Open thesis topics
Bachelor
Reproducibility is a core element of the scientific method.
In the Geosciences, the insights derived from geodata are frequently communicated through maps, and the computational methods to create these maps vary in their ease of reproduction.
While GIS desktop applications (e.g., QGIS, ArcGIS) are widely used by professionals and researchers in the Geosciences for map production, they may hinder map reproducibility as the details of the map making process become more challenging to document.
For this thesis, a QGIS plugin will be developed, which automates the documentation of the datasets, the spatial operations and other metadata that were used to produce maps.
The plugin should output a structured JSON file that ties together all the necessary components, steps and information for the (re)production of a map within the environment of QGIS, in order to facilitate the reproducibility of maps that were not created programmatically.
The plugin will be developed in Python (unless the student feels comfortable with C++).
QGIS plugins for reference: https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/MetadataDbLinker/, https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/mapexport/, https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/project_report/
Structured schemas for reference: https://schema.org/Map, https://schema.org/SoftwareApplication, https://www.researchobject.org/ro-crate/
Contact: Eftychia Koukouraki
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.
- AR evaluation toolkit SITCOM
Augmented Reality applications are widely available now and expected to increase further in the future. They are, however, difficult to evaluate effectively as they strongly depend on interacting with their environment. For example, to assess the effectiveness and usability of a particular user interface or overlay, it is important to consider how it interacts with what people see around them. Are users able to connect the overlay to the corresponding real-world object? Can they interact with the UI elements while being in the actual environment?
The goal of this thesis is to develop and evaluate an evaluation toolkit for AR applications, which allows for systematic, repeatable and low-effort evaluation. The approach to investigate here is to use a virtual environment (such as the Immersive Video Environment at ifgi) and to “trick” an app into believing it is located at the site shown by the virtual environment. This ensures a controlled environment and thus allows for a systematic evaluation of AR applications.
Research in SITCOM generally focusses on enabling all kinds of users to solve real-world problems using spatial information. Have a look at the group's web page for more details and example projects.
If you are generally interested in this area or have an idea of a thesis topic that falls into that area, feel free to get in touch with one of the current members of SITCOM.
Contact: Christian Kray- Privacy preserving location-based services (adaptive algorithms, infrastructures, visualisations) SITCOM
In order to benefit from location-based services (LBS) such as navigation support, local recommender systems or delivery services, users need to share their location with the service provider. This can have negative implications for their privacy as the service provider might learn a lot about users, e.g. movement patterns, places they frequent and inferred knowledge such as health conditions.
At the same time, service provision would also be possible if users did not share their precise location: a weather forecast app, for example, might work well enough with very coarse-grained location information. For some LBS, having access to lower-quality location information might be problematic. For example, providing turn-by-turn instructions might be impossilbe if users share coarse-grained location information.
The goal of this topic is thus to develop and evaluate approaches for different types of LBS to adapt to different levels of quality of location information. The topic can be tackled from different perspectives and therefore can serve as a starting point for several different theses projects:
- on the algorithmic level, an analysis of common algorithms used in LBS to provide certain services (such as routing) can be carried out to develop and evaluate new/improved algorithms that can better cope with different levels of location quality
- on the infrastructure level, different frameworks and libraries for the development of LBS can be analysed regarding how well they support copting with different levels of location quality; this can then inform the design and evaluation of an improved solution
- on the visualisation/user interface level, an analysis of exsting solutions to convey instructions/information to users in LBS can be carried out with respect to how well they work when provided with location information of lower quality; this can then inform the design and evaluation of improved, adaptive visualsations and user interfaces
Students interested in this topic area can have a look at the SIMPORT project and the publications listed below:
-
Linking location privacy, digital sovereignty and location-based services: a meta review. (2023) S Özdal Oktay, S Heitmann, C Kray. Journal of Location Based Services, 1-52.
-
‘Informed’consent in popular location based services and digital sovereignty. (2022) J Dreyer, S Heitmann, F Erdmann, G Bauer, C Kray. Journal of Location Based Services 16 (4), 312-342.
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Ranasinghe, C., Schiestel, N., & Kray, C. (2019, October). Visualising location uncertainty to support navigation under degraded gps signals: A comparison study. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (pp. 1-11).
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Ranasinghe, C., Heitmann, S., Hamzin, A., Pfeiffer, M., & Kray, C. (2018, December). Pedestrian navigation and GPS deteriorations: User behavior and adaptation strategies. In Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (pp. 266-277).
