Dr. rer. nat. Thorsten Mahler January 5th, 1976 Weißenhorn

Dr. rer. nat. Thorsten Mahler born

January 5th, 1976 Weißenhorn, Germany

Contact address

Thorsten Mahler Mähringer Weg 108 89075 Ulm Germany

phone

+49 731 / 550 44 12

mobile

+49 178 / 189 32 21

email web

[email protected] http://medien.informatik.uni-ulm.de/~mahler/

Education Doktorarbeit PhD Thesis

Defended January 21st, 2011 »Interaktionsmodelle für ubiquitäre Anwendungsszenarien« Interaction Models for Ubiquitous Computing Scenarios Advisor Prof. Dr. Michael Weber Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science Institute of Media Informatics University of Ulm Germany

PhD Studies

2004-2010 Computer Science PhD Student, focusing on Ubiquitous Computing, Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design.

Diplomarbeit Master Thesis

Diplominformatik Computer Science Studies

Abitur A-levels

Accepted May 5th, 2003 »Smart Graphics im Web« Smart Graphics in the Web

1996-2003 Computer Science Student Graduated May 5th, 2003, Diplominformatiker (Dipl. Inf.) equivalent to Master in Computer Science. Major subjects: Applied Informatics (Praktische und Angewandte Informatik), Computer Engineering (Technische und Systemnahe Informatik), Information Systems (Informationssysteme), Media technology and design (Medientechnik und -gestaltung). Final grade »sehr gut« (1.1)

June 30th, 1995 Nikolaus-Kopernikus-Gymnasium Weißenhorn Major subjects: Math, Arts. Final grade »gut« (1.8)

Experience Assistant lecturer Institute of Media Informatics

Research assistant CAPNETZ Project

Student assistent Media technology and design Medientechnik und -gestaltung

2008-2009 Assistant lecturer at the Institute of Media Informatics, supporting Prof. Dr. Michael Weber in lectures, exercises, and seminars. This position involved the supervision of students in seminars, teaching practical courses, as well as designing exams and exercises. Additionally, I gathered experience as a substitute lecturer and supervised students doing Diplomarbeiten, their final thesis.

2003-2008 Research assistant at the Institute of Media Informatics in the BMBF (German Federal Ministry for Education and Research) funded CAPNETZ project. CAPNETZ was a nation wide medical project researching the diagnosis and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). For this project, the Institute of Media Informatics developed and established a web-based study system. I was involved in the conception and design of the user front end, as well as its development in HTML, Javascript, CSS, and PHP. Furthermore, my position involved database maintenance and programming, as well as user training and support.

1998-2003 Student assistant at the Department of Distributed Systems and the Institute of Media Informatics at the University of Ulm, Germany.

Teaching Since 1998, I am involved in teaching. First as a student assistant in the Department of Distributed Systems and later in the Institute of Media Informatics. Since my time as research assistant in the Institute of Media Informatics, I designed exams, taught practical courses and seminars, and supervised students in their courses as well as in their final Diplomarbeiten. Practical Course and Seminar on Ubiquitous Computing

Interactive Systems

Practical Course and Seminar on Ubiquitous Computing

Practical Course on æsthetic computing

User Interface Software

Seminar on Perception and Interactive Technologies

Summer Term 2009 Graduate course Supervision and lecture Summer Term 2009 Undergraduate course Design and lecture of exercises Winter Term 2008/2009 Graduate course Supervision and lecture Winter Term 2008/2009 Graduate course Design, realization supervision, and lecture Winter Term 2008/2009 Undergraduate course Design and lecture of exercises Winter Term 2008/2009 Graduate course Supervision of students

Practical Course and Seminar on Ubiquitous Computing

Summer Term 2008 Graduate course Supervision and part of lecture

Practical Course on Alternative User Interfaces

Summer Term 2008 Graduate course Supervision and part of lecture

Digital Media

Summer Term 2008 Graduate course Design and lecture of exercises

Interactive Systems

Practical Course and Seminar on Ubiquitous Computing

Summer Term 2008 Undergraduate course Design and lecture of exercises Winter Term 2007/2008 Graduate course Part of supervision

Practical Course on User Interfaces

Summer Term 2007 Graduate course Part of supervision

Practical Course on User Interfaces

Summer Term 2006 Graduate course Part of supervision

Seminar on Ubiquitous Gaming

Summer Term 2005 Graduate course Part of design, lecture and supervision

Multimedia Systems

Summer Term 2004 Graduate course Part of design and lecture of exercises

Practical Course on Web Engineering

Summer Term 2004 Graduate course Part of supervision

Supervised Diplomarbeiten Christoph Graf

Philipp Wollmann

Alexander Bias

Stefan Aubele

Die Wiimote als Eingabegerät für kollaboratives Multi-User Mind Mapping The Wii Remote Controller as Input Device for Collaborative Multi User Mind Mapping Der Wii Remote Controller als virtuelles Musikinterface The Wii Remote Controller as Virtual Music Interface Interfaces zur Indoor Navigation für Laienbenutzer Interfaces for Indoor Laymen Navigation Ein Multimonitor Interaktionskonzept für NOC A Multi Monitor Interaction Concept for Network Operation Centers

