Digital twins are virtual representations of real-world products, systems, or processes, enabling simulation, integration, testing, monitoring, training and maintenance. They play a pivotal role in optimizing complex systems across a wide range of domains, from industrial manufacturing and energy to environmental monitoring and healthcare.
Interacting with a Digital Twin (DT) of a structure—such as a building—typically involves four entities: the user; a large, heterogeneous set of data; a physical referent (PR), which may refer to the actual structure or a physical model; and a digital replica (DR), such as a two-dimensional map or a three-dimensional model.
Situated visualization has been shown to enhance the understanding and analysis of data. Within the context of DTs, interaction with situated visualization may occur in close proximity to either the physical or digital representation of the structure. However, managing multiple workspaces concurrently can be cumbersome and cognitively demanding, potentially negatively impacting user efficiency.
The objective of this PhD is to investigate how transitions between the physical referent (PR) and the digital replica (DR) of a Digital Twin can be supported to enhance interaction with Digital Twins (DTs).
This work will concentrate on the design and evaluation of interaction techniques that:
- Facilitate and assist the migration of data layouts between the physical referent (PR) and digital replica (DR) of a Digital Twin;
- Enable access to and utilization of the workspace—defined during interaction with the DR (e.g., window arrangements, data-referent links, input modalities)—in the proximity of the PR, and vice versa;
- Address and leverage visual occlusions caused by physical objects or digital clutter to improve user experience and data accessibility.
The contributions of this research will be extensively evaluated through experimental studies applied to a range of use cases. Collaborating partners are actively engaged in several Digital Twin projects, including supervising a production hall, controlling an energy management system of a building or a plant and monitoring geological evolutions.
These partners also have extensive experience with physical models representing districts or buildings and with the use of "Fischertechnik" devices. Such devices offer a promising platform for developing robust and compelling prototypes, thereby supporting the practical validation of proposed interaction techniques.
The PhD candidate will be co-supervised by Emmanuel Dubois and Marcos Serrano - University of Toulouse, Cédric Fleury - IMT Brest and Louis-Pierre Bergé - CeaTech Occitanie.
The PhD student will be hosted in Toulouse within the Elipse group (www.irit.fr/ELIPSE/site/) at the IRIT lab. Recents works are illustrated with video on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/elipseIRIT).
