Digital Preservation (DP) is traditionally understood as the management of digital information over time. The digital preservation problem is well-understood for query-centric information scenarios but has been less explored for scenarios where the important digital information to be preserved is the execution context within which data is processed, analysed, transformed and rendered.
A primary motivation for TIMBUS is the declining popularity of centralized in-house business processes maintained and owned by single entities. The presence of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Internet of Services (IoS) means business processes are increasingly supported by service oriented systems where numerous services provided by different providers, located in different geographical locations are composed to form value added service compositions and service systems which will continue changing and evolving. Besides the advantages of SaaS and IoS there is the danger of services and service providers disappearing (for various reasons) leaving partially complete business processes.
TIMBUS will endeavour to enlarge the understanding of DP to include the set of activities, processes and tools that ensure continued access to services and software necessary to produce the context within which information can be accessed, properly rendered, validated and transformed into context based knowledge. One of the fundamental requirements is to preserve the functional and non-functional specifications of services and software, along with their dependencies. This enlarged understanding brings DP clearly into the domain of Business Continuity Management (BCM).
Start/End: 2011-2013
Partners: SAP AG, Secure Business Austria, Software Quality Systems, Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law, University of Muenster, Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Investigaçâo e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa, iPharro, Intel, Caixa Mágica Software, Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, Portugal), Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particles Physics, Digital Preservation Coalition
Research Topics: digital preservation, reasoning, business process monitoring, virtualisation, context-awareness, business continuity management
Koordinator is the follow up project to the sucessful BMBF project landmarke in which research was directed towards the creation of an ad hoc wireless sensor network to improve firefighter navigation. In Koordinator it is now investigated how this navigation support network may be extended using novel pervasive technologies to improve mission control in the field.
Start/End: 2011-2014
Partners:
Institute of Firefighter Education NRW,
Vomatec International GmbH,
University Of Siegen,
Dresden Elektronik
Research Topics: Wireless sensor networks, Ubiquitous computing applications, Implicite situation and context awareness
The DiagnOptiMesh project will conduct original research on the possibilities to diagnose and optimize the status of commercial wireless networks based on the WirelessHART standard. This will be the first attempt to establish network diagnosis and management for wireless field bus systems used in industrial automation that will collect diagnostic information and optimize the system behaviour accordingly. Research topics include identification of suitable network properties and methods to infer the status from these, as well as the assessment of influential communication parameters. After implementing the necessary protocol extension, and network analysis and management algorithms, the new technology will be evaluated in extensive field-tests. The result of the project will be a software based solution, but implementation in hardware is envisioned for the final product.
Start/End: 2010-2012
Partners: Softing Industrial Automation GmbH
Research Topics: WirelessHART, Wireless Sensor Networks, Network Management
Classical approaches of computer science do not scale well for today's large and complex software-intensive systems. Software
Cooperative and collaborative strategies for transmission in wireless sensor networks enable transmission range restricted nodes to reach distant receivers by superimposing transmission signals.
This addresses an important practical problem of wireless sensor networks.
In this proposal we extend this strategy by emergent properties:
We establish a method to adapt the collaborative emergent optimisation process by a) remembering previous behaviour from similar situations, b) using this information to adapt the current optimisation run by using randomised and feedback-based approaches to determine an optimally pre-synchronised set of nodes for transmission and c) optimising and learning observed optimisation behaviour for the random process, which is better than the behaviour we had in memory so far.
Using feedback information is a natural and intuitive approach to adapt to the the scenario's dynamics without the requirement for external intervention.
Our approach will therefore show both emergent and self-organisation properties.
We will demonstrate the suitability of the method by implementing and deploying a sensor network in an office setting.
The demonstration will show how to globally minimise and equalise the energy used for collaborative transmission.
Start/End: 2009-2011
Technische Universität Clausthal, Leibniz Universität Hannover
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Follow-ups:
The dinam concept is a novel approach to simplified rapid development of wireless sensor network applications as well as an according WSN platform. As opposed to the traditional mote- based development archetype, dinam proposes combining the development steps into a single continuous, fluid process that is completely integrated into the node. The dinam concept sensor node, called the dinam-mite, integrates all development tools, source code and other data into the sensor node system. This concept will greatly reduce the amount of effort required to develop wireless sensor network applications by removing the overhead of installation, iterative development steps and complexity of the development process. Initial results indicate that an integrated instruction and development period of 10 minutes is sufficient for simple applications using the dinam approach.
Start: 2009
Research Topics: Human-Computer-Interaction, Wireless sensor networks, Ubiquitous Computing applications
The aim of the project is to develop new methods for context prediction in wireless sensor networks and to utilise these for dynamic adaptation and optimisation of network behaviour.
Wireless sensor networks (WSN) provide the infrastructure for communication and measurement in environments where installing network and measurement hardware would be infeasible because of financial, local, and technical restrictions. Methods for prediction of time series are applied, for instance, in predicting financial time series or for computing weather forecasts.
Current approaches for prediction in WSNs estimate environment parameters to verify or correct measurement values. We apply methods of prediction to optimise parameters of the network.
The goal of the project SenseCast is to determine ways to anticipate critical situations in WSNs by applying methods of prediction and to dynamically optimise network properties and parameters accordingly. Thus, properties, such as reduced energy consumption and decreased latency, can be guaranteed. The focus of the project is to improve the quality of the prediction by decreasing the number of erros in the input time series, by employing collaborative strategies for prediction, and by optimisation of methods for context prognosis, as well as to utilise prediction strategies for adaptation of network parameters for optimisation of network behaviour in WSNs.
Start/End: 2009-2010
Research Topics: optimisation of context prediction in low-cost wireless sensor networks, collaborative strategies for context prediction, adaptation of network parameters based on prediction
With the progress of wireless sensor network (WSN), this emerging technique is soon applied in many industrial projects. However, a standard to describe the security level in WSN is still lacking, which becomes very needful today. In MoSe Project we try to build a formal model to describe the security level of sensor network and also to give guideline of how to achieve these security levels. The work comprises following parts: collection of academic and industrial applications of WSN; building a formal characteristic card for WSN; investigating a formal model of security-related issues and the risk analysis with real examples.
Start/End: 2009-2010
Partners: ITM, Uni Karlsruhe Germany
Research Topics: Security of Sensor Networks, Survey of Applications/Technical characteristics of WSN
Wireless sensor networks are well suited for supervising conditions in various environments.
When used in rail cargo for continuous monitoring of freight wagons, the results can provide many benefits for the operator,
such as train sequence monitoring, monitoring of unusual events that may lead to accidents or estimation of optimal service points.
The main challenges for WSNs in this scenario are an unfavorable radio channel as wagons are basically steel boxes as well as the requirement
of minimum to zero maintenance with sensor lifetimes of several years. The accurate monitoring of position and state of freight wagons
is a challenging application for wireless sensor networks (WSN). The owner of a freight wagon has limited impact on the exact travel route
or on the order and composition of wagons in a train. Wagons might be re-coupled several times before the final destination is reached and
wagons of several owners become mixed in trains. Therefore, an adaptive wireless solution is required.
The Projekt Intelligenter Güterwagon (PIG) is about evaluating the use of WSN technology in a freight train environment.
Before such benefits are available channel measurements have to be taken to find the basic operation conditions of a wireless sensor network (WSN),
and a WSN has to be designed, implemented and verified.
Start/End: 2009-2010
Partners: Particle-Computer , Novaconsult GmbH
Research Topics: Wireless sensor networks, Wake-up on radio, Ultra low power communication protocols
Follow-ups:
Classical approaches of computer science do not scale well for today's large and complex software-intensive systems. Software
systems cannot be considered in isolation, since they are connected among each other and interact massively. Instead they are to be designed as parts of a
larger IT Ecosystem. In analogy to biological ecosystems, IT Ecosystems are based on the balance between individuals (autonomy) and sets of rules (control)
defining equilibria within an IT Ecosystem. Maintaining and continuously evolving IT Ecosystems requires deep understanding of this balance.
In the IT Ecosystems subproject LocCom (local communities) we develop methods, concepts, and tools for decentralized IT Ecosystems. Our part is especially the
resaerch of context detection, handling and pattern recognition.
Start/End: 2009-2011
Partners: Technische Universität Clausthal, Leibniz Universität Hannover
Research Topics: Context detection and handling, pattern recognition
Chosen: Cooperative Hybrid Objects Sensor
Networks. Chosen researches, develops
and applies a ultra-low power standard
chipset for wireless sensor nodes that
will be SOA/Web2.0 enabled. The sensor
node will have features as wake-up-on-radio
pattern and will integrate directly into
Web 2.0 applications. Applications areas
cover automotive and avionics. TU Braunschweig
leads the middleware and system/integration
effort of this project.
