TheÌýiFireÌýprogram connects globally located researchers and 3D systems in the world’s first Artificially Intelligent (AI) immersive environment able to visualise the unpredictable behaviour of extreme wildfires. The 3D systems are networked across a range of platforms using software that enables users to interact with each other by sharing the same 3D setting in real time, no matter their platform. These platforms range from mobile 3D cinemas, 3D virtual production volumes, 3DÌýLEDÌýwalls, 3D head-mounted displays to laptops and tablets, providing interaction for multiple distributed users at any one time. It is underpinned by an AI framework that analyses, learns from and responds to individual and group behaviour in real-time. Collaborators includeÌýUNSWÌýiCinema Centre,ÌýUNSWÌýClimate Change Research Centre, University of Melbourne,ÌýCSIRO/Data61, Australasian Fire & Emergency Service Authority Council,ÌýFire & Rescue NSW and San Jose State University.
iFire Networked Visualisation System, 2024
During 2022ÌýiFireÌýdeveloped a prototype that convertedÌýCSIRO/Data61ÌýSPARKÌýdata into a 3D Environment using theÌýUNITYÌýsoftware engine. In 2023 it is converting this large-scale data along withÌýWRF-SFIREÌýdata using theÌýUNREALÌýsoftware engine and applying it to Australian, North American and Southern European Case Studies.
iFireÌýconsists of an artistic and scientific series of projects, theÌýPenumbraÌýseries comprising the artistic and Umbra its scientific series. Both use the same database of atmospheres, flora, pyro-histories and topographies.ÌýPenumbraÌýexplores the palpable and sensorial qualities of wildfire experiences, whileÌýUmbraÌýinvestigates the dynamic variables of wildfire events. To amplify the evocative viscerality of these encounters,ÌýPenumbraÌýis rendered in monochrome. To underscore its complex pyro-turbulent processes,ÌýUmbraÌýis rendered in color.
While fiery landscapes have traditionally provided a mute artistic backdrop against which the human drama plays out, these scenarios embody the unruly spatial and uncertain temporal turbulence that characterise our global warming epoch. Nature is now no longer mute but an increasingly disruptive protagonist.
iFire Pine Plantation Case Study, 2024
This necessitates a shift from a human-centred monologue to a depiction that embodies this human and terrestrial interaction. Depicting this new landscape demands the modelling of multiple wildfire kinetic and spatial processes, which cannot be understood by human cognition alone. This requires the integration of the speed and scale of AI in establishing patterns and predicting behaviours with the subtlety and adaptability of human perception. This involves an intelligent aesthetic that co-evolves, where the setting learns from human behaviour, independently changing its behaviour in unexpected ways in response to user interaction.
The program allows researchers and first responders to interact with unanticipated wildfire scenarios that operate independently of expectations according to their own dynamics in response to user actions. By generating unforeseen behaviours, the program challenges users to better understand and master the distributed dynamics of wildfire scenarios in a safe virtual environment. Assembling histories and expertise from diverse backgrounds and integrating them into an intelligent database with a library of fire behaviours, management procedures and protocols, it offers evolving life-like encounters that test responder and researcher situational awareness and collaborative decision-making in the face of these extreme events.
The program assembles a repertoire of expertise ranging across AI, computer graphics, creative arts, database architecture, environmental humanities, interaction design, fire management and immersive visualisation. The end-result is a mobile system that can be utilised by research organisations and training centres in-situ. The program is based on the award winning iCASTS safety training simulation system commercialised for the Australian and Chinese mining industry that has trained over 30,000 personnel across six mine locations.
TheÌýiFireÌýprogram is financially supported under the Australian Research Council’s Laureate funding scheme.
