Collaborative Research Center
SFB-TRR 161
Quantitative Methods for Visual Computing
We are living in a data society in which data is generated at amazing speed; individuals, companies, organizations, and governments are on the brink of being drawn into a massive deluge of data. The great challenge is to extract the relevant information from vast amounts of data and communicate it effectively.
Typical scenarios include decision and policy making for urban and environmental planning or understanding relationships and dependencies in complex networks, e.g., social networks or networks from the field of bioinformatics. These scenarios are not only of interest to specialized experts; in fact, there is a trend toward including the broad public, which requires the information to be presented in a reliable, faithful, and easy-to-understand fashion.
Visual computing can play a key role in extracting and presenting the relevant information.
In visual computing research the aspect of quantification is often neglected. The SFB-TRR 161 seeks to close this gap.
The long-term goal is to strengthen the research field by establishing the paradigm of quantitative science in visual computing.
News
August 2026
RoCo-Spring: The Robust Correspondence Challenge at NeurIPS 2026
SFB-TRR 161 researchers co-organize a competition focused on the accuracy and robustness of methods for optical flow, scene flow, and stereo estimation.
» more »
July
Benedikt Ehinger featured in new video series by the University of Stuttgart
SFB-TRR 161 project leader presents his "Science Vision".
» more »
DIS 2026 Honorable Mention Award
Paper examines the ambivalent experience of eye contact for people with visual impairments.
» more »
SFB-TRR 161 Events
Oct 19th, 2026, 4 pm - 6 pm
University of Konstanz
Lecture | Beyond the Prompt: Grounding AI in the Human Body
Held by:
Jürgen Steimle, Saarland University
Abstract:
The dominant interaction paradigm with AI today, textual prompting, requires people to translate their intentions into words. This is at odds with the embodied and situated nature of real-world activity. This talk advocates for Body Intelligence: machine intelligence that is physically integrated with the human body and computationally grounded in it, enabling AI to perceive, reason about, and act within human activity as it unfolds.
I will present research from my group that advances this vision across three key dimensions necessary for Body Intelligence. The first dimension makes the body itself the interface. I will present skin-conformal technologies and wearable robotics that turn the body into a surface for both sensing and physical output. The second dimension makes the body the medium in which humans and machines communicate their mutual intentions. The system reads intent from a person's ongoing motion and, in turn, makes its own forthcoming actions physically perceptible. The third dimension grounds machine reasoning in the context in which the body acts. I will show how systems can leverage such context to generate bodily experience and action, rather than relying on the user to describe what is needed. Together, these advances point toward a future where AI is not just an external tool but a deeply integrated partner in human physical and contextualized activity.
Bio:
Jürgen Steimle is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science at Saarland University, where he directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science from 2022-24. Previously, he was a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Darmstadt University of Technology. His research investigates touch and haptic interfaces, human-robot interaction, and digital fabrication using new materials. His contributions have been recognized with an ERC Starting Grant, best paper awards at ACM CHI and UIST, and the Best Computer Science Dissertation Award 2009 by the German, Austrian and Swiss Computer Societies. He served as Program Chair for UIST 2023 and TEI 2017, General Chair for ISS 2017, and is on the Editorial Board of TOCHI.
Location:
University of Konstanz, Room ZT 1202
University of Stuttgart: The lecture will be transmitted to VISUS, room 00.012
The talk is available via Zoom.
Meeting ID: 677 9922 7394
Passcode: 758404
For participants via Zoom: The transmission will kindly be managed by Dimitar Garkov. He will be on site and monitor/manage the Zoom-Session incl. Q&A during and after the talk as well. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with Dimitar in case of questions or problems regarding the transmission/your online participation: dimitar.garkov@uni-konstanz.de
Oct 22nd, 2026, 3.15 pm - 4.30 pm
University of Konstanz
Talk | Building Adaptive Spatial Computing Systems
Held by:
David Lindlbauer, Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract:
Spatial computing systems such as Extended Reality (XR) will transform the way we interact with digital information, and promise a rich set of applications, ranging from productivity and architecture to interaction with smart devices and robotics. Current approaches to spatial computing, however, are static, and users need to manually adjust factors such as what digital tools they need and when, every time they change task or environment. This is distracting and leads to information overload. To overcome these challenges, we aim to understand and predict how users perceive and interact with digital information, and use this information in context-aware systems that automatically adapt when, where and how to present virtual elements. In this talk, I will present computational, multimodal and simulation-based approaches that leverage contextual knowledge about users, the environment and system capabilities to create advanced interactive experiences that blend the digital and physical world.
Bio:
David Lindlbauer is an Assistant Professor at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University where he leads the Augmented Perception Lab and co-directs the CMU Extended Reality Technology Center. His research focuses on creating and studying enabling technologies and computational approaches for adaptive user interfaces including Extended Reality (XR), to increase the usability of advanced interactive systems, with applications in casual interaction, productivity, health and robotics. He received his PhD from TU Berlin and was a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich. He has published more than 50 scientific papers at premier venues in Human-Computer Interaction such as ACM CHI and ACM UIST and was awarded the ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2018. He was awarded the ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2018 and NSF CAREER Award in 2026. His work has attracted media attention in outlets such as MIT Technology Review, Fast Company Design, and Shiropen Japan.
Location:
University of Konstanz, Room ZT 1204 (Data Theatre)
The talk is available via Zoom (Link tba).
