Christoph Beckmann
Digital Thinker/Interaction Designer/User Researcher/Computer Engineer
Hello
I am an Digital Thinker, Interaction Designer, and User Researcher intensely working on novel interaction techniques and methods for connecting people providing them with the best user experience for the task at hand; besides that, I am holding a Master's degree in Computer Science.
I am strongly interested in Group Recommender Systems, Media Spaces, and Tangible Interaction—aiming at bridging between computer science and social sciences for connecting groups of people while working and living together.
Currently I am working as research- and teaching assistant at the HCI Group of the University of Bamberg and I am affiliated with the Cooperative Media Lab. I have a widespread field of interest in the meaning of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp), and Social Sciences.
top ↑Research Activities
Please find here a summary of my research activities that I have done on my own as well as those in which I had a close collaboration with colleagues and students. Please note: Although not explicitly stated, all examples given below were tested with users in either formative or summative studies.
Novel User Interfaces
FabAR is a system for the interactive fabrication of 3D prints based on the mash-up paradigm. It enables users to directly modify and combine 3D models in a 3D printer based on gestural input and augmented reality (AR) to design their own 3D models by composition. It provides an extended concept for the interactive modification and creation of 3D prints.
MagnetiCode is a new tagging mechanism that allows for physical mobile interaction. The tags can be captured and decoded by every compass-equipped mobile phone. It relies on a novel approach of transmitting binary IDs in form of a pulsed magnetic field. Therefore it is able to substitute static tagging mechanisms where visual codes or cost-intense readers are not applicable or rare.
GREAT is a human-centred prototype of a real-time gaze-based system to adaptively modify the user's graphical user interface. For instance it can adaptively modify the user's mouse cursor speed allowing for fast travel of large screen distances but preserving high precision for fine-grained mouse inputs where the user focuses her attention.
Group Recommender Systems
AGReMo is an app with an process model behind. It stimulates the engagement of all group members while at the same time accelerating the consensus finding with short steps and minimal user effort. It provides a dynamic recommendation process for ad-hoc groups, requesting on-demand recommendations for watching movies together, on mobile devices.
ZineDroid departs from a deep understanding of the group decision-making process discovered through ethnographic research. It focuses on easing the group finding process through an optimised invitations concept, reduces the effort to decide through an express voting concept, and allows temporal preference adaptation through a daily mood concept.
PROMAS is a concept with a very detailed backing user-study on active negotiation mediation to be used in group recommender systems. It supports groups in consensus finding by triggering mediator mechanisms based on the current negotiation progress of the group.
Media Spaces and Social Computing
CoLocScribe & PPPSpace are cooperative media spaces that use advanced publish and subscribe mechanisms. CoLocScribe supports the Co-presence of users at the same or remote Locations that is based on a publish and subScribe concept in order to provide users with mutual awareness information. The PPPSpace provides users with flexible support for easy interaction with technology in their UbiComp environment.
MoSt Privacy-Enhanced Media Space connects mobile and stationary users by providing novel privacy mechanisms. It fosters informal awareness and communication. It offers computer-vision supported privacy mechanisms for preserving the privacy of mobile users and their surroundings. It has blinds for mobile users and shades for stationary users for deliberately configure their visibility.
Bridging the Gap between the Social and the Technical is a theoretical driven work that builds on the social framework of Erving Goffman to distil design patterns that address both challenges of social interaction and technical foundation. It provides input for software developers with respect to structuring software and to providing adequate support for the interaction of users within the computing environment and with each other.
Involved research projects:
- DFG-Project: Recommender Systems for Group Consumption of Hedonic Media Products: Theoretic Modelling, System Development and Quality Testing. Reco Website @CML [involved 09/2009–09/2013]
- BMI-Project: TransKoop TransKoop Website [involved: 04/2010–07/2011]
I am reviewing for a number of journals and conferences including CHI, ECSCW, UbiComp, IUI, CogSci, INRT. Besides that I volunteered (SV) at the following conferences: TEI 2014, ECSCW 2011, PDP 2009, and M&C 2007
top ↑Publications
Reviewed International Conferences
- Beckmann, Christoph, Fetter, Mirko and Gross, Tom. FabAR: Interaktive Fabrikation von 3D-Drucken durch Mashups (FabAR: Interactive Fabrication of 3D Prints Via Mash-Ups; in German). In Mensch & Computer - 14. Fachuebergreifende Konferenz fuer interaktive und kooperative Medien - M&C 2014 (Aug. 31-Sept. 3, Munich, Germany). Butz, A., Koch, M. and Schlichter, J., eds. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2014. pp. 65-74. (ISBN: 978-3-11-034448-6).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom. Social Computing—Bridging the Gap Between the Social and the Technical. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media - SCSM 2014 (June 22-27, Heraklion, Crete, Greece). Meiselwitz, G., ed. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 25-36. (ISBN: 978-3-319-07631-7).
