Late Holocene aeolian activity and landscape development in anorthern German inland dune system. An approach to spatially reconstruct past landscape dynamics usinggeoarchaeological records and scientific visualization techniques

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and spatially reconstruct long-term aeolian landscape dynamics using a small inland dune system in Northern Germany as a case study. Against the background of the dune formation of the Kuhharder Hill dune (KHD), this thesis investigated the timing, causes, effects and magnitude of phases of aeolian activity since the beginning of the Holocene. In order to reconstruct past landscape changes and palaeo-environmental conditions, a multidisciplinary approach was chosen that combined pedological and geomorphologic analysis of aeolian sediments and past dune surfaces, chronology (14C and OSL dating), detailed stratigraphy, as well as palaeo-botanical records of charcoal and pollen. [...] On the basis of palaeo-environmental results, and the creation of digital elevation models of buried dune surfaces, 3D visualisation techniques were used in order to visually reconstruct the past environmental conditions and local dune development. A visualization model was developed which to account of the varying quality concerning temporal and spatial resolution of the geoarchaeological data.Die Arbeit rekonstruiert und quantifiziert die langfristige äolische Dynamik und ehemalige Mensch-Umwelt-Interaktionen am Beispiel der Entwicklung einer Binnendünenlandschaft in Norddeutschland. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Erörterung der Ursachen sowie die Untersuchung der Auswirkungen und Intensität von Phasen äolischer Aktivität und Winderosionsereignissen seit dem Holozän im Raum Joldelund. Zur Rekonstruktion vergangener Umweltzustände und Landschaftsveränderungen wurde ein multidisziplinärer Ansatz gewählt, der bodenkundliche sowie geomorphologische Analysen der äolischen Sedimente und begrabenen Dünenoberflächen, Datierungsmethoden (14C und OSL Datierung), detaillierte Stratigraphie sowie paläobotanische Methoden (Holzkohle- und Pollenanalyse) verbindet. [...] Basierend auf den geoarchäologischen Befunden und digitalen Geländemodellen der ehemaligen Dünenoberflächen wurde ein Visualisierungsmodell entwickelt, mit dem Ziel, einerseits wissenschaftlich belastbare 3D-Landschaftsvisualisierungen zu erstellen und andererseits, geoarchäologische Befunde der breiten Öffentlichkeit verständlich zu präsentieren

Scalable Exploration of Complex Objects and Environments Beyond Plain Visual Replication​

Digital multimedia content and presentation means are rapidly increasing their sophistication and are now capable of describing detailed representations of the physical world. 3D exploration experiences allow people to appreciate, understand and interact with intrinsically virtual objects. Communicating information on objects requires the ability to explore them under different angles, as well as to mix highly photorealistic or illustrative presentations of the object themselves with additional data that provides additional insights on these objects, typically represented in the form of annotations. Effectively providing these capabilities requires the solution of important problems in visualization and user interaction. In this thesis, I studied these problems in the cultural heritage-computing-domain, focusing on the very common and important special case of mostly planar, but visually, geometrically, and semantically rich objects. These could be generally roughly flat objects with a standard frontal viewing direction (e.g., paintings, inscriptions, bas-reliefs), as well as visualizations of fully 3D objects from a particular point of views (e.g., canonical views of buildings or statues). Selecting a precise application domain and a specific presentation mode allowed me to concentrate on the well defined use-case of the exploration of annotated relightable stratigraphic models (in particular, for local and remote museum presentation). My main results and contributions to the state of the art have been a novel technique for interactively controlling visualization lenses while automatically maintaining good focus-and-context parameters, a novel approach for avoiding clutter in an annotated model and for guiding users towards interesting areas, and a method for structuring audio-visual object annotations into a graph and for using that graph to improve guidance and support storytelling and automated tours. We demonstrated the effectiveness and potential of our techniques by performing interactive exploration sessions on various screen sizes and types ranging from desktop devices to large-screen displays for a walk-up-and-use museum installation. KEYWORDS - Computer Graphics, Human-Computer Interaction, Interactive Lenses, Focus-and-Context, Annotated Models, Cultural Heritage Computing

