cDrones filmed for TV-broadcast "Bildungsland Kaernten"

 

On November 23rd we were invited to show the collaboration methods between small-scale UAVs explored and studied in the cDrones project to the Austrian TV broadcast. Two heterogenous types of UAVs were deployed to monitor the entrance of the Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt and how students, researchers and industrial partners discuss about their results.
This report will be broadcasted on "Kaernten heute" on ORF2 within the series "Bildungsland Kärnten" (educational chances in Carinthia).

 

 

SRSnet: Best Practice Project!

 

The SRSnet project (http://SRSnet.lakeside-labs.com) has been awarded as a best practice project of the Interreg IV programme! The cooperative project of the Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt (Pervasive Computing Group and Traffic Informatics Group), Lakeside Labs and the two Italian companies EyeTech and InfoFactory has been chosen due to the outstanding project results and its good project management. The published brochure lists SRSnet along with several other Interreg projects to demonstrate the effectiveness of cross-border cooperations.

 

Bigger, stronger, more powerful!

After long weeks of waiting, we finally received our new UAV - the MD4-1000. It's really huge and it is a lot of fun to fly it! In one of our first test flights we took a panorama of the Campus and Lakeside Park with Lake Wörthersee in the background.

 

Best Paper Award for NES Researchers @ ROSE 2011!

 

Researchers of the Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems (NES) have recently received the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Symposium on Robotic and Sensor Environments (ROSE 2011) in Montreal. Resulting from the research project cDrones, the chair honoured the publication „Incremental, Orthorectified and Loop-independent Mosaicking of Aerial Images Taken by micro UAVs” by Saeed Yahyanejad, Markus Quaritsch, and Bernhard Rinner.

 

Check our publications-website for the paper and other recent publications. Congratulations! 

 

 

IEEE/ICE Summer School in Klagenfurt

 

The Pervasive Computing Group organized the first summer school of the Erasmus Mundus doctoral school on Interactive and Cognitive Environments. The IEEE/ICE Summer School on Networked Embedded Systems took place from September 3-7, 2011 in Klagenfurt and attracted 35 participants from 17 different countries.

The summer school included 8 lectures, 2 tutorials, student presentations, a lab tour and an excursion to Infineon Austria in Villach. The lectures were given by world experts in the field including Ian F. Akyildiz (GaTech), Kay Roemer (Univ. Luebeck), Carlo Regazzoni (Univ. Genua) and Andrea Cavallaro (QM Univ. London).

 

Click here for photos and videos!

 

Klagenfurt hosted the 8th IEEE Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-based Surveillance from August 30 to September 2, 2011!

 

AVSS-2011 featured workshops, challenge sessions, a dedicated Industrial Surveillance Day and was co-located with the ICE Summer School on Networked Embedded Systems. Together with Gian Luca Foresti, Bernhard Rinner served as general conference chair. Andrea Cavallaro served as technical program chair.

 

Check the AVSS-2011 site for photos and videos! 

 

Most recent alumni @ NES!

 

We are happy to announce that Thomas Winkler has passed his dissertation defense with distinction! His PhD thesis is entitled “Security and Privacy in Smart Camera Networks”. The PhD committee was composed by Prof. Hellwagner (chair), Prof. Bloem (TU Graz) and Prof. Rinner.

 

Let’s wish our most recent alumni all the best for his future!  

TrustCAM - a prototype developed at the Pervasive Computing Group

In a recent interview, researcher Thomas Winkler talks about the TrustCAM prototype developed at the Pervasive Computing Group. This trustworthy camera system allows to detect and encrypt privacy sensitive data directly on the camera. In ongoing work, he explores new ways how privacy protection properties of camera systems can be verified by monitored people.

 

Read the article here or listen to the interview here!

 

IEEE Xtreme Programming Challenge

On September 23, 2010 six teams from Klagenfurt University participated in the IEEE Xtreme Programming Challenge (a 24-hour programming competition). Eight out of 18 participants were NES-members. In total, 971 teams from all over the world took part in this competition and all teams from Klagenfurt managed to reach the Top 100!

 

 

Bernhard Dieber talks about TEWI's AntMe! Challenge - live on air!

Bernhard Dieber was recently interviewed by Mike Diwald (Radio Kärnten) as part of the promotion of the TEWI's AntMe! Challenge. In this interview he talks about the rules of the challenge and how to participate. Just listen in to the interview and learn more on the challenge here!

 

Interview with Bernhard Dieber (courtesy Mike Diwald/Radio Kärnten)

 

GeoBashing UI paper prototype user test

 

Last week, the GeoBashing team performed a paper prototype test to evaluate the new user interface for the GeoBashing MMMOG. Valuable feedback for further improvement of the GUI has been collected.