Contact: Christian Kray
Master
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).
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.
Recent years have seen a sharp increase in fabricated or outright false information being widely distributed (e.g. conspiracy theories, base-less claims, invented events). The broad availability of generative AI will most likely not only strengthen this trend but make it much harder to recognise fabricated information.
The idea behind this topic is to investigate ways to use location information strategically to verify the truthfulness of shared information. A large percentage of all information has a direct link to a real-world location, for example, photographs (or generated images) taken at a particular place (or claimed to be taken at that location).
This location in turn can be used to check the truthfulness of the information or media in different ways. One approach could be to use trustworthy cartographic information to compare image contents or textual descriptions to information from a map. A second approach could look into checking facts on site, e.g. via a location-based service that directs fact-checkers to where they can assess the truthfulness of some information by following a particular protocol that ensures they can provide strong evidence (e.g. via AR-based comparative overlays). A third approach could investigate ways to use location-sensor data (GPS, compass, gyro, timestamps) to create a blockchain for photos taken a particular location. This could provide a way for individual to create trustworthy information and for others to verify information. Finally, using reliable historical location information (maps, photos, datasets) to assess the truthfulness of newly posted information is another approach worthwhile investigating. For all different approaches, looking into potential attacks (particularly those presented by prompt engineering for current LLMs or coordination between malicious people on site) would be important.
Either of these approaches can become a thesis topics. In principle, these topics could be done either as Master thesis or a Bachelor thesis. However, they will require thorough background research and can potentially be technically demanding. If you are interested in this general topic area or one of the listed examples, please get in touch with Chris.
Contact: Christian KrayFor urban projects to meet the needs and preferences of people, it is essential to ensure public participation. Ideally, this is done along the entire planning process and enables a broad range of groups to get involved.
Different approaches have been proposed in this context. They vary according to the degree of participation (from just being informed to actively taking decisions), to the temporal dimension (synchronous vs. asynchronous) as well as to the location (on site or remotely) and the medium (online, mobile or in person).
The goal of this thesis is to investigate, develop and evaluate hybrid options that combine multiple media and facilitate synchronous and asynchronous participation in urban planning projects. This could, for example, take the form of a web-based system that can be accessed through a public display and allows for synchronous/asynchronous communication between citizens and planners.
There is flexibility regarding the exact combination of technologies and functionalities that is investigated as well as with respect to how urban planning projects are visualised (maps, 3D, Augmented Reality).
Tthe thesis can be developed either as a Master or Bachelor thesis. There is potential for evaluating the approach/system in the context of one of the events/activities organised by the StadtLabor Münster.
Contact: Christian Kray- AR evaluation toolkit SITCOM
Augmented Reality applications are widely available now and expected to increase further in the future. They are, however, difficult to evaluate effectively as they strongly depend on interacting with their environment. For example, to assess the effectiveness and usability of a particular user interface or overlay, it is important to consider how it interacts with what people see around them. Are users able to connect the overlay to the corresponding real-world object? Can they interact with the UI elements while being in the actual environment?
The goal of this thesis is to develop and evaluate an evaluation toolkit for AR applications, which allows for systematic, repeatable and low-effort evaluation. The approach to investigate here is to use a virtual environment (such as the Immersive Video Environment at ifgi) and to “trick” an app into believing it is located at the site shown by the virtual environment. This ensures a controlled environment and thus allows for a systematic evaluation of AR applications.
Research in SITCOM generally focusses on enabling all kinds of users to solve real-world problems using spatial information. Have a look at the group's web page for more details and example projects.
If you are generally interested in this area or have an idea of a thesis topic that falls into that area, feel free to get in touch with one of the current members of SITCOM.
Contact: Christian KrayWalkability is a notion referring to the extent that streets foster the activity of walking, both as a mobility mode and leisure activity. The perception of walkability is dependent on the streets’ physical characteristics, e.g. wide sidewalks, presence of greenery, etc. and on the individuals’ subjective perception thereof, e.g. the imparted sense of safety and beauty.
This thesis will build upon an ongoing project exploring a unique mixture of technologies and methods to give an account on how individuals subjectively perceive the walkability of streets.