- Fetter, Mirko, Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom. MagnetiCode—Physical Mobile Interaction through Time-Encoded Magnetic Identification Tags. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction - TEI 2014 (Feb. 16-19, Munich, Germany). ACM, N.Y., pp. 205-212. (ISBN: 978-1-4503-2635-3/14/02).
- Beckmann, Christoph, Herr, Sascha and Gross, Tom. Gemeinsam einig: Partizipation in Gruppenempfehlungssystemen (Jointly Agreed: Participation in Group Recommender Systems; in German). In Mensch & Computer - 12. Fachuebergreifende Konferenz fuer interaktive und kooperative Medien - M&C 2012 (Sept. 9-12, Konstanz, Germany). Reiterer, H. and Deussen, O., eds. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2012. pp. 113-122. (ISBN: 978-3-486-71879-9).
- Herr, Sascha, Roesch, Andreas Georg, Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom. Work-in-Progress: Informing the Design of Group Recommender Systems. In Extended Abstracts of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI 2012 (May 5-10, Austin, TX). ACM, N.Y., 2012. pp. 2507-2512. (ISBN: 978-1-4503-1016-1/12/05).
- Beckmann, Christoph, Gross, Tom and Kastl, Ferdinand. RobustTrav: NAT Optimisation for the RobustCooperation Suite. In Proceedings of the Twentieth Euromicro Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing - PDP 2012 (Feb. 15-17, Munich, Germany). IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, 2012. pp. 11-18. (ISBN: 978-0-7695-4633-9).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom. AGReMo: Filmempfehlungen fuer Ad-Hoc Gruppen auf mobilen Endgeraeten (AGReMo: Movie Recommendations for Ad-Hoc Groups on Mobile Devices; in German). In Mensch & Computer - 2011. Fachuebergreifende Konferenz fuer interaktive und kooperative Medien - M&C 2011 (Sept. 11-14, Chemnitz, Germany). Oldenbourg, Munich, 2011. pp. 335-338. (ISBN: 978-3-486-71235-3).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom. AGReMo: Providing Ad-Hoc Groups with On-Demand Recommendations on Mobile Devices. In Proceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics - ECCE 2011 (Aug. 24-26, Rostock, Germany). ACM, N.Y., 2011. pp. 179-183. (ISBN: 987-3-86009-113-5).
- Gross, Tom, Beckmann, Christoph and Schirmer, Maximilian. GroupRecoPF: A Distributed Platform for Innovative Group Recommendations. In Proceedings of the Nineteenth Euromicro Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing - PDP 2011 (Feb. 9-11, Ayia Napa, Cyprus). IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, 2011. pp. 293-300. (ISBN: 978-0-7695-3939-3).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom. Towards a Group Recommender Process Model for ad-hoc Groups and On-Demand Recommendations. In Proceedings of the 2010 International ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work - Group 2010 (Nov. 7-10, Sanibel Island, FL). ACM, N.Y., 2010. pp. 329-330. (ISBN: 978-1-4503-0387-3). (PDF, 549k).
- Gross, Tom, Beckmann, Christoph and Schirmer, Maximilian. The PPPSpace: Innovative Concepts for Permanent Capturing, Persistent Storing, and Parallel Processing and Distributing Events. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth Euromicro Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing - PDP 2010 (Feb. 17-19, Pisa, Italy). IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, 2010. pp. 359-366. (ISBN: 978-0-7695-3939-3).
- Gross, Tom and Beckmann, Christoph. CoLocScribe: Selektive Informationsfreigabe in einem Media Space (CoLocScribe: Selective Information Disclosure in a Media Space; in German). In Mensch & Computer - 9. Fachuebergreifende Konferenz fuer interaktive und kooperative Medien - M&C 2009 (Sept. 6-9, Berlin, Germany). Oldenbourg, Munich, 2009. pp. 463-466. (ISBN: 978-3-486-59222-1).