Click for the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPr6MgF93jQ

 

 

Pervasive Computing at "Lange Nacht der Forschung 2010"!

More than 6000 interested people visited this years "Lange Nacht der Forschung". The Pervasive Computing Group presented two projects within this event. The SOMA project demonstrated an online mutli-media distribution service showing content collected during this event. The cDrones project prepared a booth where people could try to build an overview image out of images taken from UAVs and plan their rescue mission. 

This event was a great success and we would like to thank all our visitors for their interest!

 

We are happy to announce that Andreas Starzacher has passed his dissertation defense. His PhD thesis is entitled “Multi-Sensor Real-Time Data Fusion on Embedded Computing Platforms” and was conducted as part of the EVis project. The PhD committee was composed by Prof. Hellwagner (chair), Prof. Bischof (TU Graz) and Prof. Rinner.

Let’s wish our most recent alumni all the best for his future!

 

In July 2010 Fabio El Manchi, Patrick Humnig and Felix Susitz did an internship at the Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems, Pervasive Computing Group. (Advisor Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Schriebl). Their task was to program a new application for the TI watch 'eZ430-chronos'. They implemented a boxing competition game; the winner is the one who has a harder punch. Therefore, they had to read out different sensors, process the sensor data and display the results. All three interns had a lot of fun and gained experience during their work!

 

click here for the video: Fabio, Patrick and Felix talking about their internship!

 

NES Institute Retreat 2010

The annual institute retreat of the Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems again took place at the gorgeous Längsee in Carinthia. Three days of interesting scientific and technical talks of PhD students and researchers were encircled by workshops on team communication and information transfer, as well as future perspectives beyond the research at the institute. Some breaking-ups were gained by making music with some surprise and competing in games bringing the teams save over acid rivers, before enjoying a guided tour through a famous brewery in Carinthia. With the invited talk of Dr. Arnold Maier (EFKON AG), concerning chances in an industrial career the retreat 2010 was rounded up.

 

Mobi Trick awarded 3rd place!

On June 22nd, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) awarded the best project proposals submitted 2009. Our Mobi Trick project (joint research project together with Graz University of Technology and Efkon AG Graz) achieved the 3rd place!

 

June 18, 2010: SOMA & UniKlu HiStories

UniKlu HiStories is a case study within the project "Self-Organizing Multimedia Architecture" (SOMA) to build an interactive multi-media library. Video streams are captured by several smart cameras during the University festival. Visitors can contribute and send photos of their personal history at the University by e-mail. At three locations the most interesting contributions are presented.

 

May 06, 2010: Double Degree Program "Information Technology"

Four prospective students from University of Udine visited together with Dr. Ingrid Visentini, currently studying within the Double Degree program, the Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems to inform themselves about the Double Degree program in Information Technology. The joint program of the Universities of Udine and Klagenfurt allows students to do parts of their master courses at the respective partner university. At the completion of their studies, students are awarded the degrees of both universities.

We at NES are looking forward to welcome the new students in our courses!

 

On February 24th Prof. Nardi (Sapienza Univ. Roma) gave a talk within the Lakeside Labs colloquia.

Prof. Nardi is well known in the robotics community and works in the domain of rescue robots. In his talk he gave an overview of the potential for application of small UAVs for emergency response.

 

First Pervasive Computing Open Lab

On January 14th 2010, the Pervasive Computing Group invited students and colleagues to its first Open Lab. At the event, an insight into the teaching portfolio and research activities of the group was given.

A highlight of the event was the exhibition area where students doing their project or master theses in Pervasive Computing presented their work. The numerous projects covered a wide range of topics including aerial imaging, smart camera systems, pervasive gaming, sensor networks and autonomous robots. Many students took the opportunity to inform themselves about open research projects and thesis topics. An open atmosphere encouraged interesting discussions which likely will lead to new and fruitful student projects. We thank all participants for attending the event and are looking forward to future Open Lab events! 

 

You know NAO? No? Then check out this video!

NAO is a humanoid robot produced by Aldebaran Robotics and got famous because it has its dedicated league at the RoboCup Soccer Competition. On their promotion tour through Austria the company visited also our Institute and gave an impressive demonstration of this cute robots.

 

On November 20, the cDrones group held its first "research day".  The intention of this event was to present the current state of the project and to discuss research questions to tackle in the coming months.

All master students presented their theses work. Our research staff focused their presentations on the current state of the art and open problems.  The research day was accompanied by an impressive demonstration of our software framework for simulating and visualizing a mission. It was a very intensive but also interesting day with many discussions and ideas for the future. Learn more about the cDrones project here.

