Intelligent Simulated Reality: Research at the Crossroads of Visual Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and High-Performance Computing

Making the right decisions in our increasingly complex world becomes more and more difficult. In the past decision support
systems have been for experts and were highly specialized. We argue that good support must be accessible also for lay people,
should be viewed in the context of the (typically 3D) environment of the real world, must be modular such that various different
but possibly related aspects can be simulated, and needs to provide interactivity and real-time feedback.

In this talk I will present Collaborate3D, a prototype Intelligent Simulated Reality system. Its frontend is easily accessible
via any Web browser due to integrating interactive 3D graphics directly into HTML-5 through our XML3D technology. At the core of
our simulations are semantically annotated 3D models of the real world. They allow the computer to "make sense" of these models
using the rich set of artificial intelligence technology. Specifically, we use Answer-Set-Programming to specify Multi-Agent
models that act in and on these 3D environments, e.g. via simulations. Simulation modules can be attached to our 3D models using a distributed, service-based approach and new compiler technology to generate highly optimized, real-time simulation code for different hardware platforms that often beat hand-optimized implementation -- starting from simple high-level, text-book-like algorithms.

I will demonstrate the system using an application for planning and validating the design of new industrial production lines with
respect to their functional properties and well as to their operation by human workers.

Bio:

Philipp Slusallek is Scientific Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), where he heads the
research area ?Agents and Simulated Reality? since 2008. He is also Director for Research at the "Intel Visual Computing Institute?, a central research institute at Saarland University founded in 2009 in collaboration with Intel, DFKI, and the two local Max-Planck-Institutes. At Saarland University he has been a professor for Computer Graphics since 1999 and a Principle
Investigator at the German Excellence-Cluster on ?Multimodal Computing and Interaction? since 2007. Before coming to Saarland University, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Stanford University, USA. He studied physics in Frankfurt and Tübingen (Diploma/M.Sc.) and got his PhD in Computer Science from Erlangen University. His research interests are focused on novel
service-oriented architectures for 3D-Internet technology, integrating research in areas such as real-time realistic graphics,
artificial intelligence, high-performance computing as well as security by design for creating distributed, immersive,
collaborative environments for simulation, analysis, visualization, and training.