|
Digital twins are virtual replicas of small and large-scale physical
objects, buildings, cities, regions and systems, and often incorporate
and visualise large amounts of information gathered or streamed in
real-time from the site by a range of technologies such as sensors and
mobile mapping.
By applying state-of-the-art computer graphics, simulation, virtual
reality and augmented reality, researchers from CSIRO’s Data61 in
collaboration with CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS), CSIRO’s
Information Management and Technology (IM&T) and UNSW’s Expanded
Perception and Interaction Centre (EPICentre)
have designed a digital twin of ASKAP.
With this particular digital twin, users will be able to visualise ASKAP in its
entirety with a virtual or augmented reality app on their smart phone,
a head-mounted display, or a virtual reality system such as
EPICylinder (which can display almost ~120 million pixels in 3D).
In the future, the ASKAP Digital Twin will be able to be used via an online web
platform, similar to the NSW Spatial Digital Twin.
“The project itself pushed the limits of computer graphics techniques,
simulation, and modelling to not only to deliver amazingly realistic
replicas of the Australian landscape, but also enable the realistic
positioning of the galaxies and celestial objects ASKAP is studying,”
explains Dr Tomasz Bednarz, Team Leader of the Visual Analytics Group
at Data61 and Epicentre’s director.
“The user can setup a time to the hour, say 45 years from now, and the
ASKAP digital twin will display an accurate visualisation of how the
sky will look at that exact moment, based on current knowledge.”
|
