PD Dr. Thomas Wittenberg
Chair for Visual Computing / Chief Scientist & Research Manager, Digital Health and Analytics, Fraunhofer IIS
PD Dr. Thomas Wittenberg
Chair for Visual Computing / Chief Scientist & Research Manager, Digital Health and Analytics, Fraunhofer IIS
I specialize in researching and developing image analysis and machine learning applications in the fields of diagnostic and interventional endoscopy, digital pathology, mammography, image-based vital sign acquisition, and healthcare data visualization. My motivation lies in advancing these technologies to be more robust and reliable, in improving medical care, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of medical procedures, meeting the specific needs of physicians, healthcare professionals, and patients.
Research projects
- Artificial intelligence and visual computing methods for diagnostic and interventional endoscopy and surgery
- AI-driven lesion and object detection and tracking in endoscopy data for esophagus, bladder, colon, larynx, etc. (“Deep Colonoscopy”, “Deep Urology”)
- 3D-acquisition and reconstruction in healthcare using optical data (GastroMapper, EndoRama, CystoRama, etc.)
- Integration of haptic-visual feedback for surgical planning in the operating room
- ML and AI-based image analysis for Digital Pathology (TRR & SFB 305, SFB 706)
No projects found.
2025
- Eixelberger, T., Hackner, R., Fang, Q., Zohud, B., Stürzl, M., Naschberger, E., & Wittenberg, T. (2025). Automated lesion detection in endoscopic imagery for small animal models – a pilot study. Biomedizinische Technik. https://doi.org/10.1515/bmt-2025-0179
- Eixelberger, T., Weingärtner, K., Maisch, P., Bolenz, C., & Wittenberg, T. (2025). Real-time Fiberscopic Image Improvement for Automated Lesion Detection in the Urinary Bladder. In Christoph Palm, Katharina Breininger, Thomas Deserno, Heinz Handels, Andreas Maier, Klaus H. Maier-Hein, Thomas M. Tolxdorff (Eds.), Informatik aktuell (pp. 25-30). Regensburg, DE: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH.
- Gruber, R., Engster, J.C., Michen, M., Blum, N., Stille, M., Gerth, S., & Wittenberg, T. (2025). Instance Segmentation XXL-CT Challenge of a Historic Airplane. Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation, 44(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-024-01136-y
- Schwimmbeck, M., Khajarian, S., Auer, C., Wittenberg, T., & Remmele, S. (2025). Towards a zero-shot low-latency navigation for open surgery augmented reality applications. International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-025-03480-4
2024
- Arndt, M., Simon, M., Schmitt-Rüth, S., Schoeneich, S., Landgraf, K., Jantsch, H.,... Wittenberg, T. (2024). Needs-based selection and prioritization of Technologies to Aid and Assist Nursing Staff in Inpatient Care of Elderly. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 10(4), 41-44. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2024-2010
- Eixelberger, T., Fang, Q., Zohud, B., Hackner, R., Jackstadt, R., Stürzl, M.,... Wittenberg, T. (2024). Automated Lesion Detection in Endoscopic Imagery for Small Animal Models. In Andreas Maier, Thomas M. Deserno, Heinz Handels, Klaus Maier-Hein, Christoph Palm, Thomas Tolxdorff (Eds.), Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2024. BVM 2024 (pp. 190-195). Erlangen, DE: Wiesbaden: Springer Vieweg.
- Eixelberger, T., Maisch, P., Belle, S., Kriegmaier, M., Bolenz, C., & Wittenberg, T. (2024). Comparison of YOLO and transformer based tumor detection in cystoscopy. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 10(4), 228-231. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2024-2055
- Gruber, R., Reims, N., Hempfer, A., Gerth, S., Böhnel, M., Fuchs, T.,... Wittenberg, T. (2024). Selected annotated instance segmentation sub-volumes from a large scale CT data-set of a historic aircraft. Scientific Data, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03347-4
- Gruber, R., Rüger, S., & Wittenberg, T. (2024). Adapting the Segment Anything Model for Volumetric X-ray Data-Sets of Arbitrary Sizes. Applied Sciences, 14(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/app14083391
- Kuritcyn, P., Kletzander, R., Eisenberg, S., Wittenberg, T., Bruns, V., Evert, K.,... Benz, M. (2024). Towards interactive AI-authoring with prototypical few-shot classifiers in histopathology. Journal of Pathology Informatics, 15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpi.2024.100388
- Merz, N., Wittenberg, T., Klein, S., Lu, S., Zebisch, R., Retzer, L.,... Reitelshöfer, S. (2024). Towards Useful Social Capabilities for Robots in Healthcare. In 2024 2nd International Conference on Integrated Systems in Medical Technologies (ISMT) (pp. 1-6). Erlangen, DE: New York City: IEEE.
- Steinert, J., Salamon, M., & Wittenberg, T. (2024). Investigation and experimental evaluation of a mono-pixel X-ray system in healthcare. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 10(1), 77-80. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2024-0120
- Wisotzky, E.L., Wallburg, L., Hilsmann, A., Eisert, P., Wittenberg, T., & Göb, S. (2024). Efficient and Accurate Hyperspectral Image Demosaicing with Neural Network Architectures. In Petia Radeva, Antonino Furnari, Kadi Bouatouch, A. Augusto Sousa (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (pp. 541-550). Rome, ITA: Science and Technology Publications, Lda.
- Wittenberg, T., Ernst, A., Hauenstein, T., Merz, N., Sassen, S., André, E.,... Lang-Richter, N.R. (2024). A Concept of Emotion-Driven Human-Robot-Inter-Action for Nursing Care Scenarios. In 2024 2nd International Conference on Integrated Systems in Medical Technologies (ISMT) (pp. 1-6). Erlangen, DE: New York City: IEEE.
- Wittenberg, T., Lang, T., Eixelberger, T., & Gruber, R. (2024). Acquisition of Semantics for Machine-Learning and Deep-Learning based Applications. Springer Nature.
2023
- Alle, J., Gruber, R., Wörlein, N., Uhlmann, N., Claußen, J., Wittenberg, T., & Gerth, S. (2023). 3D segmentation of plant root systems using spatial pyramid pooling and locally adaptive field-of-view inference. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1120189
- Aubreville, M., Stathonikos, N., Bertram, C.A., Klopfleisch, R., ter Hoeve, N., Ciompi, F.,... Breininger, K. (2023). Mitosis domain generalization in histopathology images — The MIDOG challenge. Medical Image Analysis, 84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.media.2022.102699
- Binz, E., Seuß, D., Pahl, J., Ko, Y.D., & Wittenberg, T. (2023). Machine-based emotion-Assessment in waiting rooms-a feasibility and acceptance study. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 9(1), 113-117. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2023-1029
- Claussen, J., Wittenberg, T., Uhlmann, N., & Gerth, S. (2023). “Chamber #8” – a holistic approach of high-throughput non-destructive assessment of plant roots. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1269005
- Eixelberger, T., Kruck, S., Belle, S., Kriegmair, M., Bolenz, C., Maisch, P., & Wittenberg, T. (2023). Deep Learning by Domain Transfer for Early Tumor Detection in the Urinary Bladder. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 9(1), 53-56. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2023-1014
- Göb, S., Sawant, S., Erick, F.X., Schmidkonz, C., Ramming, A., Lang, E.W.,... Götz, T.I. (2023). Comparing ensemble methods combined with different aggregating models using micrograph cell segmentation as an initial application example. Journal of Pathology Informatics, 14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpi.2023.100304
- Heinlein, L., Benz, M., Kuritcyn, P., Bruns, V., Hartmann, A., Geppert, C.-I.,... Wittenberg, T. (2023). Lymph node metastases detection in Whole Slide Images using prototypical patterns and transformer-guided multiple instance learning. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 9(1), 166-169. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2023-1042
- Ibrahim, I., Draeger, T., & Wittenberg, T. (2023). Identification of Surgical Instruments Using a Low Frequency Magnetic Field. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 9(1), 57-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2023-1015
- Lang, T., Sauer, T., Wittenberg, T., Gerth, S., & Uhlmann, N. (2023). OntoSeg-Segmentation of Large Volumetric Datasets Using Semantic Knowledge. In Proceedings - 17th IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing, ICSC 2023 (pp. 65-72). Online, US: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc..
- Scharfenberg, E., Sassen, S., Rothgang, H., & Wittenberg, T. (2023). Das Modellprojekt "Pflege 2030" - in Echtzeit. Pflege Zeitschrift, 76, 10-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41906-023-2026-5
- Singh, A., Holzer, N., Gotz, T., Wittenberg, T., Gob, S., Sawant, S.,... Pahl, J. (2023). Bio-Signal Based Multimodal Fusion with Bilinear Model for Emotion Recognition. In Xingpeng Jiang, Haiying Wang, Reda Alhajj, Xiaohua Hu, Felix Engel, Mufti Mahmud, Nadia Pisanti, Xuefeng Cui, Hong Song (Eds.), Proceedings - 2023 2023 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, BIBM 2023 (pp. 4834-4839). Istanbul, TUR: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc..
