Theseus (research program)

Theseus logo

Theseus (spelling THESEUS) was a research program initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) with the aim of simplifying access to information, linking data to new knowledge and creating the basis for the development of new services on the Internet.

background

The Theseus research program was originally founded in 2006 as a lighthouse project in the field of “ semantic search engines ”. It emerged from the Franco-German Quaero project after the German government announced its withdrawal from the consortium at the IT summit in December 2006. Both sides justified this with the fact that different focus areas had developed.

While Quaero became known as “European Google competitor”, in particular through the French President Jacques Chirac , the federal government soon distinguished itself from this designation: As early as March 2007, it declared that the Theseus program “did not aim at a new search engine ”.

Theseus and Quaero complement each other and are closely linked through working groups that meet regularly.

In February 2012 the project ended on schedule with a two-day congress.

aims

The focus of the research program is on semantic technologies that do not determine content (words, images, sounds) with the help of conventional methods (e.g. letter combinations), but can recognize and classify the meaning of information. With these technologies, computer programs should be able to better understand the context in which data was saved. In addition, computers can draw logical conclusions from the content and independently recognize and establish connections between different information from multiple sources. With these technologies Theseus creates the basis for innovative products, tools, services and business models for the Internet of Services .

The research program thus makes important contributions to two current developments in information and communication technology (ICT):

The creation of an “ Internet of Services ”, a “market platform on which, in the future, services such as goods can be traded and combined as required on the basis of semantic technologies and service-oriented architectures”

The advancement of the adaptive “ Web 3.0 ” which, according to Wolfgang Wahlster (DFKI GmbH), should provide the end user with “a direct and precise answer” through its semantic links

structure

The program has a term of five years and is funded by the BMWi with around 100 million euros. The funds available for research and development are divided equally between science and industry. An additional 100 million euros will be raised as own funds by the participating partners from industry and research, so that a total of approx. 200 million euros flow into future-oriented research work.

Theseus is carried out in two phases: In phase 1, the first solutions and demonstrators were developed by 2008 , which are further developed in phase 2 by additional partners, especially from medium-sized businesses, who have been won by means of a tender.

Basic technologies

The basic technologies developed by the research partners include functions for the automated generation of metadata for audio, video, 2D and 3D image files and their combinations, as well as mechanisms for the semantic processing of multimedia documents and the associated services. Research also focuses on the development of tools for the management of ontology- supported knowledge representation. In addition, new methods of machine learning and situation-conscious dialog processing are being developed. At the same time, work is being carried out on innovative user interfaces and interfaces.

Application scenarios

The basic technologies are prepared and tested for their usability in the six application scenarios Alexandria, Contentus, Medico, Ordo, Processus, Texo.

Alexandria

Alexandria pursues - analogous to the ancient library of the same name - the vision of a knowledge platform on the Internet. The focus is on the knowledge generated by users online. Alexandria wants to network this and make it more accessible with newly developed order systems. Alexandria is characterized by a question-and-answer system that allows users to ask natural questions, for example "Which river flows through Cologne?"

In July 2011, the platform already contained around 7 million entries with 10 million links, including 2 million information about people, over a million about places and around 65,000 about historical events, 761,000 information about organizations and over 3.3 million works. These information datasets were taken from DBpedia , Freebase , GeoBase and around 1000 German-language news sites

Contentus

Contentus develops new technologies for the construction of multimedia libraries that want to make their holdings accessible online for citizens in the future - e.g. B. German Digital Library or Europeana . In this way, access to knowledge is promoted in the digital age and a contribution is made to the preservation of cultural heritage.

Medico

A universally applicable search engine for medical images is being created within Medico. It enables direct, semantic access to medical image databases in order to support individualized diagnoses and therapy planning as well as biomedical and epidemiological research.

Ordo

As part of Ordo, semantic technologies are created that enable the user to organize all of his digital information in a clear and automatically created manner. Through the personalized linking of the content, they enable a uniform order of unstructured and structured data, so that efficient, individual knowledge management is possible.

