TY - JOUR A1 - Bartl, Andrea A1 - Wenninger, Stephan A1 - Wolf, Erik A1 - Botsch, Mario A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Affordable but not cheap: a case study of the effects of two 3D-reconstruction methods of virtual humans JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Realistic and lifelike 3D-reconstruction of virtual humans has various exciting and important use cases. Our and others’ appearances have notable effects on ourselves and our interaction partners in virtual environments, e.g., on acceptance, preference, trust, believability, behavior (the Proteus effect), and more. Today, multiple approaches for the 3D-reconstruction of virtual humans exist. They significantly vary in terms of the degree of achievable realism, the technical complexities, and finally, the overall reconstruction costs involved. This article compares two 3D-reconstruction approaches with very different hardware requirements. The high-cost solution uses a typical complex and elaborated camera rig consisting of 94 digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. The recently developed low-cost solution uses a smartphone camera to create videos that capture multiple views of a person. Both methods use photogrammetric reconstruction and template fitting with the same template model and differ in their adaptation to the method-specific input material. Each method generates high-quality virtual humans ready to be processed, animated, and rendered by standard XR simulation and game engines such as Unreal or Unity. We compare the results of the two 3D-reconstruction methods in an immersive virtual environment against each other in a user study. Our results indicate that the virtual humans from the low-cost approach are perceived similarly to those from the high-cost approach regarding the perceived similarity to the original, human-likeness, beauty, and uncanniness, despite significant differences in the objectively measured quality. The perceived feeling of change of the own body was higher for the low-cost virtual humans. Quality differences were perceived more strongly for one’s own body than for other virtual humans. KW - virtual humans KW - 3D-reconstruction methods KW - avatars KW - agents KW - user study Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260492 VL - 2 ER - TY - THES A1 - Bauer, André T1 - Automated Hybrid Time Series Forecasting: Design, Benchmarking, and Use Cases T1 - Automatisierte hybride Zeitreihenprognose: Design, Benchmarking und Anwendungsfälle N2 - These days, we are living in a digitalized world. Both our professional and private lives are pervaded by various IT services, which are typically operated using distributed computing systems (e.g., cloud environments). Due to the high level of digitalization, the operators of such systems are confronted with fast-paced and changing requirements. In particular, cloud environments have to cope with load fluctuations and respective rapid and unexpected changes in the computing resource demands. To face this challenge, so-called auto-scalers, such as the threshold-based mechanism in Amazon Web Services EC2, can be employed to enable elastic scaling of the computing resources. However, despite this opportunity, business-critical applications are still run with highly overprovisioned resources to guarantee a stable and reliable service operation. This strategy is pursued due to the lack of trust in auto-scalers and the concern that inaccurate or delayed adaptations may result in financial losses. To adapt the resource capacity in time, the future resource demands must be "foreseen", as reacting to changes once they are observed introduces an inherent delay. In other words, accurate forecasting methods are required to adapt systems proactively. A powerful approach in this context is time series forecasting, which is also applied in many other domains. The core idea is to examine past values and predict how these values will evolve as time progresses. According to the "No-Free-Lunch Theorem", there is no algorithm that performs best for all scenarios. Therefore, selecting a suitable forecasting method for a given use case is a crucial task. Simply put, each method has its benefits and drawbacks, depending on the specific use case. The choice of the forecasting method is usually based on expert knowledge, which cannot be fully automated, or on trial-and-error. In both cases, this is expensive and prone to error. Although auto-scaling and time series forecasting are established research fields, existing approaches cannot fully address the mentioned challenges: (i) In our survey on time series forecasting, we found that publications on time series forecasting typically consider only a small set of (mostly related) methods and evaluate their performance on a small number of time series with only a few error measures while providing no information on the execution time of the studied methods. Therefore, such articles cannot be used to guide the choice of an appropriate method for a particular use case; (ii) Existing open-source hybrid forecasting methods that take advantage of at least two methods to tackle the "No-Free-Lunch Theorem" are computationally intensive, poorly automated, designed for a particular data set, or they lack a predictable time-to-result. Methods exhibiting a high variance in the time-to-result cannot be applied for time-critical scenarios (e.g., auto-scaling), while methods tailored to a specific data set introduce restrictions on the possible use cases (e.g., forecasting only annual time series); (iii) Auto-scalers typically scale an application either proactively or reactively. Even though some hybrid auto-scalers exist, they lack sophisticated solutions to combine reactive and proactive scaling. For instance, resources are only released proactively while resource allocation is entirely done in a reactive manner (inherently delayed); (iv) The majority of existing mechanisms do not take the provider's pricing scheme into account while scaling an application in a public cloud environment, which often results in excessive charged costs. Even though some cost-aware auto-scalers have been proposed, they only consider the current resource demands, neglecting their development over time. For example, resources are often shut down prematurely, even though they might be required again soon. To address the mentioned challenges and the shortcomings of existing work, this thesis presents three contributions: (i) The first contribution-a forecasting benchmark-addresses the problem of limited comparability between existing forecasting methods; (ii) The second contribution-Telescope-provides an automated hybrid time series forecasting method addressing the challenge posed by the "No-Free-Lunch Theorem"; (iii) The third contribution-Chamulteon-provides a novel hybrid auto-scaler for coordinated scaling of applications comprising multiple services, leveraging Telescope to forecast the workload intensity as a basis for proactive resource provisioning. In the following, the three contributions of the thesis are summarized: Contribution I - Forecasting Benchmark To establish a level playing field for evaluating the performance of forecasting methods in a broad setting, we propose a novel benchmark that automatically evaluates and ranks forecasting methods based on their performance in a diverse set of evaluation scenarios. The benchmark comprises four different use cases, each covering 100 heterogeneous time series taken from different domains. The data set was assembled from publicly available time series and was designed to exhibit much higher diversity than existing forecasting competitions. Besides proposing a new data set, we introduce two new measures that describe different aspects of a forecast. We applied the developed benchmark to evaluate Telescope. Contribution II - Telescope To provide a generic forecasting method, we introduce a novel machine learning-based forecasting approach that automatically retrieves relevant information from a given time series. More precisely, Telescope automatically extracts intrinsic time series features and then decomposes the time series into components, building a forecasting model for each of them. Each component is forecast by applying a different method and then the final forecast is assembled from the forecast components by employing a regression-based machine learning algorithm. In more than 1300 hours of experiments benchmarking 15 competing methods (including approaches from Uber and Facebook) on 400 time series, Telescope outperformed all methods, exhibiting the best forecast accuracy coupled with a low and reliable time-to-result. Compared to the competing methods that exhibited, on average, a forecast error (more precisely, the symmetric mean absolute forecast error) of 29%, Telescope exhibited an error of 20% while being 2556 times faster. In particular, the methods from Uber and Facebook exhibited an error of 48% and 36%, and were 7334 and 19 times slower than Telescope, respectively. Contribution III - Chamulteon To enable reliable auto-scaling, we present a hybrid auto-scaler that combines proactive and reactive techniques to scale distributed cloud applications comprising multiple services in a coordinated and cost-effective manner. More precisely, proactive adaptations are planned based on forecasts of Telescope, while reactive adaptations are triggered based on actual observations of the monitored load intensity. To solve occurring conflicts between reactive and proactive adaptations, a complex conflict resolution algorithm is implemented. Moreover, when deployed in public cloud environments, Chamulteon reviews adaptations with respect to the cloud provider's pricing scheme in order to minimize the charged costs. In more than 400 hours of experiments evaluating five competing auto-scaling mechanisms in scenarios covering five different workloads, four different applications, and three different cloud environments, Chamulteon exhibited the best auto-scaling performance and reliability while at the same time reducing the charged costs. The competing methods provided insufficient resources for (on average) 31% of the experimental time; in contrast, Chamulteon cut this time to 8% and the SLO (service level objective) violations from 18% to 6% while using up to 15% less resources and reducing the charged costs by up to 45%. The contributions of this thesis can be seen as major milestones in the domain of time series forecasting and cloud resource management. (i) This thesis is the first to present a forecasting benchmark that covers a variety of different domains with a high diversity between the analyzed time series. Based on the provided data set and the automatic evaluation procedure, the proposed benchmark contributes to enhance the comparability of forecasting methods. The benchmarking results for different forecasting methods enable the selection of the most appropriate forecasting method for a given use case. (ii) Telescope provides the first generic and fully automated time series forecasting approach that delivers both accurate and reliable forecasts while making no assumptions about the analyzed time series. Hence, it eliminates the need for expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone procedures, such as trial-and-error searches or consulting an expert. This opens up new possibilities especially in time-critical scenarios, where Telescope can provide accurate forecasts with a short and reliable time-to-result. Although Telescope was applied for this thesis in the field of cloud computing, there is absolutely no limitation regarding the applicability of Telescope in other domains, as demonstrated in the evaluation. Moreover, Telescope, which was made available on GitHub, is already used in a number of interdisciplinary data science projects, for instance, predictive maintenance in an Industry 4.0 context, heart failure prediction in medicine, or as a component of predictive models of beehive development. (iii) In the context of cloud resource management, Chamulteon is a major milestone for increasing the trust in cloud auto-scalers. The complex resolution algorithm enables reliable and accurate scaling behavior that reduces losses caused by excessive resource allocation or SLO violations. In other words, Chamulteon provides reliable online adaptations minimizing charged costs while at the same time maximizing user experience. N2 - Heutzutage leben wir in einer digitalisierten Welt. Sowohl unser berufliches als auch unser privates Leben ist von verschiedenen IT-Diensten durchzogen, welche typischerweise in verteilten Computersystemen (z.B. Cloud-Umgebungen) betrieben werden. Die Betreiber solcher Systeme sind aufgrund des hohen Digitalisierungsgrades mit schnellen und wechselnden Anforderungen konfrontiert. Insbesondere Cloud-Umgebungen unterliegen starken Lastschwankungen und entsprechenden schnellen und unerwarteten Änderungen des Bedarfs an Rechenressourcen. Um dieser Herausforderung zu begegnen, können so genannte Auto-Scaler, wie z.B. der schwellenwertbasierte Mechanismus von Amazon Web Services EC2, eingesetzt werden, um eine elastische Skalierung der Rechenressourcen zu ermöglichen. Doch trotz dieser Gelegenheit werden geschäftskritische Anwendungen nach wie vor mit deutlich überdimensionierten Rechenkapazitäten betrieben, um einen stabilen und zuverlässigen Dienstbetrieb zu gewährleisten. Diese Strategie wird aufgrund des mangelnden Vertrauens in Auto-Scaler und der Sorge verfolgt, dass ungenaue oder verzögerte Anpassungen zu finanziellen Verlusten führen könnten. Um die Ressourcenkapazität rechtzeitig anpassen zu können, müssen die zukünftigen Ressourcenanforderungen "vorhergesehen" werden. Denn die Reaktion auf Veränderungen, sobald diese beobachtet werden, führt zu einer inhärenten Verzögerung. Mit anderen Worten, es sind genaue Prognosemethoden erforderlich, um Systeme proaktiv anzupassen. Ein wirksamer Ansatz in diesem Zusammenhang ist die Zeitreihenprognose, welche auch in vielen anderen Bereichen angewandt wird. Die Kernidee besteht darin, vergangene Werte zu untersuchen und vorherzusagen, wie sich diese Werte im Laufe der Zeit entwickeln werden. Nach dem "No-Free-Lunch Theorem" gibt es keinen Algorithmus, der für alle Szenarien am besten funktioniert. Daher ist die Auswahl einer geeigneten Prognosemethode für einen gegebenen Anwendungsfall eine wesentliche Herausforderung. Denn jede Methode hat - abhängig vom spezifischen Anwendungsfall - ihre Vor- und Nachteile. Deshalb basiert üblicherweise die Wahl der Prognosemethode auf Trial-and-Error oder auf Expertenwissen, welches nicht vollständig automatisiert werden kann. Beide Ansätze sind teuer und fehleranfällig. Obwohl Auto-Skalierung und Zeitreihenprognose etablierte Forschungsgebiete sind, können die bestehenden Ansätze die genannten Herausforderungen nicht vollständig bewältigen: (i) Bei unserer Untersuchung zur Zeitreihenvorhersage stellten wir fest, dass die meisten der überprüften Artikel nur eine geringe Anzahl von (meist verwandten) Methoden berücksichtigen und ihre Performanz auf einem kleinen Datensatz von Zeitreihen mit nur wenigen Fehlermaßen bewerten, während sie keine Informationen über die Ausführungszeit der untersuchten Methoden liefern. Daher können solche Artikel nicht als Hilfe für die Wahl einer geeigneten Methode für einen bestimmten Anwendungsfall herangezogen werden; (ii) Bestehende hybride open-source Prognosemethoden, die sich mindestens zwei Methoden zunutze machen, um das "No-Free-Lunch Theorem" anzugehen, sind rechenintensiv, schlecht automatisiert, für einen bestimmten Datensatz ausgelegt oder haben eine unvorhersehbare Laufzeit. Methoden, die eine hohe Varianz in der Ausführungszeit aufweisen, können nicht für zeitkritische Szenarien angewendet werden (z.B. Autoskalierung), während Methoden, die auf einen bestimmten Datensatz zugeschnitten sind, Einschränkungen für mögliche Anwendungsfälle mit sich bringen (z.B. nur jährliche Zeitreihen vorhersagen); (iii) Auto-Scaler skalieren typischerweise eine Anwendung entweder proaktiv oder reaktiv. Obwohl es einige hybride Auto-Scaler gibt, fehlt es ihnen an ausgeklügelten Lösungen zur Kombination von reaktiver und proaktiver Skalierung. Beispielsweise werden Ressourcen nur proaktiv freigesetzt, während die Ressourcenzuweisung vollständig reaktiv (inhärent verzögert) erfolgt; (iv) Die Mehrheit der vorhandenen Mechanismen berücksichtigt bei der Skalierung einer Anwendung in einer öffentlichen Cloud-Umgebung nicht das Preismodell des Anbieters, was häufig zu überhöhten Kosten führt. Auch wenn einige kosteneffiziente Auto-Scaler vorgeschlagen wurden, berücksichtigen sie nur den aktuellen Ressourcenbedarf und vernachlässigen ihre Entwicklung im Laufe der Zeit. Beispielsweise werden Ressourcen oft vorzeitig abgeschaltet, obwohl sie vielleicht bald wieder benötigt werden. Um den genannten Herausforderungen und den Defiziten der bisherigen Arbeiten zu begegnen, werden in dieser Arbeit drei Beiträge vorgestellt: (i) Der erste Beitrag - ein Prognosebenchmark - behandelt das Problem der begrenzten Vergleichbarkeit zwischen bestehenden Prognosemethoden; (ii) Der zweite Beitrag stellt eine automatisierte hybride Zeitreihen-Prognosemethode namens Telescope vor, die sich der Herausforderung des "No-Free-Lunch Theorem" stellt; (iii) Der dritte Beitrag stellt Chamulteon, einen neuartigen hybriden Auto-Scaler für die koordinierte Skalierung von Anwendungen mit mehreren Diensten, bereit, der Telescope zur Vorhersage der Lastintensität als Grundlage für eine proaktive Ressourcenbereitstellung nutzt. Im Folgenden werden die drei Beiträge der Arbeit zusammengefasst: Beitrag I - Prognosebenchmark Um gleiche Ausgangsbedingungen für die Bewertung von Prognosemethoden anhand eines breiten Spektrums zu schaffen, schlagen wir einen neuartigen Benchmark vor, der Prognosemethoden auf der Grundlage ihrer Performanz in einer Vielzahl von Szenarien automatisch bewertet und ein Ranking erstellt. Der Benchmark umfasst vier verschiedene Anwendungsfälle, die jeweils 100 heterogene Zeitreihen aus verschiedenen Bereichen abdecken. Der Datensatz wurde aus öffentlich zugänglichen Zeitreihen zusammengestellt und so konzipiert, dass er eine viel höhere Diversität aufweist als bestehende Prognosewettbewerbe. Neben dem neuen Datensatz führen wir zwei neue Maße ein, die verschiedene Aspekte einer Prognose beschreiben. Wir haben den entwickelten Benchmark zur Bewertung von Telescope angewandt. Beitrag II - Telescope Um eine generische Prognosemethode bereitzustellen, stellen wir einen neuartigen, auf maschinellem Lernen basierenden Prognoseansatz vor, der automatisch relevante Informationen aus einer gegebenen Zeitreihe extrahiert. Genauer gesagt, Telescope extrahiert automatisch intrinsische Zeitreihenmerkmale und zerlegt die Zeitreihe dann in Komponenten, wobei für jede dieser Komponenten ein Prognosemodell erstellt wird. Jede Komponente wird mit einer anderen Methode prognostiziert und dann wird die endgültige Prognose aus den vorhergesagten Komponenten unter Verwendung eines regressionsbasierten Algorithmus des maschinellen Lernens zusammengestellt. In mehr als 1300 Experiment-Stunden, in denen 15 konkurrierende Methoden (einschließlich Ansätze von Uber und Facebook) auf 400 Zeitreihen verglichen wurden, übertraf Telescope alle Methoden und zeigte die beste Prognosegenauigkeit in Verbindung mit einer niedrigen und zuverlässigen Ausführungszeit. Im Vergleich zu den konkurrierenden Methoden, die im Durchschnitt einen Prognosefehler (genauer