Start/End: 2008-2011
Partners: Infineon,
TU
Vienna, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, EADS,
Fiat
Research Topics: Wireless sensor networks,
Web 2.0, SOA, Ubiquitous Computing applications,
ultra-low power
Application and economic dissemination:
standard wireless sensor platform, applications
in avionics, automotive
The objective of the research project Polytos is to develop printed organic circuits with integrated sensors capable of recording data such as temperature, humidity or light exposure. The deployment of these types of printed organic circuits for item-level-tagging in logistics or supply chain scenarios could be used as organic printed smart labels in the future. In this project we are researching on highly scalable communication protocols, which will be capable to read out the sensory information from more than 1000 labeled items in a short time frame.
Start/End: 2009-2012
Partners:
SAP AG,
PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG,
BASF SE,
Robert Bosch GmbH,
Merck KGaA,
Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH,
TU Darmstadt,
Hochschule Mannheim,
Universitaet Heidelberg
Research Topics: Organic Printed Electronics, Communication Protocols
Aletheia is a leading innovation project, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, that aims at obtaining comprehensive access to product information through the use of semantic technologies. TecO researches in federating information from heterogeneous device such as sensor nodes and RFID tags. Together with ABB we work on platform independent solutions for the theintegration of the Internet of Things into industrial field service.
Start/End: 2008-2011
In the landmarke BMBF project TECO researches how a mobile ad hoc wireless sensor network can improve firefighter navigation in harsh indoor environments. The landmarke vision describes a system which does not focus on precise locationing but on providing navigational support which builds on the existing skills of firefighters. During the mission the firefighters themselves deploy the landmarke sensor nodes as they find it the most useful. This system provides navigational support by using the deployed nodes, also known as landmarken, as way points to navigate to important places and to track firefighters moving along the nodes. Landmarken further allow the storage of tactical information. They mark special places and can indicate which spaces have already been searched or which haven’t been explored yet. While exploring the fire field firefighters further collect knowledge about their environment and synchronize their knowledge with fellow comrades to complement their view of the scene.
Start/End: 2008-2011
Partners:
Institute of Firefighter Education NRW,
Draeger Safety,
Fire Brigade of the City of Cologne,
Interactive Wear,
Winckel GmbH & Co. KG,
Fraunhofer FIT,
University Of Siegen,
BIBA GmbH
Research Topics: Wireless sensor networks, Ubiquitous Computing applications, Navigation and orientation support
SensorRAUM researches how to integrate and visualize sensor networks in virtual environments. The high density of sensor nodes respectively their sensors often lead to high cognitive load and prevent direct interaction with attached objects. The aim of SensorRAUM is to build 3D virtual environments for a better sensory perception which enable the interaction between real world and virtual world entities.
Start/End: 2007-
Partners: SAP, DUS, Particle Computer GmbH
Research Topics: 3D virtual environments, virtual world, virtual sensor reality, multi user dungeons, metaverses, reduction of cognitive load, presentability of sensor data
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype of virtual platform for ubiquitous applications, demonstrator
Follow-ups:
OSOITE: Overlay-network Search Oriented for Information about Town Events. OSOITE researches collaboration mechanisms of independent large scale sensor networks and how to improve user interaction with sensor data. Generally speaking people are likely to search things related to their daily lives in the real world ranging from straight-forward queries to complex ones. In order to expedite and realize the usage of sensor networks in ubiquitous society, sensor networks are expected to response to such real-world queries which is part of OSOITE.
Start/End: 2006-
Partners: Tokyo Denki University, University of Tokyo, Keio University, Chuo University, Fixstars
Research Topics: Distributed storage, real-world search, multi-resolution queries, interpolation, web API and query conversion, ease of deployment
Application and economic dissemination: Software kit and demonstrators
Sub-Projects: UScan
P2P4Ubicomp researches how to interconnect various distributed sensor networks, what performance measures are important, what and how information are replicated among involved remote locations etc. The project researches this issues regarding integrating into Internet and Telco environments and builds up large, world-spanning environments. Publication 1. Publication 2. Publication 3.