- Wersényi, G., Scheper, V., Spagnol, S., Eixelberger, T., & Wittenberg, T. (2023). Cost-effective 3D scanning and printing technologies for outer ear reconstruction: current status. Head & Face Medicine, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13005-023-00394-x
- Wichmann, D., Duckwort-Mothes, B., Hirt, B., Wilhelm, D., Steger, J., Zweimüller, M.,... Wittenberg, T. (2023). Training and education of young physicians and engineers in the field of endoscopy and laparoscopy-a review of Germany-wide joint cooperation and training possibilities. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 9(1), 543-546. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2023-1136
2022
- Dexl, J., Benz, M., Bruns, V., Kuritcyn, P., & Wittenberg, T. (2022). MitoDet: Simple and Robust Mitosis Detection. In Marc Aubreville, David Zimmerer, Mattias Heinrich (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) (pp. 53-57). Strasbourg, FR: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH.
- Dexl, J., Benz, M., Kuritcyn, P., Wittenberg, T., Bruns, V., Geppert, C.-I.,... Goschenhofer, J. (2022). Robust Colon Tissue Cartography with Semi-Supervision. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 8(2), 344-347. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2022-1088
- Eixelberger, T., Wolkenstein, G., Hackner, R., Bruns, V., Mühldorfer, S., Geissler, U.,... Wittenberg, T. (2022). YOLO networks for polyp detection: A human-in-the-loop training approach. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 8(2), 277-280. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2022-1071
- Götz, T.I., Göb, S., Sawant, S., Erick, X.F., Wittenberg, T., Schmidkonz, C.,... Ramming, A. (2022). Number of necessary training examples for Neural Networks with different number of trainable parameters. Journal of Pathology Informatics, 13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpi.2022.100114
- Hackner, R., Eixelberger, T., Schmidle, M., Bruns, V., Lehmann, E., Geissler, U., & Wittenberg, T. (2022). 3D Reconstruction of the Colon from Monocular Sequences Evaluation by 3D-printed Phantom Data. In Klaus Maier-Hein, Thomas M. Deserno, Heinz Handels, Andreas Maier, Christoph Palm, Thomas Tolxdorff (Eds.), Informatik aktuell (pp. 141-146). Heidelberg, DE: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH.
- Hackner, R., Eixelberger, T., & Wittenberg, T. (2022). Panorama mapping of the colon - a phantom study with robotic endoscopy. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 8(1), 113-116. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2022-0029
- Kress, V., Wittenberg, T., Raithel, M., Bruns, V., Lehmann, E., Eixelberger, T., & Hackner, R. (2022). Automatic detection of foreign objects and contaminants in colonoscopic video data using deep learning. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 8(2), 321-324. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2022-1082
- Mohammed, A., Geppert, C.-I., Hartmann, A., Kuritcyn, P., Bruns, V., Schmid, U.,... Finzel, B. (2022). Explaining and Evaluating Deep Tissue Classification by Visualizing Activations of Most Relevant Intermediate Layers. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 8(2), 229-232. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2022-1059
- Pahl, J., Rieger, I., Möller, A., Wittenberg, T., & Schmid, U. (2022). Female, white, 27? Bias Evaluation on Data and Algorithms for Affect Recognition in Faces. In ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (pp. 973-987). Online, KR: Association for Computing Machinery.
- Steger, J., Zimmermann, A., Wittenberg, T., Mela, P., & Wilhelm, D. (2022). Electromagnetic tool for the endoscopic creation of colon anastomoses-development and feasibility assessment of a novel anastomosis compression implant approach. International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-022-02722-z
- Weigand, C., Flemming, D., Zweyer, G., Borutta, P., Hofmann, F., Wieland, G.,... Wittenberg, T. (2022). A concept and technical requirements for the Temi platform supporting care and nursing. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 8(2), 241-244. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2022-1062
- Wersenyi, G., Wittenberg, T., & Sudar, A. (2022). Handheld 3D Scanning and Image Processing for Printing Body Parts - A Workflow Concept and Current Results. In 2022 IEEE 1st International Conference on Internet of Digital Reality, IoD 2022 (pp. 61-68). Gyor, HUN: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc..
