I’m currently supervising two highschool students (HTL) during their thesis. They work on identifying spelled letters using sign language with the LeapMotion system. Their idea is to enable speech impared people to use devices and services, which currently only support voice control, using sign language.

Their impressive work resulted in a system called TalkTalk. TalkTalk has already drawn attention at various contests and challenges:

1. First place at the Build! innovation contest in the category students. They were awarded 1000€.
2. Won the Semi-final and are nominated for the final decision in the Jugend Innovativ Contest. The final will be end of May 2014. They were already awarded 150€.
3. Selected for presentation and nominated for the final at the innovation@school contest. The final will be May 28th.
4. Submitted to the U19 contest of the Prix Ars Electronica.

I wish them all the best for their future endeavours!

Our article entlitled “Static, Dynamic and Adaptive Heterogeneity in Socio-Economic Distributed Smart Camera Networks” has been accepted for publication in the ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems.

The paper was writting in collarboration with Peter R. Lewis, from the Aston University in Birmingham, Arjun Chandra and Jim Torresen from the University of Oslo, Xin Yao from the University of Birmingham, and Bernhard Rinner from the Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt.