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糖心logo Centre for Interactive Cinema Research

iFire

AI fire visualisation system

罢丑别听iFire聽program connects globally located researchers and 3D immersive systems in the world鈥檚 first AI environment able to visualise interaction with unpredictable extreme fire scenarios such as those of the Australian Black Summer 2029/2020 and Los Angeles 2025. The 3D systems are networked across a range of platforms (Fig. 1) using software that enables users to interact with the fire ground by sharing the same 3D setting in real time, no matter their smart screen platform. The platforms range from mobile 3D cinemas, 3D virtual production volumes, 3D聽LED聽walls, 3D head-mounted displays to 2D 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. It provides specific applications for the four distinct types of end users: researchers, creatives, responders and residents. Collaborators include聽鲍狈厂奥听iCinema Research Centre,聽鲍狈厂奥听Climate Change Research Centre, University of Melbourne Virtual Production Lab, the ABC, AFAC (Australasian Fire & Emergency Service Authorities Council),聽CSIRO/Data61, D眉sseldorf/Cologne Open, Fire and Rescue NSW and Hawkesbury City Council.
Fig 1 iFire Networked Visualisation System.2025

iFire聽translates mathematical fire simulation of actual incidents into immersive cinematic scenarios using the film industry standard聽UNREAL聽real-time creative tool. This core artistic and scientific application is developed for use by creatives, responders and residents.

It is currently explored through three case studies using this approach, comprising: an Australian pine plantation fire (Fig. 2, 3), an Australian grassland fire (Fig. 4, 5) and a US mountain forest fire (Fig. 6, 7).

iFire: Pine Plantation Case 糖心logo. 2025

Case 糖心logo One:聽Pine Plantation Fire
Fig. 2 CSIRO. Pine Plantation Fire. SPARK Simulation. 2023
Fig. 3 糖心logo. Pine Plantation Fire. UNREAL Visualisation. 2025

Case 糖心logo Two:聽Grassland Fire
Fig 4 CSIRO. Grasslands Fire. SPARK Simulation. 2023
Fig. 5 糖心logo. Grasslands Fire. UNREAL Visualisation. 2025

Case 糖心logo Three:聽Mountain Forest Fire
Fig. 6 糖心logo. Bridger Foothills Fire.WRF-SFIRE Simulation. 2023
Fig. 7 糖心logo. Bridger Foothills Fire. UNREAL Visualisation. 2025

The case studies are translated into a range of applications for emergency broadcast for smart phones (Fig. 8), responder training for cinematic theatres (Fig. 9) and creative visualisations for immersive exhibitions (Fig. 10).
Fig. 8 Emergency Broadcast. ABC Australia. 2025
Fig. 9 Responder Training. Fire and Rescue NSW. 2025
Fig. 10 Creative Visualisation: ISEA. 2024

These applications are focused on providing diverse audiences and stakeholders the immersive experience and practical understanding of unpredictable extreme fires that are now becoming increasingly intense and frequent. 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 fire behaviours with the subtlety and adaptability of human perception. This involves an intelligent aesthetic that evolves and grows by learning from human behaviour.

The program allows researchers and stakeholders to interact with unanticipated fire scenarios that operate independently of user expectations. By generating unforeseen behaviours, the program enables users to better understand and master the distributed dynamics of fire scenarios in a safe virtual environment. Assembling histories and expertise from diverse backgrounds, it integrates them into an intelligent database with a library of fire behaviours, management procedures and protocols. By offering dynamic life-like encounters where users can rehearse their response, it enhances resident, responder, creative and researcher risk perception, situational awareness and collaborative decision making.

The program assembles a repertoire of expertise ranging across AI, computer graphics, creative arts, database architecture, interaction design, fire management and immersive visualisation. The end result is a visualisation eco-system that can be utilised by research labs, creative enterprises, emergency services and resident organisations in situ. The program is based on the award-winning聽iCASTS聽 safety training simulation system commercialised for the Australian and Chinese mining industry that has trained over 30,000 personnel across six mine locations, reduced injuries by 67% with no fatalities.

