Press Room


Technologies Enhance 3d Visualization
By Theo Mayer

SUN VALLEY, CA.
In an industry where data is as much a core business investment as wells, platforms, pipes, ships and pumps, the electronic means to "see more, understand better and decide quicker" holds tremendous value and potential.

Since the opening of the industry's first dedicated 3-D visualization center in late 1997, immersive collaborative visualization has had a profound impact on oil and gas upstream development programs. These programs are being planned in days instead of months, and fields are being optimized in new ways. "Viscenters" have become a critical tool, providing an integral competitive advantage for the world's leading oil and gas companies. Now, the second generation of collaborative visualization tools is emerging.

Driven by the success of high-end facilities, more and more oil and gas asset management and project teams want ready access to collaborative visualization centers. A new class of high-resolution projection technology based on a semiconductor con-taining a rectangular array of up to 1.3 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors provides a lower-cost visualization solution for oil and gas applications.

Every visualization solution involves three major building blocks: The computer platform, advanced visualization software, and the visual systems themselves. Evolutionary transformations are taking place in all these areas simultaneously, resulting in significant synergies. Although impossible to isolate from the other two building blocks, three key areas of development in visual systems could substantially impact future trends in immersive visualization:

New projection technology;
Lower cost centers; and
New collaborative paradigms.

The business case for using visualization in oil and gas exploration, particularly for geophysical data interpretation and well planning, has been solidly established over the past half a decade. The multi-year, multi-facility deployment of the technologies by leading oil companies speaks for itself.
Interestingly, the most often cited benefit of using a viscenter is not inherently a function of technology, but rather, a process function. Getting all the experts on a project out from behind their desks and into the same environment where the various data are collected for group collaboration is a new way of getting the job done faster and more effectively. The change is not technological; it is cultural.

Second on the list of key benefits is visualization technology's ability to im-prove the user's comprehension of data. By presenting information on a big screen at extremely high resolutions, viewers literally see more and understand better - a simple concept, but surprisingly difficult to grasp until it is experienced first hand. The large size of the display provides scope and context to the data being reviewed, while the resolution provides enhanced perception. In many vi-sualization systems, comprehension is further enhanced with 3-D stereoscopic viewing, a capability that imbues relational and parallax information to the visual interpretation of the data.

Digital Projector Technology
Most of the oil and gas industry's in-stalled base of viscenters uses an analog projection technology based on cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Until recently, only CRT projectors could accommodate the high-performance demands of visualization systems, which require high resolution bandwidths and active matrix stereoscopic viewing capabilities. Today, projectors are moving into the digital realm. The leading contender in this new generation of projectors is based on Texas Instruments' DLP'" technology, which uses a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) semi-conductor that contains a rectangular array of up to 1.3 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors. The rollover to this new projection technology for visualization is already in full effect.

When a DMD chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source, and a projection lens, its mirrors can reflect an all-digital image onto a screen, with each mirror corresponding to a single pixel in the projected image. By minimizing the gaps between pixels in a projected image, the technology creates a seamless digital picture that is sharp at any size without the pixellation or "screen door" effect apparent in other technologies.
DLP-enabled projectors for very high image quality or high brightness applications rely on a three-chip configuration to produce stunning images. The white light generated by the lamp passes through a prism that divides it into red, green and blue. Each DMD chip is dedicated to one of the colors; the colored light that each micro-mirror reflects is then combined and passed through the projection lens to form a single pixel in the image. These systems are capable of producing no fewer than 35 trillion colors, and are up to five times brighter with better clarity and color accuracy.

The new projectors are also longer-lived, more stable and easier to maintain. Considering that the life span of a typical cathode ray tube is three years depending on usage, many operators of existing viscenters will soon have to decide between refurbishing their existing projectors with new CRTs and upgrading to DLP-based digital projection. Although the cost of upgrading to DLP is analogous to purchasing a whole new system, the increased performance of the technology is so dramatic that many companies are making the move. This transition offers similarities to the home electronics world, where consumers were quick to upgrade from VHS to DVD players.

Easy Choice

Marathon Oil Co. has completed an upgrade of its three-projector, curved-screen "Visionarium" at it's Houston headquarters to DLP projection for improved clarity, resolution and rightness. The system includes active matrix stereoscopic viewing on all three projectors.

For companies looking to install new visualization systems, DLP technology is an easy choice. But it has not been so easy for the visualization system supplier. It would seem simple to swap CRT projectors with the new technology. But, of course, nothing technologically complex can be simple.

