The United Nations estimates that currently, 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. These parts of our planet are hubs of human ingenuity and efficiency integral to regional economies, but are also responsible for much of earth’s environmental degradation and can be centres for unrest and crime.

With the UN predicting that the proportion of people living in urban areas will account for 66% of human habitation by 2020, the opportunities these places present will grow, and the challenges they pose will only loom larger, as this decade draws to its close. In an attempt to solve the problems inherent to urban life, policy makers are turning to ‘smart cities’, which are harnessing digital and telecommunication technologies for the benefit of inhabitants and businesses.

In the North of England the advantages of smart cities are being utilised to provide the economic growth, infrastructure improvements, emission reductions and crime prevention required to deliver the Government’s ambitious Northern Powerhouse.

The potential of smart cities was the subject of a high-level conference entitled ‘The Future of Smart Cities’ #CitieSmart led by THINKlab on the 19th April at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.

Delegates – full to capacity

The conference was chaired by Prof. Terrence Fernando, Director of THINKlab, who organised the conference with the UoS standalone training company Salford Professional Development, explains: “Smart cities of the future should deploy the power of modern digital technologies to create safer, cleaner and economically prosperous cities for citizens to have an enjoyable quality of life without damaging the environment.

“In this conference, we explored new partnership models, the role of technologies and smart applications to realise this vision.”

The conference was opened by Prof. Hisham Elkadi, Dean of the School of the Built Environment.  The one-day gathering was attended by 300+ delegates from both UK and International Industry and academic organisation and featured speakers from SmarterUK, Clicks and Links, Arup, Cisco Systems, OCF, Siemens, Transport for Greater Manchester, the UHSM Academy and Manchester City Council.

Keynote Speaker Dan Byles SmarterUK

The conferences comprised of two keynote speakers, seven main presentations, eight seminars, exhibitions and networking sessions. During the conference, speakers presented the lessons learnt from other smart city projects, technical challenges in developing smart cities as well as how smart cities could help in providing efficient health & social care, energy and transport. There was a common agreement that the smart city should be citizen centric and develop as open system allowing SMEs to develop innovative solutions.

Keynote Speaker Gerben Kijne, Clicks & Links

View full programme of speakers at:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future-of-smart-cities-conference-tickets-21491192736

Today Network Rail services carry 50 per cent more passengers than ten years ago, equating to about four million people a day. Passenger numbers have increased at a fast pace and are expected to continue to rise. With demand increasing it is essential to carry out improvements and modernisations with smarter ways of working to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations, without causing major disruption to passengers. Much care needs to be taken in designing and planning major track renewal programmes to keep the disruption to a minimum. One way of minimising such disruption is to use virtual simulation technologies to go through the entire construction process and eliminate any design faults, and check the availability of machines and the validity of the construction sequence while ensuring the health and safety aspects of the workers.

Network Rail Laser Data Mapper using RILA

Inspired by the virtual simulation and visualisation technology platforms developed by the THINKlab as a part of the EPSRC-funded FIRM project, Network Rail approached the THINKlab team to create a range of real world 3D and 4D simulation modules which can be used to support track renewal programmes. This work included:

• Design Review Module: To allow teams to collectively explore the emerging designs to avoid any design faults.
• 4D Simulation Module: To allow the planners to translate 2D schedules into an interactive animation sequence to illustrate deconstruction & construction operations within a given site in 3D.
• Laser Data Mapper Module: To allow the positioning of laser scanned track data onto a 3D GIS environment and make accurate measurements to support operation and maintenance.

This work has now been used to support four live track renewal programmes including the West Coast Main Line, Watford Junction, Colton Crossover and Wichnor Crossover.

It has been a great opportunity for the THINKlab team to apply our modelling and visualisation skills in supporting a complex project such as track renewal programmes. This complex simulation environment has been designed and delivered to the Network Rail team within a short period of time and it has now been used to simulate four sites so far.

These modules have replaced the previous planning meetings around a simple whiteboard and now provide an interactive system that allows the teams to navigate the schedules in real time moving between tasks seamlessly in order to brief teams, plan labour, materials and equipment requirements, and to visualise potential scheduling issues.

“Senior management have realised the potential for the platform in supporting future track renewal programmes and as a result Network Rail have deployed the simulation environment developed by THINKlab to ten major track renewal programmes across the UK. Through this implementation we hope to deploy this platform as key catalyst to introduce an innovative way of planning future track renewal programmes.”
Nick Millington, Project Director, Network Rail

“The models have assisted the delivery team in the preparation of core works and also have considerable health and safety benefits; they have been well received by all the parties utilising the outputs.”
Basharat Mahfooz, Scheme Project Manager, Network Rail

“Network Rail, working in collaboration with Fugro Raildata and Salford University THINKlab have developed 4D geospatially-accurate modelling designs for today, building a better railway for a better Britain.”
Roy Hickman, Network Rail

“The 4D modelling helped us with the staging of our works, so as to reduce any clashes before we go on site. Without it, we would have incurred additional cost and time in the delivery of the works! It has become an integral tool in the way we deliver railway jobs.”
Ameet Masania, Network Rail

For more details of our services please email t.fernando@salford.ac.uk

Manchester City Council has been working with with THINKlab & Mirrorworld Technologies Ltd exploring how advanced data visualisation technologies could be used to improve the services to Troubled Families (TF) in the City.

