Finished Tasks, since 2019

• [Intelligence] AI Recommendation of Thesis Reviewers (Master Thesis) Develop a deep learning model that is able to recommend reviewers for student master theses at TU Wien from (1) the abstract of the thesis and (2) the research profiles of the researchers. Requires good knowledge of a deep learning framework, natural language processing, LSTMs and other recurrent networks.
• [Multimedia] Audio Analysis Software for Raspberry Pi (Bachelor Thesis) Develop content-based audio analysis components that are able to run on a Raspberry Pi processor. Potential topics include sound effects and the recognition of voice/music transitions. Eventually, the software should run on our Raspberry Pi radio system Tuvoli. Requires basic knowledge in audio analysis and signal processing.
• [Multimedia] Babelfish App (Bachelor Thesis, Practicum) Develop a mobile app that translates spoken content from one language to another using already existing services for speech recognition, translation and speech synthesis. The service should be limited to German and English.


• [Multimedia] Base Dosimeter (Bachelor Thesis) Develop a dosimeter (long-time noise recording) exclusively for the base frequencies. Should include proper recording hardware, if necessary, band pass filtering, RMS computation and optionally, recording of the source signal on an embedded device (e.g. a Raspberry Pi) + a data analysis and reporting component on the PC. Requires maker skills and good programming knowledge in one high-level programming language.
• [Intelligence] Chatbot for the Safer Internet Program (Master Thesis) Develop an intelligent chatbot that canbe used as first-level response for children who have troubles with social media apps. The chatbot should be able to answer the most common questions that children between 8 and 12 years have when dealing with social media on WhatsApp, Tictoc and like applications. Non-standard cases should be referred to a human operator. Requires good skills in natural language processing an machine learning. If performed as a diploma thesis, must include user-based refinement of requirements + a user-based evaluation.
• [Virtuality] Content Management for Virtual Climbing 1 (Bachelor Thesis) For our existing physical-virtual climbing environment Vreeclimber, migrate two of four existing contents to the latest Unity version and integrate them with the interaction template of the climbing wall. The contents are: climbing a space ship or a crater on the Moon. Requires 3D modelling skills and a good understanding of the requirements of VR applications as a major issue will be finding the optimal trade-off between level of detail and framerate requirements of the game engine. Please note that a fully functional model of the climbing wall including motor management and tracking does exist and can be used out of the box.


• [Virtuality] Content Management for Virtual Climbing 2 (Practicum) For our existing physical-virtual climbing environment Vreeclimber, migrate two of four existing contents to the latest Unity version and integrate them with the interaction template of the climbing wall. The contents are: climbing in an alpine environment and climbing on a volcano. Requires 3D modelling skills and a good understanding of the requirements of VR applications as a major issue will be finding the optimal trade-off between level of detail and framerate requirements of the game engine. Please note that a fully functional model of the climbing wall including motor management and tracking does exist and can be used out of the box.
• [Multimedia] Implementation of a Mobile Interactive Climbing App (Practicum) Climbr is a mobile app that allows for intuitive visual editing of climbing routes. In this task, it shall be re-implemented using Flutter (similar to JS/React; see flutter.dev). In this task, you first learn Flutter as well as implementing the required UI patterns. Then, you re-implement the existing app on a quality level that allows for publication in the Android and Apple app stores.


• [Virtuality] Construction of a Virtual Tasting Device (Bachelor Thesis) Build a virtual taste device that imitates the approach taken in https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3123440 - only for taste stimulation, not for virtual cocktails -, i.e. creation of gustatory sensations by electrical stimulation of the tongue. The final prototype should include a hardware prototype, a software interface for Unity & project documentation (BoM, building instructions, etc.). Requires good electronics skills. A well-equipped lab + funds for hardware are available.
• [Virtuality] Distributed Multi-User Virtual Miniature Golf Application (Bachelor Thesis) Develop an application for miniature golf playing with virtual reality. Includes a bit of hardware design (attaching a Vive handheld to a stick) and the development of a gaming environment in Unity or Unreal. Once the basic application has been developed, the framework should be extended to distributed multi-user usage - potentially by using collaborative VR technology developed at the IMS. If performed as a diploma thesis, the project must include a user-based evaluation of the prototype.
• [Intelligence] Embedded Parasite Recognition (Bachelor Thesis) Implement an embedded-system (based on a Raspberry Pi) for the recognition and classification of parasites on small fast-moving insects. Requires good knowledge in computer vision, deep learning and Python programming.