Meeting ID: tba
Passcode: tba
Nov 2nd, 2026, 4 pm - 6 pm
University of Stuttgart
Lecture | Reflections from Working on Visualisation with Industry Partners - and ahead
Held by:
Abstract:
With the digitization of the manufacturing industry, energy supplies, and other domains, enormous amounts of IoT (Internet-of-Things) data are collected. Expectations regarding quality, costs, delivery time, durability, and environmental aspects are rising at a similar speed. Data-driven manufacturing and planning opens up unprecedented opportunities to understand the impact of decisions on engineering performance and customer satisfaction. Visual Analytics plays a very important role in turning data into actionable decisions, which more and more becomes a major part for companies for remaining competitive. Visual Analytics has already proven its usability in analyzing IoT data in various projects, as outlined in this talk. However, there are still
some major challenges ahead of us. We are still facing Big Data problems when it comes to providing concise overview over large amounts of data. Further, there are many challenges attached to applying visualization successfully, both from the manufacturing industry and energy sector domains, and also from visualization research perspectives. In this talk I will reflect on our past experiences in applying Visual Analytics in research projects together with industry partners and describe the main challenges we are facing now.
Bio:
Johanna Schmidt received her master's degree in computer science from TU Wien and went on to complete her PhD in data visualization there in 2016. She then joined the AIT - Austrian Institute of Technology as a scientist, before moving to VRVis GmbH in 2019, where she became head of the Visual Analytics group in July 2020. In January 2025, she returned to TU Wien as a Senior PostDoc. In 2026, she started as a PostDoc at TU Graz in the field of Visual Analytics. Her research focuses on information visualization and visual analytics of large time-series data, as well as web-based information visualization. Alongside her research, she teaches at TU Wien and TU Graz, and previously also at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg and the University of Applied Sciences Krems.
Location:
University of Stuttgart, Visualization Research Center (VISUS), Room: 00.012
The talk will be available via WebEx.
Meeting-ID (access code): tba
Meeting password: tba
For participants via WebEx: The transmission will kindly be managed by Patrick Gralka. He will be on site and monitor/manage the WebEx-Session incl. Q&A during and after the talk as well. Please don´t hesitate to get in touch with Patrick in case of questions or problems regarding the transmission/your online participation: Patrick.Gralka@visus.uni-stuttgart.de.
Nov 16th, 2026, 4 pm - 6 pm
University of Konstanz
Lecture | tba
Held by:
Frederic Fol Leymarie, Goldsmiths College, London, UK
Abstract:
tba
Bio:
tba
Location:
University of Konstanz, Room ZT 1202
University of Stuttgart: The lecture will be transmitted to VISUS, room 00.012
The talk is available via Zoom.
Meeting ID: tba
Passcode: tba
For participants via Zoom: The transmission will kindly be managed by Dimitar Garkov. He will be on site and monitor/manage the Zoom-Session incl. Q&A during and after the talk as well. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with Dimitar in case of questions or problems regarding the transmission/your online participation: dimitar.garkov@uni-konstanz.de
Nov 23rd, 2026, 4 pm - 6 pm
University of Konstanz
Lecture | tba
Held by:
Abstract:
tba
Bio:
tba
Location:
University of Konstanz, Room ZT 1202
University of Stuttgart: The lecture will be transmitted to VISUS, room 00.012
The talk is available via Zoom.
Meeting ID: tba
Passcode: tba
For participants via Zoom: The transmission will kindly be managed by Dimitar Garkov. He will be on site and monitor/manage the Zoom-Session incl. Q&A during and after the talk as well. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with Dimitar in case of questions or problems regarding the transmission/your online participation: dimitar.garkov@uni-konstanz.de
Jan 11th, 2027, 4 pm - 6 pm
LMU Munich
Lecture | tba
Held by:
Raimund Dachselt, Dresden University of Technology
Abstract:
tba
Bio:
tba
Location:
LMU Munich, Frauenlobstr. 7A, Raum 357
University of Stuttgart: The lecture will be transmitted to VISUS, room 00.012
University of Konstanz: The lecture will be transmitted to room ZT 1201
The talk is available via Zoom.
Meeting ID: tba
Passcode: tba
For participants via Zoom: The transmission will kindly be managed by Kathrin Schnizer. She will be on site and monitor/manage the Zoom-Session incl. Q&A during and after the talk as well. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with Kathrin in case of questions or problems regarding the transmission/your online participation: kathrin.schnizer@um.ifi.lmu.de
Jan 25th, 2027, 4 pm - 6 pm
University of Stuttgart
Lecture | tba
Held by:
Gennady & Natalia Andrienko, Fraunhofer IAIS, University of London
Abstract:
tba
Bio:
tba
Location:
University of Stuttgart, Visualization Research Center (VISUS), Room: 00.012
The talk will be available via WebEx.
Meeting-ID (access code): tba
Meeting password: tba
For participants via WebEx: The transmission will kindly be managed by Patrick Gralka. He will be on site and monitor/manage the WebEx-Session incl. Q&A during and after the talk as well. Please don´t hesitate to get in touch with Patrick in case of questions or problems regarding the transmission/your online participation: Patrick.Gralka@visus.uni-stuttgart.de
Further Information & Resources
YouTube
The SFB-TRR 161 produces videos to give insights into the projects and the ongoing research. Please visit our YouTube Channel.
Graduate School
PhD students of the projects at the Universities of Stuttgart and Konstanz learn and do research together on their way to their doctoral degree in visual computing.
Visual Computing Blog
The scientists of the SFB-TRR 161 as well as guest authors blog about their activities in computer graphics, visualization, computer vision, augmented reality, human-computer interaction, and psychology.
Partners of the SFB-TRR 161
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© SFB-TRR 161 | Quantitative Methods for Visual Computing | 2019.