Kevin Hutchinson

Digital Twins of the Ocean are increasingly adopted for Maritime Spatial Planning, yet most current implementations rely on 2D visualizations with limited interactive stakeholder engagement. The authors present Immersive Ocean, a VR-capable Virtual Twin platform developed under the EU-ILIAD initiative that procedurally generates 3D environments from standardized European geospatial data. The authors report system performance testing and a user experience study with 31 participants across three hardware configurations. Performance testing confirmed stable real-time rendering in both PC and VR. Comparative statistical analysis revealed that hardware configuration significantly affects feedback responsiveness and perceived realism, while core usability and procedural generation quality remained robust across configurations. These findings inform deployment strategies for environmental decision-support in Maritime Spatial Planning contexts. Immersive Ocean is currently undergoing piloting with real-world stakeholders, including applications in offshore wind planning scenarios, multi-use of space, and turbidity scenarios.

Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) are increasingly used in Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), yet most remain limited to 2D representations and offer minimal stakeholder interactivity. These limitations reduce their effectiveness in capturing complex socio-ecological-technical dynamics and supporting exploratory what-if scenario planning in a 3D or 4D ocean space. This paper presents Immersive Ocean, a novel Virtual Twin platform developed within EU-ILIAD DTO initiative. Built with game engine and VR technologies, it supports procedural 3D world generation and interactive exploration in both desktop and immersive VR modes. Systematic performance validation demonstrated stable frame rates across both PC and VR platforms. Initial user evaluations (n=22) report high usability and engagement but also suggest areas for improvement in UI clarity and ecological model representation. These initial findings position Immersive Ocean as a promising Virtual Twin solution for an immersive, interactive, and data-integrated approach to MSP and ocean governance. Immersive Ocean is now being piloted with stakeholders in real-world MSP scenarios, including offshore wind farm planning.

.Post-partum hemorrhaging is a medical emergency that occurs during childbirth and, in extreme cases, can be life-threatening. It is the number one cause of maternal mortality worldwide. High-quality training of medical staff can contribute to early diagnosis and work towards preventing escalation towards more serious cases. Healthcare education uses manikin-based simulators to train obstetricians for various childbirth scenarios before training on real patients. However, these medical simulators lack certain key features portraying important symptoms and are incapable of communicating with the trainees. The authors present a digital embodiment agent that can improve the current state of the art by providing a specification of the requirements as well as an extensive design and development approach. This digital embodiment allows educators to respond and role-play as the patient in real time and can easily be integrated with existing training procedures. This research was performed in collaboration with medical experts, making a new contribution to medical training by bringing digital humans and the representation of affective interfaces to the field of healthcare.