• [Virtuality] Finger Tracking based on Deep Learning (Bachelor Thesis) Based on an existing prototype for hand image generation (based on 3D models of hands) develop a deep learning model that is able to recognize hand poses (fist, open hand, etc.) as fast as possible. Input images can be generated for all degrees of freedom (hand size, skin color, anomalities, etc.) and all perspectives (front, side, etc.) - thus millions of training images can be generated quickly. Training should be startet with CNN architectures, but might also include recurrent networks. For application, the model is fed with images from a consumer webcam. Goals are the maximization of the frame rate (for VR >=90fps would be desirable; 10-20fps are realistic for state-of-the-art Nvidia graphics cards) and the maximization of the accuracy (e.g. measuresd as mean average precision for five categories on the scale between open hand and fully closed fist). Requires good engineering skills and an interest in 3D modelling, VR and machine learning.
• [Multimedia] Foot Massage Robot (Master Thesis) Develop a robot that can perform a foot massage. Based on an existing robot arm, develop a hardware setup for the massage process, a computer vision framework for the recogniton of foot zones (e.g. based on OpenPose), a function for the pressing and gliding massage techniques and an audio feedback module that reacts on the user's comments. The entire massage process should be based on the multimedia inputs and adaptive in an intelligent way. If performed as a diploma thesis, the project must include a brief user study. Requires good knowledge in computer vision and elementary robotics knowledge.
• [Multimedia] Game Design for Augmented Reality Bouldering (Practicum) For our existing physical-virtual climbing environment Vreeclimber, implement two more games for bouldering with augmented reality. Pracitcally, this requires the design of targets (sprites), a recognition algorithm in OpenCV and of game designlike in the old days of level/arcade games. Required skills are Python programming, graphics design and computer vision experience. Please note that a fully functional model of the climbing wall including motor management and tracking does exist and can be used out of the box.


• [Intelligence] Heimlich & Co Agents for our Strategy Game Engine (Bachelor Thesis) Develop three agents (MCTS-based, depth search, baseline) for the board game Heimlich & Co (multiple players, turn-based, partial information, chance). The implementation has the be performed in the Java strategy game environment used in the course Strategy Game Programming. Requires good Java programming skills as well as knowledge and experience in strategic planning and reinforcement learning. If performed as a diploma thesis, the solution must include research-based state of the art solutions for the problems of dealing with partial information and elements of chance.
• [Multimedia] Homesick Sound App (Master Thesis) Develop a mobile app that exchange the sounds created by the city you live in with the sounds of your home city. Requires implementing a server for sound upload and categorization (to be done by the app automatically in the background, classification e.g. into "traffic", "market", etc.) and of a feature-based classification app that is able to understand the current sound environment and to replace it (over earphones) with cached sounds from the place that you chose on installing the app. An example: The app should help to make someone from Mumbai feel at home in Zurich. Requires good knowledge in audio signal processing.


• [Multimedia] Implementation a Mobile App for Sign Language Learning (Practicum) Lectary is a platform-independent mobile video-based app for the learning of sign language. The app is, for example, part of the curriculum at the University of Klagenfurt. In this project, Lectary shall be re-implemented in Flutter (similar to JS/React; see flutter.dev). In this task, you first learn Flutter as well as implementing the required UI patterns. Then, you re-implement the existing app on a quality level that allows for publication in the Android and Apple app stores. Please note that this is a real-world project with social impact. Hence, we expect a professional, user-centred and dependable approach by the student.
• [Intelligence] Intelligent Services for the TU Information Systems (2 Master Theses, 1 Practicum) Build components for the smart enhancement of the TU Information Systems (TISS). Topics include matching of data cagetories (e.g. project contents and research profiles, course contents and student profiles, etc.), recommender systems (e.g. "Students who did course A also subscribed course B"), smart search (e.g. by synonyms, proposed keywords, etc.) and others. Participating students have to have a good knowledge of machine learning methods in the area of text and data analysis, in particular, NLP, deep learning, recurrent networks (e.g. LSTMs) and, of course, word embedding methods such aus BERT, GPT-2, etc. Programming is done with Python + Jupyter only; the embedding of the smart components in the service infrastructure is not part of the topic. A powerful GPU infrastructure for training and evaluation is provided. Please note that the present entry comprises a number of topics & can also be subscribed by groups of students. If performed as a diploma thesis, must include small user-based evaluation of the outcome.