gesagt, den symmetric mean absolute forecast error) von 29% aufwiesen, wies Telescope einen Fehler von 20% auf und war dabei 2556 mal schneller. Insbesondere die Methoden von Uber und Facebook wiesen einen Fehler von 48% bzw. 36% auf und waren 7334 bzw. 19 mal langsamer als Telescope. Beitrag III - Chamulteon Um eine zuverlässige Auto-Skalierung zu ermöglichen, stellen wir einen hybriden Auto-Scaler vor, der proaktive und reaktive Techniken kombiniert, um verteilte Cloud-Anwendungen, die mehrere Dienste umfassen, koordiniert und kostengünstig zu skalieren. Genauer gesagt, werden proaktive Anpassungen auf der Grundlage von Prognosen von Telescope geplant, während reaktive Anpassungen auf der Grundlage tatsächlicher Beobachtungen der überwachten Lastintensität ausgelöst werden. Um auftretende Konflikte zwischen reaktiven und proaktiven Anpassungen zu lösen, wird ein komplexer Konfliktlösungsalgorithmus implementiert. Außerdem überprüft Chamulteon Anpassungen im Hinblick auf das Preismodell des Cloud-Anbieters, um die anfallenden Kosten in öffentlichen Cloud-Umgebungen zu minimieren. In mehr als 400 Experiment-Stunden, in denen fünf konkurrierende Auto-Skalierungsmechanismen unter fünf verschiedene Arbeitslasten, vier verschiedene Anwendungen und drei verschiedene Cloud-Umgebungen evaluiert wurden, zeigte Chamulteon die beste Auto-Skalierungsleistung und Zuverlässigkeit bei gleichzeitiger Reduzierung der berechneten Kosten. Die konkurrierenden Methoden lieferten während (durchschnittlich) 31% der Versuchszeit zu wenige Ressourcen. Im Gegensatz dazu reduzierte Chamulteon diese Zeit auf 8% und die SLO-Verletzungen (Service Level Objectives) von 18% auf 6%, während es bis zu 15% weniger Ressourcen verwendete und die berechneten Kosten um bis zu 45% senkte. Die Beiträge dieser Arbeit können als wichtige Meilensteine auf dem Gebiet der Zeitreihenprognose und der automatischen Skalierung in Cloud Computing angesehen werden. (i) In dieser Arbeit wird zum ersten Mal ein Prognosebenchmark präsentiert, der eine Vielzahl verschiedener Bereiche mit einer hohen Diversität zwischen den analysierten Zeitreihen abdeckt. Auf der Grundlage des zur Verfügung gestellten Datensatzes und des automatischen Auswertungsverfahrens trägt der vorgeschlagene Benchmark dazu bei, die Vergleichbarkeit von Prognosemethoden zu verbessern. Die Benchmarking-Ergebnisse von verschiedenen Prognosemethoden ermöglichen die Auswahl der am besten geeigneten Prognosemethode für einen gegebenen Anwendungsfall. (ii) Telescope bietet den ersten generischen und vollautomatischen Zeitreihen-Prognoseansatz, der sowohl genaue als auch zuverlässige Prognosen liefert, ohne Annahmen über die analysierte Zeitreihe zu treffen. Dementsprechend macht es teure, zeitaufwändige und fehleranfällige Verfahren überflüssig, wie z.B. Trial-and-Error oder das Hinzuziehen eines Experten. Dies eröffnet neue Möglichkeiten, insbesondere in zeitkritischen Szenarien, in denen Telescope genaue Vorhersagen mit einer kurzen und zuverlässigen Antwortzeit liefern kann. Obwohl Telescope für diese Arbeit im Bereich des Cloud Computing eingesetzt wurde, gibt es, wie die Auswertung zeigt, keinerlei Einschränkungen hinsichtlich der Anwendbarkeit von Telescope in anderen Bereichen. Darüber hinaus wird Telescope, das auf GitHub zur Verfügung gestellt wurde, bereits in einer Reihe von interdisziplinären datenwissenschaftlichen Projekten eingesetzt, z.B. bei der vorausschauenden Wartung im Rahmen von Industry 4.0, bei der Vorhersage von Herzinsuffizienz in der Medizin oder als Bestandteil von Vorhersagemodellen für die Entwicklung von Bienenstöcken. (iii) Im Kontext der elastischen Ressourcenverwaltung ist Chamulteon ein wichtiger Meilenstein für die Stärkung des Vertrauens in Auto-Scaler. Der komplexe Konfliktlösungsalgorithmus ermöglicht ein zuverlässiges und genaues Skalierungsverhalten, das Verluste durch übermäßige Ressourcenzuweisung oder SLO-Verletzungen reduziert. Mit anderen Worten, Chamulteon bietet zuverlässige Ressourcenanpassungen, die die berechneten Kosten minimieren und gleichzeitig die Benutzerzufriedenheit maximieren. KW - Zeitreihenanalyse KW - Prognose KW - Cloud Computing KW - Auto-Scaling KW - Feature Engineering & Extraction KW - Skalierbarkeit KW - Benchmarking KW - Forecasting Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-220255 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Davies, Richard A1 - Dewell, Nathan A1 - Harvey, Carlo T1 - A framework for interactive, autonomous and semantic dialogue generation in games T2 - Proceedings of the 1st Games Technology Summit N2 - Immersive virtual environments provide users with the opportunity to escape from the real world, but scripted dialogues can disrupt the presence within the world the user is trying to escape within. Both Non-Playable Character (NPC) to Player and NPC to NPC dialogue can be non-natural and the reliance on responding with pre-defined dialogue does not always meet the players emotional expectations or provide responses appropriate to the given context or world states. This paper investigates the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing to generate dynamic human-like responses within a themed virtual world. Each thematic has been analysed against humangenerated responses for the same seed and demonstrates invariance of rating across a range of model sizes, but shows an effect of theme and the size of the corpus used for fine-tuning the context for the game world. KW - natural language processing · · · KW - interactive authoring system KW - semantic understanding KW - artificial intelligence Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246023 ER - TY - THES A1 - Dose, Titus T1 - Balance Problems for Integer Circuits and Separations of Relativized Conjectures on Incompleteness in Promise Classes T1 - Balance-Probleme für Integer Circuits und Separierungen Relativierter Vermutungen über Unvollständigkeit in Promise-Klassen N2 - This thesis is divided into two parts. In the first part we contribute to a working program initiated by Pudlák (2017) who lists several major complexity theoretic conjectures relevant to proof complexity and asks for oracles that separate pairs of corresponding relativized conjectures. Among these conjectures are: - \(\mathsf{CON}\) and \(\mathsf{SAT}\): coNP (resp., NP) does not contain complete sets that have P-optimal proof systems. - \(\mathsf{CON}^{\mathsf{N}}\): coNP does not contain complete sets that have optimal proof systems. - \(\mathsf{TFNP}\): there do not exist complete total polynomial search problems (also known as total NP search problems). - \(\mathsf{DisjNP}\) and \(\mathsf{DisjCoNP}\): There do not exist complete disjoint NP pairs (coNP pairs). - \(\mathsf{UP}\): UP does not contain complete problems. - \(\mathsf{NP}\cap\mathsf{coNP}\): \(\mathrm{NP}\cap\mathrm{coNP}\) does not contain complete problems. - \(\mathrm{P}\ne\mathrm{NP}\). We construct several of the oracles that Pudlák asks for. In the second part we investigate the computational complexity of balance problems for \(\{-,\cdot\}\)-circuits computing finite sets of natural numbers (note that \(-\) denotes the set difference). These problems naturally build on problems for integer expressions and integer circuits studied by Stockmeyer and Meyer (1973), McKenzie and Wagner (2007), and Glaßer et al. (2010). Our work shows that the balance problem for \(\{-,\cdot\}\)-circuits is undecidable which is the first natural problem for integer circuits or related constraint satisfaction problems that admits only one arithmetic operation and is proven to be undecidable. Starting from this result we precisely characterize the complexity of balance problems for proper subsets of \(\{-,\cdot\}\). These problems turn out to be complete for one of the classes L, NL, and NP. N2 - Diese Arbeit gliedert sich in zwei Teile. Im ersten Teil liefern wir Beiträge zu einem Arbeitsprogramm, das von Pudlák (2017) initiiert wurde, welcher einige bedeutsame komplexitätstheoretische, für das Gebiet der Proof Complexity relevante Vermutungen untersucht und nach Orakeln fragt, die Paare von entsprechenden relativierten Vermutungen separieren. Unter diesen Vermutungen sind: - \(\mathsf{CON}\) und \(\mathsf{SAT}\): coNP (resp., NP) enthält keine vollständigen Probleme, die P-optimale Beweissysteme haben. - \(\mathsf{CON}^{\mathsf{N}}\): coNP enthält keine vollständigen Probleme, die optimale Beweissysteme haben. - \(\mathsf{TFNP}\): Es existieren keine vollständigen Total Polynomial Search Problems (auch bekannt unter dem Namen Total NP Search Problems). - \(\mathsf{DisjNP}\) und \(\mathsf{DisjCoNP}\): Es gibt keine vollständigen disjunkten NP-Paare (coNP-Paare). - \(\mathsf{UP}\): UP enthält keine vollständigen Probleme. - \(\mathsf{NP}\cap\mathsf{coNP}\): \(\mathrm{NP}\cap\mathrm{coNP}\) enthält keine vollständigen Probleme. - \(\mathrm{P}\ne\mathrm{NP}\) Wir konstruieren einige der Orakel, nach denen Pudlák fragt. Im zweiten Teil untersuchen wir die Berechnungskomplexität von Balance Problemen für \(\{-,\cdot\}\)-Schaltkreise, welche endliche Teilmengen natürlicher Zahlen berechnen (es bezeichnet \(-\) die Differenz von Mengen). Diese Probleme bauen in natürlicher Weise auf Probleme für Integer Expressions und Integer Circuits auf, welche von Stockmeyer und Meyer (1973), McKenzie und Wagner (2007) sowie Glaßer et al. (2010) untersucht wurden. Wir beweisen, dass das Balance Problem für \(\{-,\cdot\}\)-Schaltkreise unentscheidbar ist. Dies ist das erste natürliche Problem für Integer Circuits oder verwandte Constraint Satisfaction Probleme, das nur eine arithmetische Operation erlaubt und als unentscheidbar bewiesen worden ist. Von diesem Resultat ausgehend wird die Komplexität von Balance Problemen für echte Teilmengen von \(\{-,\cdot\}\) präzise charakterisiert. Es stellt sich heraus, dass jedes dieser Probleme vollständig für eine der Klassen L, NL und NP ist. KW - NP-vollständiges Problem KW - Orakel KW - Beweissystem KW - Berechnungskomplexität KW - Integer circuit KW - Integer Expression KW - Propositional proof system KW - P-optimal KW - Disjoint pair Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-222209 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dumic, Emil A1 - Bjelopera, Anamaria A1 - Nüchter, Andreas T1 - Dynamic point cloud compression based on projections, surface reconstruction and video compression JF - Sensors N2 - In this paper we will present a new dynamic point cloud compression based on different projection types and bit depth, combined with the surface reconstruction algorithm and video compression for obtained geometry and texture maps. Texture maps have been compressed after creating Voronoi diagrams. Used video compression is specific for geometry (FFV1) and texture (H.265/HEVC). Decompressed point clouds are reconstructed using a Poisson surface reconstruction algorithm. Comparison with the original point clouds was performed using point-to-point and point-to-plane measures. Comprehensive experiments show better performance for some projection maps: cylindrical, Miller and Mercator projections. KW - 3DTK toolkit KW - map projections KW - point cloud compression KW - point-to-point measure KW - point-to-plane measure KW - Poisson surface reconstruction KW - octree Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252231 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Döllinger, Nina A1 - Wienrich, Carolin A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Challenges and opportunities of immersive technologies for mindfulness meditation: a systematic review JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Mindfulness is considered an important factor of an individual's subjective well-being. Consequently, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has investigated approaches that strengthen mindfulness, i.e., by inventing multimedia technologies to support mindfulness meditation. These approaches often use smartphones, tablets, or consumer-grade desktop systems to allow everyday usage in users' private lives or in the scope of organized therapies. Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality (VR, AR, MR; in short: XR) significantly extend the design space for such approaches. XR covers a wide range of potential sensory stimulation, perceptive and cognitive manipulations, content presentation, interaction, and agency. These facilities are linked to typical XR-specific perceptions that are conceptually closely related to mindfulness research, such as (virtual) presence and (virtual) embodiment. However, a successful exploitation of XR that strengthens mindfulness requires a systematic analysis of the potential interrelation and influencing mechanisms between XR technology, its properties, factors, and phenomena and existing models and theories of the construct of mindfulness. This article reports such a systematic analysis of XR-related research from HCI and life sciences to determine the extent to which existing research frameworks on HCI and mindfulness can be applied to XR technologies, the potential of XR technologies to support mindfulness, and open research gaps. Fifty papers of ACM Digital Library and National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (PubMed) with and without empirical efficacy evaluation were included in our analysis. The results reveal that at the current time, empirical research on XR-based mindfulness support mainly focuses on therapy and therapeutic outcomes. Furthermore, most of the currently investigated XR-supported mindfulness interactions are limited to vocally guided meditations within nature-inspired virtual environments. While an analysis of empirical research on those systems did not reveal differences in mindfulness compared to non-mediated mindfulness practices, various design proposals illustrate that XR has the potential to provide interactive and body-based innovations for mindfulness practice. We propose a structured approach for future work to specify and further explore the potential of XR as mindfulness-support. The resulting framework provides design guidelines for XR-based mindfulness support based on the elements and psychological mechanisms of XR interactions. KW - virtual reality KW - augmented reality KW - mindfulness KW - XR KW - meditation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259047 VL - 2 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Epplée, Rafael A1 - Langbehn, Eike T1 - Overlapping Architecture: Implementation of Impossible Spaces in Virtual Reality Games N2 - Natural walking in virtual reality games is constrained by the physical boundaries defined by the size of the player’s tracking space. Impossible spaces, a redirected walking technique, enlarge the virtual environment by creating overlapping architecture and letting multiple locations occupy the same physical space. Within certain thresholds, this is subtle to the player. In this paper, we present our approach to implement such impossible spaces and describe how we handled challenges like objects with simulated physics or precomputed global illumination. KW - virtual reality KW - games KW - locomotion Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246045 ER - TY - THES A1 - Flederer, Frank T1 - CORFU - An Extended Model-Driven Framework for Small Satellite Software with Code Feedback T1 - CORFU - Ein erweitertes modellgetriebenes Framework für Satellitensoftware mit Code-Rückinformation N2 - Corfu is a framework for satellite software, not only for the onboard part but also for the ground. Developing software with Corfu follows an iterative model-driven approach. The basis of the process is an engineering model. Engineers formally describe the basic structure of the onboard software in configuration files, which build the engineering model. In the first step, Corfu verifies the model at different levels. Not only syntactically and semantically but also on a higher level such as the scheduling. Based on the model, Corfu generates a software scaffold, which follows an application-centric approach. Software images onboard consist of a list of applications connected through communication channels called topics. Corfu’s generic and generated code covers this fundamental communication, telecommand, and telemetry handling. All users have to do is inheriting from a generated class and implement the behavior in overridden methods. For each application, the generator creates an abstract class with pure virtual methods. Those methods are callback functions, e.g., for handling telecommands or executing code in threads. However, from the model, one can not foresee the software implementation by users. Therefore, as an innovation compared to other frameworks, Corfu introduces feedback from the user code back to the model. In this way, we extend the engineering model with information about functions/methods, their invocations, their stack usage, and information about events and telemetry emission. Indeed, it would be possible to add further information extraction for additional use cases. We extract the information in two ways: assembly and source code analysis. The assembly analysis collects information about the stack usage of functions and methods. On the one side, Corfu uses the gathered information to accomplished additional verification steps, e.g., checking if stack usages exceed stack sizes of threads. On the other side, we use the gathered information to improve the performance of onboard software. In a use case, we show how the compiled binary and bandwidth towards the ground is reducible by exploiting source code information at run-time. N2 - Corfu ist ein Framework für Satelliten-Software für beide Seiten: Space und Boden. Mit Corfu folgt die Softwareentwicklung einem iterativen modellgetriebenen Ansatz. Grundlage der Software-Entwicklung ist ein technisches Modell, das formell die grundlegende Struktur der Onboard-Software beschreibt. EntwicklerInnen beschreiben dieses Modell in Konfigurationsdateien, die von Corfu in verschiedenen Aspekten automatisch verifiziert werden, z.B. im Bereich des Scheduling. Anhand des definierten Modells erstellt Corfu ein Quellcode-Gerüst. Die Onboard-Software ist in einzelne Applikationen aufgeteilt, die durch Kommunikationskanäle miteinander kommunizieren (Topics genannt). Generischer Code und der generierte Code implementieren bereits die Behandlung und Verwaltung der Topic-Kommunikation, Telekommandos, Telemetrie und Threads. Der generierte Code definiert pur-virtuelle Callback-Methoden, die BenutzerInnen in erbenden Klassen implementieren. Das vordefinierte Modell kann allerdings nicht alle Implementierungsdetails der BenutzerInnen enthalten. Daher führt Corfu als Neuerung ein Code-Feedback ein. Hierbei werden anhand von statischer Analyse Informationen aus dem BenutzerInnen-Quellcode extrahiert und in einem zusätzlichen Modell gespeichert. Dieses extrahierte Modell enthält u.a. Informationen zu Funktionsaufrufen, Anomalien, Events und Stackspeicherverbrauch von Funktionen. Corfu extrahiert diese Informationen durch Quellcode- und Assembler-Analyse. Das extrahierte Modell erweitert das vordefinierte Modell, da es Elemente aus dem vordefinierten Modell referenziert. Auf der einen Seite nutzt Corfu die gesammelten Informationen, um weitere Verifikationsschritte durchführen zu können, z.B. Überprüfen der Stack-Größen von Threads. Auf der anderen Seite kann die Nutzung von Quellcode-Informationen auch die Leistung verbessern. In einem Anwendungsfall zeigen wir, wie die Größe des kompilierten Programms sowie die genutzte Bandbreite für die