Annual Report 2010 - Fachgruppe Informatik an der RWTH Aachen ...

direct manipulation. Due to the seamless combination of both surfaces the user can choose
separately which area to use for each task. BendDesk is only designed as a workspace it is
also designed as a piece of furniture to replace a normal desk with all requirements users have
such as placing everyday objects on it, or seating comfortable at it.
Route Charlemagne
Malte Weiss, Max Möllers, Gero Herkenrath, Florian Heller, Jan Borchers
Route Charlemagne is a citywide project to attract tourists to the city of Aachen and to
convey historical and cultural information to visitors in a modern and appealing way. Our
department has contributed five exhibits to the city hall of Aachen that enable users to explore
facts around this influential building in an interactive way.
Aixplorer
Aixplorer is a mobile audio tour guide that seamlessly detects the visitor’s position indoors
and outdoors by combining a variety of tracking algorithms. While it currently provides
detailed information for each historical room in the city hall, it will interconnect the different
citywide stations of the Route Charlemagne in the future. This process of extending the
device will happen from September 2010 until August 2013, funded through a 1.5M€ federal
grant. During that time, the Aixplorer will serve as platform to research user experience with
ubiquitous mobile indoor and outdoor location aware devices, group interactions, and city
wide games.
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