My primary research interests currently are in innovative mobility concepts including: mobile applications, eXtended reality, accessibility, HCI, sensors and privacy in vehicles. Previously, (before joining the Stuttgart Media University as a Professor) I conducted research in the area of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and distributed systems. One outcome of this research was the Collaborative Editing Framework for XML (CEFX) which I released as Open Source framework on SourceForge (it can be found here.)
The CEFX framework has been improved and extended by a number of other contributors and was used for example in the mobilis research project of the University of Dresden where CEFX was ported to the Android platform. Mobilis is a service platform for collaborative social applications and can be found here.
Some of the results have been incorporated into applications like google docs and other real-time collaborative editors today.
Publications on my research can be found on the “Publications” page.
My research projects since joining the Stuttgart Media University in 2010 are as follows:
Funded Research
- ARENA2036 – CARpulse – Research focusses on capsule based autonomous mobility. I lead the subproject XR based user centered development. Startet Feb. 2024, will end Dec. 2028
- OxiFlexIT – Printed Medical Plaster for detection of circulation disturbance. BMBF funded project with 6 partners. Started June 2019, ended Mai 2022.
- ARENA2036 – FlexCar. Developing mobility concepts for the future. BMBF funded project with 14 partners. Started Nov. 2018, ended Oct. 2023.
- MoodMorph. Flexible interieor in autonomous vehicles. Brose.
- Sleep prevention and behavior change. Daimler.
- ZDF Mediathek in autonomous vehicles. Cellular.
- Smart TUI Cruises. App concept for TUI Cruises. Cellular.
- Smart Mirror for Retail. MarcCain.
- Lorry, TruckTett & Truck Net – Apps for Truck Drivers. Daimler Trucks.
- Porsche SignalViewer – App for the visualization of CAN data. Porsche AG
- Development of a backend-system for mobile automotive apps (called ReADi-Connect) in cooperation and by order of Daimler AG
- Performance analysis of HTML5 application frameworks for Infotainment Systems. In cooperation and by order of Volkswagen AG
- Porsche Light Control, iPad App for the development support of LED Matrix Beam light systems. Porsche AG
- Cloud- and Smartphone-Based Media Aggregation for In-Vehicle-Infotainment Systems. In cooperation and by order of Volkswagen AG (completed 2012)
- Analysis of Multimodal Mobile Authentication Systems. In cooperation with iC Consult GmbH, sponsored by the Horst-Görtz Stiftung (German IT-Security Award, completed 2012)
- Improving Media Management Algorithms for Infotainment Systems. In cooperation and by order of Volkswagen AG (completed in 2010)
Doctoral Theses
Together with Steve Love from the Glasgow School of Art and Sabiha Ghellal from the Stuttgart Media University, I supervise:
- Tobias Schneider working on: The Impact of AI Transparency on the User Experience in Autonomous Driving through Multimodal Communication
Together with Chunbo Luo from the University of Exeter and Qi Wang from the UWS, I supervised:
- Leonhard Menz working on: Smart Charging Solutions for BEVs (completed 2020)
The following PhD Students I supervised in cooperation with Qi Wang from the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), Christos Grecos from the Central Washington University, USA:
- Daniel Thommes working on: RemoteUI – a new system and protocol realizing remote user interfaces over network connections (completed 2016)
- Christiane Reinsch working on: Bridging the gap to car-to-X with smartphones – using smartphones to make cars brighter
- Thomas Fankhauser working on: A pervasive, opportunistic and composable cloud architecture for mobile users (completed 2016)
Together with RMIT University, Melbourne I worked together with the following PhD Students:
- Dominik Stampfl working on: Gameful Urban Mobility (completed 2016).
- Sven Krome working on: AutoPlay – increasing enjoyability in autonomous vehicles of the future (completed 2017)
Master & Bachelor Theses
The following Master and Bachelor theses I supervised in the field of my research interests. You can find the complete list of theses supervised by me under the “Theses” category.
- Development of a GUI Builder for The-M-Project
- Concept for the Secure Connection of Smartphone and Vehicle in Order to Provide Vehicle-Services
- Conceptual Design of a Mobile Application for Media-Aggregation in Infotainment-Systems
- Analysis and Benchmarking of Cross-Plattform-Frameworks for the Development of Mobile Applications
- Conception of a HMI Prototype on Basis of a Tool Evaluation for Car Infotainment Systems
- Analysis on Performance and Usability Optimization of a VNC Server on Embedded Hardware Running Android
- Onboard Online Fleetmanagement Service for the Mercedes-Benz COMAND System
- Analysis and Implementation of the Terminal Mode Specification on Basis of an Android Demo Infotainment Solution for the Integration of Mobile Devices in Vehicles
- Development of the Model Component for a MVC-Framework for the Development of Mobile Webapplications
- Development of the View Component of a HTML5 JavaScript Framework for the Development of Mobile Webapplications
- Espresso – Build-Tool for a JavaScript Framework for the Development of Mobile Webapplications
- Concept and Implementation of a Smartphone App for the Transmission of Tele-Diagnosis Data via Telematics Hardware in a Vehicle
- Algorithms for media management on infotainment systems
- iPhone/iPad interface for diagnostic testing systems