Übertragung von Log-Event-Nachrichten durch das erweiterte Modell verringert werden kann. T3 - Research in Aerospace Information Technology - 2 KW - FRAMEWORK KW - Modellgetriebene Entwicklung KW - Statische Analyse KW - Satellit KW - Telemetrie KW - Onboard Software KW - Source Code Generation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-249817 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Freimann, A. A1 - Dierkes, M. A1 - Petermann, T. A1 - Liman, C. A1 - Kempf, F. A1 - Schilling, K. T1 - ESTNeT: a discrete event simulator for space-terrestrial networks JF - CEAS Space Journal N2 - The capabilities of small satellites have improved significantly in recent years. Specifically multi-satellite systems become increasingly popular, since they allow the support of new applications. The development and testing of these multi-satellite systems is a new challenge for engineers and requires the implementation of appropriate development and testing environments. In this paper, a modular network simulation framework for space–terrestrial systems is presented. It enables discrete event simulations for the development and testing of communication protocols, as well as mission-based analysis of other satellite system aspects, such as power supply and attitude control. ESTNeT is based on the discrete event simulator OMNeT++ and will be released under an open source license. KW - space–terrestrial networks KW - wireless communication KW - system simulation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235835 SN - 1868-2502 VL - 13 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Förster, Kristina A1 - Hein, Rebecca A1 - Grafe, Silke A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich A1 - Wienrich, Carolin ED - Basteans, Theo T1 - Fostering Intercultural Competencies in Initial Teacher Education: Implementation of Educational Design Prototypes Using a Social Virtual Reality Environment T2 - Proceedings of Innovate Learning Summit N2 - The combination of globalization and digitalization emphasizes the importance of media-related and intercultural competencies of teacher educators and preservice teachers. This article reports on the initial prototypical implementation of a pedagogical concept to foster such competencies of preservice teachers. The proposed pedagogical concept utilizes a social virtual reality (VR) framework since related work on the characteristics of VR has indicated that this medium is particularly well suited for intercultural professional development processes. The development is integrated into a larger design-based research approach that develops a theory-guided and empirically grounded professional development concept for teacher educators with a special focus on teacher educator technology competencies (TETC8). TETCs provide a suitable competence framework capable of aligning requirements for both media-related and intercultural competencies. In an exploratory study with student teachers, we designed, implemented, and evaluated a pedagogical concept. Reflection reports were qualitatively analyzed to gain insights into factors that facilitate or hinder the implementation of the immersive learning scenario as well as into the participants’ evaluation of their learning experience. The results show that our proposed pedagogical concept is particularly suitable for promoting the experience of social presence, agency, and empathy in the group. KW - Interkulturelles Lernen KW - Lehrerbildung KW - Virtuelle Realität KW - Medienkompetenz KW - International Comparative Research KW - TETCs Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260586 UR - https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/220276/ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gall, Dominik A1 - Roth, Daniel A1 - Stauffert, Jan-Philipp A1 - Zarges, Julian A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Embodiment in Virtual Reality Intensifies Emotional Responses to Virtual Stimuli JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Modulating emotional responses to virtual stimuli is a fundamental goal of many immersive interactive applications. In this study, we leverage the illusion of illusory embodiment and show that owning a virtual body provides means to modulate emotional responses. In a single-factor repeated-measures experiment, we manipulated the degree of illusory embodiment and assessed the emotional responses to virtual stimuli. We presented emotional stimuli in the same environment as the virtual body. Participants experienced higher arousal, dominance, and more intense valence in the high embodiment condition compared to the low embodiment condition. The illusion of embodiment thus intensifies the emotional processing of the virtual environment. This result suggests that artificial bodies can increase the effectiveness of immersive applications psychotherapy, entertainment, computer-mediated social interactions, or health applications. KW - embodiment KW - virtual body ownership KW - avatars KW - agency KW - immersive interfaces KW - human-computer interaction KW - affective computing KW - emotions Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245624 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grzesik, Benjamin A1 - Baumann, Tom A1 - Walter, Thomas A1 - Flederer, Frank A1 - Sittner, Felix A1 - Dilger, Erik A1 - Gläsner, Simon A1 - Kirchler, Jan-Luca A1 - Tedsen, Marvyn A1 - Montenegro, Sergio A1 - Stoll, Enrico T1 - InnoCube — a wireless satellite platform to demonstrate innovative technologies JF - Aerospace N2 - A new innovative satellite mission, the Innovative CubeSat for Education (InnoCube), is addressed. The goal of the mission is to demonstrate “the wireless satellite”, which replaces the data harness by robust, high-speed, real-time, very short-range radio communications using the SKITH (SKIpTheHarness) technology. This will make InnoCube the first wireless satellite in history. Another technology demonstration is an experimental energy-storing satellite structure that was developed in the previous Wall#E project and might replace conventional battery technology in the future. As a further payload, the hardware for the concept of a software-based solution for receiving signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) will be developed to enable precise position determination of the CubeSat. Aside from technical goals this work aims to be of use in the teaching of engineering skills and practical sustainable education of students, important technical and scientific publications, and the increase of university skills. This article gives an overview of the overall design of the InnoCube. KW - CubeSat KW - wireless-bus KW - harness free satellite KW - satellite technology KW - CubeSat GNSS KW - laser ranging KW - structural battery KW - dependable software KW - Rodos Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239564 SN - 2226-4310 VL - 8 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Halbig, Andreas A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - A systematic review of physiological measurements, factors, methods, and applications in virtual reality JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Measurements of physiological parameters provide an objective, often non-intrusive, and (at least semi-)automatic evaluation and utilization of user behavior. In addition, specific hardware devices of Virtual Reality (VR) often ship with built-in sensors, i.e. eye-tracking and movements sensors. Hence, the combination of physiological measurements and VR applications seems promising. Several approaches have investigated the applicability and benefits of this combination for various fields of applications. However, the range of possible application fields, coupled with potentially useful and beneficial physiological parameters, types of sensor, target variables and factors, and analysis approaches and techniques is manifold. This article provides a systematic overview and an extensive state-of-the-art review of the usage of physiological measurements in VR. We identified 1,119 works that make use of physiological measurements in VR. Within these, we identified 32 approaches that focus on the classification of characteristics of experience, common in VR applications. The first part of this review categorizes the 1,119 works by field of application, i.e. therapy, training, entertainment, and communication and interaction, as well as by the specific target factors and variables measured by the physiological parameters. An additional category summarizes general VR approaches applicable to all specific fields of application since they target typical VR qualities. In the second part of this review, we analyze the target factors and variables regarding the respective methods used for an automatic analysis and, potentially, classification. For example, we highlight which measurement setups have been proven to be sensitive enough to distinguish different levels of arousal, valence, anxiety, stress, or cognitive workload in the virtual realm. This work may prove useful for all researchers wanting to use physiological data in VR and who want to have a good overview of prior approaches taken, their benefits and potential drawbacks. KW - virtual reality KW - use cases KW - sesnsors KW - tools KW - biosignals KW - psychophyisology KW - HMD (Head-Mounted Display) KW - systematic review Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260503 VL - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hein, Rebecca M. A1 - Wienrich, Carolin A1 - Latoschik, Marc E. T1 - A systematic review of foreign language learning with immersive technologies (2001-2020) JF - AIMS Electronics and Electrical Engineering N2 - This study provides a systematic literature review of research (2001–2020) in the field of teaching and learning a foreign language and intercultural learning using immersive technologies. Based on 2507 sources, 54 articles were selected according to a predefined selection criteria. The review is aimed at providing information about which immersive interventions are being used for foreign language learning and teaching and where potential research gaps exist. The papers were analyzed and coded according to the following categories: (1) investigation form and education level, (2) degree of immersion, and technology used, (3) predictors, and (4) criterions. The review identified key research findings relating the use of immersive technologies for learning and teaching a foreign language and intercultural learning at cognitive, affective, and conative levels. The findings revealed research gaps in the area of teachers as a target group, and virtual reality (VR) as a fully immersive intervention form. Furthermore, the studies reviewed rarely examined behavior, and implicit measurements related to inter- and trans-cultural learning and teaching. Inter- and transcultural learning and teaching especially is an underrepresented investigation subject. Finally, concrete suggestions for future research are given. The systematic review contributes to the challenge of interdisciplinary cooperation between pedagogy, foreign language didactics, and Human-Computer Interaction to achieve innovative teaching-learning formats and a successful digital transformation. KW - foreign language learning and teaching KW - intercultural learning and teaching KW - immersive technologies KW - education KW - human-computer interaction KW - systematic literature review Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-268811 VL - 5 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hirth, Matthias A1 - Seufert, Michael A1 - Lange, Stanislav A1 - Meixner, Markus A1 - Tran-Gia, Phuoc T1 - Performance evaluation of hybrid crowdsensing and fixed sensor systems for event detection in urban environments JF - Sensors N2 - Crowdsensing offers a cost-effective way to collect large amounts of environmental sensor data; however, the spatial distribution of crowdsensing sensors can hardly be influenced, as the participants carry the sensors, and, additionally, the quality of the crowdsensed data can vary significantly. Hybrid systems that use mobile users in conjunction with fixed sensors might help to overcome these limitations, as such systems allow assessing the quality of the submitted crowdsensed data and provide sensor values where no crowdsensing data are typically available. In this work, we first used a simulation study to analyze a simple crowdsensing system concerning the detection performance of spatial events to highlight the potential and limitations of a pure crowdsourcing system. The results indicate that even if only a small share of inhabitants participate in crowdsensing, events that have locations correlated with the population density can be easily and quickly detected using such a system. On the contrary, events with uniformly randomly distributed locations are much harder to detect using a simple crowdsensing-based approach. A second evaluation shows that hybrid systems improve the detection probability and time. Finally, we illustrate how to compute the minimum number of fixed sensors for the given detection time thresholds in our exemplary scenario. KW - crowdsensing KW - event detection KW - detection time simulation KW - performance analysis Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245245 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 21 IS - 17 ER - TY - THES A1 - Iffländer, Lukas T1 - Attack-aware Security Function Management T1 - Angriffsbewusste Verwaltung von Sicherheitsfunktionen N2 - Over the last decades, cybersecurity has become an increasingly important issue. Between 2019 and 2011 alone, the losses from cyberattacks in the United States grew by 6217%. At the same time, attacks became not only more intensive but also more and more versatile and diverse. Cybersecurity has become everyone’s concern. Today, service providers require sophisticated and extensive security infrastructures comprising many security functions dedicated to various cyberattacks. Still, attacks become more violent to a level where infrastructures can no longer keep up. Simply scaling up is no longer sufficient. To address this challenge, in a whitepaper, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) proposed multiple work packages for security infrastructure, leveraging the possibilities of Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Security functions require a more sophisticated modeling approach than regular network functions. Notably, the property to drop packets deemed malicious has a significant impact on Security Service Function Chains (SSFCs)—service chains consisting of multiple security functions to protect against multiple at- tack vectors. Under attack, the order of these chains influences the end-to-end system performance depending on the attack type. Unfortunately, it is hard to predict the attack composition at system design time. Thus, we make a case for dynamic attack-aware SSFC reordering. Also, we tackle the issues of the lack of integration between security functions and the surrounding network infrastructure, the insufficient use of short term CPU frequency boosting, and the lack of Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) against database ransomware attacks. Current works focus on characterizing the performance of security functions and their behavior under overload without considering the surrounding infrastructure. Other works aim at replacing security functions using network infrastructure features but do not consider integrating security functions within the network. Further publications deal with using SDN for security or how to deal with new vulnerabilities introduced through SDN. However, they do not take security function performance into account. NFV is a popular field for research dealing with frameworks, benchmarking methods, the combination with SDN, and implementing security functions as Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs). Research in this area brought forth the concept of Service Function Chains (SFCs) that chain multiple network functions after one another. Nevertheless, they still do not consider the specifics of security functions. The mentioned CSA whitepaper proposes many valuable ideas but leaves their realization open to others. This thesis presents solutions to increase the performance of single security functions using SDN, performance modeling, a framework for attack-aware SSFC reordering, a solution to make better use of CPU frequency boosting, and an IDPS against database ransomware. Specifically, the primary contributions of this work are: • We present approaches to dynamically bypass Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) in order to increase their performance without reducing the security level. To this end, we develop and implement three SDN-based approaches (two dynamic and one static). We evaluate the proposed approaches regarding security and performance and show that they significantly increase the performance com- pared to an inline IDS without significant security deficits. We show that using software switches can further increase the performance of the dynamic approaches up to a point where they can eliminate any throughput drawbacks when using the IDS. • We design a DDoS Protection System (DPS) against TCP SYN flood at tacks in the form of a VNF that works inside an SDN-enabled network. This solution eliminates known scalability and performance drawbacks of existing solutions for this attack type. Then, we evaluate this solution showing that it correctly handles the connection establishment and present solutions for an observed issue. Next, we evaluate the performance showing that our solution increases performance up to three times. Parallelization and parameter tuning yields another 76% performance boost. Based on these findings, we discuss optimal deployment strategies. • We introduce the idea of attack-aware SSFC reordering and explain its impact in a theoretical scenario. Then, we discuss the required information to perform this process. We validate our claim of the importance of the SSFC order by analyzing the behavior of single security functions and SSFCs. Based on the results, we conclude that there is a massive impact on the performance up to three orders of magnitude, and we find contradicting optimal orders for different workloads. Thus, we demonstrate the need for dynamic reordering. Last, we develop a model for SSFC regarding traffic composition and resource demands. We classify the traffic into multiple classes and model the effect of single security functions on the traffic and their generated resource demands as functions of the incoming network traffic. Based on our model, we propose three approaches to determine optimal orders for reordering. • We implement a framework for attack-aware SSFC reordering based on this knowledge. The framework places all security functions inside an SDN-enabled network and reorders them using SDN flows. Our evaluation shows that the framework can enforce all routes as desired. It correctly adapts to all attacks and returns to the original state after the attacks cease. We find possible security issues at the moment of reordering and present solutions to eliminate them. • Next, we design and implement an approach to load balance servers while taking into account their ability to go into a state of Central Processing Unit (CPU) frequency boost. To this end, the approach collects temperature information from available hosts and places services on the host that can