Katrin Egle

Adaptive Visualisierung von Kontextinformation und Lagebilddarstellung in Frühwarnsystemen Adaptive Visualization of Context Information and Map Display in Early Warning Systems

Markus Reuff

Gestaltung von User Interfaces auf mobilen Klein- und Kleinstgeräten zum Einsatz in mobilen Navigationssystemen Design of User Interfaces for Small Mobile Devices Applicable for Mobile Navigation Systems

Rainer Weiser

Adaptierbarkeit von Accessibility-Verfahren auf mobile Geräte Adaptability of Accessibility Techniques for Mobile Devices

Student assistant During my time as student assistant between 1998 and 2004 I was involved in the organization and support of numerous lectures on Media Law, Principles of Graphics Design I, Principles of Graphics Design II, Interactive Systems, and Usability Engineering.

Administration As a student I was member of the appointment committees for professorships of the Institute of Media Informatics.

1999/2000

Appointment Commission for the appointment of the full professor and head of the Institute of Media Informatics Student member

2000/2001

Appointment Commission for the appointment of a full professor in Media Informatics Student member

2002/2003

Appointment Commission for the appointment of a full professor in Media Informatics Student member

Research interests My primary research interest is human computer interaction, especially the new and emerging interaction forms suiting ubiquitous computing, including mobile interaction, ambient display, augmented reality, as well as tangible interaction. With the tremendous advances in computing power and computer miniaturization, we are witnessing the leap of computer systems into our everyday surrounding, making way for Mark Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous computing. The seamless weave in with our everyday surrounding expands the interaction possibilities immensely. Everyday objects and artefacts come to focus while simultaneously pushing traditional interaction devices and paradigms into the background. In this setting, it is extremely interesting to work on the user interface, because its value grows and grows. It is no more a question solely of software development, but also of usability and design, to develop suitable interfaces. The new challenges for software developers will be to develop applications that allow for virtual manipulations through real world interaction. Ambient technologies as well as tangible interaction will be of more and more importance. My doctoral thesis continues this notion as it aims on integrating the many facets of ubiquitous computing user interfaces and the elaboration of their common tasks and differences. The main goal is to widen the focus for the development of user interfaces, to integrate the many different flavours, and to establish a method to reach an interface decision prior to the traditional software development process. In the current state of transition to ubiquitous computing it will be extremely interesting to see the new interfaces take shape. The exploration of ways how to lend interfaces to real world objects, how they will appear, how they will hide when not needed will be of great interest. Computer systems especially in mixed environments allow for learning approaches that are easy to use, highly dynamic, and overall exploratory. Users can directly interact with mixed systems and learn by trailing and the observation of effects, which makes these systems highly interactive. For this endeavor I want to bring in my knowledge on tangible interaction, ambient technologies, interface design, and mobile interaction. Additionally, I believe that exploratory interfaces and games will be a great field for interface design, which is a direction I want to take alongside with a focus and integration of aesthetics and design.

Projects During my time as research and teaching assistant at the Institute of Media Informatics I designed and realized different projects. All of them where either published or presented to the public in exhibitions. I always encourage students to work in these projects and the realization is to a large extend done in collaboration with them. In the following I shortly present a small selection of the latest projects.

Tangible Reminder Mobile This project combines tangible mnemonics with ambient displays and mobile interaction. Arbitrary user selected objects function as real world placeholders for dates. Whereas an intelligent piece of furniture equipped with RFID-sensors and digitally controlled LEDs allows for keeping track of the deadlines of appointments linked to the placeholders, a mobile device lends an interface to everyday objects for close examination and appointment manipulation. Thus, the mobile interface allows for the complete waiving of classic computer interaction. This project has been presented on the HCII 2009 conference.

Dimian New input devices demand new interaction metaphors and interfaces. The Dimian project adapts the freely available Freemind mind mapping software to tablet PCs and extends the Freemind interface to suit the special affordances of pen based interfaces. Adapting the interface for pen based interaction, we provide an easy yet comprehensive interface even for novice users. Dimain provides a direct manipulation interface with zoomable panes in combination with abstract gestures and traditional menu interfaces adapted to pen interaction using pie menus. This project has been presented on the iea 2009 conference.