The City Council wished to understand the wider research expertise within the University of Salford that may also provide additional insight and intelligence into the Troubled Families domain. The City Council focused on how to better understand the connections between people and place and place and people across its City footprint.

THINKlab/Mirrorworld developed a Manchester City Council prototype and pilot that comprised a number of elements:

• Scenario Planning Workshop engaging MCC staff with the ThinkLab/Mirrorworld team to determine TF user requirements, defining a range of scenarios to illustrate how the Platform may be used to represent the epidemiology of troubled families in the City, identifying key sample datasets etc.
• Planning Workshop with the Troubled Families Steering Group The event served to introduce the Partnership at an early stage in the development of the prototype platform. It provided valuable feedback on partner priorities and stimulated discussion around how this approach – improving the evidence base through integration and visualisation of partner data – may improve the commissioning process and support all partners in working differently to achieve better outcomes for troubled families in the City
• Joint MCC/Faculty Workshop – this captured a wider multi-disciplinary perspective drawing expertise from a number of the University’s faculties. Key questions explored included underlying drivers which led families to becoming troubled, how can a person affect a place and a place affect a person, and how can we improve our insight and understanding of troubled families. Feedback from the workshop directly contributed to shaping the data mining element of the prototype development and identified a number of research areas linked to TF priorities.
• Technical Development of the MCC Platform – comprising technical and interface design and associated software engineering to create the prototype platform. All design aspects were informed by the above workshops and utilised sample data from the City Councils iBase system and other social data sources. An interactive platform capable of generate new scenarios from selected datasets to show spatial connections & distribution patterns of TF behaviour in comparison with other key characteristics e.g. incidence and distribution of offending behaviour within TF, showing linkages between incidents of crime & the families who may be involved with each crime incident.

In parallel with the above developments MCC and University of Salford opened up discussions on how best to enable arrangements to support a longer term partnership relationship to align the research capability of University faculties to MCC strategic priorities, opening up new research and collaboration opportunities for both organisations.

Feedback from MCC & their public sector partners including the Manchester Investment Board (MIB) to the TF prototype was very positive & highlighted other policy domains where the technology could potentially add value, including housing, community safety & social cohesion. The wider strategic partnership between Manchester CC & the University of Salford which was established during the prototyping phase has continued to develop.

If your interested in learning more about how advanced data visualisation technolgies can assist your business please contact us so we can discuss your challenges.

Troubled Families Prototype Solution

All of the team here at THINKlab would like to wish all our friends, colleagues and customers a Merry Christmas and a successful New Year!

We hope you enjoy the festivities and we look forward to working with you all again in 2016!

THINKlab have developed a virtual reality experience that allows users to ‘visit’ Chernobyl to see and learn about the animals who live in the radioactive ‘exclusion zone’ in Ukraine and Belarus.

‘Virtual Chernobyl’ helps communicate findings from an ongoing programme of research on the wildlife of Chernobyl, which is being led by Dr Mike Wood from the University of Salford.

Chernobyl has been a no-go area since the nuclear disaster nearly 30 years ago yet many animals from bears and wolves, to elk and wild boar have made it their home and a recent study suggests that large mammal populations in the Zone have increased significantly since the accident.

Dr Wood, Prof Nick Beresford (NERC-CEH) and Prof Andy Miah (Salford) secured funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the University of Salford for an exciting project that capitalises on the University of Salford’s scientific, technical and communication expertise. This public engagement project, “Alienated Life? The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 30 Years on”, makes the Chernobyl wildlife research accessible to everyone and ‘Virtual Chernobyl’ is a core component of that engagement activity.

“Advances in photographic and acoustic recording techniques mean we are now able to estimate the number of animals by observing them directly rather than looking at their tracks. We have embarked on a project using motion-activated cameras and sound recorders to investigate wildlife in different areas of the exclusion zone and evaluate the influence of radiation on animal populations.  Through ‘Virtual Chernobyl’ people are able to get a real sense of the truly unique Chernobyl environment, from which people have been excluded for nearly 30 years.” Dr. Mike Wood

The Chernobyl wildlife research has been featured on the BBC and Channel 4 News, with ‘Virtual Chernobyl’ being showcased at the Manchester Science Festival, Museum of Science & Industry, various scientific meetings and at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.  ‘Virtual Chernobyl’ has also been used to support research-led undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at Salford.

