Spin-Off Businesses
Several former members of our group have taken their ideas to found their own businesses and become self-employed. Below you will find information on spin-off projects by former members of the group.
Die Cognit GmbH ist ein unabhängiges Forschungs- und Entwicklungsunternehmen, gegründet im Jahr 2010 von Prof. Martin Riedmiller und ehemaligem Arbeitsgruppenmitglied Dr. Roland Hafner. Ihr Ziel ist die Erforschung und Umsetzung praxisrelevanter Methoden der Künstlichen Intelligenz. Sie erschließen den Nutzen lernfähiger Systeme für neue zukunftsweisende industrielle Anwendungfelder. Dies tun sie auf 2 Wegen:
- Sie entwickeln mit der Neuro Control Engine (NCE) eine universell einsetzbare Software Toolbox zur selbstlernenden, intelligenten Regelung technischer Prozesse - vom einfachen nichtlinearen Pneumatikzylinder bis hin zum komplexen lernfähigen Robotersystem.
- Als Diskussions- und Entwicklungspartner geben sie qualifizierte und quantifizierbare Antworten auf die Fragen: Was ist durch Künstliche Intelligenz aktuell möglich? Wie ist dies umsetzbar?
In November 2011, former group member Dr. Sascha Lange and fellow computer scientist Dr. Patrick Fox won an EXIST grant to support founding an independent game studio here in Freiburg. Two month later, Hajo Runne, Dipl.-Kaufm. (MBA) joined the team and in early 2012 the 5d lab GmbH was founded.
The goal of 5d lab is to develop groundbreaking gaming products and services that offer an unsurpassed experience to the customer. 5d's products make use of the newest internet technologies, location-based services, and modern sensor processing algorithms. Products do not only feature 2d/3d content and time (4d), but also combine the virtual content with the real world to achieve a real 5d-experience. After developing it's first mobile-only strategy game in cooperation with Bytro Labs (Hamburg) the team is currently focusing on its first full product, the massively multiplayer geo-strategy game 'Wack-A-Doo'.
Wack-A-Doo builds on existing browser-based strategy games, but is fundamentally different from any existing game and will bring geolocated gameplay to the genre in early 2014. Its gameplay is deep, complex and interesting, yet also funny, hilarious and even a little crazy – it´s simply wack-a-doo.
Durovis Dive
Leveraging his robotic soccer experience as well as new-found 3D printing experience, former member Stefan Welker created OpenDive to enable 3D Virtual Reality Gaming on a smartphone. It features low-latency head tracking he developed to provide unmatched immersion in the mobile domain. Going one step further, together with the company Durovis he created Dive, the mass-production version based on the ideas of OpenDive, enabling VR for everyone.
All that is necessary to enjoy 3D Virtual Reality Gaming is a recent Android smartphone featuring a gyroscope and accelerometer as well as the Dive or OpenDive frame holder. To report or check on phone compatibility, please see the Dive compatibility thread.