• [Software] A Like Button for the Legislative (Bachelor Thesis) Develop a server-based system that satisfies the following requirements: (1) Periodic (e.g. annually) grabbing of the contents of the Austrian Database of Laws (RIS), (2) flexible UI for usage on desktop & mobile systems, (3) a server job that computes the changes in content per paragraph from one year to another, (4) content reading functions for browsing, search & random access for the changes/paragraph, (5) presentation of the individual changes with a feedback widget for (-2="hate it"..+2="love it" & "don't know/care"), 86) at times, ask the user for her/his political preference:"left - center - right", (7) reporting functions for aggregated results that filter out too many too quick answers (spam), out of Austria geoblocking, indiscriminate haters/lovers, etc. Open issues are: (1) the implementation of a reward function, a seeding algorithm, offering of "thematic paths" in the browsing function. Requires solid programming skills, can be done by a group of two students, ideally suited for students who passed VU Ruby Business Programming.
• [Multimedia] Mechanical Radio (Practicum) Build a system that generates endless audio streams consisting of information on a specific topic (given in the form of keywords), general information (e.g. weather, news) and music that fits to the chosen topic. The entire system should run on an embedded computer and perform all intelligence-based tasks (selection of information and text) on the edge. The final stream should have production quality and be both informative and entertaining. If done as a master thesis, has to include an extensive user-based evaluation.
• [Intelligence] Political Opinion Slalom (Master Thesis) Develop an NLP application that works on the protocols of speeches in Parliament (publicly available). Extract three properties: (1) How congruent are the messages of politicians that belong to the same party? (2) How congruent are the opinions expressed by individual politicians over time? (3) How congruent are the statements of individual politicians and/or aggregated over parties in the N months before and M years after an election? Requires excellent natural-language processing and machine/deep learning skills.

• [Virtuality] Robot Arm Sonification (Bachelor Thesis) Explore the use of sonification in the control of robot arms: Build a setup that consists of a robot arm + an underwater work task (e.g. manipulating a cable) and/or provide a software environment for avatar-based control of such a robot arm. Provide sonification of movement and touch sensors. If done as a diploma thesis should involve an evaluation of easier learning and/or more precise handling of the robot arm in the defined task. Requires good programming skills and interest in robot technology.
• [Intelligence] Royal Bot the First (Practicum) Build a mobile robot that recognises its environment and interacts with humans,requiring the understanding and interpretation of their motives, thus developing a basic form of consciousness. The robot should be based on a cheap kit (Lego, mRobot, etc.) and recognise the following settings (+interaction): (1) cheering crowds (stand still, look tangentially away from the crowd and slowly wave back), (2) groups of people in uniforms (stand erect, move slowly forward, hoist a small flag and play some sombre yet enchanting piece of music), (3) one person kneeling in front of the bot (draw a miniature sword and knight that person). It should thus be a jovially royal bot. Plus, the framework for royal consciousness should be designed in an open, extendible way so that later, additional functions can be added. Please recognise that apart from the humorous requirements this is a serious topic with hard to achieve goals.
• [Multimedia] Rugby Video Analyzer (Practicum) Develop a windows-based video player that is able to analyze recordings of rugby union matches. Functions should include the recognition of scrums, a jump over option (also for timeouts), an outcome analyser for scrums, lineouts and other set pieces, the eliminiation of in-screen ads and banner ads, etc. Requires solid computer vision skills and fluency in a major programming language. If done as a diploma thesis, it must include a data-based evaluation.


• [Virtuality] Smartphone-based Interactive Virtual Climbing (Bachelor Thesis) For our existing physical-virtual climbing environment Vreeclimber, implement an augmentation of the virtual environment that includes (1) the usage of smells over an existing interface (Vragrancer, as used in the Virtual Jumpcube application), (2) controlling the environment of the current climber externally (by, for example, adding birds/spiders/etc., thunderstorms, other environmental effects, etc. - whatever can be thought of) through a mobile app, and (3) the evaluation of the effect of interaction on immersion in a user study. Requires good knowledge in Unity programming, VR design and 3D modelling. Please note that a fully functional model of the climbing wall including motor management and tracking does exist and can be used out of the box.
• [Intelligence] Strategy Engine for Real-Time Games (Bachelor Thesis) Extend the existing game engine for the course Strategy Game Programming so that it can play real-time stragegy games with partial information (fog of war) and elements of chance: (1) Select an appropriate game and set the game rules, (2) adapt the game engine, (3) implement baseline agents for random play, minimax optimization and MCTS optimization, (4) document the system so that it can be used by students with limited Java experience. Requires good knowledge in reinforcement learning, strategic planning and Java programming. Hence, the topic is ideally suited for students who attended Stratey Game Programming. If done as a master thesis, requires an extended performance evaluation.