- Overview
- Media reports
- Project collaborators and partners
| Ìý | Ìý |
|---|---|
| Executive Director | ARC Laureate Fellow Dennis Del Favero |
| Co-Director | Prof Michael Ostwald |
| Co-Director | ARC Future Fellow Aspro Yang Song |
| Centre Manager | Julie Schultz |
| Office of National Intelligence Post Doc Fellow | Dr Baylee Britts |
| ARC Laureate Post Doc Fellow | Dr Susanne Thurow (Associate Director) |
| ARC Laureate Post Doc Fellow | Dr Carlos Tirado Cortes (Associate Director) |
| ARC Laureate Senior Programmer | Navin Brohier |
| ARC Laureate Programmer | Finn Perry |
| ARC Laureate Programmer | Dylan Shorten |
| ARC Laureate 3D Modeller | Scott Cotterell |
| ARC Laureate PhD | Mario Flores-Gonzales |
| ARC Laureate PhD | Frank Wu |
| CSIRO PhD | Nagida Helsby-Clark |
| ARC Laureate MA | Lara Clemente |
ARCÌýProject Collaborators and Partners: see Project collaborators and partners tab
ARCÌýProject Title:ÌýBurning landscapes: reimagining unpredictable scenarios
Project Funding:ÌýARCÌýFL200100004
Project website:Ìý
2021-2025
Australian Industry Advisory Committee:
- Rohan Scott (ACTÌýEmergency Services Agency)
- Mark Beech (ACTÌýParks & Conservation Service)
- Conor McDonald (AFACÌý– Land Management Group)
- Sandra Lunardi (AFACÌý– Land Management Group)
- Richard Hurley (CSIROÌý/ Data61)
- Mahesh Prakash (CSIRO / Data 61
- Nick McCarthy (CFAÌý– Victoria)
- Brett Wagstaff (CFAÌý– Victoria)
- Jarrod McGrouther (Fire & RescueÌýNSWÌý– Emergency Services Academy)
- John Lavery (Fire & RescueÌýNSWÌý– Emergency Services Academy)
- Matthew Riley (NSWÌýDepartment of Planning, Industry & Environment)
- Stevie Knott (NSWÌýPremeiers Department and Cabinet)
- Greg Penney (F&R NSW)
- Laurence McCoy (RFSÌýNSW)
- Cormac Purcell (Trillium Technologies)
- Josh Hopwood (VICÌýDepartment of Environment, Land, Water & Planning)
- James Brandwood (WA Department of Fire & Emergency Service – Simulation & Exercise Capability Unit)
European Industry Advisory Committee:
- Héctor Alfaro (AndalucÃa Region Forest Fire Service;ÌýAMAYAÌýPublic Agency; AndalucÃa Government)
- Juan Caamaño (Pau Costa Foundation)
- Mariona Boras (Pau Costa Foundation)
- Nuria Prat Guitart (Pau Costa Foundation)
- Sébastien Lahaye (SAFEÌýCluster)
- Fabio Silva (Portuguese Special Civil Protection Force)
Research Committee:
- Kay Worthington (CSIROÌý–ÌýUSA)
- Craig Clements (San José State University,ÌýUSA)
- Adam Kochanski (San José State University,ÌýUSA)
- Ali Tohidi (San José State University,ÌýUSA)
- Kate Giljohann (University of Melbourne – Biodiversity Dynamics Research Group)
- Craig Nitschke (University of Melbourne – Biodiversity Dynamics Research Group)
- Jane Davidson (University of Melbourne – Victorian College of the Arts)
- Steven Sherwood (UNSWÌý–ÌýARCÌýCoE Climate Extremes)
- David Fuchs (UNSWÌý–ÌýARCÌýCoE for Climate Extremes /ÌýNSWÌýDepartment of Planning, Industry & Environment)
- Grant Stevens (UNSWÌý– Arts, Design & Architecture)
- Jason Sharples (UNSWÌý– Canberra)
- Moutassem El Rafei (UNSWÌý– Climate Change Research Centre)
- Maurice Pagnucco (UNSWÌý– Computer Science & Engineering)
- Yang Song (UNSWÌý– Computer Science & Engineering)
- Carol Oliver (UNSWÌý– Science)