Call for papers for a thematic session at the ISPRS 2020 / 2021

Digital twins: Vision papers

Organizers: Arzu Çöltekin, Chris Pettit, Sidonie Christophe and Victoria Rautenbach

2021 deadline: 1 February 2021, submit here

2020 Deadline: 3rd of February

As part of the “ISPRS Olympics” (the global international congress that takes place every fourth year) ISPRS2020 in Nice, we are organizing a thematic session on Digital Twins.

With the advent of better functioning and more affordable extended reality displays (virtual, augmented, mixed reality) than before, and real time ‘spatial computing’, we might be at a turning point where the Digital Earth vision from decades ago is closer to becoming a reality. Driven by the same technological developments, the term digital twins gained popularity in recent years.

As a concept, the term ‘digital twin’ appears to be somewhat flexibly used. What is clearly established is that a digital twin of any object must have a visual representation; thus a virtual object must exist  whether it is included in virtual, augmented or mixed reality. Ideally, these virtual objects (digital twins) mimic their physical counterpart in controllable ways (and can impact their physical twins too). Adding big data, IoT, 3D modelling, machine learning and artificial intelligence in the mix, the digital twin concept becomes enticing as it promises a  plethora of very meaningful use cases from manufacturing through surgeries to digital preservation which  may eventually be our ticket to time travel.

Given the rising popularity of the concept (and the term) in recent years, its clear connections to photogrammetry, and obvious links to the concept of Digital Earth; we propose that we hold a theme session on visionary papers. As such we expect statements, commentary and position papers that examine where we are now and what the future directions are.

We welcome a broad range of papers such as, but not limited to, the following;

• critical reflections on the digital twin concept
• discussing the implications of digital twins in real world
adoption (opportunities, threats, ethics, security, privacy)
• discussing their possible societal and cognitive impact in
various domains (education, asset management, city planning,
manufacturing, cultural documentation, crime scene analysis,
entertainment, etc.) and for various user groups (children, older
adults, professionals, etc.)
• proposing methodological procedure(s) for e.g., automating the
creation of digital twins

• identifying gaps in our current practices

• outlining solutions

• presenting real-world case studies

Submission information can be found here:
http://www.isprs2020-nice.com/index.php/participate-submit/

Note that both ISPRS Archives (where the short papers would go) and ISPRS Annals (where the long papers would go) are both open access and are indexed by Scopus (if this matters to your institution). You can submit short or long contributions in this track. Papers will go through the standard review process of the ISPRS. We are looking forward to your submissions.

2021 deadline: 1 February 2021, submit here