• [Software] Strategy Game Environments (Bachelor Thesis) Develop environments for the implementation of game agents for strategy games. Target games include ones with full information (Abalone, Halma, etc.) and ones with partial information/chance (Risk, card games, dice games). The environment must be java-based and include a simple board representation, default agents for depth search and Monte Carlo tree simulation, HOWTOs for programming and usage + optionally, an environment for the automatic play & scoring of entire tournaments. Requires good programming skills in Java & strategy game programming experience (students of VU Strategy Game Programming are preferred).
• [Virtuality] The Virtual Artisan 2 (Practicum) Based on Unity or Unreal develop virtual reality applications for the training of artisans in practical skills such as welding, turning (metal and wood), etc. Applications should be as realistic as possible which requires creativity in the haptic area, in particular. Further requirements are a minimum understanding of game engines as well as readiness to improve existing physics engine procedures (e.g. for a correct implementation of the welding process). If performed as a diploma thesis, the task has to include a small sclae evaluation with test users and quantitative measurement.
• [Intelligence] A Toolbox for Artificial Consciousness (Practicum) Design and implement a toolbox of components for the modelling, simulation and evaluation of artificially conscious neural networks. Eventually, the toolbox should include models of neurons, forms of association by convolution, temporal aggregation, bundling of neurons into pathways, central pattern generators, etc. + testing methods and an environment for sensual stimulation, random pattern generation and motor neuron simulation. Requires profound knowledge of artificial neural networks. Students of Media and Brain 1/2 are preferred.


• [Software] TIS2 Management of Student Practica (Bachelor Thesis) Develop a component for the workflow management of student works, in particular practica based on given requirements. Requires good knowledge in business programming.
• [Virtuality] Virtual Climbing Sport Applications (Bachelor Thesis) For our existing physical-virtual climbing environment Vreeclimber, implement sport climbing applications that allow for (1) the definition and analysis (hardness) of routes, (2) movement analysis of the climber, (3) summarization of fitness indicators (e.g. amount of time spent at a certain heart rate, approx. calories burnt), and (4) the usage of a virtual climbing tutor. Practically, this means the implementation of content and interaction in a Unity game engine. Required skills include a basic understanding of rock climbing, experience in game design and the willingness to gather information about the measurement of training impact. If done as a diploma thesis, a limited user-based evaluation must be included. Please note that a fully functional model of the climbing wall including motor management and tracking does exist and can be used out of the box.
• [Virtuality] The Virtual Artisan (Practicum) Based on Unity or Unreal develop virtual reality applications for the training of artisans in practical skills such as welding, turning (metal and wood), etc. Applications should be as realistic as possible which requires creativity in the haptic area, in particular. Further requirements are a minimum understanding of game engines as well as readiness to improve existing physics engine procedures (e.g. for a correct implementation of the welding process). If performed as a diploma thesis, the task has to include a small sclae evaluation with test users and quantitative measurement.


• [Virtuality] Virtual Distributed Rowing Application (Bachelor Thesis) Develop a virtual reality application (e.g. in Unity) that allows multiple, spatially distributed persons to perceive the sensation of rowing a boat together simultaneously. Requires the implementation of an audiovisual system that simulates rowing as well as of a broker-based messaging system for the synchronization of the rowing movement. The system should support two applications: (1) live distributed rowing, and (2) rowing of one human with computer partners. The entire application should be based on standard commercial rowing simulator equipment. If done as a master thesis, has to require extensive user testing. Requires good game engine programming skills (Unity or Unreal).
• [Virtuality] Virtual Climbing Applications for Children (Bachelor Thesis) For our existing physical-virtual climbing environment Vreeclimber, implement (one of) two contents: (1) The climbing of the side of a pirate ship and/or (2) the climbing out of the hut of a giant in a fairy tale. In the latter case, the story is that the giant sleeps in his bed in a corner of the room and the climber has to get out before it awakes. Practically, this content should be implemented in the Unity environment. The focus of the work is on as good as possible graphics design. Requires excellent skills in 3D modelling. Please note that a fully functional model of the climbing wall including motor management and tracking does exist and can be used out of the box.
• [Virtuality] Virtual Rock Climbing of Famous Routes (Bachelor Thesis) For our existing physical-virtual climbing environment Vreeclimber, implement content that simulates the climbing of at least three famous rocks. Practically, this means the implementation of content and interaction in a Unity game engine. Required skills include a basic understanding of rock climbing as well as experience in game design. Please note that a fully functional model of the climbing wall including motor management and tracking does exist and can be used out of the box.