attain the boosted mode the longest. We evaluate this approach and show its effectiveness. For high load scenarios, the approach increases the overall performance and the performance per watt. Even better results show up for low load workloads, where not only all performance metrics improve but also the temperatures and total power consumption decrease. • Last, we design an IDPS protecting against database ransomware attacks that comprise multiple queries to attain their goal. Our solution models these attacks using a Colored Petri Net (CPN). A proof-of-concept implementation shows that our approach is capable of detecting attacks without creating false positives for benign scenarios. Furthermore, our solution creates only a small performance impact. Our contributions can help to improve the performance of security infrastructures. We see multiple application areas from data center operators over software and hardware developers to security and performance researchers. Most of the above-listed contributions found use in several research publications. Regarding future work, we see the need to better integrate SDN-enabled security functions and SSFC reordering in data center networks. Future SSFC should discriminate between different traffic types, and security frameworks should support automatically learning models for security functions. We see the need to consider energy efficiency when regarding SSFCs and take CPU boosting technologies into account when designing performance models as well as placement, scaling, and deployment strategies. Last, for a faster adaptation against recent ransomware attacks, we propose machine-assisted learning for database IDPS signatures. N2 - In den letzten Jahrzehnten wurde Cybersicherheit zu einem immer wichtigeren Thema. Allein zwischen 2019 und 2011 stiegen die Verluste durch Cyberattacken in den Vereinigten Staaten um 6217%. Gleichzeitig wurden die Angriffe nicht nur intensiver, sondern auch immer vielseitiger und facettenreicher. Cybersicherheit ist zu einem allgegenwärtigen Thema geworden. Heute benötigen Dienstleistungsanbieter ausgefeilte und umfassende Sicherheitsinfrastrukturen, die viele Sicherheitsfunktionen für verschiedene Cyberattacken umfassen. Den- noch werden die Angriffe immer heftiger, so dass diese Infrastrukturen nicht mehr mithalten können. Ein einfaches Scale-Up ist nicht mehr ausreichend. Um dieser Herausforderung zu begegnen, schlug die Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) in einem Whitepaper mehrere Arbeitspakete für Sicherheitsinfrastruk turen vor, die die Möglichkeiten des Software-definierten Netzwerks (SDN) und der Netzwerkfunktionsvirtualisierung (NFV) nutzen. Sicherheitsfunktionen erfordern einen anspruchsvolleren Modellierungsansatz als normale Netzwerkfunktionen. Vor allem die Eigenschaft, als bösartig erachtete Pakete fallen zu lassen, hat erhebliche Auswirkungen auf Security Service Function Chains (SSFCs) – Dienstketten, die aus mehreren Sicherheitsfunktionen zum Schutz vor mehreren Angriffsvektoren bestehen. Bei einem Angriff beeinflusst die Reihenfolge dieser Ketten je nach Angriffstyp die Gesamtsystemleistung. Leider ist es schwierig, die Angriffszusammensetzung zur Designzeit vorherzusagen. Daher plädieren wir für eine dynamische, angriffsbewusste Neuordnung der SSFC. Außerdem befassen wir uns mit den Problemen der mangelnden Integration zwischen Sicherheitsfunktionen und der umgebenden Netzwerkinfrastruktur, der unzureichenden Nutzung der kurzfristigen CPU-Frequenzverstärkung und des Mangels an Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) zur Abwehr von Datenbank-Lösegeldangriffen. Bisherige Arbeiten konzentrieren sich auf die Charakterisierung der Leistungsfähigkeit von Sicherheitsfunktionen und deren Verhalten bei Überlastung ohne Berücksichtigung der umgebenden Infrastruktur. Andere Arbeiten zielen darauf ab, Sicherheitsfunktionen unter Verwendung von Merkmalen der Netzwerkinfrastruktur zu ersetzen, berücksichtigen aber nicht die Integration von Sicherheitsfunktionen innerhalb des Netzwerks. Weitere Publikationen befassen sich mit der Verwendung von SDN für die Sicherheit oder mit dem Umgang mit neuen, durch SDN eingeführten Schwachstellen. Sie berücksichtigen jedoch nicht die Leistung von Sicherheitsfunktionen. Die NFV-Domäne ist ein beliebtes Forschungsgebiet, das sich mit Frameworks, Benchmarking-Methoden, der Kombination mit SDN und der Implementierung von Sicherheitsfunktionen als Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) befasst. Die Forschung in diesem Bereich brachte das Konzept der Service-Funktionsketten (SFCs) hervor, die mehrere Netzwerkfunktionen nacheinander verketten. Dennoch berücksichtigen sie noch immer nicht die Besonderheiten von Sicherheitsfunktionen. Zu diesem Zweck schlägt das bereits erwähnte CSA-Whitepaper viele wertvolle Ideen vor, lässt aber deren Realisierung anderen offen. In dieser Arbeit werden Lösungen zur Steigerung der Leistung einzelner Sicherheitsfunktionen mittels SDN, Performance Engineering, Modellierung und ein Rahmenwerk für die angriffsbewusste SSFC-Neuordnung, eine Lösung zur besseren Nutzung der CPU-Frequenzsteigerung und ein IDPS gegen Datenbank-Lösegeld. Im Einzelnen sind die sechs Hauptbeiträge dieser Arbeit: • Wir stellen Ansätze zur dynamischen Umgehung von Intrusion-Detection-Systemen (IDS) vor, um deren Leistung zu erhöhen, ohne das Sicherheitsniveau zu senken. Zu diesem Zweck entwickeln und implementieren wir drei SDN-basierte Ansätze (zwei dynamische und einen statischen). Wir evaluieren sie hinsichtlich Sicherheit und Leistung und zeigen, dass alle Ansätze die Leistung im Vergleich zu einem Inline-IDS ohne signifikante Sicherheitsdefizite signifikant steigern. Wir zeigen ferner, dass die Verwendung von Software-Switches die Leistung der dynamischen Ansätze weiter steigern kann, bis zu einem Punkt, an dem sie bei der Verwendung des IDS etwaige Durchsatznachteile beseitigen können. • Wir entwerfen ein DDoS-Schutzsystem (DPS) gegen TCP-SYN-Flutangriffe in Form eines VNF, das innerhalb eines SDN-fähigen Netzwerks funktioniert. Diese Lösung eliminiert bekannte Skalierbarkeits-und Leistungsnachteile bestehender Lösungen für diesen Angriffstyp. Dann bewerten wir diese Lösung und zeigen, dass sie den Verbindungsaufbau korrekt handhabt, und präsentieren Lösungen für ein beobachtetes Problem. Als nächstes evaluieren wir die Leistung und zeigen, dass unsere Lösung die Leistung bis zum Dreifachen erhöht. Durch Parallelisierung und Parameterabstimmung werden weitere 76% der Leistung erzielt. Auf der Grundlage dieser Ergebnisse diskutieren wir optimale Einsatzstrategien. • Wir stellen die Idee der angriffsbewussten Neuordnung des SSFC vor und erläutern deren Auswirkungen anhand eines theoretischen Szenarios. Dann erörtern wir die erforderlichen Informationen zur Durchführung dieses Prozesses. Wir validieren unsere Behauptung von der Bedeutung der SSFC-Ordnung, indem wir das Verhalten einzelner Sicherheitsfunktionen und SSFCs analysieren. Aus den Ergebnissen schließen wir auf eine massive Auswirkung auf die Leistung bis zu drei Größenordnungen, und wir finden widersprüchliche optimale Aufträge für unterschiedliche Arbeitsbelastungen. Damit beweisen wir die Notwendigkeit einer dynamischen Neuordnung. Schließlich entwickeln wir ein Modell für den SSFC hinsichtlich der Verkehrszusammensetzung und des Ressourcenbedarfs. Dazu klassifizieren wir den Datenverkehr in mehrere Klassen und modellieren die Auswirkungen einzelner Sicherheitsfunktionen auf den Datenverkehr und die von ihnen erzeugten Ressourcenanforderungen als Funktionen des eingehenden Netzwerkverkehrs. Auf der Grundlage unseres Modells schlagen wir drei Ansätze zur Berechnung der gewünschten Reihenfolge für die Neuordnung vor. Auf der Grundlage dieses Wissens implementieren wir einen Rahmen für die angriffsbewusste SSFC-Neuordnung. Das Rahmenwerk platziert alle Sicherheitsfunktionen innerhalb eines SDN-fähigen Netzwerks und ordnet sie mit Hilfe von SDN-Flüssen neu an. Unsere Auswertung zeigt, dass das Rahmenwerk alle Routen wie gewünscht durchsetzen kann. Es passt sich allen Angriffen korrekt an und kehrt nach Beendigung der Angriffe in den ursprünglichen Zustand zurück. Wir finden mögliche Sicherheitsprobleme zum Zeitpunkt der Neuordnung und präsentieren Lösungen zu deren Beseitigung. Als Nächstes entwerfen und implementieren wir einen Ansatz zum Lastausgleich von Servern hinsichtlich ihrer Fähigkeit, in einen Zustand der Frequenzerhöhung der Zentraleinheit (CPU) zu gehen. Zu diesem Zweck sammelt der Ansatz Temperaturinformationen von verfügbaren Hosts und platziert den Dienst auf dem Host, der den verstärkten Modus am längsten erreichen kann. Wir evaluieren diesen Ansatz und zeigen seine Funktionalität auf. Für Hochlastszenarien erhöht der Ansatz die Gesamtleistung und steigert die Leistung pro Watt. Noch bessere Ergebnisse zeigen sich bei Niedriglast-Workloads, wo sich nicht nur alle Leistungsmetriken verbessern, sondern auch die Temperaturen und der Gesamtstromverbrauch sinken. • Zuletzt entwerfen wir ein IDPS, das vor Lösegeld-Angriffen auf Datenbanken schützt, die mehrere Abfragen umfassen, um ihr Ziel zu erreichen. Unsere Lösung modelliert diese Angriffe mit einem Colored Petri Net (CPN). Eine Proof-of-Concept-Implementierung zeigt, dass unser Ansatz in der Lage ist, die beobachteten Angriffe zu erkennen, ohne für gutartige Szenarien falsch positive Ergebnisse zu erzeugen. Darüber hinaus erzeugt un sere Lösung nur eine geringe Auswirkung auf die Leistung. Unsere Beiträge können dazu beitragen, die Leistungsfähigkeit von Sicherheitsinfrastrukturen zu erhöhen. Wir sehen vielfältige Anwendungsbereiche, von Rechenzentrumsbetreibern über Software- und Hardwareentwickler bis hin zu Sicherheits- und Leistungsforschern. Die meisten der oben aufgeführten Beiträge fanden in mehreren Forschungspublikationen Verwendung. Was die zukünftige Arbeit betrifft, so sehen wir die Notwendigkeit, bessere SDN-fähige Sicherheitsfunktionen und SSFC-Neuordnung in Rechenzentrumsnetzwerke zu integrieren. Künftige SSFC sollten zwischen verschiedenen Verkehrsarten unterscheiden, und Sicherheitsrahmen sollten automatisch lernende Modelle für Sicherheitsfunktionen unterstützen. Wir sehen den Bedarf, bei der Betrachtung von SSFCs die Energieeffizienz zu berücksichtigen und bei der Entwicklung von Leistungsmodellen sowie Platzierungs-, Skalierungs- und Bereitstellungsstrategien CPU-verstärkende Technologien in Betracht zu ziehen. Schließlich schlagen wir für eine schnellere Anpassung an die jüngsten Lösegeld-Angriffe maschinengestütztes Lernen für Datenbank-IDPS-Signaturen vor. KW - Software-defined networking KW - Computersicherheit KW - Virtualisierung KW - intrusion detection KW - denial of service KW - attack-aware KW - self-aware KW - software-definded networking KW - network function virtualization Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-224211 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kaspar, Mathias A1 - Fette, Georg A1 - Hanke, Monika A1 - Ertl, Maximilian A1 - Puppe, Frank A1 - Störk, Stefan T1 - Automated provision of clinical routine data for a complex clinical follow-up study: A data warehouse solution JF - Health Informatics Journal N2 - A deep integration of routine care and research remains challenging in many respects. We aimed to show the feasibility of an automated transformation and transfer process feeding deeply structured data with a high level of granularity collected for a clinical prospective cohort study from our hospital information system to the study's electronic data capture system, while accounting for study-specific data and visits. We developed a system integrating all necessary software and organizational processes then used in the study. The process and key system components are described together with descriptive statistics to show its feasibility in general and to identify individual challenges in particular. Data of 2051 patients enrolled between 2014 and 2020 was transferred. We were able to automate the transfer of approximately 11 million individual data values, representing 95% of all entered study data. These were recorded in n = 314 variables (28% of all variables), with some variables being used multiple times for follow-up visits. Our validation approach allowed for constant good data quality over the course of the study. In conclusion, the automated transfer of multi-dimensional routine medical data from HIS to study databases using specific study data and visit structures is complex, yet viable. KW - clinical data warehouse KW - clinical study KW - electronic data capture KW - electronic health records KW - secondary data usage Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260828 VL - 28 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kern, Florian A1 - Kullmann, Peter A1 - Ganal, Elisabeth A1 - Korwisi, Kristof A1 - Stingl, René A1 - Niebling, Florian A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Off-The-Shelf Stylus: Using XR Devices for Handwriting and Sketching on Physically Aligned Virtual Surfaces JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - This article introduces the Off-The-Shelf Stylus (OTSS), a framework for 2D interaction (in 3D) as well as for handwriting and sketching with digital pen, ink, and paper on physically aligned virtual surfaces in Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality (VR, AR, MR: XR for short). OTSS supports self-made XR styluses based on consumer-grade six-degrees-of-freedom XR controllers and commercially available styluses. The framework provides separate modules for three basic but vital features: 1) The stylus module provides stylus construction and calibration features. 2) The surface module provides surface calibration and visual feedback features for virtual-physical 2D surface alignment using our so-called 3ViSuAl procedure, and surface interaction features. 3) The evaluation suite provides a comprehensive test bed combining technical measurements for precision, accuracy, and latency with extensive usability evaluations including handwriting and sketching tasks based on established visuomotor, graphomotor, and handwriting research. The framework’s development is accompanied by an extensive open source reference implementation targeting the Unity game engine using an Oculus Rift S headset and Oculus Touch controllers. The development compares three low-cost and low-tech options to equip controllers with a tip and includes a web browser-based surface providing support for interacting, handwriting, and sketching. The evaluation of the reference implementation based on the OTSS framework identified an average stylus precision of 0.98 mm (SD = 0.54 mm) and an average surface accuracy of 0.60 mm (SD = 0.32 mm) in a seated VR environment. The time for displaying the stylus movement as digital ink on the web browser surface in VR was 79.40 ms on average (SD = 23.26 ms), including the physical controller’s motion-to-photon latency visualized by its virtual representation (M = 42.57 ms, SD = 15.70 ms). The usability evaluation (N = 10) revealed a low task load, high usability, and high user experience. Participants successfully reproduced given shapes and created legible handwriting, indicating that the OTSS and it’s reference implementation is ready for everyday use. We provide source code access to our implementation, including stylus and surface calibration and surface interaction features, making it easy to reuse, extend, adapt and/or replicate previous results (https://go.uniwue.de/hci-otss). KW - virtual reality KW - augmented reality KW - handwriting KW - sketching KW - stylus KW - user interaction KW - usability evaluation KW - passive haptic feedback Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260219 VL - 2 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Klemke, Roland A1 - Sanusi, Khaleel Asyraaf Mat A1 - Rose, Melina T1 - Immersive Game Technologies for Innovative Education - A Method for Experimental Interdisciplinary Technology Transfer T2 - Proceedings of the 1st Games Technology Summit N2 - Immersive, sensor-enabled technologies such as augmented and virtual reality expand the way human beings interact with computers significantly. While these technologies are widely explored in entertainment games, they also offer possibilities for educational use. However,their uptake in education is so far very limited. Within the ImTech4Ed project, we aim at systematically exploring the power of interdisciplinary, international hackathons as a novel method to create immersive educational game prototypes and as a means to transfer these innovative technical prototypes into educational use. To achieve this, we bring together game design and development, where immersive and interactive solutions are designed and developed; computer science, where the technological foundations for immersive technologies and for scalable architectures for these are created; and teacher education, where future teachers are educated. This article reports on the concept and design of these hackathons. KW - immersive technologies KW - educational games KW - hackathons Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245843 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koopmann, Tobias A1 - Stubbemann, Maximilian A1 - Kapa, Matthias A1 - Paris, Michael A1 - Buenstorf, Guido A1 - Hanika, Tom A1 - Hotho, Andreas A1 - Jäschke, Robert A1 - Stumme, Gerd T1 - Proximity dimensions and the emergence of collaboration: a HypTrails study on German AI research JF - Scientometrics N2 - Creation and exchange of knowledge depends on collaboration. Recent work has suggested that the emergence of collaboration frequently relies on geographic proximity. However, being co-located tends to be associated with other dimensions of proximity, such as social ties or a shared organizational environment. To account for such factors, multiple dimensions of proximity have been proposed, including cognitive, institutional, organizational, social and geographical proximity. Since they strongly interrelate, disentangling these dimensions and their respective impact on collaboration is challenging. To address this issue, we propose various methods for measuring different dimensions of proximity. We then present an approach to compare and rank them with respect to the extent to which they indicate co-publications and co-inventions. We adapt the HypTrails approach, which was originally developed to explain human navigation, to co-author and co-inventor graphs. We evaluate this approach on a subset of the German research community, specifically academic authors and inventors active in research on artificial intelligence (AI). We find that social proximity and cognitive proximity are more important for the emergence of collaboration than geographic proximity. KW - collaboration KW - dimensions of proximity KW - co-authorships KW - co-inventorships KW - embedding techniques Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269831 SN - 1588-2861 VL - 126 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Loh, Frank A1 - Poignée, Fabian A1 - Wamser, Florian A1 - Leidinger, Ferdinand A1 - Hoßfeld, Tobias T1 - Uplink vs. Downlink: Machine Learning-Based Quality Prediction for HTTP Adaptive Video Streaming JF - Sensors N2 - Streaming video is responsible for the bulk of Internet traffic these days. For this reason, Internet providers and network operators try to make predictions and assessments about the streaming quality for an end user. Current monitoring solutions are based on a variety of different machine