- Gross, Tom and Beckmann, Christoph. Advanced Publish and Subscribe for Distributed Sensor-Based Infrastructures: The CoLocScribe Cooperative Media Space. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth Euromicro Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing - PDP 2009 (Feb. 18-20, Weimar, Germany). IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, 2009. pp. 333-340. (ISBN: 978-0-7695-3544-9).
- Beckmann, Christoph, Schirmer, Maximilian, Paul-Stueve, Thilo and Gross, Tom. Sens-ation: Eine Plattform zur Entwicklung ubiquitaerer Umgebungen (Sens-ation: A Platform for Developing Ubiquitous Environments; in German). In Mensch & Computer - 7. Fachuebergreifende Konferenz fuer interaktive und kooperative Medien - M&C 2007 (Sept. 2-5, Weimar, Germany). Oldenbourg, Munich, 2007. pp. 273-276. (ISBN: 978-3-486-58496-7).
Book Chapters
- Sülzenbrück, Tobias and Beckmann, Christoph Vardump: The Power of Seeing What's Behind. In Lua Programming Gems, Eds. L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes, R. Ierusalimschy, Lua.org, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, December 2008, pp. 29-32. (ISBN 978-85-903798-4-3).
Misc. Publications
- Gross, Tom and Beckmann, Christoph. Cooperation on Models and Models for Cooperation. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Models and their Role in Collaboration Co-Located with the Thirteenth European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work - ECSCW 2013 (Sept. 22, Paphos, Cyprus). Nolte, Alexander, Prilla, Michael, Rittgen, Peter and Oppl, Stefan, eds. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 997, 2013. pp. 9-16. (ISSN: 1613-0073).
- Gross, Tom, Masthoff, Judith and Beckmann, Christoph. Workshop on Group Recommender Systems: Concepts, Technology, Evaluation (GroupRS). In Extended Proceedings of the 21st Conference on User Modelling, Adaptation, and Personalisation - UMAP 2013 (June 10-14, Rome, Italy). Berkovsky, Shlomo, Herder, Eelco, Lops, Pasquale and Santos, Olga C., eds. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 997, 2013. pp. 1-2. (ISSN: 1613-0073).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom. Towards Increased Utility of and Satisfaction with Group Recommender Systems. In Extended Proceedings of the 21st Conference on User Modelling, Adaptation, and Personalisation - UMAP 2013 (June 10-14, Rome, Italy). Berkovsky, Shlomo, Herder, Eelco, Lops, Pasquale and Santos, Olga C., eds. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 490, 2013. pp. 3-5. (ISSN: 1613-0073).
- Gross, Tom and Beckmann, Christoph. Human-Computer Interaction: Concept, Methods, Tools. In Proceedings of the 11th Biannual Conference of the German Cognitive Science Society - KogWis 2012 (Sept. 30-Oct. 3, Bamberg, Germany). Schmid, U., Siebers, M., Carbon, C.-C., Raab, M., Ruesseler, J., Gross, Tom, Schlieder, C. and Doerner, D., eds. University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg, 2012. pp. 56. (eISBN: 978-3-86309-101-9).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom Towards Group Recommendations at Work. In Workshop Social Media at Work (WS 7) of the Twelfth European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work - ECSCW 2011 (Sept. 24-28, Aarhus, Denmark).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom Leichtgewichtige Auswahlentscheidungen fuer Gruppen am Beispiel eines Recommender-Systems fuer Filme (Light-Weight Selection Decisions in Group Expemplified in a Recommender-System for Movies; in German). In Workshop-Proceedings der Tagung Mensch & Computer 2009 - 9. Fachuebergreifende Konferenz - Grenzenlos frei!? (Workshop-Proceedings of the Mensch & Computer Conference; in German)- M&C 2009 (Sept. 6-9, Berlin, Germany). Logos Verlag, Berlin, 2009. pp. 213. (ISBN: 978-3-8325-2181-3).
- Beckmann, Christoph and Gross, Tom CoLocScribe: A Media Space for Information Disclosure in Storytelling. Technical Report # BUW-CSCW-2008-03, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Group, Faculty of Media, Bauhaus-University Weimar, Bauhausstr. 11, 99423 Weimar, Germany, Oct. 2008.
