Immersive Reality - an Introduction
Authors: Nelson H. Roice 
Published: October 2008

Computer visualization continues to improve and to more realistically represent nature. It is now possible to take geological, geophysical, drilling, engineering, and economic data, and to correctly position this data in time and space. Immersive Reality uses new developments in computer projection hardware and software, and allows this data to be displayed at human scale, allowing scientists and management to walk around the middle of the data, as if they were walking around in a forest of wells and canopies. This paper introduces how Immersive Reality technologies are being used in aerospace, automotive, education, entertainment, manufacturing, medical, military, as well as oil & gas exploration and production.1 In addition, it will introduce the theme of this special OTC session in Immersive Reality.

Data

Spatial relationships provide a common theme across the disciplines mentioned above. Aerospace engineers work with the effect of various shapes on air flow. Automotive engineers are more and more influenced by air flow, and they have a lot of equipment and wiring to package in a small space. Educational and entertainment uses of the technology are exploding, allowing students to be a particle influenced by gravity, magnetics, or electrical forces, or to walk around in the land of dinosaurs. In the world of manufacturing, it is important to understand the assembly line, as well as the components and how they are to be connected together. Doctors know the approximate shape and location of organs in the human body, and it varies a little bit with each individual. Generals want to know the terrain, flight paths, and a holistic view of the battlefield. And of course in hydrocarbon exploration we want the drill bit to hit the targets which the seismic data has imaged and geoscientists have interpreted as a prospective subsurface earth model.

Spatial relationships are recorded using individual x,y,z points, spread-sheets or tables, vectors, images, or movies. Experiencing how a series of point are related in an Immersive Environment opens new understanding, as shown in Figure 1. Most of the author's direct experience with Immersive Environments is using them to find hydrocarbons. Amazing describes how much more information is transferred from the data to the interpreters mind and from one interpreter to another interpreter or to management, when all of the data is evaluated simultaneously, in 3-D, using Immersive Reality. Numerous case histories have been presented in geotechnical conferences and at vendor facilities showing the value ofsimultaneously displaying satellite data, air photos, air magnetics, gravity, topography, lease ownership, source, migration, timing, play fairways, play types, outcrop analogs, prospect specifics (location, extent, depth, volumetrics, trapping, etc.), analog fields and reservoirs, spec and proprietary seismic data location, well locations, deviation surveys, production histories, etc. Figure 2 illustrates this by showing the interaction of an Urban Planner with the author when they are reviewing legacy seismic data describing an exploration trend in Oklahoma.