Jan
6, 2025
Visualizing Data-Spaces in Disasters With the Help of XR
Julius von Willich successfully defended his doctoral thesis
In crises and disasters, it is crucial to gain an overview of a large amount of data. In his dissertation, Julius von Willich looked at how this can be achieved with the help of Extended Reality (XR). On December 16, the emergenCITY scientist successfully defended his thesis, which was written in the Telecooperation Lab at TU Darmstadt, under the title “Mission-Critical Interaction for Large Data-Spaces Leveraging Extended Reality”.
Sensors play a major role in the prevention of and during disasters. For example, they measure important parameters for floods, forest fires or drought risk. “With the ever-increasing ubiquity of sensors, the data generated by modern society is becoming increasingly difficult to manage”, Julius von Willich says. So-called large data spaces are emerging. In order to make important decisions during disasters, people in responsibility must be able to access this information effortlessly in large data spaces. “Thus, frictionless and intuitive interfaces are essential when it comes to mission-critical interactions”, the scientist adds. With their spatial display technology, XRs would offer ideal conditions for visualizing data-spaces.
In his dissertation, he looked at the necessary interaction concepts and the associated challenges. For example, how can a person at a Smart City Control Center who is currently analyzing data using Virtual Reality communicate with a person who brings in new situation information from outside? How can people best move around virtually in XR? How can users effortlessly switch from one virtual reality to another?
Julius von Willich received a fancy doctor's hat after successfully defending his thesis.
“The dissertation was an exhausting but also exciting experience. The collaboration within emergenCITY provided me with interesting insights into various sub-areas and brought me closer to their diverse perspectives on crises”, Julius von Willich says.
The doctoral thesis was assessed by Max Mühlhäuser from the Department of Computer Science and Professor Florian Alt from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Professors Christian Reuter (Science and Technology for Peace and Security) and Jan Gugenheimer (Human-Computer Interaction) were members of the examination committee. Julius von Willich will subsequently pursue new paths in industry.
Further information
Video about the emergenCITY project City MoVIE, in which Julius von Willich participated.