In a previous experiment, participants were invited to a so-called Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, where images of streets were displayed. Wearing an eye-tracking device, they were asked to inspect the images and report their perception of the displayed streets. Data obtained in a follow-up interview with the participants complement a rich dataset to investigate how the physical features of streets, the individuals’ eye-movement when inspecting the images, and their demographic and behavioral traits relate to their reported walkability perception.
The student will be able to explore the diversity and richness of the available dataset when addressing an independent, project-related, research question.
References:
Liao B, Berg PEW, Wesemael PJV, Arentze TA (2022) Individuals’ perception of walkability: Results of a conjoint experiment using videos of virtual environments. Cities, 125, 103650.
Li Y, Yabuki N, Fukuda T (2022) Measuring visual walkability perception using panoramic street view images, virtual reality, and deep learning. Sustainable Cities and Society, vol 86, 104140.
Contact: Tessio Novack
Maps are predominant representational artifacts in the Geosciences for communicating research results and describing phenomena. Frequently we have to compare maps for a number of reasons: change detection, accuracy assessment, replicability and reproducibility evaluation. Comparing maps is commonly done with visual side-to-side comparison, which can be error-prone and cognitively exhausting for the reader. The aim of this thesis is to assist this comparison and to keep track of the observed differences by manually highlighting them. For this purpose, a prototype for annotating map differences will be developed and evaluated. The student has to ivestigate which annotation form is apropriate for each kind of difference and to use an appropriate structured vocabulary to decribe them.
Suggested reads:
Oren, E., Möller, K., Scerri, S., Handschuh, S., & Sintek, M. What are semantic annotations. Relatório técnico. DERI Galway, 9, 62 (2006).
Diaz, L., Reunanen, M., Acuña, B., Timonen, A. ImaNote: A Web-based multi-user image map viewing and annotation tool. ACM J. Comput. Cult. Herit. 3, 4, Article 13 (2011). http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1957825.1957826
- Privacy preserving location-based services (adaptive algorithms, infrastructures, visualisations) SITCOM
In order to benefit from location-based services (LBS) such as navigation support, local recommender systems or delivery services, users need to share their location with the service provider. This can have negative implications for their privacy as the service provider might learn a lot about users, e.g. movement patterns, places they frequent and inferred knowledge such as health conditions.
At the same time, service provision would also be possible if users did not share their precise location: a weather forecast app, for example, might work well enough with very coarse-grained location information. For some LBS, having access to lower-quality location information might be problematic. For example, providing turn-by-turn instructions might be impossilbe if users share coarse-grained location information.
The goal of this topic is thus to develop and evaluate approaches for different types of LBS to adapt to different levels of quality of location information. The topic can be tackled from different perspectives and therefore can serve as a starting point for several different theses projects:
- on the algorithmic level, an analysis of common algorithms used in LBS to provide certain services (such as routing) can be carried out to develop and evaluate new/improved algorithms that can better cope with different levels of location quality
- on the infrastructure level, different frameworks and libraries for the development of LBS can be analysed regarding how well they support copting with different levels of location quality; this can then inform the design and evaluation of an improved solution
- on the visualisation/user interface level, an analysis of exsting solutions to convey instructions/information to users in LBS can be carried out with respect to how well they work when provided with location information of lower quality; this can then inform the design and evaluation of improved, adaptive visualsations and user interfaces
Students interested in this topic area can have a look at the SIMPORT project and the publications listed below:
-
Linking location privacy, digital sovereignty and location-based services: a meta review. (2023) S Özdal Oktay, S Heitmann, C Kray. Journal of Location Based Services, 1-52.
-
‘Informed’consent in popular location based services and digital sovereignty. (2022) J Dreyer, S Heitmann, F Erdmann, G Bauer, C Kray. Journal of Location Based Services 16 (4), 312-342.
-
Ranasinghe, C., Schiestel, N., & Kray, C. (2019, October). Visualising location uncertainty to support navigation under degraded gps signals: A comparison study. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (pp. 1-11).
-
Ranasinghe, C., Heitmann, S., Hamzin, A., Pfeiffer, M., & Kray, C. (2018, December). Pedestrian navigation and GPS deteriorations: User behavior and adaptation strategies. In Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (pp. 266-277).
Contact: Christian Kray
Assigned thesis topics
Bachelor
Eine Vielzahl verfügbarer Apps soll ihre Nutzer*innen dabei unterstützen, sich auf nachhaltigere Art zu verhalten. Dies kann zum Beispiel das Mobilitätsverhalten betreffen (Rad statt Auto), den Energiekonsum (Pulli statt Heizung) oder auch Aktivitäten (Mitwirkung bei Urban Gardening).
