In the following, the theses I supervised and courses I offered at the Bielefeld University.

Project
MediaLab Projekt

Using MS-Kinect to track the skeletonThe MediaLab Project is managed as a teamwork in two different but cooperating deciplines: Human Computer Interaction and Computer Graphic (supervised by Graphic & Geomtry Group). The long term goal of the project is to develop an interactive virtual trainer of different kinds of motions, such as dance or sport.

Dave, the virtual agent.Using MS Kinect we track the user's skeleton and mirror the motions in a virtual avatar on a screen. Beside the avatar of the user as a trainee, the user sees Dave, a virtual humanoid agent, which is the virtual trainer. The trainer performs movements, loaded from a motion data bank, and observes the user imitating him. Comparing the user's captured motion (using Kinect) with the loaded motion for Dave, the performance error is computed and uttered by Dave. A dialog manager manages the whole verbal and nonverbal interaction.

eKVV links (semesters): WS 2010/2011  |  WS 2011/2012

Seminar (Journal Club)
Imitation Learning for Social Agents

The book Presenting and discussing different chapters of the book:
"Imitation and Social Learning in Robots, Humans and Animals: Behavioural, Social and Communicative Dimensions"

Main focuses:

  • Correspondance problem of imitation
  • Neurobiological studies
  • Imitation and intention
  • Why and what to imitate

eKVV links (semesters): SS 2009

 

Supervised Theses

Ramin Yaghoubzadeh: Ein probabilistisches Modell für Motorresonanz in virtuellen Agenten (in German), Diploma thesis, April 2009.

Andreas Rueter: Lernen von Motorprimitiven aus Gesten mit einer selbstorganisierenden Merkmalskarte (in German), Diploma thesis, May 2009.

Gernot Deutenberg: Communication as a Complex System: Multi-Agent Simulation of a Non-Verbal Naming Game, Diploma thesis, July 2012.