Teaching Activities
As a teaching assistant at the University of Bamberg, I am teaching the following projects/assignment sessions:
- HCI-Proj-M: GREAT—Gaze Real-time AdapTation
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2014] - HCI-MCI-M: Mensch-Computer-Interaktion Assignments
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2013] - HCI-Proj-B: Projekt Mensch-Computer-Interaktion
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Winter term 2013/2014] - HCI-US: Ubiquitäre Systeme Assignments
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Winter term 2013/2014] - HCI-Proj-M: Exploring Explanations in Group Recommender Systems
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2013] - HCI-MCI-M: Mensch-Computer-Interaktion Assignments
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2013] - HCI-Proj-B: Projekt Mensch-Computer-Interaktion
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Winter term 2012/2013] - HCI-US: Ubiquitäre Systeme Assignments
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Winter term 2012/2013] - HCI-Proj-M: Group Reco: Persistent Participation
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2012] - HCI-MCI-M: Mensch-Computer-Interaktion Assignments
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2012] - HCI-Proj-B: Projekt Mensch-Computer-Interaktion
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Winter term 2011/2012] - HCI-US: Ubiquitäre Systeme Assignments
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Winter term 2011/2012] - HCI-Proj-M: Sens-ation PEP: Parallel Event Processing
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2011] - HCI-MCI-M: Mensch-Computer-Interaktion Assignments
UnivIS-Website @UniBA (in German) [Summer term 2011]
As a teaching assistant at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, I have supervised the following projects:
- GroupReco: Explore GroupReco: Explore Website @CML [Summer term 2010]
- Social Group Networking SGNet Website @CML [Winter term 2009/2010]
Furthermore, I (co-)supervised the following Bachelor's and Master's Theses:
- Proactive Mediation of Discussions in Group Recommender Systems
(2014, M.Sc. Phillipp von Rotenhan) - Exploring Gesture-Based Collaborative Jam Sessions in Media Spaces
(2014, M.Sc., Justus Kandzi) - UseRIM: Mobile Instant Messaging based on User Needs and Mobility Requirements
(2012, M.Sc., Stefanie Genthner) - Innovative User Interaction Concepts for Group Recommender Systems on Foot-Size Devices
(2012, B.Sc., Phillipp von Rotenhan) - Towards Ambient Notification: A First Hardware and Software Prototype
(2012, M.Sc., Frank Siller) - Concepts for and Implementation of a Mobile Glancing Support for a Media Space
(2011, B.Sc., Justus Kandzi)
Student Research and Prototyping Projects
While studying at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, I have done the following projects. The order of appearing is reverse chronologically.
- GReMo: Master's Thesis at Bauhaus University Weimar in winter-term 2010
- SensES: Student research project in summer-term 2009
- WiiMore: Student project in winter-term 2008/2009
- Media Lounge: Student research project in summer-term 2008
- Yet Another Ada File Download Utility – YAAFDU: Student project in summer-term 2008
- CoLocScribe: Bachelor's thesis in winter-term 2007/2008
- UbiStock: Student project in summer-term 2006
- del.icio.us Browser: Student project in summer-term 2006
- Network-Monitoring, Packet Capture & Analysing Tool: Student project in winter-term 2005/2006
- Sens-ation 3: Managing Events and Context: Student research project in winter-term 2005/2006; Sens-ation 3 Website @ CML
- PUI – Physical User Interfaces: Scenarios and Prototyping: Student project in summer-term 2005; PUI Website @ CML
Know How
- Programming Languages: JAVA (SE, ME, little EE), Objective-C (mainly iOS since 3.2), C++, C, SCHEME, Ada, Python, Pascal, LUA, SH
- Embedded Development: Arduino, Phidgets, ESB
- Web Development: PHP, Symfony, MySQL, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, JSP
- Document Formats: XML, XML Schema, XPath, UML, RDF, OWL
- Graphic Frameworks: OpenGL, AvangoNG
- Platforms: Mac OS X (since 10.3.9), Windows (since 3.11), Linux (mainly gentoo and Debian)
- Office: TEX, Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Pages, Keynote
- Graphic Software: Adobe Graphics Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Lightroom), Blender
- 3D Printing: Fusion 360, OpenSCAD, TinkerCAD, Makerbot Replicator 2, etc.
- Tools: XCode, Quartz Composer, Matlab, Intrexx Xtreme
Contact
If you like to contact me either use the following email address or use the contact modalities of one of the social networks linked below.
Email:
©2007–2014 Christoph Beckmann (Last Update: Wed Sep 18 20:16:51 CEST 2014)