• [Multimedia] Virtual Twister Game (Practicum) Based on our rotating climbing wall Vreeclimber develop a game like the ones presented in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwticv9ai_Q - including person tracking, wall rotation/tilting, visualization and scoring. The hardware setup is already available. Requires an interest in game design.
• [Virtuality] Virtual Ziplining: Extended Modelling (Practicum) Improve an existing virtual reality ziplining application by additional content and interaction. For example, populate a lake with fish, the sky with birds and aircrafts, the landscapes with traffic, animals and humans, etc. Requires good 3D modelling skills & ideally, Unity programming know-how.
• [Virtuality] Vree Runner: Virtual Reality House Running (Bachelor Thesis) For our existing house running prototype improve the software implementation in the game engine. Tasks include more and better content (e.g. walking down a crater on the Moon or the main building of TU Wien), improve speed measurement, extend the implemented haptic elements (improve existing earthquake, add wind, spray and heat - for which the hardware exists) and add olfactory stimuli (hardware exists). If done as a diploma thesis, involves doing a user study on the levels of excitement, immersion and (hopefully not) simulator sickness. Requires good programming knowledge (ideally, in Unity) + basic 3D modelling knowledge.


• [Virtuality] VR Motion Sickness Recognition based on Audio Analysis (Bachelor Thesis) Implement an application that is able to recognize the physical sickness of a person in an VR environment by audio analysis. Statements such as "uh, I am feeling sick" etc. should be recognized by the system and proper countermeasures should be taken (e.g. reducing the speed of the VR application). Furthermore, statistics should be recorded, when and in which applications test subjects tend to develop motion sickness. Requires interest in media analysis and a basic understanding of audio analysis with deep neural networks.
• [Multimedia] Web Information System for a Virtual Reality Project (Bachelor Thesis) Provide a state-of-the-art web-based system for the presentation and management of an ongoing Virtual Reality project. Tasks include (1) performing adequate requirements engineering with the customer (your supervisor), (2) making appropriate technology decisions, (3) provision of digital artefacts (menu structure, web pages, images + possibly, a short introduction video), (4) fine-tuning of the system in a user-centered process. Requires good knowledge of web-based technologies and agile information system design & implementation.

Please see the static snapshot of the IMS website for tasks started and/or finished between 2000 and 2018 as well as tasks started before 2019 and finished since.

PhD Thesis Topics

Forensic Biometrics. As an expert witness for forensic person recognition in Austria and at the International Criminal Court in The Hague I work with state of the art methods for face recognition, person recognition and speech recognition in order to identify subjects wanted in connection with criminal events. In this context I am looking for a PhD student who would like to conduct research in relevant areas of forensic biometrics, e.g. gait analysis, (semi-)automatic generation of speech corpora in relevant languages, etc.

Hybrid System Design. In the context of the Virtual Reality projects Virtual Jumpcube and Vreeclimber we have developed hybrid systems with a large number of non-standard stimulation devices in the areas of touch, smell and even taste. These installations have been heavily used at exhibitions and have frequently been evaluated with large numbers of users. Based on these data and the given systems, I am looking for a PhD student who would be willing to perform additional experiments and publish the findings in systematic fashion, e.g. in the context of HCI, virtual reality systems or hybrid multimedia applications.

Strategy Game Modelling. In courses at the Faculty of Informatics at TU Wien we have developed various environments for the implementation of intelligent agents for playing strategy games. Based on these environments students have suggested various approaches for reinforcement learning based algorithms that are able to solve complex strategic learning problems. As a result, we have a rich ground of available material for a PhD student who would like to conduct her/his research in the area of strategic planning, either in a gaming context or otherwise.

Note: Please be aware that at the moment we have no scientific funding for these PhD project. However, there exists the possibility to combine the PhD project with practical software engineering work in a part-time occupation at TU Wien. If you are interested, please send me an email.