Morphology and taxonomy of the genus Ramazzottius (Eutardigrada; Ramazzottiidae) with the integrative description of Ramazzottius kretschmanni sp. nov

The species of the genus Ramazzottius (Ramazzottiidae, Eutardigrada) are among the most common and widespread tardigrade species in the world. Most of the 28 Ramazzottius species have been described only with morphological characters which were most of the time represented only with drawings. The discovery of a new species of this genus in the Black Forest (Germany) provided the opportunity to compare this species with the type specimens of ten Ramazzottius species, to propose the status of species dubia for Ramazzottius edmondabouti, and through new photographs to elucidate the anatomy of animals and eggs (in particular of the head sensory regions, eye spots, buccal tube, ornamentations of the dorsal posterior cuticle, and morphology of egg processes). These thorough observations led to a better understanding of the diversity and evolution, not only of this cosmopolitan genus, but also of other eutardigrade genera. The new species Ramazzottius kretschmanni is described with an integrative approach integrating morphological (light and electron microscopy observations and morphometric data) and molecular (cox1 and ITS2 genes) data. The PTP and ASAP analyses confirmed the validity of the new species from a molecular point of view. The new species is morphologically similar to Ramazzottius oberhaeuseri, but is distinguishable by the smooth cuticle, the presence of a “cheek-like” area on the head, and the size of egg processes as well as different sequences of the molecular markers

Beyond solid-state lighting: Miniaturization, hybrid integration, and applications og GaN nano- and micro-LEDs

Gallium Nitride (GaN) light-emitting-diode (LED) technology has been the revolution in modern lighting. In the last decade, a huge global market of efficient, long-lasting and ubiquitous white light sources has developed around the inception of the Nobel-price-winning blue GaN LEDs. Today GaN optoelectronics is developing beyond lighting, leading to new and innovative devices, e.g. for micro-displays, being the core technology for future augmented reality and visualization, as well as point light sources for optical excitation in communications, imaging, and sensing. This explosion of applications is driven by two main directions: the ability to produce very small GaN LEDs (microLEDs and nanoLEDs) with high efficiency and across large areas, in combination with the possibility to merge optoelectronic-grade GaN microLEDs with silicon microelectronics in a fully hybrid approach. GaN LED technology today is even spreading into the realm of display technology, which has been occupied by organic LED (OLED) and liquid crystal display (LCD) for decades. In this review, the technological transition towards GaN micro- and nanodevices beyond lighting is discussed including an up-to-date overview on the state of the art

Virtual Reality

At present, the virtual reality has impact on information organization and management and even changes design principle of information systems, which will make it adapt to application requirements. The book aims to provide a broader perspective of virtual reality on development and application. First part of the book is named as "virtual reality visualization and vision" and includes new developments in virtual reality visualization of 3D scenarios, virtual reality and vision, high fidelity immersive virtual reality included tracking, rendering and display subsystems. The second part named as "virtual reality in robot technology" brings forth applications of virtual reality in remote rehabilitation robot-based rehabilitation evaluation method and multi-legged robot adaptive walking in unstructured terrains. The third part, named as "industrial and construction applications" is about the product design, space industry, building information modeling, construction and maintenance by virtual reality, and so on. And the last part, which is named as "culture and life of human" describes applications of culture life and multimedia-technology

Holography: A survey

The development of holography and the state of the art in recording and displaying information, microscopy, motion, pictures, and television applications are discussed. In addition to optical holography, information is presented on microwave, acoustic, ultrasonic, and seismic holography. Other subjects include data processing, data storage, pattern recognition, and computer-generated holography. Diagrams of holographic installations are provided. Photographs of typical holographic applications are used to support the theoretical aspects