rate of 20 frames / sec.
For mid- to long-range augmentation a pure 2-dimensional tracking with 3DOF is applicable and leads to significant performance gain. The entire application runs in real time on Ultra Mobile PCs. |
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A paper related to the iTACITUS project has been presented by Michael Zoellner during the Stockholm eChallenges conference 23rd of October 2008. The title of the paper is "Encouraging Cultural Exploration: a Dynamic Tour Guide based on Personalised Contextual Information and Ad-hoc Planning" and the authors are: Jonah DEARLOVE, Maurizio MEGLIOLA, Silvana TOFFOLO, Michael ZOELLNER.
Download the paper
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Fraunhofer IGD showed an iTACITUS-based application in cooperation with Rome Reborn at SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles. The mobile application overlayed 3D models of roman monuments on floor-maps and posters at the booth in real time.  
See a video of the installation at Youtube!
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TXT presented a paper about the Progress Module used in iTacitus at the “EVA 2008" conference in Wien, Austria on Tuesday , 26 August 2008. The title of the paper is "Integrating Agent and Wireless Technologies for Location-based Services in Cultural Heritage", authors are Maurizio Megliola and Luca Barbieri. Download the paper
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We will be presenting iTacitus at “The Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism” and centralised EU financial instruments supporting tourism in Portorož, Slovenia on Tuesday, 10 June 2008. |
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