learning approaches. The challenge for providers and operators nowadays is that existing approaches require large amounts of data. In this work, the most relevant quality of experience metrics, i.e., the initial playback delay, the video streaming quality, video quality changes, and video rebuffering events, are examined using a voluminous data set of more than 13,000 YouTube video streaming runs that were collected with the native YouTube mobile app. Three Machine Learning models are developed and compared to estimate playback behavior based on uplink request information. The main focus has been on developing a lightweight approach using as few features and as little data as possible, while maintaining state-of-the-art performance. KW - HTTP adaptive video streaming KW - quality of experience prediction KW - machine learning Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-241121 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 21 IS - 12 ER - TY - THES A1 - Löffler, Andre T1 - Constrained Graph Layouts: Vertices on the Outer Face and on the Integer Grid T1 - Graphzeichnen unter Nebenbedingungen: Knoten auf der Außenfacette und mit ganzzahligen Koordinaten N2 - Constraining graph layouts - that is, restricting the placement of vertices and the routing of edges to obey certain constraints - is common practice in graph drawing. In this book, we discuss algorithmic results on two different restriction types: placing vertices on the outer face and on the integer grid. For the first type, we look into the outer k-planar and outer k-quasi-planar graphs, as well as giving a linear-time algorithm to recognize full and closed outer k-planar graphs Monadic Second-order Logic. For the second type, we consider the problem of transferring a given planar drawing onto the integer grid while perserving the original drawings topology; we also generalize a variant of Cauchy's rigidity theorem for orthogonal polyhedra of genus 0 to those of arbitrary genus. N2 - Das Einschränken von Zeichnungen von Graphen, sodass diese bestimmte Nebenbedingungen erfüllen - etwa solche, die das Platzieren von Knoten oder den Verlauf von Kanten beeinflussen - sind im Graphzeichnen allgegenwärtig. In dieser Arbeit befassen wir uns mit algorithmischen Resultaten zu zwei speziellen Einschränkungen, nämlich dem Platzieren von Knoten entweder auf der Außenfacette oder auf ganzzahligen Koordinaten. Für die erste Einschränkung untersuchen wir die außen k-planaren und außen k-quasi-planaren Graphen und geben einen auf monadische Prädikatenlogik zweiter Stufe basierenden Algorithmus an, der überprüft, ob ein Graph voll außen k-planar ist. Für die zweite Einschränkung untersuchen wir das Problem, eine gegebene planare Zeichnung eines Graphen auf das ganzzahlige Koordinatengitter zu transportieren, ohne dabei die Topologie der Zeichnung zu verändern; außerdem generalisieren wir eine Variante von Cauchys Starrheitssatz für orthogonale Polyeder von Geschlecht 0 auf solche von beliebigem Geschlecht. KW - Graphenzeichnen KW - Komplexität KW - Algorithmus KW - Algorithmische Geometrie KW - Kombinatorik KW - Planare Graphen KW - Polyeder KW - Konvexe Zeichnungen Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-215746 SN - 978-3-95826-146-4 SN - 978-3-95826-147-1 N1 - Parallel erschienen als Druckausgabe in Würzburg University Press, ISBN 978-3-95826-146-4, 32,90 EUR PB - Würzburg University Press CY - Würzburg ET - 1. Auflage ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Madeira, Octavia A1 - Gromer, Daniel A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich A1 - Pauli, Paul T1 - Effects of Acrophobic Fear and Trait Anxiety on Human Behavior in a Virtual Elevated Plus-Maze JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - The Elevated Plus-Maze (EPM) is a well-established apparatus to measure anxiety in rodents, i.e., animals exhibiting an increased relative time spent in the closed vs. the open arms are considered anxious. To examine whether such anxiety-modulated behaviors are conserved in humans, we re-translated this paradigm to a human setting using virtual reality in a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) system. In two studies, we examined whether the EPM exploration behavior of humans is modulated by their trait anxiety and also assessed the individuals’ levels of acrophobia (fear of height), claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces), sensation seeking, and the reported anxiety when on the maze. First, we constructed an exact virtual copy of the animal EPM adjusted to human proportions. In analogy to animal EPM studies, participants (N = 30) freely explored the EPM for 5 min. In the second study (N = 61), we redesigned the EPM to make it more human-adapted and to differentiate influences of trait anxiety and acrophobia by introducing various floor textures and lower walls of closed arms to the height of standard handrails. In the first experiment, hierarchical regression analyses of exploration behavior revealed the expected association between open arm avoidance and Trait Anxiety, an even stronger association with acrophobic fear. In the second study, results revealed that acrophobia was associated with avoidance of open arms with mesh-floor texture, whereas for trait anxiety, claustrophobia, and sensation seeking, no effect was detected. Also, subjects’ fear rating was moderated by all psychometrics but trait anxiety. In sum, both studies consistently indicate that humans show no general open arm avoidance analogous to rodents and that human EPM behavior is modulated strongest by acrophobic fear, whereas trait anxiety plays a subordinate role. Thus, we conclude that the criteria for cross-species validity are met insufficiently in this case. Despite the exploratory nature, our studies provide in-depth insights into human exploration behavior on the virtual EPM. KW - elevated plus-maze KW - EPM KW - anxiety KW - virtual reality KW - translational neuroscience KW - acrophobia KW - trait anxiety Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258709 VL - 2 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Metzger, Florian A1 - Schröder, Svenja A1 - Rafetseder, Albert T1 - Subjective And Objective Assessment Of Video Game Context Factors N2 - The recently published ITU-T Recommendation G1.032 proposes a list of factors that may influence cloud and online gaming Quality of Experience (QoE). This paper provides two practical evaluations of proposed system and context influence factors: First, it investigates through an online survey (n=488) the popularity of platforms, preferred ways of distribution, and motivational aspects including subjective valuations of characteristics offered by today's prevalent gaming platforms. Second, the paper evaluates a large dataset of objective metrics for various gaming platforms: game lists, playthrough lengths, prices, etc., and contrasts these metrics against the gamers' opinions. The combined data-driven approach presented in this paper complements in-person and lab studies usually employed. KW - Videospiel KW - Quality of Experience KW - Umfrage KW - video game QoE KW - video game context factors KW - online survey Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242471 N1 - Originally written in 2018, but never published. ER - TY - THES A1 - Moldovan, Christian T1 - Performance Modeling of Mobile Video Streaming T1 - Leistungsmodellierung von mobilem Videostreaming N2 - In the past two decades, there has been a trend to move from traditional television to Internet-based video services. With video streaming becoming one of the most popular applications in the Internet and the current state of the art in media consumption, quality expectations of consumers are increasing. Low quality videos are no longer considered acceptable in contrast to some years ago due to the increased sizes and resolution of devices. If the high expectations of the users are not met and a video is delivered in poor quality, they often abandon the service. Therefore, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and video service providers are facing the challenge of providing seamless multimedia delivery in high quality. Currently, during peak hours, video streaming causes almost 58\% of the downstream traffic on the Internet. With higher mobile bandwidth, mobile video streaming has also become commonplace. According to the 2019 Cisco Visual Networking Index, in 2022 79% of mobile traffic will be video traffic and, according to Ericsson, by 2025 video is forecasted to make up 76% of total Internet traffic. Ericsson further predicts that in 2024 over 1.4 billion devices will be subscribed to 5G, which will offer a downlink data rate of 100 Mbit/s in dense urban environments. One of the most important goals of ISPs and video service providers is for their users to have a high Quality of Experience (QoE). The QoE describes the degree of delight or annoyance a user experiences when using a service or application. In video streaming the QoE depends on how seamless a video is played and whether there are stalling events or quality degradations. These characteristics of a transmitted video are described as the application layer Quality of Service (QoS). In general, the QoS is defined as "the totality of characteristics of a telecommunications service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs of the user of the service" by the ITU. The network layer QoS describes the performance of the network and is decisive for the application layer QoS. In Internet video, typically a buffer is used to store downloaded video segments to compensate for network fluctuations. If the buffer runs empty, stalling occurs. If the available bandwidth decreases temporarily, the video can still be played out from the buffer without interruption. There are different policies and parameters that determine how large the buffer is, at what buffer level to start the video, and at what buffer level to resume playout after stalling. These have to be finely tuned to achieve the highest QoE for the user. If the bandwidth decreases for a longer time period, a limited buffer will deplete and stalling can not be avoided. An important research question is how to configure the buffer optimally for different users and situations. In this work, we tackle this question using analytic models and measurement studies. With HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS), the video players have the capability to adapt the video bit rate at the client side according to the available network capacity. This way the depletion of the video buffer and thus stalling can be avoided. In HAS, the quality in which the video is played and the number of quality switches also has an impact on the QoE. Thus, an important problem is the adaptation of video streaming so that these parameters are optimized. In a shared WiFi multiple video users share a single bottleneck link and compete for bandwidth. In such a scenario, it is important that resources are allocated to users in a way that all can have a similar QoE. In this work, we therefore investigate the possible fairness gain when moving from network fairness towards application-layer QoS fairness. In mobile scenarios, the energy and data consumption of the user device are limited resources and they must be managed besides the QoE. Therefore, it is also necessary, to investigate solutions, that conserve these resources in mobile devices. But how can resources be conserved without sacrificing application layer QoS? As an example for such a solution, this work presents a new probabilistic adaptation algorithm that uses abandonment statistics for ts decision making, aiming at minimizing the resource consumption while maintaining high QoS. With current protocol developments such as 5G, bandwidths are increasing, latencies are decreasing and networks are becoming more stable, leading to higher QoS. This allows for new real time data intensive applications such as cloud gaming, virtual reality and augmented reality applications to become feasible on mobile devices which pose completely new research questions. The high energy consumption of such applications still remains an issue as the energy capacity of devices is currently not increasing as quickly as the available data rates. In this work we compare the optimal performance of different strategies for adaptive 360-degree video streaming. N2 - In den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten gab es einen starken Trend weg vom traditionellen Fernsehen hin zum Videostreaming über das Internet. Dabei macht Videostreaming zurzeit den größten Anteil des gesamten Internetverkehrs aus. Beim Herunterladen eines Internetvideos wird das Video vor dem Ausspielen in einem Puffer beim Client zwischengespeichert, um Netzfluktuationen zu kompensieren. Leert sich der Puffer, so muss das Video stoppen (Stalling), um Daten nachzuladen. Um dies zu verhindern, müssen Pufferstrategien und -Parameter optimal an Nutzerszenarien angepasst sein. Mit diesem Problem beschäftigen wir uns im ersten Kapitel dieser Arbeit unter Anwendung von Wartschlangenmodelle, numerische Simulationen und Messstudien. Zur Bewertung der Güte eines Videostreams nutzen wir ein Modell, das auf subjektiven Studien basiert. Mit HTTP Adaptive Streaming hat der Videoplayer die Fähigkeit, Videosegmente in einer an die Bandbreite angepasster Bitrate und somit auch angepasster Qualität anzufordern. Somit kann die Leerung des Puffers gebremst und Stalling verhindert werden. Allerdings hat neben Stalling auch die Videoqualität und die Anzahl der Qualitätswechsel Auswirkungen auf die Zufriedenheit der Zuschauer. Inwiefern diese Parameter optimiert werden können, untersuchen wir im zweiten Kapitel mit Hilfe von linearen und quadratischen Programmen sowie einem Warteschlangenmodell. Hierbei untersuchen wie auch die Fairness in Netzen mit mehreren Nutzern und 360-Grad Videos. Im dritten Kapitel untersuchen wir Möglichkeiten, Videostreaming ressourcenschonender zu gestalten. Hierzu untersuchen wir in einer Feldstudie die Möglichkeit Caches an WiFi-Hotspots einzusetzen und somit redundanten Verkehr zu reduzieren. Wir untersuchen das Verhalten von mobilen Videonutzern, indem wir eine Nutzerstudie auswerten. Außerdem stellen wir einen neuen Adaptionsalgorithmus vor, der abhängig vom Nutzerverhalten den Datenverbrauch und Stromverbrauch des Videostreams reduziert. T3 - Würzburger Beiträge zur Leistungsbewertung Verteilter Systeme - 01/20 KW - Videoübertragung KW - Quality of Experience KW - Dienstgüte KW - Leistungsbewertung KW - Mathematisches Modell KW - video streaming KW - performance modeling KW - optimization Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228715 SN - 1432-8801 ER - TY - THES A1 - Oberdörfer, Sebastian T1 - Better Learning with Gaming: Knowledge Encoding and Knowledge Learning Using Gamification T1 - Besser Lernen durch Spielen: Wissensencodierung und Lernen von Wissen mit Gamification N2 - Computer games are highly immersive, engaging, and motivating learning environments. By providing a tutorial at the start of a new game, players learn the basics of the game's underlying principles as well as practice how to successfully play the game. During the actual gameplay, players repetitively apply this knowledge, thus improving it due to repetition. Computer games also challenge players with a constant stream of new challenges which increase in difficulty over time. As a result, computer games even require players to transfer their knowledge to master these new challenges. A computer game consists of several game mechanics. Game mechanics are the rules of a computer game and encode the game's underlying principles. They create the virtual environments, generate a game's challenges and allow players to interact with the game. Game mechanics also can encode real world knowledge. This knowledge may be acquired by players via gameplay. However, the actual process of knowledge encoding and knowledge learning using game mechanics has not been thoroughly defined, yet. This thesis therefore proposes a theoretical model to define the knowledge learning using game mechanics: the Gamified Knowledge Encoding. The model is applied to design a serious game for affine transformations, i.e., GEtiT, and to predict the learning outcome of playing a computer game that encodes orbital mechanics in its game mechanics, i.e., Kerbal Space Program. To assess the effects of different visualization technologies on the overall learning outcome, GEtiT visualizes the gameplay in desktop-3D and immersive virtual reality. The model's applicability for effective game design as well as GEtiT's overall design are evaluated in a usability study. The learning outcome of playing GEtiT and Kerbal Space Program is assessed in four additional user studies. The studies' results validate the use of the Gamified Knowledge Encoding for the purpose of developing effective serious games and to predict the learning outcome of existing serious games. GEtiT and Kerbal Space Program yield a similar training effect but a higher motivation to tackle the assignments in comparison to a traditional learning method. In conclusion, this thesis expands the understanding of using game mechanics for an effective learning of knowledge. The presented results are of high importance for researches, educators, and developers as they also provide guidelines for the development of effective serious games. N2 - Computerspiele stellen attraktive, spannende und motivierende Lernumgebungen dar. Spieler erlernen zu Spielbeginn die grundlegenden Spielregeln und wenden dieses Wissen während des Spielablaufs an. Dadurch wird das dem Spiel zu Grunde liegende Wissen durch Wiederholung geübt und verinnerlicht. Durch einen konstanten Fluss an neuen Herausforderungen, die in ihrer Schwierigkeit ansteigen, müssen Spieler das Wissen auf neue Szenarien übertragen. Innerhalb eines Computerspiels sind Spielmechaniken für eine Anwendung als auch Demonstration des Spielwissens verantwortlich. Die Spielmechaniken regeln den Spielablauf, in dem sie die Spieleraktionen definieren, die virtuelle Umgebung generieren und die Herausforderungen des Spiels festlegen. Das in den Spielmechaniken kodierte Wissen kann jedoch auch der realen Welt entstammen. In diesem Fall entwickeln Spieler Kompetenzen, die später auch in der Realität Anwendung finden können. Das Kodieren von Wissen in Spielmechaniken und der damit einhergehende Lernprozess wurde allerdings noch nicht genau theoretisch erfasst. Diese Dissertation versucht diese Forschungslücke zu schließen, indem ein theoretisches Model der Wissenskodierung in Spielmechaniken entworfen wird: das Gamified Knowledge Encoding. Dieses Model wird sowohl für das Design einer Lernanwendung für das Wissen der Affinen Transformationen, GEtiT, als auch zur Vorhersage von Lerneffekten eines Computerspiels, Kerbal Space Program, herangezogen. In einer Usability-Studie wird sowohl die Anwendbarkeit des Modells für ein effektives Spieldesign als auch das Gesamtdesign von GEtiT bewertet. Das Lernergebnis, das beim Spielen von GEtiT und Kerbal Space Program erzielt wird, wird in vier weiteren Nutzerstudien überprüft. Die Studien validieren den Einsatz des Gamified Knowledge Encoding Models zur Entwicklung von computerspielbasierten Lernumgebungen und die Vorhersage von Lerneffekten. GEtiT und Kerbal Space Program erzielen ein ähnliches Lernergebnis bei einer höheren Motivation im Vergleich zu einer traditionellen Lernmethode. Als Endergebnis erweitert das präsentierte Forschungsprojekt das