Visual Computing Report

In the years ahead, we will presumably face a wider variety of challenges and problems than virtually any other generation before us. Now more than ever, science and research are playing important roles. Experts are laboring to identify trends and develop solutions. The fact that Fraunhofer IGD’s visual computing competencies address the interface between innovation and practical applications makes our work particularly multifaceted and relevant. Largely because we are aligning ourselves with and intensively promoting different industries, collaborating across departments, and intensively promoting projects, we’ve achieved a dynamic process that paves the way from technical innovations to successful products.

A good example of this is the new bioeconomics and infrastructure research department, which we inaugurated at Fraunhofer IGD’s facility in Rostock on the Baltic coast last year. It is focusing on sustainably developing agriculture further with the goal of reducing both resource use and emissions. We want to provide farms, companies, and public institutions with effective digital methods for systematically increasing the value that agriculture generates. We’re also working on tools for enabling agricultural operations to manage the effects of climate change better. This concerns both crop and humane livestock farming, as well as marine breeding and the use of moorlands for forestry. To help master current challenges in crop and grassland management, we’re also developing digital technologies for AI-supported near- and remote-sensing.

Our other current research focuses also continue to have broad-ranging potential for sparking innovations, especially for the automotive industry, software and IT, healthcare, the maritime economy, and the cultural and creative economy. Here, too, we want to continue expanding the scope of our activities, as well as our research in the realms of quantum computing and the metaverse. Additional spin-offs are also being planned.

In the year ahead, the number of our tasks and projects will therefore be on the same level as our efforts to make new knowledge usable. We have a lot of work ahead of us. And what could be as motivating to researchers like us as keeping our fingers on the pulse of important technological developments and helping to meaningfully shape them?

Our competencies and technologies are organized into four groups covering all areas of expertise relevant to visual computing applications. Our expert, cross-functional teams support clients in business and government with flexible software solutions that address six core industries.

Problem Analysis

We analyze existing processes and business systems by systematically combing, aggregating, merging, and linking available data and data sources to identify opportunities for improvement.

Optimal data management and efficient data storage and processing are important prerequisites for extracting meaningful insights from data sets by applying a combination of automated analytical methods and visualization.

Big data, machine learning, and AI methods enable clients to gain deep insights into the patterns and interconnections present in their heterogeneous data sets.

Designing software and hardware systems

Based on a detailed analysis of requirements, we take a user-centered, agile, iterative approach for designing software and hardware systems that are tailored to each client’s unique needs for visualizing complex data.

After identifying appropriate technical components and methods, these are applied to define targets for new systems and present suggestions for improving existing ones.

Our goals are optimal usability, user-centered design (HCI, UI), efficiency, and novel functionalities. We ensure them for our clients by applying appropriate industry standard software design methodologies, development environments, and testing methods.

Prototype development

The outcome of our work doesn’t have to be limited to a concept paper. It can also include developing a robust prototype with sufficient scope to allow testing of all required attributes.

Prototyping is performed iteratively while intensively sharing information with the client, in order to quickly and efficiently coordinate major design decisions and consistently steer developments toward the goals in each case.

We rapidly construct prototypes for testing and validation to determine feasibility and benefits, contribute to minimizing risks, and make decisions on actual implementation.

Implementation of visually interactive systems

A customized solution and/or prototypes are developed into an operational, ready-to-use system with replicable software and hardware.

Across the steps of hardware/software integration, testing, and rollout, these solutions are implemented in such a way that they can be optimally integrated into the client’s existing system environment.

In addition to support during the introduction phase, software solutions are also available to purchase or license. They also include ongoing support.

DIN EN ISO-certified software development processes are also available on request.

Automotive

Throughout the automotive industry, we develop next-generation visual interactive solutions for all phases of the automotive product life cycle: from the drafting process and design reviews across technical simulations all the way to quality monitoring during production. In this way, we work with you to create future mobility solutions. The automotive industry is undergoing an upheaval. Electromobility, autonomous driving, and many other trends are upending established ways of thinking in the market and pointing the way to a new future.

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Healthcare

We support companies of the healthcare industry with our services. Going forward we will personalize medicine by developing and evaluating digital solutions for improving individual patients’ health while protecting them and their data, securing diagnoses, and systematically documenting all information. Our applications support preventive healthcare at home and at work, as well as diagnostics and therapy at physicians’ practices, in hospitals and clinics, and in connection with nursing and rehabilitation.

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Information Technology

In the context of software and IT industries, we focus on companies that make, integrate, and/or use software. We help them develop data-intensive applications for everything from data management all the way to visual user interfaces and interactive solutions.

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Maritime Economy

We develop smart applications and systems for companies of the blue (maritime) economy and their suppliers. Our focuses are offshore energy, shipbuilding and ship operation, aquaculture, and protecting the marine environment.

Thanks to our maritime digitalization competence, we’re able to offer companies considerable benefits in terms of efficiency and quality in global markets. We help them achieve their maritime sustainability targets while complying with legal requirements and taking advantage of opportunities to adopt new business models. Our joint projects also help them protect and sustainably use the Earth’s seas within the scope of their value chains.

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Bioeconomics and Infrastructure

We support companies and public institutions in designing infrastructure that is more technologically advanced, more socially inclusive, and greener. Our solutions address all aspects of urban communities. We leverage our core competencies in visual computing to provide technical tools and methods that will enable us to master global challenges such as climate change, health risks, ensuring a sustainable energy supply, and developing land and space without harming the environment.

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Cultural and Creative Economy

The most realistic-looking 3D models have the widest range of uses. Our broad spectrum of 3D technologies helps you achieve a unique level of accuracy, all the way down to the tiniest details. Thanks to our established 3D printing and scanning technologies, we’re able to offer not only high-precision, single-unit production but also rapid, cost-effective approaches for large series. From capture across visualization to reproduction, we’re expert at precisely capturing and reproducing geometries.

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