Ziel dieser Bachelorarbeit ist es, eine repräsentative Auswahl dieser Apps systematisch zu analysieren, um einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Arten von Apps, der Hauptthemen und -strategien zu gewinnen. Von Interesse sind insbesondere auch welche Techniken aus dem Bereich "Nudging" und "Persuasive Technology" zum Einsatz kommen.
Das Thema kann auf unterschiedliche Weise bearbeitet werden, je nach Wunsch der bearbeitenden Person, z.B. als reine Analyse basierend auf detaillierter Betrachtung der Apps, als Nutzerstudie oder einer Kombination aus beidem. Denkbar ist auch der Entwurf einer App als Mockup/Prototyp, die bestehende Schwächen von verfügbaren Apps überwindet.
Author: Felix DisselkampSupervisor: Chris Kray
Master
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.
Supervisor: Christian Kray
Completed thesis topics
Bachelor
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
Supervisor: Chris Kray
Videobasierte Visualisierungsumgebungen zeigen großes Potenzial für die Geovisualisierung. Gestensteuerung eignet sich für die intuitive Interaktion mit solchen Umgebungen. Inhalt dieser Arbeit ist der Vergleich zweier existierender Gestensteuerungsansätze.
Author: Johanna MöllmannSupervisor: 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.
Author: Sven HeitmannSupervisor: Chris Kray
Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die technische Umsetzung eines Lernspiels für den Geographieunterricht, das am Institut für Didaktik der Geographie (IfDG) entwickelt wurde. In diesen sogenannten „Reflectories“ werden User in kurzen Audio-Beiträgen vor komplexe geographische Entscheidungen gestellt, die mithilfe von unterschiedlichen Zusatzmaterialien getroffen werden müssen. Je nach gewählter Entscheidungsoption nimmt die Handlung einen anderen Verlauf, sodass sich die User mit den entsprechenden Konsequenzen ihrer Entscheidungen konfrontiert sehen und aufgefordert sind, über ihr Handeln zu reflektieren.
Aufgabe der Arbeit ist die Umsetzung der erarbeiteten Inhalte (hauptsächlich Audio-Dateien, einige PDF und Bilddateien) in eine systemunabhängige (Web-)App. Dazu gehört u. a. die Erstellung und Evaluation einer für die Zielgruppe geeignete Benutzeroberfläche sowie eine robuste Implementation des Backends.
Die Arbeit ist in Zusammenarbeit mit dem IfDG (Gabriele Schrüfer, Nina Brendel) geplant.
Author: Niklas TrzaskaSupervisor: Christian Kray
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?
Author: MOSupervisor: Morin Ostkamp
Das Ziel ist es, Befehle zur Steuerung eines Immersive-Video- Environments (IVE) per Spracheingabe zu realiseren. So sollen z.B. Befehle wie "Nach links", "Nach rechts", "Gerade aus" oder "Ich öffne die Tür" in entsprechende Aktionen innerhalb der simulierten Umgebung umgesetzt werden. Dazu sollen APIs und Services wie zum Beispiel Wit.AI genutzt werden. Welche Befehle lassen sich damit realiseren, u.a. hinsichtlich ihrer Länge (z.B. "Ich folge der Straße rechts von mir" vs. "nach rechts") und ihrer Komplexität (z.B. "Ich gehe nach rechts. Dann öffne ich die Tür." vs. "Nachdem ich rechts abgebogen bin, öffne ich die Tür.")? Welche technischen Geräte (z.B. Mikrofon- Arrays) sind mit welchen Eigenschaften (z.B. Abstand zum Sprecher) nötig?
Author: Nicholas SchiestelSupervisor: Morin Ostkamp
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.
Author: Nico SteffensSupervisor: C. Kray
- GoPro 360° SITCOM
Supervisor: Holger Fritze
Download thesis PDF
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.
Author: Laura MeierkortSupervisor: Christian Kray
- Vergleich von automatisierten und manuellen Eingabemethoden bei mobilen Crowdsourcing-Verfahren SITCOM
Der Crowdsourcing-Ansatz hat in der jüngsten Vergangenheit stark an Bedeutung gewonnen und wird immer häufi ger zur Informationsbescha ffung angewendet. Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit vergleicht automatische sowie manuelle Eingabemethoden bei mobilem Crowdsourcing. Primär soll herausgefunden werden, welche Methode von den Nutzern bevorzugt verwendet wird und welche Gründe diese Präaferenzen haben können. Weiterhin wird der Einfluss einer Erinnerungsfunktion für Eingaben per Hand untersucht.