generelle Verständnis über die Verwendung von Spielmechaniken für ein effektives Lernen. Die präsentierten Ergebnisse sind von großer Bedeutung für Forscher, Pädagogen und Entwickler, da sie auch Richtlinien für die Entwicklung effektiver Serious Games hervorbringen. KW - Serious game KW - Gamification KW - Lernen KW - Game mechanic KW - Spielmechanik KW - Knowledge encoding KW - Wissensencodierung KW - Virtuelle Realität Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-219707 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberdörfer, Sebastian A1 - Birnstiel, Sandra A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich A1 - Grafe, Silke T1 - Mutual Benefits: Interdisciplinary Education of Pre-Service Teachers and HCI Students in VR/AR Learning Environment Design JF - Frontiers in Education N2 - The successful development and classroom integration of Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) learning environments requires competencies and content knowledge with respect to media didactics and the respective technologies. The paper discusses a pedagogical concept specifically aiming at the interdisciplinary education of pre-service teachers in collaboration with human-computer interaction students. The students’ overarching goal is the interdisciplinary realization and integration of VR/AR learning environments in teaching and learning concepts. To assist this approach, we developed a specific tutorial guiding the developmental process. We evaluate and validate the effectiveness of the overall pedagogical concept by analyzing the change in attitudes regarding 1) the use of VR/AR for educational purposes and in competencies and content knowledge regarding 2) media didactics and 3) technology. Our results indicate a significant improvement in the knowledge of media didactics and technology. We further report on four STEM learning environments that have been developed during the seminar. KW - interdisciplinary education KW - virtual reality KW - augmented reality KW - serious games KW - learning environments KW - teacher education Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-241612 SN - 2504-284X VL - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberdörfer, Sebastian A1 - Heidrich, David A1 - Birnstiel, Sandra A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Enchanted by Your Surrounding? Measuring the Effects of Immersion and Design of Virtual Environments on Decision-Making JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Impaired decision-making leads to the inability to distinguish between advantageous and disadvantageous choices. The impairment of a person’s decision-making is a common goal of gambling games. Given the recent trend of gambling using immersive Virtual Reality it is crucial to investigate the effects of both immersion and the virtual environment (VE) on decision-making. In a novel user study, we measured decision-making using three virtual versions of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The versions differed with regard to the degree of immersion and design of the virtual environment. While emotions affect decision-making, we further measured the positive and negative affect of participants. A higher visual angle on a stimulus leads to an increased emotional response. Thus, we kept the visual angle on the Iowa Gambling Task the same between our conditions. Our results revealed no significant impact of immersion or the VE on the IGT. We further found no significant difference between the conditions with regard to positive and negative affect. This suggests that neither the medium used nor the design of the VE causes an impairment of decision-making. However, in combination with a recent study, we provide first evidence that a higher visual angle on the IGT leads to an effect of impairment. KW - virtual reality KW - virtual environments KW - immersion KW - decision-making KW - iowa gambling task Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260101 VL - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Obremski, David A1 - Lugrin, Jean-Luc A1 - Schaper, Philipp A1 - Lugrin, Birgit T1 - Non-native speaker perception of Intelligent Virtual Agents in two languages: the impact of amount and type of grammatical mistakes JF - Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces N2 - Having a mixed-cultural membership becomes increasingly common in our modern society. It is thus beneficial in several ways to create Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) that reflect a mixed-cultural background as well, e.g., for educational settings. For research with such IVAs, it is essential that they are classified as non-native by members of a target culture. In this paper, we focus on variations of IVAs’ speech to create the impression of non-native speakers that are identified as such by speakers of two different mother tongues. In particular, we investigate grammatical mistakes and identify thresholds beyond which the agents is clearly categorised as a non-native speaker. Therefore, we conducted two experiments: one for native speakers of German, and one for native speakers of English. Results of the German study indicate that beyond 10% of word order mistakes and 25% of infinitive mistakes German-speaking IVAs are perceived as non-native speakers. Results of the English study indicate that beyond 50% of omission mistakes and 50% of infinitive mistakes English-speaking IVAs are perceived as non-native speakers. We believe these thresholds constitute helpful guidelines for computational approaches of non-native speaker generation, simplifying research with IVAs in mixed-cultural settings. KW - mixed-cultural settings KW - Intelligent Virtual Agents KW - verbal behaviour Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269984 SN - 1783-8738 VL - 15 IS - 2 ER - TY - THES A1 - Pöhner, Nicolai T1 - Educational robotics competitions as out-of-school learning setting for STEM education: An empirical study on students’ learning of problem solving skills through participation in the World Robot Olympiad T1 - Roboterwettbewerbe als außerschulisches Lernangebot für den MINT-Unterricht: Eine empirische Untersuchung zur Förderung der Problemlösefähigkeiten von Schülerinnen und Schülern durch Teilnahme an der World Robot Olympiad N2 - Educational robotics is an innovative approach to teaching and learning a variety of different concepts and skills as well as motivating students in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. This especially applies to educational robotics competitions such as, for example, the FIRST LEGO League, the RoboCup Junior, or the World Robot Olympiad as out-of-school and goal-oriented approach to educational robotics. These competitions have gained greatly in popularity in recent years and thousands of students participate in these competitions worldwide each year. Moreover, the corresponding technology became more accessible for teachers and students to use it in their classrooms and has arguably a high potential to impact the nature of science education at all levels. One skill, which is said to be benefitting from educational robotics, is problem solving. This thesis understands problem solving skills as engineering design skills (in contrast to scientific inquiry). Problem solving skills count as important skills as demanded by industry leaders and policy makers in the context of 21st century skills, which are relevant for students to be well-prepared for their future working life in today’s world, shaped by an ongoing process of automation, globalization, and digitalization. The overall aim of this thesis is to try to answer the question if educational robotics competitions such as the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) have a positive impact on students’ learning in terms of their problem solving skills (as part of 21st century skills). In detail, this thesis focuses on a) if students can improve their problem solving skills through participation in educational robotics competitions, b) how this skill development is accomplished, and c) the teachers’ support of their students during their learning process in the competition. The corresponding empirical studies were conducted throughout the seasons of 2018 and 2019 of the WRO in Germany. The results show overall positive effects of the participation in the WRO on students’ learning of problem solving skills. They display an increase of students’ problem solving skills, which is not moderated by other variables such as the competition’s category or age group, the students’ gender or experience, or the success of the teams at the competition. Moreover, the results indicate that students develop their problem solving skills by using a systematic engineering design process and sophisticated problem solving strategies. Lastly, the teacher’s role in the educational robotics competitions as manager and guide (in terms of the constructionist learning theory) of the students’ learning process (especially regarding the affective level) is underlined by the results of this thesis. All in all, this thesis contributes to the research gap concerning the lack of systematic evaluation of educational robotics to promote students’ learning by providing more (methodologically) sophisticated research on this topic. Thereby, this thesis follows the call for more rigorous (quantitative) research by the educational robotics community, which is necessary to validate the impact of educational robotics. N2 - Die Robotik stellt einen handlungsorientierten („hands-on“) Zugang zur Bildung in Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik (MINT) dar. Dabei fördert sie das Lernen von Schülerinnen und Schülern nicht nur auf kognitiver Ebene, sondern trägt auch zu einer erhöhten Motivation und erhöhtem Interesse bei (affektive Ebene). In den letzten Jahren erfreuen sich gerade Roboterwettbewerbe als außerschulisches Lernangebot steigender Beliebtheit und verzeichnen weltweit jährlich wachsende Teilnehmerzahlen. Beispiele dafür sind die FIRST LEGO League, der RoboCup Junior und die World Robot Olympiad. Zudem steigt auch die Verfügbarkeit der nötigen Robotersysteme für Schülerinnen und Schüler sowie Lehrkräfte, um sie in der Schule einzusetzen und damit verschiedenste Lerninhalte in allen Jahrgangsstufen zu vermitteln. Ein Lerninhalt, der durch die Robotik besonders gefördert werden können soll, ist das Problemlösen. Problemlösen wird in dieser Arbeit als ingenieurwissenschaftliche Denk- und Arbeitsweise verstanden (im Gegensatz zu naturwissenschaftlichen Denk- und Arbeitsweisen). Das Problemlösen gilt dabei als eine wichtige Fähigkeit im Kontext von sog. 21st century skills. Diese beschreiben wichtige Fähigkeiten für die Arbeitswelt von morgen. Sie resultieren aus einer fortschreitenden Automatisierung, Globalisierung und Digitalisierung unserer Welt und werden regelmäßig von Vertretern von Industrie und Politik gefordert. Eine Forschungslücke stellt aber weiterhin die unzureichende systematische wissenschaftliche Forschung und Evaluation hinsichtlich des positiven Einflusses der Robotik auf das Lernen dar. Die fehlende Systematik geht dabei vor allem die Verwendung wenig aussagekräftiger Methodik (z.B. deskriptive Erfahrungsberichte von einzelnen Lehrkräften) zurück. Das übergreifende Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, zu untersuchen, ob eine Teilnahme an der World Robot Olympiad (WRO) (als Beispiel für einen beliebten Roboterwettbewerb) einen positiven Einfluss auf die Problemlösefähigkeiten (als Teil der 21st century skills) der Schülerinnen und Schüler hat. Dabei wird im Detail untersucht, a) ob die Problemlösefähigkeiten der Schülerinnen und Schüler durch eine Teilnahme an Roboterwettbewerben verbessert werden können, b) wie diese Verbesserung zustande kommt und c) wie die Team-Coaches die Schülerinnen und Schüler während ihres Lernprozesses unterstützen. Die dazu durchgeführten empirischen Studien fanden in den beiden Jahren 2018 und 2019 im Rahmen der WRO in Deutschland statt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit zeigen einen insgesamt positiven Einfluss einer Teilnahme an der WRO auf die Problemlösefähigkeiten der Schülerinnen und Schüler. Dies zeigt sich in einer Verbesserung ihrer Problemlösefähigkeiten durch die Teilnahme, die nicht durch andere Variablen wie der Kategorie und Altersklasse der WRO, dem Geschlecht und der Erfahrung der Schülerinnen und Schüler sowie deren Erfolg beim Roboterwettbewerb moderiert wurde. Die Verbesserung der Problemlösefähigkeiten erfolgt durch die Verwendung von systematischen ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Denk- und Arbeitsweisen sowie fortgeschrittenen Problemlösestrategien. Die Rolle des Team-Coaches als Manager und Lernbegleiter (im Sinne einer konstruktionistischen Didaktik) im Roboterwettbewerb (besonders bezüglich der affektiven Ebene) wird durch die Ergebnisse der Arbeit ebenfalls unterstrichen. Zusammenfassend lässt sich also sagen, dass diese Arbeit einen Beitrag hinsichtlich der Forschungslücke leistet und damit dem Aufruf der Community nach weiterer (quantitativer) wissenschaftlicher Forschung nachkommt, der nötig ist, um den positiven Einfluss der Robotik auf das Lernen der Schülerinnen und Schüler zu bestätigen. KW - Fachdidaktik KW - Außerschulische Bildung KW - Computer Science education KW - Educational robotics KW - Educational robotics competitions KW - problem solving skills KW - Didaktik der Informatik KW - Robotik KW - Roboterwettbewerbe KW - Problemlösefähigkeiten KW - Informatik Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-243179 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Qi, Yanyan A1 - Bruch, Dorothee A1 - Krop, Philipp A1 - Herrmann, Martin J. A1 - Latoschik, Marc E. A1 - Deckert, Jürgen A1 - Hein, Grit T1 - Social buffering of human fear is shaped by gender, social concern, and the presence of real vs virtual agents JF - Translational Psychiatry N2 - The presence of a partner can attenuate physiological fear responses, a phenomenon known as social buffering. However, not all individuals are equally sociable. Here we investigated whether social buffering of fear is shaped by sensitivity to social anxiety (social concern) and whether these effects are different in females and males. We collected skin conductance responses (SCRs) and affect ratings of female and male participants when they experienced aversive and neutral sounds alone (alone treatment) or in the presence of an unknown person of the same gender (social treatment). Individual differences in social concern were assessed based on a well-established questionnaire. Our results showed that social concern had a stronger effect on social buffering in females than in males. The lower females scored on social concern, the stronger the SCRs reduction in the social compared to the alone treatment. The effect of social concern on social buffering of fear in females disappeared if participants were paired with a virtual agent instead of a real person. Together, these results showed that social buffering of human fear is shaped by gender and social concern. In females, the presence of virtual agents can buffer fear, irrespective of individual differences in social concern. These findings specify factors that shape the social modulation of human fear, and thus might be relevant for the treatment of anxiety disorders. KW - human behaviour KW - physiology Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265782 VL - 11 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Rossi, Angelo Pio A1 - Maurelli, Francesco A1 - Unnithan, Vikram A1 - Dreger, Hendrik A1 - Mathewos, Kedus A1 - Pradhan, Nayan A1 - Corbeanu, Dan-Andrei A1 - Pozzobon, Riccardo A1 - Massironi, Matteo A1 - Ferrari, Sabrina A1 - Pernechele, Claudia A1 - Paoletti, Lorenzo A1 - Simioni, Emanuele A1 - Maurizio, Pajola A1 - Santagata, Tommaso A1 - Borrmann, Dorit A1 - Nüchter, Andreas A1 - Bredenbeck, Anton A1 - Zevering, Jasper A1 - Arzberger, Fabian A1 - Reyes Mantilla, Camilo Andrés T1 - DAEDALUS - Descent And Exploration in Deep Autonomy of Lava Underground Structures BT - Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) Lunar Caves-System Study N2 - The DAEDALUS mission concept aims at exploring and characterising the entrance and initial part of Lunar lava tubes within a compact, tightly integrated spherical robotic device, with a complementary payload set and autonomous capabilities. The mission concept addresses specifically the identification and characterisation of potential resources for future ESA exploration, the local environment of the subsurface and its geologic and compositional structure. A sphere is ideally suited to protect sensors and scientific equipment in rough, uneven environments. It will house laser scanners, cameras and ancillary payloads. The sphere will be lowered into the skylight and will explore the entrance shaft, associated caverns and conduits. Lidar (light detection and ranging) systems produce 3D models with high spatial accuracy independent of lighting conditions and visible features. Hence this will be the primary exploration toolset within the sphere. The additional payload that can be accommodated in the robotic sphere consists of camera systems with panoramic lenses and scanners such as multi-wavelength or single-photon scanners. A moving mass will trigger movements. The tether for lowering the sphere will be used for data communication and powering the equipment during the descending phase. Furthermore, the connector tether-sphere will host a WIFI access point, such that data of the conduit can be transferred to the surface relay station. During the exploration phase, the robot will be disconnected from the cable, and will use wireless communication. Emergency autonomy software will ensure that in case of loss of communication, the robot will continue the nominal mission. T3 - Forschungsberichte in der Robotik = Research Notes in Robotics - 21 KW - Lunar Caves KW - Spherical Robot KW - Lunar Exploration KW - Mapping KW - 3D Laser Scanning KW - Mond KW - Daedalus-Projekt KW - Lava Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227911 SN - 978-3-945459-33-1 SN - 1868-7466 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Sanusi, Khaleel Asyraaf Mat A1 - Klemke, Roland T1 - Immersive Multimodal Environments for Psychomotor Skills Training T2 - Proceedings of the 1st Games Technology Summit N2 - Modern immersive multimodal technologies enable the learners to completely get immersed in various learning situations in a way that feels like experiencing an authentic learning environment. These environments also allow the collection of multimodal data, which can be used with artificial intelligence to further improve the immersion and learning outcomes. The use of artificial intelligence has been widely explored for the interpretation of multimodal data collected from multiple sensors, thus giving insights to support learners’ performance by providing personalised feedback. In this paper, we present a conceptual approach for creating immersive learning environments, integrated with multi-sensor setup to help learners improve their psychomotor skills in a remote setting. KW - immersive learning technologies KW - multimodal learning KW - sensor devices KW - artificial intelligence KW - psychomotor training Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246016 ER - TY - THES A1 - Schiemenz, Fabian T1 - Covariance and Uncertainty Realism for Low Earth Orbiting Satellites via Quantification of Dominant Force Model Uncertainties T1 - Kovarianz- und