Building an immersive digital twin of the BDFI building

BDFI will be developing this model of the building, so this example is simply provided to help with thinking/planning ahead of the sandpit day.

The problem area

We are living through a climate crisis where numerous complex questions are asked of, for example, the best ways to evidence climate change and the most effective ways to address key aspects of the crisis. A possible way forward would be to experiment with immersive technology like the Reality Emulator to explore how we could bring the climate crisis to life for key audiences (citizens, policy makers, industry) and provide a basis for making decisions. To achieve this, we could take the BDFI building (the Sheds) as our example and create an immersive model that would show, for example, how much energy is produced (by solar panels on the roof) and consumed (by the facilities), what difference is made by battery technologies and/or heat pumps. An immersive experience could allow people to ‘walk through’ a digital rendition of the building and engage with these sustainability technologies. Research could focus on collecting data on the effectiveness of this experience in raising awareness of climate issues or enabling key decisions to be made.

What would be required

Data from the various parts of the building would need to be drawn together into a model (solar, battery, energy consumption, etc). This might require support from a data scientist. An immersive experience would then be designed that would enable audiences to engage with this underlying data (this might need an immersive content creator). Research would need to collect data on user experience (this might require a social scientist).

What could be achieved

The funding is available to produce a neatly bounded study that would be conducted in a short period of time. This could act as a pilot study for a larger funding bid. We are not expecting these initial projects to build something large scale in the first instance, but this should provide an opportunity to get familiarity working with the BDFI facilities and open up opportunities for testing what can be done.