Metzger, Christian, Dr.

 

Christian Metzger joined the Information Management group in 2005 and graduated with a Doctor of Sciences in 2008 (with highest honors). During his PhD, he was also a senior researcher at the Auto-ID Labs and the M-Lab (a joint initiative between University of St. Gallen and ETH Zurich). Christian holds a Master of Science degree in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich.
Christian was a visiting scientist at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 2007 where he worked on retail logistics optimization problems, and in 2004, he was a visiting scientist at the College of Computing at the Georgia Insitute of Technology in Atlanta (USA).

 

Member of the Auto-ID Labs.

Member of the M-Lab.

 

Research Interests

Keywords: Retail replenishment, process optimization, RFID, smart shelves.

Stockout situations in the retail industry result in significant losses of revenue. The introduction of automatic product availability monitoring systems for retail shelves suggests a significant reduction of stockouts and lower replenishment process costs. Christian's research focuses on inventory models that incorporate emerging technologies, specifically RFID item-level tagging and weight-sensitive sensors, to optimize the replenishment process based on a total cost function. The development of such technologies reveals further limitations for practical implementation that mathematical models have to account for.

 

Publications

• High Fidelity Shelf Stock Monitoring – A Framework for Retail Replenishment Optimization, C. Metzger, SVH, 2009, Amazon.com.
• Distance-sensitive High Frequency RFID Systems, C. Metzger, A. Ilic, P. Bourquin, F. Michahelles, and E. Fleisch International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Applications, Alexandria, Egypt, 2008, [PDF].
• High Fidelity Shelf Stock Monitoring – A Framework for Retail Replenishment Optimization, C. Metzger, PhD Thesis, ETH Zurich, 2008, [PDF].
• Flexible foam-based capacitive sensor arrays for object detection at low cost, C. Metzger, E. Fleisch, J. Meyer, M. Dansachmüller, I. Graz, M. Kaltenbrunner, C. Keplinger, R. Schwödiauer, and S. Bauer. Applied Physics Letters (Journal), January, 2008.
• Ambient Energy Scavenging for Sensor-equipped RFID Tags in the Cold Chain, C. Metzger, F. Michahelles, and E. Fleisch European Conference on Smart Sensing and Context (EuroSSC), Kendal, UK, 2007, [PDF]
• Low-cost Weight-sensitive Foam to Monitor Product Availability on Retail Shelves, C. Metzger, J. Meyer, E. Fleisch, and G. Troester, International Conference on Pervasive Computing (Pervasive2007), Toronto, Canada, 2007, [PDF].
• Making Radio Frequency Identification Visible - A Watchdog Tag, C. Metzger, C. Floerkemeier, P. Bourquin, and E. Fleisch, Pervasive RFID/NFC Technology and Applications Workshop (PerTec2007) at the International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom2007), White Plains, NY, USA, 2007, [PDF].
• A Wearable Interface for Topological Mapping and Localization in Indoor Environments, G. Schindler, C. Metzger, and T. Starner, International Workshop on Location- and Context-Awarness (LoCa 2006), Dublin, Ireland, 2006, [PDF]
• Indirect Object-Sensing Technology to Prevent Out-of-stocks at Retail-level, C. Metzger, International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp05), In Proceedings of the Workshop on Smart Objects , Tokyo, Japan, 2005, [PDF]
• Digitally Augmented Collectibles, M. Lampe, C. Metzger, E. Fleisch, and O. Zweifel, UIST2005, Seattle, WA, USA, 2005, [PDF]
• FreeDigiter: A Contact-Free Device for Gesture Control, C. Metzger, M. Anderson, and T. Starner, International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC04), Arlington, VA, Oct 31-Nov3, 2004, [PDF]

Patents

• Stocking System and Method for Managing Stocking, E. Fleisch, C. Hierold, K. Hildenbrand, B. Beckenbauer, C. Metzger. US Patent Application 10/592,413.
• FreeDigiter- A Contact-Free Device for Gesture Control, T. Starner and C. Metzger. Provisional patent filed June, 2004.

Demos

• Digitally Augmented Collectibles, C. Metzger, M. Lampe, E. Fleisch, and O. Zweifel, Ubicomp2005, Tokyo, Japan, 2005, [PDF]

Awards

• ETH Medal, highest honors for a dissertation, 2008.