Albrecht Schmidt is a professor at the University of Stuttgart. His central research interests are novel user interfaces and innovative applications enabled by ubiquitous computing. Before moving to Stuttgart he was a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, had a joined position between the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS) and the University of Bonn. He studied computer science in Ulm and Manchester and afterwards worked as a researcher at the University of Karlsruhe and at Lancaster University. There he completed in 2003 his PhD thesis on the topic of "Ubiquitous Computing - Computing in Context". Before he became professor at the B-IT-Center I headed the DFG-funded "Embedded Interaction Research Group" at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. His teaching and research interests are in media informatics and in particular in the areas of user interface engineering, pervasive computing and mobile interactive systems.

AG 1, AG 2, AG 3, AG 4, AG 5, SWS, RG1, MMCI   Info

Public Audience

English

45 Minutes

Saarbrücken

Historically the use and development of tools is strongly linked to human evolution and intelligence. The last 10.000 years show a stunning progress in physical tools that have transformed what people can do and how people live. Currently, we are at the beginning of an even more fundamental transformation: the use of digital tools to amplify the mind. Digital tools provide us with entirely new opportunities to enhance the perceptual and cognitive abilities of humans. However, our understanding of how this can be achieved through ubiquitous computing and media is still very basic and research to explore this domain lacks a systematic approach.

In our research we create novel technologies that enhance human cognition and perception through digital technologies. Our experimental approach is to: first, understand the users in their context as well as the potential for enhancement. Second, we create innovative interventions that provide functionality that amplifies human capabilities. And third, we empirically evaluate and quantify the enhancement that is gained by these developments. 

I will address the following exemplary research topics from our lab to highlight the feasibility of creating such novel systems and illustrate the challenges faced during experimental quantification of improvements: (1) improving human abilities to create and understand instructions through assistive systems, (2) enhancing human memory through life-logging technologies, and (3) augmenting the human visual sense for thermal depth perception. These research programs are the starting point for the ERC-project AMPLIFY. Ultimately these technologies have the potential to become the foundation for overcoming the temporal and spatial boundaries in human perception and cognition.

Mona Linn

70157

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