Emerging research directions in computer science : contributions from the young informatics faculty in Karlsruhe

In order to build better human-friendly human-computer interfaces,
such interfaces need to be enabled with capabilities to perceive
the user, his location, identity, activities and in particular his interaction
with others and the machine. Only with these perception capabilities
can smart systems ( for example human-friendly robots or smart environments) become posssible. In my research I'm thus focusing on the
development of novel techniques for the visual perception of humans and
their activities, in order to facilitate perceptive multimodal interfaces,
humanoid robots and smart environments. My work includes research
on person tracking, person identication, recognition of pointing gestures,
estimation of head orientation and focus of attention, as well as
audio-visual scene and activity analysis. Application areas are humanfriendly
humanoid robots, smart environments, content-based image and
video analysis, as well as safety- and security-related applications. This
article gives a brief overview of my ongoing research activities in these
areas.