ELARM - E-Learning, Asset and Rights Management

Partner: JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH

Because of the outcome of our IMB market study it was decided to turn our IMB framework (see also years 2001-2003) into an asset management solution for e-Learning environments. Searching for tools and technologies that work as enabler for additional requirements we found ontologies and the MPEG-21 as main solutions for DRM and content distribution rules. The goal of eLarm is providing a framework for asset management of multimedia information in the context of learning content management systems. As a base framework eLarm's predecessor IMB was used.

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Gyro- 3D Knowledge Web Visualisation

Partner: Brockhaus Duden Neue Medien

"Der Brockhaus" is probably the most famous german encyclopaedia. In its multimedia edition, it offers recherche in 240.000 articles for 320.000 keywords. Information types include images and audio files as well as videos, animations, geographical data and many more. A knowledge web can be displayed for each encyclopaedia entry, showing similar keywords to a given article or topic and allowing instant topical navigation within the encyclopaedia. The project dealt with design, development and evaluation of a threedimensional, interactive visualisation for the knowledge Webs. Such a visualisation should enhance usability and increase user motivation by using optimized display metaphores and workflows. Articles are presented as objects placed on a turntable which is separated into topical segments. Many types of metainformation, like for example article type, relevance, area, availability of multimedia content and article quality are visualised at a glance. Users can freely interact with the display metaphore, resulting in a high degree of immersion into the threedimensional knowledge space, while automated animation sequences help keeping the orientation in three dimensions.

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KnowMiner - Multipurpose, Cross-media, Knowledge Discovery Framework

Strategic Research Project

The KnowMiner framework is developed further by integrating new retrieval, classification and clustering methods, as well as different processing modules for text, picture and audio data. As in the past year the focus is on hierarchically structured data repositories, enrichment of knowledge entities with metadata and development of techniques for matching and comparing metadata represented in different standards.

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onAIR- APA Intelligent Retrieval (Implementation)

Partner: APA Defacto

Reliably locating information within a database containing 20 million documents is a challenging task when only standard information re-trieval techniques may be used. In the preceding project, several en-hancements to retrieval algorithms and implementation techniques used in the current version of APA Defacto News Search have been suggested. In cooperation with APA IT, these enhancements have now been implemented prototypically.
New or updated functionality included searching for similar docu-ments, algorithms for analysing search results, algorithms for auto-matically extending current search terms and algorithms from the field of information visualisation. In cooperation with our partner the user interface was specified and prototypically implemented. A variety of visualisation techniques, ranging from simple one-dimensional dia-grams to complex 3D models, was explored and the impact of several navigation techniques was tested.
Finally, the developed client/server prototype was evaluated. Using special test scenarios it was demonstrated that the implemented algo-rithms yield satisfying results. In addition, benefits and drawbacks of the prototypical user interface were identified through user testing and results were integrated into the design proposal for the Apa Online Manager.

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WebAtlas- Web Based User Interface for Atlas Access (Requirements Phase)

Partner: Brockhaus Duden Neue Medien

The Brockhaus WebAtlas project deals with design and implementation of a web-based user interface which enables access to a global atlas containing overviews as well as high-resolution detail maps. Core challenges were the reduction of the amount of data to be transmitted and the optimization of the user interface. To render a realistic and interactive display of the globe, techniques from the area of web-based 3D were employed. Geographical reference search facilities are included in the project results, too. User benefits include the availability of a installation-independent, detailed world map running in a web browser.

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