Um diese Fragestellungen zu beantworten wurde eine Kombination aus zwei Fragebögen und einer Nutzerstudie angewendet. Für die Nutzerstudie wurde eine Android-App zur Lärmmessung implementiert und über zwei Wochen von einer Gruppe von 16 Personen getestet.
Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass eine automatisierte Eingabemethode der manuellen tendenziell vorgezogen wird. Weiterhin wurde festgestellt, dass die Nutzung einer Erinnerungsfunktion die Anzahl der Eingaben auf Kosten eines erhöhten Störfaktors mit sich bringen kann.
Author: Dennis WilhelmSupervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kray
Download thesis PDF
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.
Author: Gerald PapeSupervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kray
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Forced migrants (e.g. internally displaced people, refugees, asylum seekers) continuing arriving in cities all around the world. Forced migration is not a one-time phenomenon but a common and recurrent phenomenon in history. The recent European and African immigration crises are examples of this. As cities continue growing also does the information that is produced. The complexity of this information and the way of communicating it can present many challenges to newcomers, particularly, to those arriving in conditions of vulnerability as forced migrants (e.g. refugees and asylum seekers). This complexity can be addressed through different ways of visualizing information and interacting with it.
The Bachelor/Master student will work on one of the following two possible lines of research:
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“Geovisualization of existent curated data to support refugees in their resettlement process.”
The Starthilfe platform has been created for a group of civil volunteers with information relevant to forced migrants about several topics (mobility, education, jobs, health, among others). This information is currently mainly text-based, and it is just accessible through the web platform, meaning it can just be accessed while being online.
The text-based data has geospatial descriptions however it has not being geolocated and then geo-visualized. Some of the specifics tasks to address during this bachelor/master thesis are:
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Retrieval of data from the Starthilfe website.
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Creation of spatial datasets based on the retrieved data.
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Geo-visualizing data and classifying it using the categories defined on the Starthilfe website (creation of layers, easy or common icons).
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Test the geo-visualization adaptation with refugees and asylum seekers
Supervisor: Auriol Degbelo
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
Author: Fabian Fermazin (BSc), Lorenz Beck (MSc)Supervisor: Simge Özdal Oktay
Master
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.
Author: Jakob AltensteinSupervisor: Chris Kray
- Football Stadium Manager SITCOM
Football games attract large numbers of visitors that need to perform various activities in games; this thesis could look into how to support those activities with dynamic situated signage, i.e. how to optimise evacuation in case of an emergency
Author: Norman LangerSupervisor: Chris Kray
Supervisor: Prof. Chris Kray
Thanks to open web mapping libraries (e.g., Leaflet, Mapbox), creating Web Maps has become easier. The purpose of this thesis is to explore some of the factors (i.e., design steps) which lead to an easier re-use of Web Maps once they have been created. In particular, the thesis should explore design steps which lead to:
- Easy plugging of new spatial datasets to existing Web Maps
- Easy plugging of new temporal datasets to existing Web Maps
The evaluation of the ideas is expected to take place with one or more re-use scenarios of open geodata for cities (e.g., re-use of Web Maps for referendum data).
Supervisor: Auriol Degbelo
Supervisor: Edzer Pebesma
Public deliberation conducted by citizen initiatives is an important part of the democratic foundation of our society. Lists on Internet pages, meetings and newspaper advertisements are used as medium for informing the public. A more profound deliberation can be achieved through giving citizens the opportunity to actively participate. Although research of spatial discussion platforms exists, only few investigate the use of dialogs or even spatially enhanced dialogs. This thesis explores the support of public deliberation performed by citizen initiatives through spatially enhanced dialogs. In order to enable citizen initiatives to engage in dialogs, a prototypical spatial discussion platform was developed. Semi-structured and expert interviews, as well as a focus group, helped to evaluate how spatially enhanced dialogs support deliberation performed by citizen initiatives. In this context, the concept of spatially enhanced dialogs and the developed prototype were tested. The results show general understanding of the respondents for the concept. However, the conveyance of projects’ spatial characteristics appear to have a higher level of importance for evaluation participants.