Unsicherheitsrealismus für Satelliten in erdnahen Umlaufbahnen mittels Quantifizierung der dominanten Kräftemodellunsicherheiten N2 - The safety of future spaceflight depends on space surveillance and space traffic management, as the density of objects in Earth orbit has reached a level that requires collision avoidance maneuvers to be performed on a regular basis to avoid a mission or, in the context of human space flight, life-endangering threat. Driven by enhanced sensor systems capable of detecting centimeter-sized debris, megaconstellations and satellite miniaturization, the space debris problem has revealed many parallels to the plastic waste in our oceans, however with much less visibility to the eye. Future catalog sizes are expected to increase drastically, making it even more important to detect potentially dangerous encounters as early as possible. Due to the limited number of monitoring sensors, continuous observation of all objects is impossible, resulting in the need to predict the orbital paths and their uncertainty via models to perform collision risk assessment and space object catalog maintenance. For many years the uncertainty models used for orbit determination neglected any uncertainty in the astrodynamic force models, thereby implicitly assuming them to be flawless descriptions of the true space environment. This assumption is known to result in overly optimistic uncertainty estimates, which in turn complicate collision risk analysis. The keynote of this doctoral thesis is to establish uncertainty realism for low Earth orbiting satellites via a physically connected quantification of the dominant force model uncertainties, particularly multiple sources of atmospheric density uncertainty and orbital gravity uncertainty. The resulting process noise models are subsequently integrated into classical and state of the art orbit determination algorithms. Their positive impact is demonstrated via numerical orbit determination simulations and a collision risk assessment study using all non-restricted objects in the official United States space catalogs. It is shown that the consideration of atmospheric density uncertainty and gravity uncertainty significantly improves the quality of the orbit determination and thus makes a contribution to future spaceflight safety by increasing the reliability of the uncertainty estimates used for collision risk assessment. N2 - Die Sicherheit der künftigen Raumfahrt hängt von der Weltraumüberwachung und dem Weltraumobjektmanagement ab, da inzwischen die Dichte an Objekten im Erdorbit ein Niveau erreicht hat, welches regelmäßige Kollisionsvermeidungsmanöver erfordert um eine missions- oder, im Kontext der bemannten Raumfahrt, lebensgefährdende Situation zu vermeiden. Durch verbesserte Sensorsysteme, die in der Lage sind, zentimetergroße Objekte zu erkennen, Megakonstellationen und die Satellitenminiaturisierung hat das Weltraummüllproblem viele Parallelen zu den Plastikabfällen in unseren Weltmeeren offenbart, jedoch mit deutlich geringerer Sichtbarkeit für das Auge. Es ist zu erwarten, dass die Größe der Weltraumobjektkataloge in Zukunft drastisch ansteigen wird, was es umso wichtiger macht, potenziell gefährliche Begegnungen so früh wie möglich zu erkennen. Durch die begrenzte Anzahl an Überwachungssensoren ist eine kontinuierliche Beobachtung aller Objekte unmöglich, sodass die Umlaufbahnen und deren Unsicherheiten über Modelle vorausberechnet werden müssen, um die Bewertung von Kollisionsrisiken vorzunehmen und die Wartung der Objektkataloge sicherzustellen. Viele Jahre haben die zur Bahnbestimmung verwendeten Unsicherheitsmodelle jegliche Unsicherheit in den astrodynamischen Kräftemodellen vernachlässigt und somit implizit angenommen, dass diese fehlerfreie Beschreibungen der wahren Weltraumumgebung darstellen. Diese Annahme ist jedoch dafür bekannt, zu übermäßig optimistischen Unsicherheitsabschätzungen zu führen, was die Kollisionsrisikobewertung erschwert. Das Leitthema dieser Doktorarbeit ist die Berechnung realistischer Unsicherheiten von Objekten in einer niedrigen Erdumlaufbahn anhand einer Unsicherheitsquantifizierung mit physikalischem Bezug zu den Kräftemodellen, welche die größten Anteile an der Propagationsunsicherheit aufweisen. Dies sind insbesondere mehrere Quellen von atmosphärischer Dichteunsicherheit, sowie Gravitationsunsicherheit. Die resultierenden Prozessrauschmodelle werden anschließend in klassische und moderne Algorithmen zur Umlaufbahnbestimmung integriert. Die positiven Auswirkungen dieser Technik werden durch numerische Simulationen zur Orbitbestimmung, sowie durch eine Risikobewertungsstudie anhand aller nicht-sensitiven Objekte in den amerikanischen Weltraumkatalogen belegt. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Berücksichtigung von Unsicherheiten in der atmosphärischen Dichte und dem Gravitationsmodell die Qualität der Umlaufbahnbestimmung signifikant verbessert und somit durch zuverlässigere Unsicherheitsschätzungen bei der Kollisionsrisikobewertung einen Beitrag zur künftigen Sicherheit im Weltraum leistet. KW - Space Debris KW - Thermospheric density uncertainty KW - Gravity model uncertainty KW - Uncertainty realism KW - Orbit determination KW - Conjunction analysis KW - Thermosphärische Dichteunsicherheit KW - Gravitationsmodellunsicherheit KW - Unsicherheitsrealismus KW - Orbitbestimung KW - Konjunktionsanalyse Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-249474 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seufert, Anika A1 - Schröder, Svenja A1 - Seufert, Michael T1 - Delivering User Experience over Networks: Towards a Quality of Experience Centered Design Cycle for Improved Design of Networked Applications JF - SN Computer Science N2 - To deliver the best user experience (UX), the human-centered design cycle (HCDC) serves as a well-established guideline to application developers. However, it does not yet cover network-specific requirements, which become increasingly crucial, as most applications deliver experience over the Internet. The missing network-centric view is provided by Quality of Experience (QoE), which could team up with UX towards an improved overall experience. By considering QoE aspects during the development process, it can be achieved that applications become network-aware by design. In this paper, the Quality of Experience Centered Design Cycle (QoE-CDC) is proposed, which provides guidelines on how to design applications with respect to network-specific requirements and QoE. Its practical value is showcased for popular application types and validated by outlining the design of a new smartphone application. We show that combining HCDC and QoE-CDC will result in an application design, which reaches a high UX and avoids QoE degradation. KW - user experience KW - human-centered design KW - design cycle KW - application design KW - quality of experience Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-271762 SN - 2661-8907 VL - 2 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seufert, Michael T1 - Statistical methods and models based on quality of experience distributions JF - Quality and User Experience N2 - Due to biased assumptions on the underlying ordinal rating scale in subjective Quality of Experience (QoE) studies, Mean Opinion Score (MOS)-based evaluations provide results, which are hard to interpret and can be misleading. This paper proposes to consider the full QoE distribution for evaluating, reporting, and modeling QoE results instead of relying on MOS-based metrics derived from results based on ordinal rating scales. The QoE distribution can be represented in a concise way by using the parameters of a multinomial distribution without losing any information about the underlying QoE ratings, and even keeps backward compatibility with previous, biased MOS-based results. Considering QoE results as a realization of a multinomial distribution allows to rely on a well-established theoretical background, which enables meaningful evaluations also for ordinal rating scales. Moreover, QoE models based on QoE distributions keep detailed information from the results of a QoE study of a technical system, and thus, give an unprecedented richness of insights into the end users’ experience with the technical system. In this work, existing and novel statistical methods for QoE distributions are summarized and exemplary evaluations are outlined. Furthermore, using the novel concept of quality steps, simulative and analytical QoE models based on QoE distributions are presented and showcased. The goal is to demonstrate the fundamental advantages of considering QoE distributions over MOS-based evaluations if the underlying rating data is ordinal in nature. KW - statistical methods KW - quality of experience Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235733 SN - 2366-0139 VL - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steininger, Michael A1 - Kobs, Konstantin A1 - Davidson, Padraig A1 - Krause, Anna A1 - Hotho, Andreas T1 - Density-based weighting for imbalanced regression JF - Machine Learning N2 - In many real world settings, imbalanced data impedes model performance of learning algorithms, like neural networks, mostly for rare cases. This is especially problematic for tasks focusing on these rare occurrences. For example, when estimating precipitation, extreme rainfall events are scarce but important considering their potential consequences. While there are numerous well studied solutions for classification settings, most of them cannot be applied to regression easily. Of the few solutions for regression tasks, barely any have explored cost-sensitive learning which is known to have advantages compared to sampling-based methods in classification tasks. In this work, we propose a sample weighting approach for imbalanced regression datasets called DenseWeight and a cost-sensitive learning approach for neural network regression with imbalanced data called DenseLoss based on our weighting scheme. DenseWeight weights data points according to their target value rarities through kernel density estimation (KDE). DenseLoss adjusts each data point’s influence on the loss according to DenseWeight, giving rare data points more influence on model training compared to common data points. We show on multiple differently distributed datasets that DenseLoss significantly improves model performance for rare data points through its density-based weighting scheme. Additionally, we compare DenseLoss to the state-of-the-art method SMOGN, finding that our method mostly yields better performance. Our approach provides more control over model training as it enables us to actively decide on the trade-off between focusing on common or rare cases through a single hyperparameter, allowing the training of better models for rare data points. KW - supervised learning KW - imbalanced regression KW - cost-sensitive learning KW - sample weighting KW - Kerneldensity estimation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269177 SN - 1573-0565 VL - 110 IS - 8 ER - TY - THES A1 - Strohmeier, Michael T1 - FARN – A Novel UAV Flight Controller for Highly Accurate and Reliable Navigation T1 - FARN – Eine neue UAV-Flugsteuerung für hochpräzise und zuverlässige Navigation N2 - This thesis describes the functional principle of FARN, a novel flight controller for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) designed for mission scenarios that require highly accurate and reliable navigation. The required precision is achieved by combining low-cost inertial sensors and Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) radio ranging with raw and carrier phase observations from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The flight controller is developed within the scope of this work regarding the mission requirements of two research projects, and successfully applied under real conditions. FARN includes a GNSS compass that allows a precise heading estimation even in environments where the conventional heading estimation based on a magnetic compass is not reliable. The GNSS compass combines the raw observations of two GNSS receivers with FARN’s real-time capable attitude determination. Thus, especially the deployment of UAVs in Arctic environments within the project for ROBEX is possible despite the weak horizontal component of the Earth’s magnetic field. Additionally, FARN allows centimeter-accurate relative positioning of multiple UAVs in real-time. This enables precise flight maneuvers within a swarm, but also the execution of cooperative tasks in which several UAVs have a common goal or are physically coupled. A drone defense system based on two cooperative drones that act in a coordinated manner and carry a commonly suspended net to capture a potentially dangerous drone in mid-air was developed in conjunction with the project MIDRAS. Within this thesis, both theoretical and practical aspects are covered regarding UAV development with an emphasis on the fields of signal processing, guidance and control, electrical engineering, robotics, computer science, and programming of embedded systems. Furthermore, this work aims to provide a condensed reference for further research in the field of UAVs. The work describes and models the utilized UAV platform, the propulsion system, the electronic design, and the utilized sensors. After establishing mathematical conventions for attitude representation, the actual core of the flight controller, namely the embedded ego-motion estimation and the principle control architecture are outlined. Subsequently, based on basic GNSS navigation algorithms, advanced carrier phase-based methods and their coupling to the ego-motion estimation framework are derived. Additionally, various implementation details and optimization steps of the system are described. The system is successfully deployed and tested within the two projects. After a critical examination and evaluation of the developed system, existing limitations and possible improvements are outlined. N2 - Diese Arbeit beschreibt das Funktionsprinzip von FARN, einer neuartigen Flugsteuerung für unbemannte Luftfahrzeuge (UAVs), die für Missionsszenarien entwickelt wurde, die eine hochgenaue und zuverlässige Navigation erfordern. Die erforderliche Präzision wird erreicht, indem kostengünstige Inertialsensoren und Ultra-Breitband (UWB) basierte Funkreichweitenmessungen mit Roh- und Trägerphasenbeobachtungen des globalen Navigationssatellitensystems (GNSS) kombiniert werden. Die Flugsteuerung wird im Rahmen dieser Arbeit unter Berücksichtigung der Missionsanforderungen zweier Forschungsprojekte entwickelt und unter realen Bedingungen erfolgreich eingesetzt. FARN verfügt über einen GNSS-Kompass, der eine präzise Schätzung des Steuerkurses auch in Umgebungen erlaubt, in denen eine konventionelle Schätzung mit Hilfe eines Magnetkompasses nicht zuverlässig ist. Der GNSS-Kompass kombiniert die Messungen von zwei GNSS-Empfängern mit der echtzeitfähigen Lagebestimmung von FARN. Damit ist insbesondere der Einsatz von UAVs in arktischen Umgebungen im Rahmen des Projektes ROBEX trotz der schwachen horizontalen Komponente des Erdmagnetfeldes möglich. Zusätzlich erlaubt FARN eine zentimetergenaue relative Positionierung mehrerer UAVs in Echtzeit. Dies ermöglicht präzise Flugmanöver innerhalb eines Schwarms, aber auch die Ausführung kooperativer Aufgaben, bei denen mehrere UAVs ein gemeinsames Ziel haben oder physikalisch gekoppelt sind. In Verbindung mit dem Projekt MIDRAS wurde ein Drohnenabwehrsystem entwickelt, das auf zwei kooperativen Drohnen basiert, die koordiniert agieren und ein gemeinsam aufgehängtes Netz tragen, um eine potenziell gefährliche Drohne in der Luft einzufangen. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden sowohl theoretische als auch praktische Aspekte der UAV-Entwicklung behandelt, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf den Bereichen der Signalverarbeitung, der Navigation und der Steuerung, der Elektrotechnik, der Robotik sowie der Informatik und der Programmierung eingebetteter Systeme liegt. Darüber hinaus soll diese Arbeit eine zusammengefasste Referenz für die weitere Drohnenforschung darstellen. Die Arbeit erläutert und modelliert die verwendete UAV-Plattform, das Antriebssystem, das elektronische Design und die eingesetzten Sensoren. Nach der Ausarbeitung mathematischer Konventionen zur Lagedarstellung, wird der eigentliche Kern des Flugreglers erläutert, nämlich die eingebettete Schätzung der Eigenbewegung und die prinzipielle Regelungsarchitektur. Anschließend werden, basierend auf grundlegenden Navigationsalgorithmen, fortgeschrittene trägerphasenbasierte Methoden und deren Zusammenhang mit der Schätzung der Eigenbewegung abgeleitet. Zusätzlich werden verschiedene Implementierungsdetails und Optimierungsschritte des Systems beschrieben. Das System wird innerhalb der beiden Projekte erfolgreich verwendet und getestet. Nach einer kritischen Untersuchung und Bewertung des entwickelten Systems werden bestehende Einschränkungen und mögliche Verbesserungen aufgezeigt. T3 - Research in Aerospace Information Technology - 1 KW - Drohne KW - Flugnavigation KW - Kalman-Filter KW - Phasenmehrdeutigkeit KW - Flugregelung KW - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) KW - Sensorfusion KW - Error-State Extendend Kalman Filter KW - Baseline Constrained LAMBDA KW - Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radio ranging KW - Loose Coupling Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-223136 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Tran-Gia, Phuoc A1 - Hoßfeld, Tobias T1 - Performance Modeling and Analysis of Communication Networks BT - A Lecture Note N2 - This textbook provides an introduction to common methods of performance modeling and analysis of communication systems. These methods form the basis of traffic engineering, teletraffic theory, and analytical system dimensioning. The fundamentals of probability theory, stochastic processes, Markov processes, and embedded Markov chains are presented. Basic queueing models are described with applications in communication networks. Advanced methods are presented that have been frequently used in recent practice, especially discrete-time analysis algorithms, or which go beyond classical performance measures such as Quality of Experience or energy efficiency. Recent examples of modern communication networks include Software Defined Networking and the Internet of Things. Throughout the book, illustrative examples are used to provide practical experience in performance modeling and analysis. Target group: The book is aimed at students and scientists in computer science and technical computer science, operations research, electrical engineering and economics. N2 - Dieses Lehrbuch bietet eine Einführung in gängige Methoden zur Modellbildung und analytische Leistungsbewertung von Kommunikationssystemen. Diese Methoden bilden die Grundlage für Verkehrstheorie und Systemdimensionierung. Die Grundlagen der Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie, stochastische Prozesse, Markov-Prozesse und eingebettete Markov-Ketten werden vorgestellt. Grundlegende Warteschlangenmodelle werden mit Anwendungen aus Kommunikationsnetzwerken beschrieben. Es werden auch weiterführende Methoden vorgestellt, die in der jüngeren Praxis häufig verwendet wurden, insbesondere zeitdiskrete Analysealgorithmen, oder QoE und Energieeffizienz. Aktuelle Beispiele für moderne Kommunikationsnetze sind Software Defined Networking oder das Internet der Dinge. Im gesamten Buch werden anschauliche