University

Universiteit Twente

2Projects

1As lead

1As partner

Projects

As lead organization

Projects where Universiteit Twente is the lead organization.

Responsible Immersive Support for Firefighter Retreat under Unreliable Spatial and Communication Information

Firefighter retreat takes place under extreme time pressure, degraded visibility, and high cognitive load, making reliable decision support both critical and difficult. Although immersive systems are increasingly considered for operational support in emergency response, the reliability of underlying spatial and communication information cannot be guaranteed in real incidents. Wireless communication may degrade intermittently, and inertial positioning may continue to provide estimates despite accumulating drift, without clear indications of reduced accuracy. When such information is presented through immersive interfaces, it risks being interpreted as more reliable than it actually is. This project investigates how immersive systems can support firefighter retreat when spatial and coordination-related information is unreliable, incomplete, or degrading. Rather than improving sensing accuracy, the research focuses on interaction-level design: how uncertainty, degradation, and limits of reliability should be represented so that immersive cues support decision-making without increasing cognitive load or inducing false confidence. The project treats undesired effects, such as over-reliance or misinterpretation, not as user error, but as consequences of design assumptions embedded in immersive experiences. Using firefighter retreat as a safety-critical case, the project follows four work packages. It first characterises realistic retreat scenarios and sensing breakdowns based on professional practice. It then designs immersive visual, auditory, and haptic cues that explicitly communicate uncertainty rather than precision. These cues are evaluated in controlled but realistic retreat scenarios, focusing on decision-making, cognitive load, and trust. Finally, the findings are synthesised into transferable design guidelines for responsible immersive systems. By integrating immersive interaction research with expertise in radio-based wireless sensing and inertial navigation, the project produces empirically grounded insights into when immersive support is beneficial and when it becomes risky. Beyond firefighter operations, the results provide scalable knowledge for the IX sector on responsible uncertainty representation in safety-critical domains such as healthcare, industrial safety, and mobility.

Projects

As consortium partner

Projects where Universiteit Twente participates as a partner.

The Locus Of Fear 7 (TLOF_7)

The Locus of Fear Seven (TLOF_7) is a practice-based, artistic–scientific research project that explores how immersive technologies can open new ways of understanding fear and anxiety-related experiences. By combining Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), eye-tracking, and brainwave measurement (EEG), the project investigates how adaptive visual environments can respond to perceptual and physiological signals in real time. The research is exploratory and non-clinical, focusing on experiential insight and responsible use of emerging technologies. TLOF_7 is a co-creative collaboration between Farah Shretah (immersive experience maker and community-based artist), Prof. Dr. Ysbrand van der Werf (Amsterdam UMC), Dr. Funda Yildirim (University of Twente), and Danny van Zuijlen (creative IX producer, Studio Immersief). The project builds on three years of artistic research, residencies, and public test sessions, during which a central challenge became apparent: immersive media can strongly affect emotional experience, yet creators lack structured ways to observe how these effects unfold and differ across individuals. TLOF_7 responds to this gap by asking whether neural-bio signals can meaningfully shape adaptive immersive experiences. The research unfolds in three phases: establishing a methodological and ethical framework; integrating existing technologies into a modular, research-grade system; and evaluating an immersive prototype with a larger group of participants. Together, these phases generate insight into both technical feasibility and experiential dynamics. Impact goals and results: Rather than delivering a finished product, TLOF_7 generates transferable knowledge for the immersive experience field. Key outcomes include a documented framework for responsible immersive design, a reusable experimental SDK, and empirically grounded insights into adaptive visual experience. These results are shared through workshops, presentations, and mentoring-oriented knowledge exchange within professional IX networks and partner hubs, supporting more reflective, ethical, and imaginative use of immersive technologies in creative and applied contexts.

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