Author: Gerald PapeSupervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kray
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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.
Author: Georg TschornSupervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kray
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Geo-spatial applications, for instance, geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly realized as online platforms. Browser-based approaches facilitate broad accessibility and thus allow collaborative work. Regarding map based editors, collaboration is in most cases done asynchronous and does not support real-time concurrent editing. Many workflows, such as gathering data in case of a disaster could however benefit from allowing multiple users to simultaneously work together on the same dataset. A browser-based map editor, called Ethermap, was developed facilitating this kind of real-time interaction supported by means for increasing user awareness, an interactive version control, a well as explicit communication about geo-objects. This work reports on implications and limitations from several evaluation methods (focus group, user study, interviews, technical evaluation) indicating the importance of facilitating user awareness, as well as an increased efficiency, which can arise through real-time collaborative map editing.
Author: Dennis WilhelmSupervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kray
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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.
Author: Thore FechnerSupervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kray
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This master thesis describes the evaluation of different image recognition algorithms. The aim is to find an appropriate technique to provide real time indoor Augmented Reality applications. Therefore, the promising approach of using existing infrastructure in the form of images or shop logos instead of markers is verified. Furthermore, the most appropriate algorithm in detection accuracy and time, SIFT, is tested for its real time abilities. Several techniques of how to improve the not sufficient calculation latency are tested and discussed. With the gained information a prototypical Augmented Reality that is based on image recognition is developed.
Author: Philipp WeißSupervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kray
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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.
Supervisor: Auriol Degbelo
The Open City Toolkit has been suggested in [1,2] as a way of improving data re-use in the city context. This thesis will develop and test a module which suggests
relevant datasets for a new Open City Toolkit app. The development may follow user-centered design principles.
The thesis will involve two basic tasks
- modelling of (spatial) datasets and apps in the context of the Open City Toolkit
- specification of an annotation strategy of both apps and datasets, based on open data formats (e.g., RDF, JSON, JSON-LD)
- design and implementation of recommendation functionalities (i.e., which datasets could be re-used in which apps)
The feasibility of the ideas suggested is expected to be demonstrated through a prototypical implementation.
[1] Degbelo, A., Granell, C., Trilles, S., Bhattacharya, D., Casteleyn, S. and Kray, C. (2016) ‘Opening up smart cities: citizen-centric challenges and opportunities from GIScience’, ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 5(2), p. 16. doi: 10.3390/ijgi5020016.
[2] 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.
Supervisor: Auriol Degbelo
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
Supervisor: Christian Kray
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
Author: Fabian Fermazin (BSc), Lorenz Beck (MSc)Supervisor: Simge Özdal Oktay
Visualizations of spatial data on large displays could be very useful during the exploration of large spatial datasets. A key issue in this context is the design of natural interaction (e.g. interaction with freehand gestures and/or speech-based interaction) to support exploratory data analysis tasks (e.g. panning, zooming, selection, aggregation, annotation). This thesis aims to explore strategies to facilitate the interaction with spatial data on large displays using freehand gestures. Tasks include:
Task 1: implementation of a software module to reliably map the position of users’ hands to the screen’s positions.
Task 2: implementation of a software module that enables panning and zooming with maps via freehand gestures on a large display.
Task 3: evaluation of the software modules (e.g. performance, usability, usefulness).
The immersive video environment will serve as a prototypical large display during the study. Programming skills (C++, C# or VB.NET) will be an advantage.
Contact
Auriol Degbelo (auriol.degbelo@uni-muenster.de)
Samuel Navas Medrano (s.navas@uni-muenster.de)
Readings
Bartoschek, T., Pape, G., Kray, C., Jones, J. and Kauppinen, T. (2014) ‘Gestural interaction with spatiotemporal linked open data’, OSGeo Journal, 13(1), pp. 60–67.
Nancel, M., Wagner, J., Pietriga, E., Chapuis, O. and Mackay, W. (2011) ‘Mid-air pan-and-zoom on wall-sized displays’, in Tan, D. S., Amershi, S., Begole, B., Kellogg, W. A., and Tungare, M. (eds) Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI ’11. Vancouver, Canada: ACM Press, pp. 177–186. doi: 10.1145/1978942.1978969.
Author: Jonas HurstSupervisor: Auriol degbelo