Cluster of Excellence Multimodal Computing and Interaction

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04.03.13

Computer scientists from Saarbrücken prevent data theft on smartphones and tablet computers

Some mobile applications on web-enabled mobile phones and tablet computers spy on personal data. Computer scientists from Saarbrücken prevent this through a new approach. Its chief attraction: For the protection to work, it is not necessary to identify the suspicious programs in advance, nor must the operating system be changed. Instead, the freely available app attacks the program code of the digital spies. The researchers present the app at Cebit 2013 in Hanover (Hall 9, booth F34).

Movie heroes are soon to be transferred to virtual worlds more easily and realistically

Hollywood devotes great effort to chasing monsters through realistic-looking environments. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken have now developed a technology that greatly simplifies the production of such scenes. Actors' movements are captured with a few cameras in a real scene and then transferred extremely realistically to virtual characters. This will not only simplify the work of cartoon makers, but also assist doctors and sportsmen with motion analysis. The new technology will soon be marketed by a newly-established business and presented at the computer trade show CeBIT in Hanover from March 5 to March 9 in Hall 9, Stand F34.

M. Sc. Kristina Scherbaum

Kristina received her Master in Computer Science from the Saarland University and a Diploma from the Stuttgart Media University. She is pursuing her PhD in Computer Science at Saarland University within the Max-Planck-Institute for Computer Science in Saarbrücken. Her research has always been focused on facial modeling, animation and morphable models for faces.
Recently Kristina has been working as a research assistant at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York and became the CEO of the Cluster of Excellence on Multimodal Computing and Interaction in November 2010.

Research interests

Modeling and Animation of Faces, Face Detection and Recognition, Pedestrian Detection, Statistical Learning

Awards

EUROGRAPHICS 2004, Best Paper Award (1st Prize)
Paper: Exchanging Faces in Images

RTT Emerging Technology 2011, Emerging Technology Contest, (2nd Place Winner)
Paper: Computer-suggested Facial Makeup

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