Processus

Processus develops technologies that enable the comparison of products, solutions and business partners as well as the detection of problem knowledge for certain activities. As a result, the foundations for a semantic platform are developed that integrate internal resource planning and the management of digital content of business processes.

Texo

Texo researches the Internet of Services and provides components for its implementation. A platform should make it possible to trade services on the Internet, to combine them into value-added services and to integrate them into the customer's application environment. Texo creates the basis for a service economy on the Internet.

Theseus middle class

Theseus Mittelstand 2009 is a technology competition with which the Theseus research program promotes application-oriented research and development (R&D) projects in medium-sized businesses. Theseus Mittelstand 2009 calls on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to contribute their own ideas for the Internet of Services and to implement them in application-oriented projects by 2012 using the previous research results and technologies from the Theseus program. From 65 proposals, 12 projects were selected for funding with around 10 million euros by the BMWi . Theseus Mittelstand supports the transfer of scientific knowledge to SMEs. In close connection with the existing application scenarios Contentus, Medico, Ordo, Processus and Texo, new software applications and services based on them are developed.

Theseus book

The book "Towards the Internet of Services: The THESEUS Research Program" published in September 2014 describes the most important results of the THESEUS research program, one of the central programs in the German government's Digital 2015 initiative and its high-tech strategy 2020.

The Internet of Services and the Internet of Things are the main building blocks of the future Internet. In addition to mobile, social and cloud technologies, semantic technologies are the basis of the digital entrepreneurship of the future. They enable individualized mass production with the integration of individual customer needs and consideration of economical and reliable production. Due to the machine-understandable representation, these technologies allow automated processing and information exchange in human-machine communication and thus form an essential basis for the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). Competitive advantages arising in the respective economic sectors lead to individual "Smart Products", "Smart Services" and "Smart Data"

Contributing authors include leading scientists and engineers from senior academic and industrial research teams. The ideas and technologies presented in the book come from areas such as the Internet of Services, the Semantic Web and semantic technologies, knowledge management and search; User interfaces, multimodal interaction and visualization; machine learning and data mining, business process support, manufacturing, automation, medical systems and integrated service engineering.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Germany is out of Quaero. December 21, 2006, accessed June 23, 2019 .
↑ European competition from Google is slowly taking shape. January 16, 2006, accessed June 23, 2019 .
↑ (Press release of the German Bundestag from March 26, 2007)
↑ Theseus research project is completed. February 14, 2012, accessed June 23, 2019 .
↑ Services, services, services - THESEUS networks. June 29, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2019 .
↑ The Internet of the future means the end of the search. September 27, 2007, accessed June 23, 2019 .
↑ Alexandria Homepage ( Memento from July 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
↑ ALEXANDRIA - the unique knowledge machine. June 11, 2011, accessed June 23, 2019 .
↑ Theseus subproject Alexandria should go online at the end of the year. July 12, 2011, accessed June 23, 2019 .
↑ Wahlster, W., Grallert, H.-J., Wess, S., Friedrich, H., Widenka, Th .: Towards the Internet of Services: The THESEUS Research Program . Springer, ISBN 978-3-319-06755-1 ( springer.com ).

[1] Germany is out of Quaero. December 21, 2006, accessed June 23, 2019 .

[2] European competition from Google is slowly taking shape. January 16, 2006, accessed June 23, 2019 .

[3] (Press release of the German Bundestag from March 26, 2007)

[4] Theseus research project is completed. February 14, 2012, accessed June 23, 2019 .

[5] Services, services, services - THESEUS networks. June 29, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2019 .

[6] The Internet of the future means the end of the search. September 27, 2007, accessed June 23, 2019 .

[7] Alexandria Homepage ( Memento from July 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

[8] ALEXANDRIA - the unique knowledge machine. June 11, 2011, accessed June 23, 2019 .

[9] Theseus subproject Alexandria should go online at the end of the year. July 12, 2011, accessed June 23, 2019 .

[10] Wahlster, W., Grallert, H.-J., Wess, S., Friedrich, H., Widenka, Th .: Towards the Internet of Services: The THESEUS Research Program . Springer, ISBN 978-3-319-06755-1 ( springer.com ).