 

October 2009: Smart Cameras and Visual Sensor Networks - Tutorial at ESWeek 2009
The motivation for this tutorial was to bring together researchers and students working on the various fields related to smart camera networks and to introduce this topic to embedded systems people. This half-day tutorial provided a unique opportunity to get introduced to the state-of-the-art and open problems in smart camera networks and to get to know the work and the people conducting research in this field. Learn here more!    

October 2009: On October 24 the IEEE Xtreme 24-hour programming competition took place (http://ieeextreme.org/). Over 700 Teams competed in this worldwide contest.

Klagenfurt University was represented by Anita Sobe (ITEC), István Fehérvári (NES/Mobile Systems Group) and Bernhard Dieber (NES/Pervasive Computing Group). Their effort resulted in 25. place which is the upper 5% worldwide and a top-ten ranking in the IEEE region 08 (Europe, Middle East and Africa)!

 

July 2009: In course of the initiative 'Informatik erLeben' (http://informatik-erleben.uni-klu.ac.at/) fourth grade pupils (elementary school) visited our university to “experience” current research topics. Markus Quaritsch demonstrated the cDrones project and explained how microdrones fly. The children where were very enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions.

 

click here for the online Gallery of 'Informatik erLeben'

 

July 2009: During the IT-Summercamp (http://it-camp.uni-klu.ac.at/) 33 pupils between 14 and 18 years were guests at Klagenfurt University. Bernhard Dieber advised eight of them in the "Just another Messenger"- project where they implemented an instant messaging chat system. All participants worked with great enthusiasm and fun on this project and are looking forward to the IT-Camp 2010.

 

June 29 - July 5, 2009: "cDrones" at RoboCupRescue!

From June 29 to July 5, 2009 the best robot teams from all over the world competed in the world championship for intelligent robots in Graz/AT. We participated with our project "cDrones" at RoboCupRescue!

 

Youtube: Videos of RoboCup 2009 

 

Gallery: RoboCup Rescue Demo

 

On March 4th, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) awarded the best project proposals submitted 2008.
Our CLIC project achieved the first place out of 12 submissions in the "embedded systems" call!

 

 

On March 18th, the Faculty of Technical Sciences together with HTL Mössingerstrasse and Zentraler Informatikdienst organized this years Linux Day with more than 30 talks and presentations. Our research group was present with a booth demonstrating the cDrones project.  

The forth edition of the „Kinder-Uni” took place at Klagenfurt University on February 19, 2009.  
 

In the station-competition at this years "Lange Nacht der Forschung" our presentation of the cDrones project achieved the second place out of more than 55 competitors in Klagenfurt!
 

Guest Lecture "RFID Topics"
by Dr. Ulrich Neffe/NXP Gratkorn

 

 

eMCAM-08: Workshop on Embedded Middleware for Smart Camera and Visual Sensor Networks, held in conjunction with ICDSC 2008

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ICDSC 2008: Second ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras in Stanford University

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Minister Hahn visits Lakeside Labs project "Collaborative Microdrones"

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In July/August 2008 Professor Mubarak Shah from the University of Central Florida worked as guest professor at the Pervasive Computing Group

 

 

Lakeside Labs Scientific Colloquium "Video Surveillance and Monitoring"

Prof. Mubarak Shah, Central Florida University

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Pervasive Computing Group awarded for organization of ICDSC-07!

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Guest Lecture "Artificial Vision"

Gian Luca Foresti and Christian Micheloni, University of Udine

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Colloquium at Tuebingen University, Germany

Talk with Prof. Rinner

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"Advanced Topics in Pervasive Computing"

New Lecture and Course in Summer Term 2008!

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EURASIP IVP Journal - CALL FOR PAPERS!

Special Issue on Human-Centric Applications of Distributed Camera Networks

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Article on Smart Cameras

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Informatics Colloquium

at University of Paderborn with Prof. Rinner 

 

Smart Cameras again in Press: "Kleine Zeitung", November 17

 

Article on Smart Cameras 

Article "Smart Cameras"

published in "Technology Review" of November 2007

 

Guest Lecture "RFID Topics" by Dr. Ulrich Neffe/NXP Gratkorn 

First ACM/IEEE International Conference On Distributed Smart Cameras

September 25 - 28 | Vienna | Austria

 

Radio-Interview mit "Deutschlandfunk"  

Informatics Keynotes:

"Intelligente Kameras - Vier Augen sehen mehr als zwei"

by Prof. Bernhard Rinner

"Woche der Informatik" | Austrian Computer Society

 

Job Openings
Klagenfurt University is establishing Lakeside Labs - we are actively recruiting researchers at the PhD students- and Postdoc levels!

 

 

Interview with Prof. Rinner, published in "KTZ", July 2007