Watch a video of the interface here

Virtual Chernobyl at Manchester Science Festival 2015

A Brown Bear in Virtual Chernobyl

The Virtual Chernobyl interface

New paper produced by THINKlab’s Design4energy (D4E) project team and Fraunhofer IAO presents the approach used in the D4E project to design learning modules for both students and professionals within the 3D on-line gaming environment to learn ‘how to design Green Buildings’.

Paper gaming environment for learning how to design green buildings

Take a look at THINKlab’s new video demonstrating how our expertise in developing bespoke visualisation and software solutions in areas such as 3D visualisation, city modelling, virtual prototyping, business data analytics and interactive training environments can add value to your business and improve audience engagement.

As part of the European research project CROSS DRIVE, our researchers at THINKlab are working with Thales Alenia Space Italia and the German Aerospace Centre to develop a collaborative telepresence workspace for space scientists.

The vision is to combine advanced 3D visualisation techniques and interactive tools in conjunction with immersive virtual telepresence. The main aim is to give scientists and engineers the impression of being teleported to the surface of Mars, and to allow them to stand together on a planetary surface surrounded by all their information and tools.

You can read more about these developments in the published papers linked below:

A Collaborative Workspace Architecture for Strengthening Collaboration among Space Scientists

Collaborative Telepresence Workspaces for Space Operation and Science

THINKlab’s commercial team, working primarily with Professor Garry Crawford in Sociology at University of Salford, have produced an innovative virtual environment of Pendleton, which allows users to explore this historic and important area’s past, present and future.

An interactive visualisation was produced allowing users to explore Pendleton Park and its surroundings in real time. The visualisation allows users to switch between the present day and planned future park design (provided by Virtual Planit), and with a flick of a button, be transported back to one of Pendleton’s areas of historical interest, the old cattle market, complete with cows, sheep, pigs and chickens. The model can be deployed on various platforms and is able to make use of Oculus Rift HMD technology allowing users to be immersed within the virtual world. The model is multi-purpose allowing for it to be used for urban planning, education, heritage and numerous other areas of user-engagement.

Paul Longshaw, Programme Director at Salford City Council highlights that

“This Pendleton Time machine enhances our existing community engagement methods and has the potential to really push the sectors regeneration approach into new creative settings. Existing ideas and future plans for the area now have the potential to be flexed and it gives the ability to reach out to people in new digital ways”  

For more information visit http://www.salford.gov.uk/creatinganewpendleton.htm

Virtual Pendleton

Past – Virtual recreation of Pendleton’s Cattle Market

Present – Virtual Pendleton present day

Future – Pendleton Park proposed new design

On Thursday 24th June THINKlab hosted a talk from Dr Diego Martinez Plasencia, Research Associate in Human-Computer Interaction, 3D Graphics at University of Bristol.

His presentation entitled ‘Non-Solid diffusers: Bringing CVE’s to reality’ explored formats for non intrusive virtual reality.

Back  in  1965,  Ivan  Sutherland  proposed  his  vision  of  the  Ultimate  Display .  Such  display  would  create  virtual objects  that  were  totally  undistinguishable  from  their  real  counterparts  (“the handcuffs  displayed  […]  would  be confining,  and  a  bullet  […]  would  be  fatal”).  This  vision  was  the  seed  for  research  in  the  fields  of  3D  displays, Virtual  Reality  (VR)  and  Augmented  Reality  (AR).  Recent  market  analyses  foresee  a  bright future  for  these technologies, with companies like Samsung or Sony competing for a dominating position on this rising market.

This  comes  after  years  of  improvement  in  most  technical  aspects  of  VR.  3D  sensing  of  user’s  movements  and interactions no longer require data-gloves or sensors (e.g. Kinect, Leap), and solutions have been proposed to produce  mid-air  tactile  feedback  on  the  user’s  bare  hands.  Although  similar  advances  (i.e.  costs,  quality)  have occurred for Head Mounted Devices (HMDs), they still cover user’s faces encumbering  other  daily  tasks  (e.g.  office  work) and preventing eye-contact and social interaction with  other  people  (e.g.  co-workers). Actually,  social  and  aesthetic  factors  are considered the major risks to the eventual user’s acceptance and success of VR technology. This enforced isolation also contrasts with the emerging concept of the Internet of Things (IoT). While this concept aims to create an inter-connected world where technology seamlessly pledges and anticipates our needs, VR remains stuck in the same formats proposed 50 years ago.

In this talk Dr Diego Martinez Plasencia summarize his efforts during the last years to come up with formats for non intrusive VR.  He describe several systems created to support 3D interaction and collaboration in contexts of use where traditional VR formats fail to apply (e.g. face to face interaction, meetings, mobile contexts) and described the potential of non-solid diffuser displays to achieve this vision.