If you are familiar with data-hiding challenges, you probably know already Andreas Westfeld (Andreas has gloriously participated in the two BOWS challenges). Back from his holidays, the BOSSTeam interviewed him.

BOSS-Team: Hello Andreas, most of our readers have already heard of you, but please tell us what you do when you’re not BOSSING?

Andreas: Being a full-time researcher in the past, I am also a lecturer on IT security and IT law today. My research area drifted from information hiding to more generally the technical aspects of data privacy as well as the legal and political issues surrounding it.

BOSS-Team: How have you heard of the challenge?

Andreas: There were rumours about this challenge already during BOWS-2. I think I heard of it during a conference in

Princeton (MMSec09).

BOSS-Team:  Was it difficult to reach the Hall of Fame?

Andreas: Well, it took more than one submission until I created my own training set. I know that you have fixed this issue recently.

BOSS-Team: Do you consider BOSS as a leisure? as a coffee break? a full-time work? a passion? something else?

Andreas: A kind of get-together once a week and - of course - fun.

BOSS-Team: In your opinion, what will be the best score the 15th of december?

Andreas: 79 % with the given test set.

BOSS-Team: What kind of prize would you like to get if you win the contest (except for the already existing ones)?

Andreas: I have read that the name Hugo literally means "mind" or "thinking spirit". This could suggest a mechanical puzzle as a

trophy.

BOSS-Team: How are you going to call the feature set that you are currently using (if you're using a new one)?

Andreas: "Les Misérables" :-)

BOSS-Team: Why do you want to hurt Hugo so badly?

Andreas: I believe he is immortal, but I am not convinced. My expected 79 % are below Hugo's pain threshold. (13 KB of payload per image is a lot.)

BOSS-Team: We also really wish a long life to Hugo, the guy is tough but has also probably few weaknesses. Thanks for your participation Andreas!