Overview
This preliminary project, together with Nomoko AG, explores the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) combined with Nomoko's Digital Twins for a better participatory planning process in urban & community development. The basis of this idea is the acknowledgement that AR applications are potentially capable of improving spatial understanding and creating immersive experiences that can be shared in real time and overlaid on reality in the field. The practice-oriented development and research takes place on the basis of a practical example in Unterägeri ZG, where the local center with various residential and commercial buildings as well as public squares will be improved in the future.
Nomoko has created a photogrammetric 3D model of the community center, a so-called digital twin, as part of the planning work. The model is based on high-resolution photos that Nomoko took with camera drones. The HSLU team is exploring the collaborative interface potential of Nomoko's digital twins with location-based and mobile AR applications. The idea is to be able to view different construction methods and typologies on site in AR linked with information and representations from the digital twin. Likewise, in the interactive AR environment, viewers can participatively "build" their own buildings in a modular way to independently design and discuss different variants.
So far, the two areas of digital twins and augmented reality have been developed and researched in the context of urban planning processes primarily independently and in isolation from each other. In addition, previous methods of participatory planning processes in urban and community development have mostly relied either on on-site and analog processes, or on online processes that enable participation independent of location and time. Integrated systems, on the other hand, are used less frequently. The bundling of the expertise of Nomoko (digital twins) and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (AR) makes it possible to evaluate the interface of these two emerging technologies in a first practice-oriented feasibility study.
