Institute of Pervasive Computing

We are very happy to announce, that the renowned International Conference on Embedded Wireless Systems and Networks (EWSN) will take place in Linz/Austria, Johannes Kepler University, October 3-5, 2022.

The bidding committee, which convinced the EWSN steering committee to bring the EWSN 2022 to Austria, is a high representative and very strong (as well in scientific, organizational, and technological aspects) composition of Professors and (Key) Researchers of renowned organizations:

• Pro²Future (Linz, Graz), https://pro2future.at/
  
• Silicon Austria Labs (Linz, Graz, Villach), https://silicon-austria-labs.com/
• Linz Center of Mechatronics, https://www.lcm.at/
• JKU Institute of Pervasive Computing (Prof. Ferscha), https://www.pervasive.jku.at/
• JKU Institute of Telecooperation (Prof. Kotsis, ACM President), https://www.jku.at/en/institute-of-telecooperation/
• JKU Institute for Communications Engineering and RF-Systems (Prof. Springer), https://www.jku.at/en/institute-for-communications-engineering-and-rf-systems/
• JKU Cyber Physical Systems Lab (Prof. Zoitl), https://www.jku.at/en/linz-institute-of-technology/research/research-labs/cyber-physical-systems-lab/

International Conference on Embedded Wireless Systems and Networks (EWSN)

Professor Ferscha was elected as the new president of the ÖWGP - Austrian Scientific Society for Production Technology - at the spring conference on 24 February 2020. The ÖWGP is a platform of researchers from the TU Vienna, TU Graz, Montanuni Leoben and the JKU Linz, which as the Austrian Scientific Society for Production Technology is dedicated to future questions of production.

www.oewgp.at

On January 23rd 2020, Prof. Ferscha contributed with a Keynote about "Aware Systems: Reversing Interaction Principles" to the International Workshop Conference on Digital Intelligence and Aware Systems, Interactive Music Technologies, in St. Gilgen, Austria.

Conference Homepage [html]
Conference Program [pdf] and Addendum [pdf]
In Salzburger Nachrichten [pdf], [html]

Am 8. 11. 2019 feierte die Informatik ihr 50-jähriges Bestehen and der JKU. Prof. Joe Paradiso vom MIT Media Lab eröffnete die Veranstaltung mit einer Keynote zum Thema "How We Will Connect To Our Networked Future in a Post-IoT World".

We have already witnessed profound and often unanticipated developments as IoT is built out and the world is mediated via a mainly graphic wireless device held at arms length. But what will happen once the world is precognitively interpreted by what we term ‘sensory prosthetics’ that change what and how humans physically perceive, a world where your own intelligence is split ever more seamlessly between your brain and the cloud? Accordingly, this talk will overview the broad theme of interfacing humans to the ubiquitous electronic "nervous system" that sensor networks will soon extend across things, places, and people, going well beyond the ‘Internet of Things,’ challenging the notion of physical presence and the boundary of self. I'll illustrate this through two avenues of research - one looking at a new kind of digital "omniscience" (e.g., different kinds of browsers for sensor network data & agile frameworks for sensor/data representation) and the other looking at buildings & tools as "prosthetic" extensions of humans (e.g., making HVAC and lighting systems an extension of your natural activity and sense of comfort, or smart tools as human-robot cooperation in the hand), drawing from many projects that are running in my group at the MIT Media Lab and touching on technical areas ranging from low-power wearable sensing/robotics to cognitive audio and distributed sensor networks.

Prof. Dr. Joseph A. Paradiso, MIT Media Lab, USA

Joe Paradiso at the MIT Media Lab [html]
50 Jahre Informatik [html]
Download Keynote Video [mp4]
Download Keynote Slides [pdf]

Am 24. Oktober 2019 fand das Jubiläumssymposium "400 Jahre Keplers Buch - Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft heute" an der Johannes Kepler Universität Linz statt. Unter den Vortragenden war auch Professor Ferscha, der über die "Harmonices mundi" berichtete.

"Kepler ist bis heute ein Idol und Vorbild. Für ihn war die wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis, die sich täglich ändern kann, das höchste Gut." sagt Alois Ferscha über den Namenspatron der Universität Linz.

2019-10-24, Videovortrag Prof. Ferscha zu
"400 Jahre Keplers Buch - Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft von heute" [mp4]
www.jku.at, 2019-10-25, Infos zum Programm und Vita der Mitwirkenden [pdf]
www.jku.at, 2019-10-25, 200 TeilnehmerInnen bei Kepler-Symposium [html]
www.nachrichten.at, 2019-10-25, Vor 400 Jahren verkündete Johannes Kepler in Linz die Harmonie der Welt [html] (auch OÖNachrichten, 2019-10-25, p.39)
ooe.orf.at, 2019-10-26, Symposion: 400 Jahre Keplers Gesetze [html]

A nowadays frequently reappearing question in AI dates back to an article by Alan Turing in 1950 which reads: "I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think?" (Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Mind, Vol. 59, No. 236 (Oct., 1950), pp. 433-460).

In his keynote Cognitive IT: The Dawn of the Age of 'Machine Thinking' at COGNITIVE 2019, Prof. Ferscha presented a walk through the evolution of early AI, assessing the state of achievement as for today with convolutional NNWs, LSTMs, unsupervised metods, GANS, etc.,ending up in a framework for "Embedded AI", where embedded, wirelessly connected tiny compute plattforms equipped with a multitude of miniaturized sensors collect data about real world phenomena, analyze and interpret that data in real time, reason about the recognized concepts and symbols, make decisions, and influence or control their environment via a multitude of actuators. Sensing, reasoning and control, thus, are tightly interconnecting the physical and digital domains of the world, with feedback loops coupling one domain to the other. They implement notions of autonomous adaptive behavior.