Start/End: 2006-
Partners: KDDI Research Japan, DUS
Research Topics: RFID system, RFID antenna, RFID based location detection, user behaviour recognition
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype, Used for supervising customer behaviour
Follow-ups: LoCostix
The goal of RELATE is to research in spatial relationships between tangible objects that together form an interface both in P2P location hardware, software (recognition, protocols, applications) and user applications. One goal of the project is to develop generic building blocks for a lightweight short range (room size) location system that does NOT require infrastructure, administration, configuration or management and can be integrated into everyday object. Another goal of the project is to research on potentials and use of such a novel type of location systems. More Information. Publication 1. Publication 2.
Start/End: 2003-2004, 2005-2008 (RELATE II)
Partners: Lancaster University, TU Delft, UMIT
Research Topics: infrared based location systems, ultrasonic based location systems, peer-to-peer location systems, real-time communication protocols, touchable interfaces, location aware applications
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype, applications
Follow-ups:
Tiny, ressource poor sensor nodes require novel operating systems concepts to perform appropriate, but also to present a application (and application developer) friendly interface. The project seeks to develop a micro-kernel, distributed operating system that provides UNIX-style API for programmers and represents all ressources as filesystems like ressources. Publication 1. Publication 2. Publication 3.
Start/End: 2005-
Partners: Hide Tokuda Lab, Keio University
Research Topics: operating systems, microkernel, file systems, distributed systems
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype
Follow-ups:
This project seeks to gather basic understanding in how far context aware camera systems are able to support human memory. The project seeks to develop a small wearable context aware camera device, gains insight into what activities are contributing to events we like to keep in memory, how to recognize these activities using a minimal set of sensors and computing power, how to present the memorized information and studies the use of such a system.
Start/End: 2005-
Research Topics: activity recognition, minimal hardware design, user studies,
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype
Follow-ups:
LoCostix develops basic technology and applications for ultra low-cost RFID systems to be used for item level tagging. The project addresses problems as antenna integration, packaging of RFID but also novel minimalized communication protocols and offset printed circuits (polymer electronics). The project seeks to prototype such innovative RFID systems while the run of the project, deploy them within warehouse environments (drug stores) and run application studies. Publication 1. Publication 2 .
Start/End: 2006-2009
Partners: TU Chemnitz, Philips GmbH, SAP Research, DM GmbH
Research Topics: RFID systems, novel minimized communication protocols, user and application studies
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype, deployment, product
Follow-ups:
Superimposing codes can be used for a variety of applications in sensor network communication. One of the earliest applications was precise time synchronization of sensor nodes and channel access negotiation in AwareCon. More advances applications are using superimposed codes for ultra-fast ultra power-saving transmission of information - up to 1000 times faster than with traditional approaches. This builds the basis for novel ultra-minimized RF protocols, e.g. for novel types of RFID systems. It can also be used to extend reachability in sensor nodes (cooperative transmission) or using the radio channel to process information. More information. More information 2. Publication 1. Publication 2. Publication 3. Publication 4. Publication 5 . Publication 6.
Start/End: 2000-ongoing
Research Topics: Modulation schemes, superimposing radio waves, collaborative communication, inference modeling, radio propagation models, probabilistic estimation of data transmission, novel MAC protocols, minimal RF hardware design
Application and economic dissemination: basis for real time RF protocol (CoBIs, AwareCon, ...)
Follow-ups: LoCostix, CoBIs, RELATE
uParts are tiny little sensor network nodes that are very easy to deploy and run a 0-administration and low configuration (or 0-configuration when used with default) approach. The projects researches how to reach minimum deployment and maintenance costs of a sensor network and includes research on long lifetime hardware, 0-maintanance communication protocols, lower production costs and optimised application developer interfaces for ad-hoc programming. Application runs throughout the world provide feedback information that are evaluated in the project. More information. Publication 1. Publication 2.