Beispiele verwendet, um praktische Erfahrungen in der Leistungsmodellierung und -analyse zu vermitteln. Zielgruppe: Das Buch richtet sich an Studierende und WissenschaftlerInnen aus den Bereichen Informatik und technische Informatik, Operations Research, Elektrotechnik und Wirtschaftswissenschaft. KW - performance modeling KW - Markovian and Non-Markovian systems KW - discrete-time models and analysis KW - communication networks KW - communication network KW - performance evaluation KW - Markov model KW - stochastic processes KW - queueing theory Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-241920 SN - 978-3-95826-152-5 SN - 978-3-95826-153-2 N1 - Parallel erschienen als Druckausgabe in Würzburg University Press, 978-3-95826-152-5, 65,00 Euro. PB - Würzburg University Press CY - Würzburg ET - 1st edition ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Truman, Samuel A1 - von Mammen, Sebastian T1 - Interactive Self-Assembling Agent Ensembles T2 - Proceedings of the 1st Games Technology Summit N2 - In this paper, we bridge the gap between procedural content generation (PCG) and user-generated content (UGC) by proposing and demonstrating an interactive agent-based model of self-assembling ensembles that can be directed though user input. We motivate these efforts by considering the opportunities technology provides to pursue game designs based on according game design frameworks. We present three different use cases of the proposed model that emphasize its potential to (1) self-assemble into predefined 3D graphical assets, (2) define new structures in the context of virtual environments by self-assembling layers on the surfaces of arbitrary 3D objects, and (3) allow novel structures to self-assemble only considering the model’s configuration and no external dependencies. To address the performance restrictions in computer games, we realized the prototypical model implementation by means of an efficient entity component system (ECS). We conclude the paper with an outlook on future steps to further explore novel interactive, dynamic PCG mechanics and to ensure their efficiency. KW - procedural content generation KW - user-generated content KW - game mechanics KW - agent-based models KW - self-assembly Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246032 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Unruh, Fabian A1 - Landeck, Maximilian A1 - Oberdörfer, Sebastian A1 - Lugrin, Jean-Luc A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - The Influence of Avatar Embodiment on Time Perception - Towards VR for Time-Based Therapy JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Psycho-pathological conditions, such as depression or schizophrenia, are often accompanied by a distorted perception of time. People suffering from this conditions often report that the passage of time slows down considerably and that they are “stuck in time.” Virtual Reality (VR) could potentially help to diagnose and maybe treat such mental conditions. However, the conditions in which a VR simulation could correctly diagnose a time perception deviation are still unknown. In this paper, we present an experiment investigating the difference in time experience with and without a virtual body in VR, also known as avatar. The process of substituting a person’s body with a virtual body is called avatar embodiment. Numerous studies demonstrated interesting perceptual, emotional, behavioral, and psychological effects caused by avatar embodiment. However, the relations between time perception and avatar embodiment are still unclear. Whether or not the presence or absence of an avatar is already influencing time perception is still open to question. Therefore, we conducted a between-subjects design with and without avatar embodiment as well as a real condition (avatar vs. no-avatar vs. real). A group of 105 healthy subjects had to wait for seven and a half minutes in a room without any distractors (e.g., no window, magazine, people, decoration) or time indicators (e.g., clocks, sunlight). The virtual environment replicates the real physical environment. Participants were unaware that they will be asked to estimate their waiting time duration as well as describing their experience of the passage of time at a later stage. Our main finding shows that the presence of an avatar is leading to a significantly faster perceived passage of time. It seems to be promising to integrate avatar embodiment in future VR time-based therapy applications as they potentially could modulate a user’s perception of the passage of time. We also found no significant difference in time perception between the real and the VR conditions (avatar, no-avatar), but further research is needed to better understand this outcome. KW - virtual reality KW - time perception KW - avatar embodiment KW - immersion KW - human computer interaction (HCI) Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259076 VL - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Walter, Thomas A1 - Degen, Jacqueline A1 - Pfeiffer, Keram A1 - Stöckl, Anna A1 - Montenegro, Sergio A1 - Degen, Tobias T1 - A new innovative real-time tracking method for flying insects applicable under natural conditions JF - BMC Zoology N2 - Background Sixty percent of all species are insects, yet despite global efforts to monitor animal movement patterns, insects are continuously underrepresented. This striking difference between species richness and the number of species monitored is not due to a lack of interest but rather to the lack of technical solutions. Often the accuracy and speed of established tracking methods is not high enough to record behavior and react to it experimentally in real-time, which applies in particular to small flying animals. Results Our new method of real-time tracking relates to frequencies of solar radiation which are almost completely absorbed by traveling through the atmosphere. For tracking, photoluminescent tags with a peak emission (1400 nm), which lays in such a region of strong absorption through the atmosphere, were attached to the animals. The photoluminescent properties of passivated lead sulphide quantum dots were responsible for the emission of light by the tags and provide a superb signal-to noise ratio. We developed prototype markers with a weight of 12.5 mg and a diameter of 5 mm. Furthermore, we developed a short wave infrared detection system which can record and determine the position of an animal in a heterogeneous environment with a delay smaller than 10 ms. With this method we were able to track tagged bumblebees as well as hawk moths in a flight arena that was placed outside on a natural meadow. Conclusion Our new method eliminates the necessity of a constant or predictable environment for many experimental setups. Furthermore, we postulate that the developed matrix-detector mounted to a multicopter will enable tracking of small flying insects, over medium range distances (>1000m) in the near future because: a) the matrix-detector equipped with an 70 mm interchangeable lens weighs less than 380 g, b) it evaluates the position of an animal in real-time and c) it can directly control and communicate with electronic devices. KW - natural environment KW - insect tracking KW - real-time KW - movement ecology KW - heterogeneous background Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265716 VL - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wamser, Florian A1 - Seufert, Anika A1 - Hall, Andrew A1 - Wunderer, Stefan A1 - Hoßfeld, Tobias T1 - Valid statements by the crowd: statistical measures for precision in crowdsourced mobile measurements JF - Network N2 - Crowdsourced network measurements (CNMs) are becoming increasingly popular as they assess the performance of a mobile network from the end user's perspective on a large scale. Here, network measurements are performed directly on the end-users' devices, thus taking advantage of the real-world conditions end-users encounter. However, this type of uncontrolled measurement raises questions about its validity and reliability. The problem lies in the nature of this type of data collection. In CNMs, mobile network subscribers are involved to a large extent in the measurement process, and collect data themselves for the operator. The collection of data on user devices in arbitrary locations and at uncontrolled times requires means to ensure validity and reliability. To address this issue, our paper defines concepts and guidelines for analyzing the precision of CNMs; specifically, the number of measurements required to make valid statements. In addition to the formal definition of the aspect, we illustrate the problem and use an extensive sample data set to show possible assessment approaches. This data set consists of more than 20.4 million crowdsourced mobile measurements from across France, measured by a commercial data provider. KW - mobile networks KW - crowdsourced measurements KW - statistical validity Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284154 SN - 2673-8732 VL - 1 IS - 2 SP - 215 EP - 232 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wienrich, Carolin A1 - Komma, Philipp A1 - Vogt, Stephanie A1 - Latoschik, Marc E. T1 - Spatial Presence in Mixed Realities – Considerations About the Concept, Measures, Design, and Experiments JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Plenty of theories, models, measures, and investigations target the understanding of virtual presence, i.e., the sense of presence in immersive Virtual Reality (VR). Other varieties of the so-called eXtended Realities (XR), e.g., Augmented and Mixed Reality (AR and MR) incorporate immersive features to a lesser degree and continuously combine spatial cues from the real physical space and the simulated virtual space. This blurred separation questions the applicability of the accumulated knowledge about the similarities of virtual presence and presence occurring in other varieties of XR, and corresponding outcomes. The present work bridges this gap by analyzing the construct of presence in mixed realities (MR). To achieve this, the following presents (1) a short review of definitions, dimensions, and measurements of presence in VR, and (2) the state of the art views on MR. Additionally, we (3) derived a working definition of MR, extending the Milgram continuum. This definition is based on entities reaching from real to virtual manifestations at one time point. Entities possess different degrees of referential power, determining the selection of the frame of reference. Furthermore, we (4) identified three research desiderata, including research questions about the frame of reference, the corresponding dimension of transportation, and the dimension of realism in MR. Mainly the relationship between the main aspects of virtual presence of immersive VR, i.e., the place-illusion, and the plausibility-illusion, and of the referential power of MR entities are discussed regarding the concept, measures, and design of presence in MR. Finally, (5) we suggested an experimental setup to reveal the research heuristic behind experiments investigating presence in MR. The present work contributes to the theories and the meaning of and approaches to simulate and measure presence in MR. We hypothesize that research about essential underlying factors determining user experience (UX) in MR simulations and experiences is still in its infancy and hopes this article provides an encouraging starting point to tackle related questions. KW - mixed reality KW - virtual-reality-continuum KW - spatial presence KW - place-illusion KW - plausibility-illusion KW - transportation KW - realism Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260328 VL - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wienrich, Carolin A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - eXtended Artificial Intelligence: New Prospects of Human-AI Interaction Research JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Artificial Intelligence (AI) covers a broad spectrum of computational problems and use cases. Many of those implicate profound and sometimes intricate questions of how humans interact or should interact with AIs. Moreover, many users or future users do have abstract ideas of what AI is, significantly depending on the specific embodiment of AI applications. Human-centered-design approaches would suggest evaluating the impact of different embodiments on human perception of and interaction with AI. An approach that is difficult to realize due to the sheer complexity of application fields and embodiments in reality. However, here XR opens new possibilities to research human-AI interactions. The article’s contribution is twofold: First, it provides a theoretical treatment and model of human-AI interaction based on an XR-AI continuum as a framework for and a perspective of different approaches of XR-AI combinations. It motivates XR-AI combinations as a method to learn about the effects of prospective human-AI interfaces and shows why the combination of XR and AI fruitfully contributes to a valid and systematic investigation of human-AI interactions and interfaces. Second, the article provides two exemplary experiments investigating the aforementioned approach for two distinct AI-systems. The first experiment reveals an interesting gender effect in human-robot interaction, while the second experiment reveals an Eliza effect of a recommender system. Here the article introduces two paradigmatic implementations of the proposed XR testbed for human-AI interactions and interfaces and shows how a valid and systematic investigation can be conducted. In sum, the article opens new perspectives on how XR benefits human-centered AI design and development. KW - human-artificial intelligence interface KW - human-artificial intelligence interaction KW - XR-artificial intelligence continuum KW - XR-artificial intelligence combination KW - research methods KW - human-centered, human-robot KW - recommender system Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260296 VL - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Winter, Carla A1 - Kern, Florian A1 - Gall, Dominik A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Käthner, Ivo T1 - Immersive virtual reality during gait rehabilitation increases walking speed and motivation: a usability evaluation with healthy participants and individuals with multiple sclerosis and stroke JF - Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation N2 - Background: The rehabilitation of gait disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and stroke is often based on conventional treadmill training. Virtual reality (VR)-based treadmill training can increase motivation and improve therapy outcomes. The present study evaluated an immersive virtual reality application (using a head-mounted display, HMD) for gait rehabilitation with patients to (1) demonstrate its feasibility and acceptance and to (2) compare its short-term effects to a semi-immersive presentation (using a monitor) and a conventional treadmill training without VR to assess the usability of both systems and estimate the effects on walking speed and motivation. Methods: In a within-subjects study design, 36 healthy participants and 14 persons with MS or stroke participated in each of the three experimental conditions (VR via HMD, VR via monitor, treadmill training without VR). Results: For both groups, the walking speed in the HMD condition was higher than in treadmill training without VR and in the monitor condition. Healthy participants reported a higher motivation after the HMD condition as compared with the other conditions. Importantly, no side effects in the sense of simulator sickness occurred and usability ratings were high. No increases in heart rate were observed following the VR conditions. Presence ratings were higher for the HMD condition compared with the monitor condition for both user groups. Most of the healthy study participants (89%) and patients (71%) preferred the HMD-based training among the three conditions and most patients could imagine using it more frequently. Conclusions For the first time, the present study evaluated the usability of an immersive VR system for gait rehabilitation in a direct comparison with a semi-immersive system and a conventional training without VR with healthy participants and patients. The study demonstrated the feasibility of combining a treadmill training with immersive VR. Due to its high usability and low side effects, it might be particularly suited for patients to improve training motivation and training outcome e. g. the walking speed compared with treadmill training using no or only semi-immersive VR. Immersive VR systems still require specific technical setup procedures. This should be taken into account for specific clinical use-cases during a cost-benefit assessment. KW - rehabilitation KW - gait disorder KW - virtual reality KW - multiple sclerosis KW - stroke KW - head-mounted display KW - motivation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258698 SN - 1743-0003 VL - 18 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yuan, Yijun A1 - Borrmann, Dorit A1 - Hou, Jiawei A1 - Ma, Yuexin A1 - Nüchter, Andreas A1 - Schwertfeger, Sören T1 - Self-Supervised point set local descriptors for Point Cloud Registration JF - Sensors N2 - Descriptors play an important role in point cloud registration. The current state-of-the-art resorts to the high regression capability of deep learning. However, recent deep learning-based descriptors require different levels of annotation and selection of patches, which make the model hard to migrate to new scenarios. In this work, we learn local registration descriptors for point clouds in a self-supervised manner. In each iteration of the training, the input of the network is merely one unlabeled point cloud. Thus, the whole training requires no manual annotation and manual selection of patches. In addition, we propose to involve keypoint sampling into the pipeline, which further improves the performance of our model. Our experiments demonstrate the capability of our self-supervised local descriptor to achieve even better performance than the supervised model, while being easier to train and requiring no data labeling. KW - point cloud registration KW - descriptors KW - self-supervised learning Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-223000 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 21 IS - 2 ER - TY - CHAP ED - von Mammen, Sebastian ED - Klemke, Roland ED - Lorber, Martin T1 - Proceedings of the 1st Games Technology Summit BT - part of Clash of Realites 11th International Conference on the Technology and Theory of Digital Games N2 - As part of the Clash of Realities International Conference on the Technology and Theory of Digital Games, the Game Technology Summit is a premium venue to bring together experts from academia and industry to disseminate state-of-the-art research on trending technology topics in digital games. In this first iteration of the Game Technology Summit, we specifically paid attention on how the successes in AI in Natural User Interfaces have been impacting the games industry (industry track) and which scientific, state-of-the-art ideas and approaches are currently pursued (scientific track). KW - Veranstaltung KW - Künstliche Intelligenz KW - Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation KW - Computerspiel KW - natural user interfaces KW - artificial intelligence Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245776 SN - 978-3-945459-36-2 ER -