æsthetic computing During the winter term 2008/2009 I organized a practical course in æsthetic computing with the goal to encourage young students to use their technical knowledge but give free rein to their creativity. I organized visits from resident artists and trips to arts exhibitions especially the ZKM in Karlsruhe. On this basis the students had to develop their own exhibits. The best results were shown in an arts exhibit at the Stadthaus Ulm, Germany. In the following two examples are shortly presented.

growth - sehen und gesehen werden This project focuses on visualization, but not in a traditional sense. It rather switches the object-viewer relation, making the spectator a part of the installation by using him as the projection screen. The system recognizes people and begins to grow virtual flowers on them whenever they enter the active pane. When more people enter the pane an interplay between their virtual flowers begins. The exhibit plays with the role of background and foreground and tears down this distinction for the spectator is both, part of the installation and viewer.

grid Music generation is a fascinating genre. However, programs for this purpose are complex and need a lot of training to be mastered. The grid project focuses on providing an easy to use tangible interface to produce completely new ambient experimental sounds, making the viewer the artist by simply reassembling blocks on the sound table. Hereby, not only the color of the blocks and their position but also the emerging shapes are used as parameters to create sound. The projects was realized in collaboration with Tobias Hornberger and won the best student project award on the Innovative Computerbased Music Interfaces (ICMI) 2009. further Projects

Patternwolke, Vipa, ArcMind, Tangible Reminder Mobile, Oton, nometa, pedestrian Navigation, Disaster Management, FreeMote, typotisch, drumma’gothi, walk on water, soundscape, Infinite Acid Noise Projection, LaserPin, FutureCanteen, photofingers, Leo.

Publications All publications went through a review process and all papers were presented at the corresponding conference. I personally held the talks on »Dimian - Direct Manipulation and Pen Based Mind Mapping« in Beijing, »Mobile Interfaces in Tangible Mnemonics Interaction« in San Diego, »Visual Attention in Auditory Display« in Irsee, »A Method for Smart Graphics in the Web« in Banff as well as the presentation on »Attention Driven Auditory Display« in Tübingen. All talks and presentations were given in English.

Doktorarbeit PhD Thesis

Interaktionsmodelle für ubiquitäre Anwendungsszenarien Thesis, Universität Ulm. Fakultät für Ingenieurwissenschaften und Informatik, 2011. http://vts.uni-ulm.de/doc.asp?id=7527 (in german)

Book chapter

Mobile Device Interaction in Ubiquitous Computing Thorsten Mahler, Michael Weber Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, Shane Pinder (ed.), In-Tech Education and Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-953-7619-15-2, 311-330.

Long papers

Dimian - Direct Manipulation and Pen Based Mind Mapping Thorsten Mahler, Michael Weber 17th World Congress on Ergonomics, iea 2009, Beijing, China, August 9-14, 2009, 1-8. Mobile Interfaces in Tangible Mnemonics Interaction Thorsten Mahler, Marc Hermann, Michael Weber 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII), San Diego, USA, July 19-24, 2009, 58-66. Universal Device Access with FreeMote Markus Hipp, Thorsten Mahler, Christian Spika, Michael Weber 5th International Conference on Intelligent Environments, IE09, Barcelona, Spain, July 20-21, 2009, 311-318. The Tangible Reminder Marc Hermann, Thorsten Mahler, Guido de Melo, Michael Weber 3rd IET International Conference on Intelligent Environments, IE07, Ulm, Germany, September 2007, 144-151.

Pedestrian Navigation System Implications on Visualization Thorsten Mahler, Markus Reuff, and Michael Weber 12th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII), Beijing, China, July 2007, 470-478. Visual Attention in Auditory Display Thorsten Mahler, Pierre Bayerl, Michael Weber, Heiko Neumann Perception and Interactive Technologies, PIT 2006, Kloster Irsee, Germany, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, June 2006, 65-72. A Method for Smart Graphics in the Web Thorsten Mahler, Stefan Fiedler, Michael Weber Smart Graphics 2004, Banff, Canada, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, July 2004, 146-153. Das Capnetz Online Research System Michael Wallner, Torsten Illmann, Klaus Richter, Thorsten Mahler, Michael Weber 8. DVMD-Tagung, Ulm, Germany, April 2004, 1-4.

Short papers

GRID - Generic Rectilinear Interface Device Tobias Hornberger, Thorsten Mahler, Michael Weber Mensch & Computer 2009, Innovative Computer-basierte Musikinterfaces (ICMI 2009), Berlin, Germany, September 6-9, 2009. Attention Driven Auditory Display Thorsten Mahler, Pierre Bayerl, Michael Weber, Heiko Neumann TWK: 8th Tübingen Perception Conference, Tübingen, Germany, February 2005.

Skills coding markup & styling dtp

Java, PHP, Javascript, SQL, Processing, Flash, C++, C#, .NET XML, HTML, LaTex, CSS, SVG, XSL Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign

Languages German (native) English (fluent) Latin (7 years in school) French (3 years in school) Japanese (beginner)

Membership Association for Computing Machinery (acm)

Personal Interests I personally have a strong interest in modern and contemporary art and design in general. I like illustrations and draw myself. I play the guitar, like to listen to music, going to the movies and to read. For recreation I go jogging and play basketball.