IVE is a panoramic video footage that is displayed on large screens in a cave like environment that creates a sense of physical presence and enables people to better interact and intervene the image of their surroundings. However, the forms of interactions are very limited - yet needed - when users need to create objects on the screen as video overlays and interact with them (e.g., adding and scaling a tree, modifying a building façade etc.).

This study aims to explore the forms of interactions on IVE for effective creation and interaction of the overlays. The student will work with the IVE system in the Sitcom Lab at Ifgi. The study will cover the following steps: creating a video footage and overlays for IVE, exploration of the tools (e.g., smart phone, HTC Vive controllers, touch pad), design of the forms (e.g., adding, removing, scaling, rotating, placing the overlays) of interaction and the UI component.

Sustainability is a broad concept with various interconnecting aspects. As one of them citizens’ feelings and perceptions of environmenment is usually neglected in practice due to the insufficient tools and expertise. However, the improvements in the citizen science and the possibilities provided by the digital visualisation techniques allow a better understanding of people’s emotions towards existing circumstances. This knowledge leads to more accurate assessment of sustainability and better decisions at the local scale.

The thesis aims addressing the local emotional indicators for noise quality in Münster through analysing and spatio-temporal modelling of dynamic emotions.  To achieve this aim, the study suggests to replicate selected locations in Münster at different time frames by using the Immersive Video Environment (IVE) and work with the citizens to collect information about their emotions. The student is free to choose the software and language for the analysis and spatio-temporal modelling. Basic knowledge of working with Unity and one of the programming languages will be an asset for this study.

Suggested readings:

Kals, E., Maes, J. (2002). Sustainable Development and Emotions. In: Schmuck, P., Schultz, W.P. (eds) Psychology of Sustainable Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0995-0_6Kals, E., Maes, J. (2002). Sustainable Development and Emotions. In: Schmuck, P., Schultz, W.P. (eds) Psychology of Sustainable Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0995-0_6

Murphy, Enda and Eoin A. King. “Mapping for sustainability: environmental noise and the city.” (2013).

Text elements in maps (eg. title, legend, axes labels or other ancillary text) are integral components of geographical maps. If these change or disappear, this can affect the meaning and functionality of the map in several ways, from being difficult to use to providing misleading information.

In the context of reproducibility, the comparison of results is a task that we frequently have to elaborate. In order to assist the visual comparison of results as complex as maps, we need to develop tools that make use of the latest technological advancements, in this case from the field of Computer Vision.
Optical Character Recongition (OCR) is a Computer Vision task that addresses the process of converting printed text into a digital format with image processing.

For the needs of this thesis, a prototype that extracts and parses text elements of maps using OCR will be developed and evaluated. As the implications of this topic are many, the details can be adjusted to the student's interest.

Suggested reads:
Chiang, YY., Knoblock, C.A. Recognizing text in raster maps. Geoinformatica 19, 1–27 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10707-014-0203-9

Nowadays, smartphones are an omnipresent companion in our day-to-day life. With the ability to sense our location, location based services (LBS) have become widely used applications (e.g. for navigation, recommender systems, social networks, games, dating apps or fitness tracking). Hence, service providers collect vast amounts of location data about their users. Based on this collected data, providers or malicious third parties who gain access to this data, can infer a lot of additional information (e.g. home, workplace, shopping habits, religious beliefs, political views etc.) about somebody and thus harm their privacy. Those actions are called inferences or inference attacks.

The aim of this thesis is to research possible inference strategies based on the literature and to implement a selection of those. If the topic is chosen as a MSc thesis, an experimental evaluation of different inference strategies is also required.

Due to the algorithmic nature of this topic, the student should be interested in programming and not afraid of digging into some aspects of spatio-temporal analysis. The student is free to choose their programming language and environment of choice. Ideally, the software would be implemented in Javascript, so the results could be integrated into an existing learning application that is currently under development as part of the SIMPORT project (https://simport.net/). The aim of this learning application is to educate users about the risks and consequences of sharing their location data.

Für den GEO-Neubau soll ein interaktives Gebäudeinformations- und -navigationssystem für den Foyerbereich erstellt werden.  Dieses soll Besucher ermöglichen, schnell die Personen oder Institute zu finden, die sie besuchen möchten. Dies kann im Rahmen einer Bachelorarbeit (evtl. auch einer Masterarbeit) geschehen, bei der ein Prototyp (z.B. web-basiert) erstellt wird und anschließend mit Benutzern (vor Ort) evaluiert wird. Eine Einbindung von mobilen Geräten (also den Smartphones von Besuchern) ist eine ebenfalls untersuchenswerte Option.