COGNITIVE 2019 [html]
Keynote Speaker Certificate [pdf]

Dinge mit dem Auge steuern

Auch heuer wurden vier AbsolventInnen der Johannes Kepler Universität Linz mit dem Adolf-Adam-Informatikpreis ausgezeichnet. Für seine Masterarbeit „EyeMazing - Das Auge als Interaktionsmöglichkeit der Zukunft“ durfte sich Florian Jungwirth vom Institut für Pervasive Computing über den ersten Platz freuen. JurorInnen waren wie immer Oberstufen-SchülerInnen aus ganz Oberösterreich.

Artikel der OÖ Nachrichten [html]
Artikel der JKU [html]
Artikel der JKU [pdf]

Prof. Ferscha talks about cognitive Products and Production systems of the Future

INDTECH 2018 Session 1.5 [html]
Download Video [mp4]

Prof. Ferscha und sein Forscherteam erhielten den 1. Platz des ÖWGP-Zukunftspreises

Im Rahmen der internationalen Konferenz INDTECH 2018 wurde das erste mal der ÖWGP-Zukunftspreis verliehen. Das Forschungsprojekt Attentive Machines ging dabei als Sieger des zweistufigen Auswahlverfahrens hervor und erhielt den 1. Platz mit einem Preisgeld von 8000 Euro, gesponsert vom bmvit.

Artikel bei TU Austria [html]

Rückblick: Pro²Future in Progress & 50 Jahre TNF - Informatik JKU
Dienstag, 18. September 2018, ab 13:00
Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Festsaal

Keynote: The Future of Products and Production Systems is Cognitive
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alois Ferscha, wissenschaftliche Leitung Pro2Future, Institut für Pervasive Computing, JKU Linz

COMET K1 Zentrum Pro²Future
50 Jahre TNF @ JKU Programm
Pro²Future in Progress Event Fotos
Pro²Future in Progress Event Videos

EyeControl aims to create a whole new way of human-machine interaction in complex manufacturing settings, by introducing eye-gaze as a modality of implicit and explicit interaction with industrial machines and processes performed by them. The EyeControl project picks up on eye tracking techniques developed within the research team of the proposer, and will develop a framework for gaze-only machine controls. A methodological apparatus of universal, general purpose, reusable control components will be developed, and validated within cyberphysical industrial systems scenarios (Industrie 4.0) with world leading Austrian and European industries: voestalpine Stahl and voestalpine Polynorm. EyeControl is supposed to tackle pressing problems in heavy-duty industry worker-machine interactions, among them being (i) the optimization of product quality based on human visual inspections, and (ii) the optimization of cognitive load sensitive, guided interactions in complex assembly tasks. On top of these, the anticipated EyeControl research results are considered to lay foundational ground for a new generation of Man-Machine interaction modalities, with potential of application also in domains like medical engineering, maintenance and construction, operations management and the like.

Consortium: Institut für Pervasive Computing (JKU, Lead), Pervasive Computing Applications (PCA, RSA FG), voestalpine Stahl GmbH, voestalpine Polynorm GmbH und Co. KG.

FFG, ICT of the Future, Call 4 (2015), Project 855419

Laparoscopic surgical suboptimal outcomes in patient safety measures are correlated with (i) cognitive load / level of attention of the operating surgeon, (ii) the frequency and degree of disruptions to the surgical workflow, and (iii) the misalignment of visual and motor axes in laparoscopic equipment / setting (eye-hand coordination).

This project will create the foundational, design and operational principles of future, surgeon-friendly minimal invasive surgery operating room information technologies (MIS-IT), which –given the ever growing complexity in surgical workflows, as well as instrument and equipment settings– will have to build on human attention as a scarce resource.

On the formal model’s and methods’ side, MinIAttention will

1. identify types of human attention, as well as
2. cognitive and physiological mechanisms revealing its relation to perception, memory, decision making, and learning.
3. characterize aspects of attention of surgeons during MIS operations, by
4. focusing on established theories of individual attention and respective attention models

Consortium:
Institut für Pervasive Computing (JKU, Lead), AKh Linz GmbH, Karl Storz Endoskop Austria GmbH, University of Sussex, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.

FFG, BRIDGE Frühphase, 3. Ausschreibung (2014), Projekt 851227

Ein Bericht des ORF OÖ erläutert in OÖ Heute aktuelle Entwicklungen des Instituts für Pervasive Computing zum Thema implizite und berührungslose Interaktion.

Download Video (Quelle: ORF OÖ) [mp4]

Das Smartphone kann auch als Sensor für Menschenmassen dienen. Linzer Forscher haben den Wiener City Marathon mit einem Werkzeug ausgestattet, das Besuchern hilft, Massendrängereien aus dem Weg zu gehen.

Wie jedes Jahr waren beim vergangenen Vienna City Marathon (VCM) am 12. April bis zu 400.000 Menschen auf den Beinen. Sie säumen die Strecke, fahren mit Öffis kreuz und quer durch die Bezirke. Sie feuern ihre Angehörigen an, holen sie vom Ziel ab. Gerade um den Wiener Heldenplatz herum ballt sich die Menge oft gewaltig zusammen. Menschenansammlungen dieser Größe bergen eine Gefahr in sich. Zuletzt hat das das Unglück bei der Loveparade 2010 in Duisburg bewiesen, bei dem 21 Menschen in der Menge erdrückt wurden.

Pressemitteilung
VCM2013 Social Density [mp4]
VCM2014 Social Density [mp4]
VCM2015 Social Density [mp4][jpg][jpg]
Der Standard, 22.4.2015 [pdf]
derstandard.at, 2015-04-26 [pdf] [html]
Ö1, Radiokolleg, 2015-07-30 Schwarmintelligenz