Today, augmented reality is becoming more and more important in several areas like industrial sectors, medicine, or tourism. This gain of importance can easily be explained by its powerful extension of real world content. Therefore, augmented realty became a way to explain and enhance the real world information. Yet, to create a system which can enhance a scene with additional information, the relation between the system and the real world must be known. In order to establish this relationship a commonly used method is optical tracking. The system calculates its relation to the real world from camera images. To do so, a reference which is known is needed in the scene to serve as an orientation. Today, this is mostly a 2D-marker or a 2D-texture. These are placed in the real world scenery to serve as a reference. But, this is an intrusion in the scene. That is why it is desirable that the system works without such an additional aid. An strategy without manipulating the scene is object-tracking. In this approach, any object from the scene can be used as a reference for the system. As an object is far more complex than a marker, it is harder for the system to establish its relationship with the real world. That is why most methods for 3D-object-tracking reduce the object by not using the whole object as reference. The focus of this thesis is to research how a whole object can be used as a reference in a way that either the system or the camera can be moved in any 360 degree angle around the object without loosing the relation to the real world. As a basis the augmented reality framework, the so called VisionLib, is used. Extensions to this system for 360 degree tracking are implemented in different ways and analyzed in the scope of this work. Also, the different extensions are compared. The best results were achieved by improving the reinitialization process. With this extension, current camera images of the scene are given to the system. With the hek of these images, the system can calculate the relation to the real world faster in case the relation went missing.

Der Forschungsschwerpunkt KoMePol Wahlkampf im Fernsehen Die Angebotsseite der Politik Medienangebot und Wirkung Digitale Partizipation Wissenschaftler im Forschungsschwerpunkt

In this work a framework is developed that is used to create an evaluation scheme for the evaluation of text processing tools. The evaluation scheme is developed using a model-dependent software evaluation approach and the focus of the model-dependent part is the text-processing process which is derived from the Conceptual Analysis Process developed in the GLODERS project. As input data a German court document is used containing two incidents of extortion racketeering which happened in 2011 and 2012. The evaluation of six different tools shows that one tool offers great results for the given dataset when it is compared to manual results. It is able to identify and visualize relations between concepts without any additional manual work. Other tools also offer good results with minor drawbacks. The biggest drawback for some tools is the unavailability of models for the German language. They can perform automated tasks only on English documents. Nonetheless some tools can be enhanced by self-written code which allows users with development experience to apply additional methods.

“Mittelstand” businesses are the backbone of the German economy. To operate effectively, these businesses require sufficient financing provided through adequate financing instruments. Yet, which characteristics do capital seekers value in adequate financing instruments? Despite the macroeconomic relevance of the topic, only few empirical studies exist to this date, which examine the financing behaviour of “Mittelstand”. For the paper at hand, all PREPS financed German businesses were asked to fill out an online survey. PREPS is a standardized mezzanine financing instrument, which was offered to “Mittelstand” businesses with a high degree of credit worthiness - primarily to finance business growth. PREPS financed businesses are of particular interest for this research as they can choose from the greatest variety of financing options amongst their peers due to their size and credit worthiness. Financing instruments differ in terms of rights and obligations associated with them. Depending on their design, financing contracts can fulfil a variety of functions beyond the obvious supply of liquidity, such as financial transformation, influencing of behaviours, and signalling private information. The paper at hand suggests that the businesses in question selected the same financing instrument, however, for different reasons. Furthermore, the degree of appreciation for certain characteristics of the financing instrument varies with business and situation specific context. When exploring individual hypotheses on how individual factors influence this degree of appreciation for certain financing characteristics, this paper builds on core capital structure theories as well as recent empirical insights in regards to financing behaviour. In addition, the paper examines several explorative hypotheses.

Placing questions before the material or after the material constitute different reading situations. To adapt to these reading situations, readers may apply appropriate reading strategies. Reading strategy caused by location of question has been intensively explored in the context of text comprehension. (1) However, there is still not enough knowledge about whether text plays the same role as pictures when readers apply different reading strategies. To answer this research question, three reading strategies are experimentally manipulated by displaying question before or after the blended text and picture materials: (a) Unguided processing with text and pictures and without the question. (b) Information gathering to answer the questions after the prior experience with text and pictures. (c) Comprehending text and pictures to solve the questions with the prior information of the questions. (2) Besides, it is arguable whether readers prefer text or pictures when the instructed questions are in different difficulty levels. (3) Furthermore, it is still uncertain whether students from higher school tier (Gymnasium) emphasize more on text or on pictures than students from lower school tier (Realschule). (4) Finally, it is rarely mentioned whether higher graders are more able to apply reading strategies in text processing and picture processing than lower graders. Two experiments were undertaken to investigate the usage of text and pictures in the perspectives of task orientation, question difficulty, school and grade. For a 2x2(x2x2x2) mixed design adopting eye tracking method, participants were recruited from grade 5 (N = 72) and grade 8 (N = 72). In Experiment 1, thirty-six 5th graders were recruited from higher tier (Gymnasium) and thirty-six 5th graders were from lower tier (Realschule). In Experiment 2, thirty-six 8th graders were recruited from higher tier and thirty-six were from lower tier. They were supposed to comprehend the materials combining text and pictures and to answer the questions. A Tobii XL60 eye tracker recorded their eye movements and their answers to the questions. Eye tracking indicators were analyzed and reported, such as accumulated fixation duration, time to the first fixation and transitions between different Areas of Interest. The results reveal that students process text differently from pictures when they follow different reading strategies. (1) Consistent with Hypothesis 1, students mainly use text to construct their mental model in unguided spontaneous processing of text and pictures. They seem to mainly rely on the pictures as external representations when trying to answer questions after the prior experience with the material. They emphasize on both text and pictures when questions are presented before the material. (2) Inconsistent with Hypothesis 2, students are inclined to emphasize on text and on pictures as question difficulty increases. However, the increase of focus on pictures is more than on text when the presented question is difficult. (3) Different from Hypothesis 3, the current study discovers that higher tier students did not differ from lower tier students in text processing. Conversely, students from higher tier attend more to pictures than students from lower tier. (4) Differed from Hypothesis 4, 8th graders outperform 5th graders mainly in text processing. Only a subtle difference is found between 5th graders and 8th graders in picture processing. To sum up, text processing differs from picture processing when applying different reading strategies. In line with the Integrative Model of Text and Picture Comprehension by Schnotz (2014), text is likely to play a major part in guiding the processing of meaning or general reading, whereas pictures are applied as external representations for information retrieval or selective reading. When question is difficulty, pictures are emphasized due to their advantages in visualizing the internal structure of information. Compared to lower tier students (poorer problem solvers), higher tier students (good problem solvers) are more capable of comprehending pictures rather than text. Eighth graders are more efficient than 5th graders in text processing rather than picture processing. It also suggests that in designing school curricula, more attention should be paid to students’ competence on picture comprehension or text-picture integration in the future.