Interessenten wenden sich bitte an Christian Kray

Großbildschirme und öffentliche Bildschirme finden sich immer häufiger in unserer Umgebung. Zumeist dienen sie nur zur Informationsvermittlung, aber manche Systeme lassen auch Nutzerinteraktion zu. Diese Arbeit zielt auf die Implementierung und Evaluation eines neuen Verfahrens zur Interaktion mit großen Bildschirmen ab. Dabei soll ein Mobiltelefon mit eingebauter Kamera sowie eine am Bilschirm befestigte Kamera genutzt werden, um eine rein optische Kommunikation zwischen Bildschirm und Mobilgerät herzustellen (z.B. via QR-Codes und OpenCV/OpenFrameworks). Grundlegende Kenntnisse in der Programmierung einer mobilen Plattform (Android, iOS, etc.) sind Vorraussetzung zur Durchführung dieser Arbeit. 

Das Ziel ist es, die Tauglichkeit des STRIDE-Threat-Modells für Public Display Systeme anhand einer oder mehrerer Fallstudien zu untersuchen. Mögliche Untersuchungsobjekte sind u.a. das ifgi-Foyer-System, Bankautomaten, Fahrkarten- automaten oder interaktive Bildschirme in Kaufhäusern (z.B. Terminals an denen CDs zur Probe gehört werden können.). Lassen sich "alle" Gefahren für die Privatsphäre der Benutzer (Privacy Threats) durch die Kategorien im STRIDE-Modell beschreiben oder oder gibt es "überflüssige" STRIDE-Kategorien? Wie kann das STRIDE-Modell genutzt werden um Gefahren bzw. Risiken gezielt zu adressieren?

Das Ziel ist die Entwicklung und Evaluation ein kartenbasierten Content-Management-System (CMS) für das iPED Toolkit [1]. Dieses CMS soll dazu genutzt werden, Objekte in einer graph- basierten Datenbank zu verwalten. Diese Objekte entsprechen realen Orten, die auf einer Karte verortet werden sollen. Zu jedem Ort sollen zusätzliche Daten (z.B. Fotos oder Videos) abgespeichert werden können. Zur Umsetzung des CMS sollen moderne Technologien wie HTML5, CSS3, AJAX und Responsive Design zum Einsatz kommen. Zur Evaluation der Umsetzung soll in einer kleinen Studie die Task-Completion-Time bzw. Error-Rate der Benutzer ermittelt werden.

[1] Ostkamp, M., Kray, C. Supporting Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation of Public Display Systems. Proc. EICS ’14, ACM (2014), to appear.

GIS Software kann häufig sehr komplex sein. Dafür gibt es verschiedene Gründe wie zum Beispiel die Vielzahl der Funktionen, die ein solches System bereit stellt. Dem Benutzer Zugang zu diesen Funktionen zu ermöglichen stellt ein große Herausforderung im Hinblick auf das Design der Benutzerschnittstelle dar.  Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist, anhand existierender GIS Software wie ArcGIS oder PostGIS den aktuellen Stand bzgl. Funktionsumfang von GIS sowie dessen Realisierung auf der Benutzerschnittstellenebene zu erfassen und zu analysieren.

The emergence of new hardware in the Veld of human-computer interaction has led to many possible applications for gesture control. One possible application for such a gesture control is a virtual globe as it is widely used and an easy way to display spatial data among other data. Also virtual globes are easy accessible. This bachelor thesis aims to combine a virtual globe with gesture control for spatial and temporal aspects. For this, a set of gestures were implemented. These gestures were tested at a science fair where an user study Mwas carried out. Furthermore the general approach of implementing the gestures are described. The results and Vndings of the user study will be discussed in this thesis.

Mobility infrastructure has a great impact on the sustainable development of cities. An efficient non-motorized infrastructure can help Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting public health (SDG 3.4), contributing to better air, water, and soil quality (SDG 3.9), increasing accessibility and affordability of public transportation (SDG 11.2), reducing the environmental impact in cities (SDG 11.6.), helping to climate control (SDG 13.2). German Sustainable Building Council (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen- DGNB) provides comprehensive tools to assess the sustainability of buildings and neighborhoods in Germany since 2007. The tools are developed and updated regularly according to the SDGs and local sustainability strategies. Non-motorized traffic is covered by DGNB Quartier in 2020 with the aim of efficient use of resources, increased affordability, and increased user comfort which provides better experience and accessibility especially for people with reduced mobility.

BSc - In the scope of the BSc thesis, the focus will be given to the assessment of cycling infrastructure in Münster. The data collection and analysis will be based on the indicators defined by the German Sustainable Building Council (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen- DGNB), Neighbourhood certification (DGNB Quartier) (sub section Technische Qualität - TEC 3.2). Data collection and analysis will include the assessment of quantity and quality of city’s existing cycling infrastructure such as integration of the cycling network to other transportation modes and land uses, the quantity and quality of bicycle parking spaces, and signalisation. The student will automate the assessment of indicators through an algorithm developed in SQL or Python, visualise the results on the preferred system, and recommend a roadmap for future applications to achieve maximum score (30 points) stated in the DGNB Quartier sustainability certification system.

MSc - The MSc thesis aims to create an interactive City Dashboard for Münster focusing on cycling infrastructure in the city centre.  Complementary to the data collection and analysis processes described in the BSc thesis, the student is expected to develop a web-based, interactive dashboard that enables users of the city to monitor the status quo of the cycling infrastructure and investigate the impact of possible interventions (e.g. increasing the amount of the cycling paths or bicycle parking spaces) on the overall quality of non-motorised mobility infrastructure.  