References
    • Del Favero, D., M.J. Ostwald, Y. Song, K. Moinuddin & M. Prakash (2025).听Tomorrow鈥檚 Fires. Sydney: ABC. .
    • Del Favero, D., M.J. Ostwald, Y. Song, K. Moinuddin & G. Penney (Sep 3, 2024).听FRNSW Fire Visualisation System. AFAC Conference, Sydney.
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, C. Green & K. Moinuddin (2024).听iFire: Penumbra II. ISEA, Brisbane.听
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, C. Green & K. Moinuddin (2023).听iFire: Penumbra I.听SIGGRAPH, Sydney
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, C. Green & K. Moinuddin (2023).听iFire: Penumbra I.听Viscera, Cavallerizza, Turin.
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, M. Ostwald & U. Frohne聽(eds) (2024).听Climate Disaster Preparedness: Reimagining Extreme Events Through Art and Technology. Cham:聽Springer. DOI:聽.
    • Thurow, S., D. Del Favero, J.J. Sharples, K. Moinuddin & C. Green (2025, forthcoming, in print). 鈥淎pplying an Immersive Intelligent Aesthetic to Wildfire Visualisation: Exploring Terrestrial Agency,鈥 in S. Parry, A. Senior & P. Johnson (eds),聽The Routledge Companion to Performance and Science. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
    • Ostwald, M., D. Del Favero and G. Drummond (2025 鈥 forthcoming, in print).听&辩耻辞迟;iFire: A Visualisation Environment for Training First Responders and Emergency Commanders," in N. Gu and B. Thomas (eds),聽Immersive Virtual Environments in Design and Collaboration (pp. tbc). CRC Press. (accepted 12 Nov 2024)
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, M. Pagnucco & U. Frohne (2024).听鈥淩eimagining Extreme Event Scenarios: The Aesthetic Visualisation of Climate Uncertainty to Enhance Preparedness,鈥 in聽D. Del Favero, S. Thurow, M.J. Ostwald & U. Frohne聽(eds),聽Climate Disaster Preparedness Reimagining Extreme Events through Art and Technology聽(pp. 7-24). 聽Cham: Springer.听.
    • Brits, B., Y.听聽Song & C. Tirado Cortes (2024).听鈥淚mmersive Visualisation Systems as Alignment Strategies for Extreme Event Scenarios,鈥 in聽D. Del Favero, S. Thurow, M.J. Ostwald & U. Frohne聽(eds),聽Climate Disaster Preparedness Reimagining Extreme Events through Art and Technology聽(pp. 65-76). 聽Cham: Springer.听.
    • Thurow, S., H. Grehan & M. Pagnucco (2024).听鈥淩epresenting the Climate Crisis: Aesthetic Framings in Contemporary Performing and Visual Arts,鈥 in聽D. Del Favero, S. Thurow, M.J. Ostwald & U. Frohne聽(eds),聽Climate Disaster Preparedness Reimagining Extreme Events through Art and Technology(pp. 107-20). 聽Cham: Springer.听.
    • Thurow, S. (2025, forthcoming, in print). 鈥淩eframing Terrestrial Agency through Digitally Augmented Aesthetics across Theatre and Installation Art,鈥澛Journal of Contemporary Drama in English (JCDE): tbc.
    • Tirado Cortes, C., S. Thurow, A. Ong, J.J. Sharples, T. Bednarz, G. Stevens & D Del Favero聽(2024).听鈥淎nalysis of Wildfire Visualization Systems for Research and Training: Are They Up for the Challenge of the Current State of Wildfires?,鈥澛IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics聽30: 4285-4303.听.
    • Thurow, S., H. Grehan & J. Davidson (2024).听鈥淧erforming Arts and the Climate Emergency: Horizon-Scanning the Futures of Practice and Scholarship,鈥澛Australasian Drama Studies听83:听12-37.
    • Frohne, U.听 (2023).听鈥淣ight Drifts Above the Earth,鈥澛Dennis Del Favero. Viscera聽(Exhibition Catalogue) (28-31.) Turin: Recontemporary.
    • Thurow, S. (2024). 鈥淢ore-Than-Human. Explorations in Performance, New Media and Terrestrial Aesthetics,鈥澛Theatre in the Digital Age 鈥 32nd Annual CDE Conference,聽Department of English @ University of Innsbruck & Tiroler Bildungsinstitut Grillhof 鈥 May 4.
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, U. Frohne, K. Moinuddin, A. Sharma & Y. Song (2023).听鈥淩e-Imagining the Climate Emergency Using AI Visualisation,鈥 presented at聽RE:SOURCE 鈥 10th聽International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science & Technology,聽Venice Centre for Digital & Public Humanities, Universit脿 Ca鈥橣oscari Venice, Italy,聽13-16 September.听
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, A. Blackler & A. Asadipour (2023).听鈥淭errestrial Aesthetics. Transforming the Understanding of and Engagement with Extreme Events,鈥 presented at聽Arts and Humanities in Digital Transition Conference,聽Institute of Communication, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal,聽6-7 July.
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, K. Moinuddin, C. Green, J.J. Sharples, A. Ong & N. Brohier (2023).听鈥淧enumbra2.0,鈥 in聽ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Art Gallery.听Sydney: ACM. DOI: 10.1145/3610537.3622946.听
    • Thurow, S., D. Del Favero, J.J. Sharples, J. Davidson & G. Stevens (2022).听鈥淰isualizing the Unpredictable Behavior of Wildfire Using an Artificially Intelligent Aesthetic,鈥 in聽P. Alsina, L. Vila, S. Tesconi, J. Soler-Adillon & E. Mor (eds),聽聽Proceedings of the 27th聽International Symposium on Electronic Art聽(696-98). Barcelona: ISEA International. DOI: 10.7238/ISEA2022.Proceedings.

