Interactive digital twins enabling responsible extended reality applications

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Urban Planning
• Extended Reality

Background:

• Digital twins (DTs) are emerging as powerful tools for simulating real-world objects and processes.
• Current applications and creation methodologies for DTs are still in their early stages.
• The DIDYMOS-XR project aims to advance DT technology for large-scale, long-term Extended Reality (XR) applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate use cases for city-wide digital twins in planning, maintenance, and tourism.
• To present innovative solutions for the creation, simulation, and manipulation of DTs.
• To address and mitigate ethical and privacy challenges associated with digital twin systems.

Main Methods:

• Development of advanced techniques for 3D scene reconstruction, data enhancement, and compression.
• Implementation of sensor fusion, localization, rendering, and scene understanding for DTs.
• Demonstration of use cases in urban environments (Germany, Spain) and manufacturing settings.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive framework for creating semantically rich, scalable, and interactive digital twins.
• Cutting-edge solutions in DT creation, simulation, and manipulation.
• Evaluation of DT applications in city planning, maintenance, tourism, and industrial optimization.

Conclusions:

• Digital twins offer significant potential for diverse applications, from urban development to industrial processes.
• The DIDYMOS-XR project provides a robust framework and advanced techniques for realizing the potential of digital twins.
• Addressing ethical and privacy concerns is crucial for the responsible deployment of digital twin technology.