New Tools Improving Collaborative Visualization and Decision Making

Benson, Jim¹, Chris Phillips¹ (1) TouchTable, Inc, Pasadena, CA

This talk introduces a new collaborative visualization technology that makes it easy for technical groups to collaborate from multiple locations, interacting with and interpreting a shared dataset in real time. Considering the industry's shrinking workforce, a key benefit is the ability to engage a wide-range of geographically dispersed experts, as needed or on-call, without the high costs and delays associated with frequent travel.

The technology is designed to emulate workroom collaboration, bringing scientists and decision makers together around a table, when the tabletop is in fact an interactive visualization and editing station. The table is touch and gesture enabled, allowing the group to select, view, annotate, digitize, and edit a shared data set working interactively from several locations. For example, scientists in New Orleans pan, zoom, and delineate a salt dome, while experts in London view and change the delineation in real time.

Examples from recent E&P scenarios highlight table-based collaboration in weather-related emergency response; lease management / lease positioning (strategy / rationalization), planning, and decision-making.

This unique tabletop technology adds a new geographical dimension – the ability to collaborate through an interactive dataset shared live from multiple locations.