The EU-funded xR4DRAMA project aims to create a solution that will improve the situational awareness of those user groups who are responsible for handling disasters, man-made crises or public events. The groups range from first responders, local authorities and security forces to media companies and event planners. Situational awareness is crucial for them to execute tasks efficiently, plan things and take the appropriate decisions.

The proof of concept of this project will focus on first responders and media companies before extending the use cases to other domains. xR4DRAMA's methodology is based on X Reality (XR) technologies, and the tool can be used remotely and on site for an augmented and shared perception of a given situation. In particular, innovative technologies will be developed in order to:

• facilitate the sourcing of all relevant information needed to plan necessary actions;
• create an „as if on site“ experience of an environment (e.g. in VR) to anticipate the planned event or an incident as thoroughly as possible;
• create a joint understanding of an environment (a “distributed situation awareness”) to be shared by team members, allowing for smoother communication and consultation;
• provide the possibility to continuously update the representation of the location (e.g. in VR) during the evolving incident/event so as to understand and potentially re-assess consequences of specific decisions.

MKLab as a department of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Greece, coordinates the project with seven universities and companies from four different countries.