罢丑别听iFire聽program is financially supported under the Australian Research Council鈥檚 Laureate funding scheme.

ARC聽Project Director:聽ARC Laureate Fellow Professor Dennis Del Favero

Project聽ARC聽Project Collaborators and Partners:聽see Project collaborators and partners tab

ARC聽Project Title:聽Burning landscapes: reimagining unpredictable scenarios

Project Funding:听础搁颁听贵尝200100004

2021-2025
Position Name
Executive Director ARC Laureate Fellow Dennis Del Favero
Co-Director Prof. Michael J. Ostwald
Co-Director ARC Future Fellow Aspro Yang Song
Office of National Intelligence Post Doc Fellow Dr Baylee Brits
ARC Laureate Post Doc Fellow Dr Susanne Thurow (Associate Director)
ARC Laureate Post Doc Fellow Renhao Huang (Associate Director)
ARC Laureate Senior Programmer Navin Brohier
ARC Laureate Programmer Nora Perry
ARC Laureate Programmer Dylan Shorten
ARC Laureate 3D Modeller Scott Cotterell
ARC Laureate PhD Mario Flores Gonzalez
ARC Laureate PhD Frank Wu
CSIRO PhD Nagida Helsby-Clark
ARC Laureate MA Lara Clemente
  • Del Favero, D., M.J. Ostwald, Y. Song, K. Moinuddin & M. Prakash (2025).听Tomorrow鈥檚 Fires. Sydney: ABC. 19.01.2025:聽
  • Del Favero, D., M. Ostwald & Y.Song聽(Sep 30, 2024). 鈥淎 New Immersive Cinema is Helping Firefighters to Better Prepare for聽Megafires,鈥澛The Conversation. 13.1.2025:聽
  • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, M. Pagnucco & U. Frohne (Sep 2024). 鈥淭he Aesthetic Visualisation of Climate Uncertainty to Enhance Preparedness,鈥 Creative Matters 6. 13.01.2025:聽
  • Thurow, S., H. Grehan & J. Davidson (Sep 2024). 鈥淐reative Arts and the Climate Emergency:聽 Building Collective and Resilient Futures,鈥澛Creative Matters聽6. 13.01.2025:聽
  • Raso, Y. (31 Jul 2024). "糖心logo, FRNSW partner to develop AI-powered simulation system," FST Media. 15.01.2025:聽
  • Fire and Rescue NSW (29 Jul 2024). "Fire and Rescue NSW partners with the Uni of NSW to develop immersive AI-powered fireground training - Kensington," FRNSW, 15.01.2025:聽
  • Cortes, C. & D. Del Favero (2023). "Deep learning-based wildfire spread聽prediction," 糖心logo Bushfire Research Group. 15.01.2025:聽/content/dam/pdfs/unsw-canberra/bushfire-research-group/bushfire-research-showcase/2024-01-Fire-Behaviour-Prediction-Posters-x-5.pdf
  • Del Favero, D. & S. Cunningham (Jul 2023). 鈥淐ulture and climate: A dangerous gap in policy and practice,鈥澛Australian Academy of the Humanities.org.au, 13.01.2025:聽
  • 糖心logo ADA (2022). "New artificially intelligent visualisation artistically re-imagines wildfires," 糖心logo ADA. 15.01.2025:聽/arts-design-architecture/our-research/research-impact/case-studies/new-artificially-intelligent-visualisation-artistically-re-imagines-wildfires