References:

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (2020), DGNB Quartiere Kriterienkatalog, https://static.dgnb.de/fileadmin/dgnb-system/de/quartiere/kriterien/DGNB-Kriterienkatalog-Quartiere-Kommentierungsversion-2020.pdf

Dynamic, personalised signage - public displays that show navigational instructions and wayfinding information - can be very useful to help people to successfully reach their destination in complex indoor environments. However, outfitting a large building with a dense infrastructure of public displays would be costly and resource-intensive. One way to overcome is the idea to use virtual displays that can only be seen using a person's mobile device. This thesis will investigate this idea, and test it using a prototypical implementation.

Due to the non-applicability of GPS devices and the higher need for accuracy, collecting indoor spatial data presents different challenges than mapping outdoor environments. Considering usability or technical requirements, existing approaches for data capture indoors are poorly suited for non-professional collaborators of volunteered geographic information (VGI) communities, such as OpenStreetMap (OSM). This work investigates an alternative to measuring what has been measured already. The idea is to extract map data from public escape plans by means of computer vision. An approach to automatically interpreting photos of escape plans on mobile devices is developed and evaluated.

The proliferation of location-based services in recent years has highlighted the need to consider location privacy. This has led to the development of methods enhancing location privacy, and to the investigation of reasons for sharing location information. While computational attacks on location privacy and their prevention have attracted a lot of research, attacks based on human strategies and tactics have generally been considered implicitly. This work addresses this knowledge gap by reporting on a user study which was conducted in the context of a location-based game. Participants had to identify other players over the course of several weeks. The results show that human strategies for deanonymization and reidentication can be highly successful and thus pose a threat to location privacy comparable to computational attacks. By incorporating real-world knowledge that is not easily available in automated attacks, human players were able to eciently re-identify other people in the game.

Keywords: re-identication, deanonymization, location privacy.

Various open data portals are currently emerging as catalogs for data being made open by public institutions. Enabling an efficient access to, and searching of these open datasets is still not fully understood. [1] proposed semantic APIs as a way of improving access to open data. The purpose of this thesis is to design and implement functionalities to enable spatial search through this API.

The thesis will involve two basic tasks:
  - addition of curated spatial datasets to the Open City Toolkit
  - development of an intuitive interface for the spatial query of these spatial datasets
 
The intuitiveness of the Spatial Query Interface could be tested, for example, through (sample) usability tests.

[1] Degbelo, A., Trilles, S., Kray, C., Bhattacharya, D., Schiestel, N., Wissing, J. and Granell, C. (2016) ‘Designing semantic APIs for open government data’, JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government, 8(2), pp. 21–58.

 

Mobility infrastructure has a great impact on the sustainable development of cities. An efficient non-motorized infrastructure can help Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting public health (SDG 3.4), contributing to better air, water, and soil quality (SDG 3.9), increasing accessibility and affordability of public transportation (SDG 11.2), reducing the environmental impact in cities (SDG 11.6.), helping to climate control (SDG 13.2). German Sustainable Building Council (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen- DGNB) provides comprehensive tools to assess the sustainability of buildings and neighborhoods in Germany since 2007. The tools are developed and updated regularly according to the SDGs and local sustainability strategies. Non-motorized traffic is covered by DGNB Quartier in 2020 with the aim of efficient use of resources, increased affordability, and increased user comfort which provides better experience and accessibility especially for people with reduced mobility.

BSc - In the scope of the BSc thesis, the focus will be given to the assessment of cycling infrastructure in Münster. The data collection and analysis will be based on the indicators defined by the German Sustainable Building Council (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen- DGNB), Neighbourhood certification (DGNB Quartier) (sub section Technische Qualität - TEC 3.2). Data collection and analysis will include the assessment of quantity and quality of city’s existing cycling infrastructure such as integration of the cycling network to other transportation modes and land uses, the quantity and quality of bicycle parking spaces, and signalisation. The student will automate the assessment of indicators through an algorithm developed in SQL or Python, visualise the results on the preferred system, and recommend a roadmap for future applications to achieve maximum score (30 points) stated in the DGNB Quartier sustainability certification system.

MSc - The MSc thesis aims to create an interactive City Dashboard for Münster focusing on cycling infrastructure in the city centre.  Complementary to the data collection and analysis processes described in the BSc thesis, the student is expected to develop a web-based, interactive dashboard that enables users of the city to monitor the status quo of the cycling infrastructure and investigate the impact of possible interventions (e.g. increasing the amount of the cycling paths or bicycle parking spaces) on the overall quality of non-motorised mobility infrastructure.  

References:

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (2020), DGNB Quartiere Kriterienkatalog, https://static.dgnb.de/fileadmin/dgnb-system/de/quartiere/kriterien/DGNB-Kriterienkatalog-Quartiere-Kommentierungsversion-2020.pdf