New Directions
in Petroleum Visualization
Thomson, James A.1 (1) BP
America,
Design and uptake of visualization rooms
(VR) in the upstream sector of the petroleum industry has progressed since the
1990s. Originally these environments served as collaborative settings with an
emphasis on data immersion. This, coupled with the lower brightness of
projectors of the time, led to a world of darkened rooms, curved screens and
front projectors. New technology developments, such as the change from CRT to
DLP projection technology, have contributed to a rethink of VR design. Brighter
projectors allow for operation in normal office lighting levels. Flat screens
are often acceptable substitutes for the curved screen alternative, and rear
projection puts projector noise behind the screen and encourages “walk up zoom”
as teams approach the high-resolution working zone at the screen face.
Four- to six-sided VRs, sometimes called
a cube or cave, are highly immersive and users experience being “inside” their
data volume. While found in the petroleum industry they are more popular
elsewhere. VR accessories such as head-mounted tracking and haptic devices are
used in specialized cases.
Outside of the dedicated VR,
visualization systems are being adopted sized for use by teams, workgroups and
individual workers. These include workstations suited for a single user or
collaboration sessions up to five people with optional stereographic display.
Touch-enabled interfaces are available, particularly for GIS applications,
allowing users to interact with layered data sets in a natural way. New
monitors with stylus touch controls are being used as a mouse substitute for
geophysical interpretation systems. Holographic displays are also appearing.
AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California