Mobile Information Systems
   Speaker: Prof. Dr. Juergen Sieck, University of Applied Sciences Berlin
                    (FHTW Berlin), j.sieck@fhtw-berlin.de



Abstract:

The development of mobile information and communication devices during the
past 25 years is characterised by continued technical evolution of such
devices. These many technical developments raise the possibility of new
applications and application areas. It is important for the acceptance of
new technologies that new applications create additional value, use the
advantages of basic technologies and are adapted to the needs of the user.

The presentation investigates mobile information systems for the Greek
peninsula Peloponnesus, the "Pergamon Museum", the Berlin museum of modern
art "Berlinische Galerie" and the Jewish Museum Berlin. These have been
jointly developed as part of an interdisciplinary project by the Applied
Computer Sciences and Museum Science research groups at the FHTW Berlin.

The aim of the projects is to introduce the different artefacts and
attractions of a museum, as well as to offer historical, cultural,
geographical and archaeological information for interested visitors and
experts alike. This information should be enriched through the integration
of various media, such as videos, photographs and 360° panoramas. The
project lays the foundations for an extensive knowledge base which should
be accessible for experts as well as the interested public.
In addition we developed new user interfaces and information retrieval
methods based on location detection. In the presentation, we discuss three
different methods for detecting the position of the user: WLAN, RFID and
GPS. As a direct result of the projects, a Content Management System and
several mobile multimedia information systems are available which have been
developed for various end devices (notebook, pda, mobile phone, ipod and
paper) and therefore aim for high flexibility.

The second part of the presentation will demonstrate the application of
podcasts and ipods for mobile learning. This includes the production of the
media assets, the development of the XML files and the runtime
installation. The presentation will finish with some examples of mobile
learning at FHTW.

About the speaker:

Jürgen Sieck received his degree in mathematics in 1981 and his PhD in
computer science in 1989 from the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany.
Between 1989 and 1994 he worked in two research institutes,
"Zentralinstitut für Kybernetik und Informationsprozesse" and "Gesellschaft
zur Förderung angewandter Informatik". He was involved in different
research projects focusing on multimedia and computer graphics.

Since 1994 Jürgen Sieck has been a professor of computer science at FHTW
Berlin. He teaches algorithms and data structures, multimedia, virtual
reality and telecommunication. Jürgen Sieck also taught and researched
abroad, he was guest professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz,
Austria, visiting professor at the Old Dominion University Norfolk, USA, at
the ICSI in Berkeley, USA and at the Monash University Melbourne,
Australia.

His research interests are in multimedia, computer graphics, virtual
reality and wireless communication. He is currently working on several
research projects, "eTrain - techniques for the development of interactive
multimedia teaching courses", "IKAROS - information and communication with
mobile devices", "MoCo - Mobile Computing" and "EMIKA - mobile information
systems for museums".

In 1998, he received the Otto von Guericke-Preis of the AIF, the German
federal foundation of industrial research and development, for a system
with 3D-visualisation and presentation of construction projects. In 2002,
Jürgen Sieck was Kollegiat of the Alcatel-SEL foundation. Since 2001 he is
chairman of the supervisory board of "Jung und Partner Software &
Consulting AG" and since 2002 he is co-chairman of the executive committee
of "Alcatel-Lucent" foundation, sub-division Berlin.