Immersive Visualization Center

Groundbreaking technology finds a home in the Department with the University's new Immersive Visualization Center.

Geoscientists have always had good imaginations. After all, reconstructing 2D seismic maps into a useful picture of nature can pose quite a challenge. But soon geoscientists, students and other researchers at Texas A&M will be able to see their research problems from the inside out, simply by stepping into the University's new 1,700-square-foot Immersive Visualization Center (IVC) located in the Michel T. Halbouty Geosciences Building.

Texas A&M's IVC will feature a solid, curved projection screen approximately seven feet in height and 25 feet in width, which will allow users to examine data in four dimensions and literally travel through a graphic display of the information. The system will utilize an advanced audio system and rear-projection Digital Light Processor projectors. The rear projection is critical in an acadmic setting since it allows a professor or lecturer to stand in front of the screen without blocking part of the projection. Users will wear Liquid Crystal Display glasses and steer the direction of the movement through the data with a hand-held control.

Geology & Geophysics professor Luc Ikelle, chair of the IVC Committee, explains that the purpose of the IVC is to teach and assist in research, and that the use of Virtual Reality (VR) can open a whole new world to users. In the real world, there are three dimensions plus time as a fourth dimension. Through the IVC researchers will be able to lieterally "walk" through their data and time.

"That's basically the idea behind virtual reality - displaying that fourth dimension," Ikelle explains. "You use the computer to let you 'walk' into this place and see nature as it really is. Ideally, you could 'dig' yourself into the ground and see the formations there."

The audio system in the IVC will facillitate using sound to assign a sound to examine spatial data , allowing a user to hear aspects of the data that might normally be missed when simply using sight. Ikelle uses the analogy of a person arriing to a conference in a large convention center and not knowing where the meeting room is located. If he or she were to hear loud applause coming from down the hall, he or she would follow the sound until arriving in the room. In a similar way, sounds in a large 3-D volume can help researchers find a starting point for their work.

"Sometimes deciding where to start in a large 3-D volume of data can be overwhelming. By assigning audio to different variables, once a student is 'inside' a form, he or she can follow the sounds and know the direction to go," Ikelle says. "For example, imagine that you have assigned a particular sound to a fault-like structure. With the fifth dimension, you can use that sound to locate the target region which might have otherwise been difficult to locate from the start."

Ikelle adds that this hands-on approach to working with data will greatly benefit students' understanding of interpretation and will change the way they work with data. The large classroom area of the IVC will offer seating for approximately 25 people opportunities for entire classes to experience first-hand the new immersive visualization technologies.

"Students may struggle with an abstract concept, but when they can see it or do it for themselves, it opens a new world," Ikelle says. "Now they can visualize the process, follow it and begin to develp an intuition for 3-D ad 4-D. Once you have those capabilities, everything becomes much simpler. That's what these tools are about."

The IVC project has been in the works for more than five years and is the result of collaboration from several departments, the University at large and the IVC Committee. Ikelle recalls that at first, it was a challenge to explain the concept of and the need for such a center on campus.

"It might have been a bit dfficult for some people to believe a few years ago that today every major oil company would have at least a simple visualization center or a sample of the technology." Ikelle says. "The role of a university is to develp technologies and make discoveries, and it is key that we be ahead of the industry."

A possible opportunity to create an IVC arrived with the announcement that BP, a major gas and oil company, had just purchased Arco and was looking for an educational institution to give Arco's visualization equipment. The University worked to create an extensive package to draw the center to the A&M campus but BP chose another institution. The IVC Committee was disappointed but not daunted.

"Many people in the University felt that, even if we lost this opportunity with BP, it was still extremely important for us to develop a visualization center. It had been a University-wide effort to create the package for BP and it would be a University-wide center," Ikelle explains. "People began to see how exciting the technology was and that it would be good for the University. So some how, we had to get it."

In 2000, Chuck Bowman, Head of Petroleum Engineering, and Andy Hajash, Head of Geology and Geophysics, submitted a proposal to Texas A&M University asking for one-time funds to build an IVC. Landmark Graphics Company had also agreed to donate software. A&M came through with partial support. IVC Committee focused on fundraising and working with vendors, but most plans were too expensive. The committee memberws, knowing that the bids they had received were already considered "bargains" in the industry, went back to the vendors and companies, hoping to reach an affordable scenario. They were thrilled when they reached an agreement with one of the companies that would bring the cost down to a workable figure.

"After some bargaining, one of the companies, SEOS, finally accepted and decided that it would use whatit called its 'marketing initative' to support the project," Ikelle says. "We were very lucky as well that this same compan was one we liked most."

The IVC will be comprised of three main components: a presentation/lecture facility, a research and development area, and a work area. The large lecture room seats an audience of 25 people and houses the main sceen and multimedia controller capable of displaying simultaneous multiple inputs.

The research and develpment area of the Center will be composed of two smaller rooms, containing 5-10 "Geo Walls" for individual or group usage, a Cente of Excellence with SunMircrosystems for the development of new VR applications, and the development of a multi-faceted display system based on the "Beowulf" concept.

The work room area will contain a screen approximately 10 feet in height and 10 feet in width with digital projectors, audio system and tracking system. This area will be used for complex data visualizing capabilities for various scientific communities.

The entire center is housed on the second floor of the Halbouty Building on A&M's main campus. Ikelle explains that once the Center has been up and running for a few months, the IVC Committee hopes to open it for tours. The IVC Committee envisions a center that will not only facilitate several classes a semester, but also act as a workshop for researchers of multiple displines. In addition, it hopes to develp a staff to work at the Center in order to assist researcher who would like to utilize the technology of the IVC but don't have time to go through the extensive training process. The presence of the center will also ensure that students can be trained in the technology and software currently being used by potential employers.

Ikelle adds that a major purpose of the IVC is to allow A&M students, faculty and researchers to continue to push the boundaries of VR and immersive visualization. While many companies today utilize VR to work wth existing data, there are numerous possibilities for using VR on the front end of research.

"A university cannot be content simply trying to add new things to technology," Ikelle says. "We have to play a major role in making this dream of bringing nature into the classrooms and labs a reality."