The I3S Project promotes the use of Digital Twin and Virtual Reality technologies for new residential solutions

“Knock Knock. It’s open” is the name of the research project born within I3S, which demonstrates how inclusive digital technology can create the right conditions for a gentle management of the insertion of fragile people in new situations.

The inclusion of fragile people in services often generates in their disorientation and great discomfort. Anticipating the experience and guiding it thanks to a virtual reality tool  can decrease stress and disorientation, both in the fragile person and in his family, allowing all those involved to improve the quality of life in the transformation phases.

These are the assumptions on which the idea of the ETS Crescere Insieme Cooperativa Sociale and Il Margine was born, thanks to the support of the I3S Project, intervention line 1 – accompanying digital innovation for new models of sustainability. Thanks to the design of simulation and gaming models, tools were identified that exploited Digital Twin  and Virtual Reality technologies  to simulate the insertion of fragile people – elderly and minors with specific pathologies, such as autism – within new environments, such as nursing homes, communities and accommodation facilities for people with disabilities.

The goal achieved within I3S was to develop a pre-proposal for the development of a  research and innovation project to  be presented on possible funding opportunities dedicated to research and development. But the project went far beyond the writing of the pre-proposal: it was successfully nominated on several calls  and obtained both the funding of the Turin Chamber of Commerce to carry out a joint experimentation with the University of Turin, using the research infrastructure “HST – Human Science & Technologies” on the analysis of human behavior, and the funding from “Digital Cooperation”,  The multi-year project that supports the digitization of Italian cooperative and non-profit enterprises thanks to the contribution of Google.org. Thanks to this funding, the project “Knock Knock. It’s open” was able  to start work, which will end in October 2023.

Compared to the existing panorama and the common application areas, the innovation of  this project is represented by its dynamism, interactivity, immersiveness and customization, maintaining a high degree of accessibility and usability. The goal is to allow people  to live the experience in preview, reproducing details that are central to the person and that “make home” (smells, objects, arrangement of things). It is not simply a matter of reproducing environments, but of understanding objects and spatial aspects significant to the person and bringing them back into the phygital  experience to ensure their presence. The project, in fact, aims to create a link between the starting space and the destination space, with the possibility of acting on the destination space.

If normally the digital twin is the reproduction of a space that is the same for everyone, here it offers  a pushed customization,  starting from the environment of the subject to end up in the target environment, creating a faithful mapping. In addition to the digital twin of the structure, an Artificial Intelligence algorithm will be created  that will be able to measure the emotions of the subjects who try the instrument, thanks to the analysis of speech and facial images.

The experimentation will be carried out in a Day Disabled Training Center for adults with autism spectrum disorders, soon to open in the Municipality of Turin. The vocation of service is an important challenge for the heterogeneity of the behavior of the people who will attend it. The population with autism spectrum disorders represents 6 per thousand of the population (ISTAT). An audience that adds up to about 360,000 people.

What is I3S

The I3S Project promotes digital transformation and the adoption of new business models for the third sector. It avails itself of the contribution of the Turin Chamber of Commerce and is part  of the Tech4Good program of the Torino Social Impact Strategic Plan, which also acts as a director. It is conducted by Piemonte Innova, which also coordinates and enables the network of companies and experts, in collaboration with the Links Foundation. It is designed and implemented in collaboration with the Representative Bodies that adhere to the Committee for Social Entrepreneurship: Confcooperative Piemonte Nord, Legacoop Piemonte and VOL. TO Volunteering Turin.