- Wilm, F., Benz, M., Bruns, V., Baghdadlian, S., Dexl, J., Hartmann, D.,... Geppert, C.-I. (2022). Fast whole-slide cartography in colon cancer histology using superpixels and CNN classification. Journal of Medical Imaging, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.9.2.027501
- Zöller, N., Franke, L., Claussen, J., Gerth, S., Rauh, C., Radlanski, R.J.,... Hufnagel, E. (2022). Evaluation of methods for 3D imaging and analysis of vascularisation in biopreparations. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 8(2), 61-64. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2022-1017
2021
- Bauer, J., Dengler, S., Faubel, L., Franke, J., Ristok, B., Struck, M.,... Wittenberg, T. (2021). Pandemic Robot A concept for robot-based surveillance of inhabitants in elderly and nursing homes during pandemic situations. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 7(2), 601-604. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2021-2153
- Deuschel, J., Firmbach, D., Geppert, C.-I., Eckstein, M., Hartmann, A., Bruns, V.,... Benz, M. (2021). Multi-Prototype Few-shot Learning in Histopathology. In 2021 IEEE/CVF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER VISION WORKSHOPS (ICCVW 2021) (pp. 620-628). LOS ALAMITOS: IEEE COMPUTER SOC.
- Goes, N., Kirst, S., Seßner, J., Steffan, J., Struck, M., Franke, J.,... Wittenberg, T. (2021). Evaluation of an algorithm for optical pulse detection in children for application to the Pepper robot. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 7(2), 484-487. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2021-2123
- Gruber, R., Gerth, S., Claußen, J., Wörlein, N., Uhlmann, N., & Wittenberg, T. (2021). Exploring Flood Filling Networks for Instance Segmentation of XXL-Volumetric and Bulk Material CT Data. Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-020-00734-w
- Hackner, R., Suarez-Ibarrola, R., Qiu, T., Lemke, N., Pohlmann, P.F., Wilhelm, K.,... Wittenberg, T. (2021). Panoramic Imaging Assessment of Different Bladder Phantoms – An Evaluation Study. Urology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2021.05.036
- Hackner, R., Walluscheck, S., Lehmann, E., Eixelberger, T., Bruns, V., & Wittenberg, T. (2021). A Geometric and Textural Model of the Colon as Ground Truth for Deep Learning-based 3D-reconstruction. In Christoph Palm, Heinz Handels, Klaus Maier-Hein, Thomas M. Deserno, Andreas Maier, Thomas Tolxdorff (Eds.), Informatik aktuell (pp. 298-303). Regensburg, DE: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH.
- Sorge, M., Eixelberger, T., Dietz, A., Simon, M., Wittenberg, T., Katzky, U.,... Pirlich, M. (2021). Vorstellung und Evaluation des haptisch-visuellen, ohrchirurgischen Trainingssystems „HaptiVisT“. Laryngo-Rhino-Otologie, 41(5). https://doi.org/10.1055/a-1802-4887
- Steger, J., Zimmermann, A., Wittenberg, T., & Wilhelm, D. (2021). Electromagnets for an endoscopic anastomosis tool in the colon. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2021-1009
- Walluscheck, S., Wittenberg, T., Bruns, V., Eixelberger, T., & Hackner, R. (2021). Partial 3D-reconstruction of the colon from monoscopic colonoscopy videos using shape-from-motion and deep learning. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 7(2), 335-338. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2021-2085
2020
- Bauer, J., Wittenberg, T., Waldhör, K., Hechtel, M., Holzwarth, M., Seßner, J.,... Franke, J. (2020). A Concept for Context Awareness in SmartEnvironments. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2020-3098
- Eixelberger, T., Parchent, J., Janka, R.M., Stamminger, M., Döllinger, M., & Wittenberg, T. (2020). Haptic Rendering of Soft-Tissue for Training Surgical Procedures at the Larynx. In In: Tolxdorff T., Deserno T., Handels H., Maier A., Maier-Hein K., Palm C. (eds) (Eds.), Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2020, Informatik aktuell (pp. 342-347). Berlin, DE: Wiesbaden: Springer Vieweg,.
- Hackner, R., Raithel, M., Lehmann, E., & Wittenberg, T. (2020). Deep-learning based reconstruction of the stomach from monoscopic video data. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2020-3012
- Koch, R., Pfeiffer, N., Lang, N., Struck, M., Amft, O., Eskofier, B., & Wittenberg, T. (2020). Evaluation of HRV estimation algorithms from PPG data using neural networks. Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2020-3130