Start/End: 2005-
Partners: Hide Tokuda Lab, Keio University
Research Topics: TCO for Sensor networks, ad-hoc programming for sensor network environments, communication protocols, application tests
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype, Used for several projects
Follow-ups:
The Smart Surroundings research program is investigating a new paradigm for bringing the flexibility of information technology to bear in every aspect of daily life. It foresees that people will be surrounded by deeply embedded and flexibly networked systems that provide easily accessible yet unobtrusive support for an open-ended range of activities, to enrich daily life and to increase productivity at work. This presents a paradigm shift from personal computing to ubiquitous computing , challenging the research community to investigate new building blocks and integrated infrastructures, as well as emerging applications and interaction styles. These systems will create a Smart Surrounding for people to facilitate and enrich daily life and increase productivity at work. These systems will be quite different from current computer systems, as they will be based on an unbounded set of hardware artefacts and software entities, embedded in everyday objects or realized as new types of device. Relevant knowledge areas include embedded systems, computer architecture, wireless communication, distributed computing, data and knowledge modeling, application platforms, human-computer interaction, industrial design, as well as application research in different settings and sectors. Our ambition is to move beyond prototypes toward sustainable systems for implementation of the ubiquitous computing vision. The research effort will span the entire spectrum ranging from scenarios of use, requirements elucidation and through to architectural design. More information.
Start/End: 2004-2007
Partners: University of Twente, Lancaster University, TU Delft, Philips,
TNO, Nedap, Roessingh Research, Thales, TalkingHOME, Océ
Research Topics:
embedded systems, computer architecture, wireless communication, distributed computing, data and knowledge modeling, application platforms, human-computer interaction, application research
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype, Used for supervising customer behaviour
CoBIs develops a radically new approach to business processes that concerns physical entities in enterprise environments (goods, tools, etc). This approach embraces advances in networked embedded systems to embed business logic in the physical entities, thereby creating Collaborative Business Items (CoBIs). These items bring closer together the state of an enterprise as represented in a business process with what is actually happening in the real world. The intention of CoBIs is to apply advances in Networked Embedded Systems to embed business logic in the physical entities to create Collaborative Business Items that make it possible to relate more closely the state of an enterprise as represented in a business process with what is actually happening in the real world.More Information 1. More Information 2. More Information 3. More Information 4. Publication 1.
Start/End: 2004-2007
Partners: SAP Research, Lancaster University, Infineon AG, BP, University of Twente
Research Topics: Integrating Sensor Systems and Enterprise Systems: Interface definition, process exchange language, mobile code, collaborative activity. Operating system: mobile codes sensor networks. Communication: Real-time communication system (AwareCom), Service Interfaces for Sensor Networks. Hardware: Shock, Chemical robust HW, Application Studies: Use of sensor networks in highly sensitive environments
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype, Deployment at BP in Hull/UK
Follow-ups: Particle-Computer GmbH (Start-Up)
AwareOffice researches deployment and of Ubiquitous Computing technology in office settings. One aspect is the embedding of sensor nodes into everyday objects, integration of novel types of devices (e.g. electronic doorplates) and developing hardware, libraries and software for running a office of the future. Other aspects are collection of sensor data an activity monitoring, or user behaviour recognition in general. The project provides also a test-bed platform for other projects (Smart-Its, RELATE, CoBIs, LoCostix). More Information.
Start/End: 2003-
Partners: SAP Research
Research Topics: sensor node hardware, development of novel user interface devices, integration of consumer electronics, acclivity recognition and context awareness, user studies
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype, test bed
Follow-ups:
ContextAsAKey is an approach to reach ad-hoc security and privacy in a Ubiquitous Computing environment without any user involvement - management, configuration nor administration. The basic principle is the use of the common context that exist when computing devices are located close to each other in the same physical environment. Technically the system bases on advanced transformation and recognition methods which are used to compare sensor patterns received by sensors on embedded sensor nodes. Publication 1.
Start/End: 2004-
Research Topics: sensor pattern recognition, sensor pattern comparison
Application and economic dissemination: Prototype
Follow-ups:
Particle Computer is an enabling platform for various scenarios related to Ubicomp. Particles are tiny wireless nodes where a huge variety of sensors can be attached. Further, the fully programmable micro controller accompanied by powerful libraries let novices as well as professionals implement applications in the fields of sensor networks, human-computer interaction, supply-chain management and many more. The proprietary communication protocol AwareCon is able to handle highly mobile and highly scalable communication situations. Although battery-driven, Particle Computer can achieve lifetime of up to several years. The project covers several aspects including system software and tools for developing Particle applications and sensor data analysis. More information.