Australian Industry Advisory Committee

  • Arul Baskaran (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
  • Rohan Scott (ACT聽Emergency Services Agency)
  • Mark Beech (ACT聽Parks & Conservation Service)
  • Conor McDonald (AFAC聽鈥 Land Management Group)
  • Sandra Lunardi (AFAC聽鈥 Land Management Group)
  • Greg Mullins (Climate Council)
  • Richard Hurley (CSIRO聽/ Data61)
  • Mahesh Prakash (CSIRO / Data61)
  • Nick McCarthy (Country Fire Authority聽鈥 Victoria)
  • Brett Wagstaff (Country Fire Authority 鈥 Victoria)
  • Greg Drummond (Fire and Rescue聽NSW聽鈥 Emergency Services Academy)
  • Phillip Etienne - (Fire and Rescue聽NSW聽鈥 Emergency Services Academy)
  • Gonzalo Herrera (Fire and Rescue聽NSW聽鈥 Emergency Services Academy)
  • Laurence McCoy (Fire and Rescue聽NSW聽鈥 Emergency Services Academy)
  • Jarrod McGrouther (Fire & Rescue聽NSW聽鈥 Emergency Services Academy)
  • John Lavery (Fire and Rescue聽NSW聽鈥 Emergency Services Academy)
  • David Fuchs (NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; 糖心logo)
  • Matthew Riley (NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water)
  • Stevie Knott (NSW聽Premier鈥檚 Department)
  • Matthew Connell (Powerhouse Museum)
  • Cormac Purcell (Trillium Technologies)
  • Liz Courtney (Unboxed Media)
  • Josh Hopwood (VIC聽Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action)
  • James Brandwood (WA Department of Fire & Emergency Services 鈥 Simulation & Exercise Capability Unit)

European Industry Advisory Committee

  • H茅ctor Alfaro (Andaluc铆a Region Forest Fire Service;聽AMAYA聽Public Agency; Andaluc铆a Government)
  • Juan Caama帽o (Pau Costa Foundation)
  • Mariona Boras (Pau Costa Foundation)
  • Nuria Prat Guitart (Pau Costa Foundation)
  • Fabio Silva (Portuguese Special Civil Protection Force)
  • S茅bastien Lahaye (SAFE聽Cluster)

Research Committee

  • Kay Worthington (CSIRO聽鈥撀燯SA)
  • Ali Asadipour (RCA 鈥 UK)
  • Craig Clements (San Jos茅 State University,聽USA)
  • Adam Kochanski (San Jos茅 State University,聽USA)
  • Ali Tohidi (San Jos茅 State University,聽USA)
  • Jane Davidson (The University of Melbourne 鈥 Victorian College of the Arts)
  • Charles Green (The University of Melbourne 鈥 School of Culture & Communication)
  • Steven Sherwood (鲍狈厂奥听鈥撀燗RC聽CoE Climate Extremes)
  • Grant Stevens (鲍狈厂奥听鈥 Arts, Design & Architecture)
  • Jason J. Sharples (鲍狈厂奥听鈥 Canberra)
  • Michael J. Ostwald (鲍狈厂奥听鈥 Arts, Design & Architecture)
  • Maurice Pagnucco (鲍狈厂奥听鈥 Computer Science & Engineering)
  • Yang Song (鲍狈厂奥听鈥 Computer Science & Engineering)
  • Khalid Moinuddin (Victoria University)