My name is Patrick and I’m a developer and creator. I have a strong background in programming, software engineering, and the design of user interfaces. My specialty is Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality as well as and finding new, exciting ways to interact with computers and digital content. Besides my passion for programming, I really love to create new things, be it with a computer or without.
Education and Research
I studied Computer Science at the Technische Universität Dresden and have been a Research Associate at the Interactive Media Lab Dresden from 2014 until 2020. I published a variety of scientific papers at international conferences (click here for detailed list). Working in academia taught me a lot of valuable skills, like programming, design of user interfaces and interaction, public speaking, conducting user studies, teaching and supervising student projects and theses, video editing, organizing events and writing grand proposals. Furthermore, i also developed my own philosophy about programming, especially good programming (which you can read here).
While diving into various topics, my research ultimately focused on Augmented Reality and how it can be combined with conventional, touch-enabled displays. This combination allows applications to utilize the space in front and behind the screen, leading to a very immersive user experience. At the same time, touch and digital pen input result in more natural ways of interacting with the AR objects.
An example that illustrates this vision in a simple and easy to understandable manner is my work on DesignAR, an immersive 3D modeling application.
Computer Games
Besides research, I have a life long passion for video and computer games. This is not limited to playing them, but also to analyze them regarding gameplay, technology, historical context and inspiration to and from other games or media. Over the years, I developed a large body of knowledge about games that I’m quite proud of. Of course, my love for creating things includes computer games as well. Even from a young age I could never resist the temptation to alter the games I played according to my imagination. Through these small modding projects I learned a lot about how games work internally. Later, when I learned to program, it was only natural that my interests turned to developing smaller game projects as well. However, these mods and projects were always only for me personally without the goal to show them to the world and make them public.
Other Activities
Because of my interest in software development and computer games in particular, I have also dabbled in graphic design and 3D modeling. Although I have in no way reached any professional level in this regard, especially the 3D modeling has become some kind of hobby. It also proved tremendously helpful for other projects. Outside of the computer I have an interest in carpentry, build furniture, and in wood working in general. I’m also an avid reader, mostly interested in function like science fiction, dystopias, and utopias. I love books that raise an interesting what-if question and then construct a detailed world to play with that question. Otherwise I am also interested in music, especially older Rock’n’Roll, which I not only like to listen to, but also read a lot about the founders of various artists.