High-end visualization systems are a sophisticated blend of many components,
all of which, by definition, must work as a single solution. It took years of optical, mechanical and electronic engineering to "standardize" this integration into a broadly deployable solution. DLP pro-jectors have completely different requirements, characteristics and issues. Mean-while, the DLP-based systems are not deploying to pioneering "early adopters," but to an industry that already has per-formance and functionality expectations that must be incorporated into new systems from the start. This has taken literally thousands of engineering man hours.

First, a new generation of image-processing electronics was required. Signal processing equipment used to blend multiple projectors into a single image had to be updated to accommodate digital projection. Also, CRT technology inherently allowed projected images to be aligned with great precision, even onto a curved screen. DLP projectors require a new form of signal processing called "warping" that bends the image digitally, allowing the projectors to be aligned to each other and onto a curved screen.

Although DLP projectors are brighter and sharper than CRT projectors, they are also substantially noisier and create vastly more heat. This can be a real issue in collaborative environments, where pro-jectors are typically located in the same room as users. Specialized new projector housings that dampen the noise had to be developed. Protruding into the ceiling plenum, they require sophisticated tem-perature and safety monitoring systems, as well as the ability to channel heat directly through the room's heating and cooling system, reducing extra cooling requirements to a highly localized issue.

Completely new mechanical and optical systems had to be adapted with dozens of detailed issues such as interfaces, switching systems, and even the type of cabling and screen materials used. All had to be adapted to the new requirements of DLP technology.

Technological Upgrades
Some issues even needed to consider the other two building blocks of the technology: the computer systems and the vi-sualization software. Many viscenters use one-pipe SGI® Onyx™ computers to feed three channels of high-resolution video to three projectors, blended at the edges to create a single large, extreme-resolution image. Making these Onyx™ configurations compatible with stereo-scopic-capable DLP projectors required a new image processing technology that could "scale" the output of the computer to the needs of the projectors. Without this. Major upgrades in the computer systems as well as the software applications would have been required.

Paul Harness (left), senior petroleum engineer and earth modeling team leader at Chevron Texaco, demonstrates the capabilities of the company's new collaborative in-formation area in Bakersfield, Ca.

These challenges have all been met, and a new generation of systems is now deploying into the visualizationn market. Marathon Oil Co, is one of the firts adapters of the technology in the oil and gas industry. Since January 2000, Manthon had operated a CRT-based. three-projector curved .screen "Visionarium" at it's Houston head-quarters. By mid-2002, Marathon recognized the DLP performance differential and began investigating the possibility of up-grading it's system. Under the direction of Sharon Crawford. Marathon's supervisor of computer-aided interpretation, the company began upgrading to DLP projection last February. As the enabling technologies came out of the lab, additional components were added. The upgrade. with full system functionality, including active matrix stereo-scoscopic viewing on all three projectors, was completed in May.

"After three years of use. the CRT projectors were at the end of their natural life, appearing dim and blurry, and requiring significant tuning. Clearly, we needed to upgrade, and we wanted the latest and the best-value technology available," explains Crawford. "With the clarity, the resolution and the brightness of DLP projectors, we have gained quite a bit with the upgrade. The increased brightness allows us to bring up the lights, which is important for group interaction, especially when working with a partner. The in-creased sharpness and clarity also help with understanding detail in the data and reduces fatigue."

This model facility has set the standard for the next generation of high-end viscenters in upstream oil and gas.

Lower Cost Centers
This is exciting news for high-end collaborative visualization in centers that have big budgets, but the industry is also seeking another class of solution that is a full order of magnitude less expensive. What is needed is a $50,000 system that offers a large, bright, high-resolution image with stereoscopic capabilities. It is also important that this new class of visualization technology not have the rigid facility modification requirements of the high-end rooms. This need is driven by the success of the high-end facilities, as more and more teams want more constant access to the benefits of collaboration.

Once again DLP technology offers a solution, which is now at the early stage of deployment. A new class of lower-cost, high-resolution projector has been driven into existence by the expansive scope of the "business projector" market. While these new single-chip DLP projectors are not inherently capable of the type of stereoscopic performance of their large-scale counterparts, two of them stacked one on top of the other allows a different form of 3-D called passive stereo that is nearly as good.

The projectors are small, light and relatively quiet. Using this technology, a portable system, which can be popped onto a conference table or mounted into the ceiling of a small team room, can sup-ply a six foot-wide stereoscopic solution that offers 70 percent of the functionality of the big facilities at only 10 percent of the cost.

Straddling the investment between the high-end viscenter and the single-chip team room solution is another new class of visualization system that breaks the traditional form factors of the standard environment.

Most visualization centers are based on the idea of a theater, or a cube, that surrounds the users with images projected on screens or walls. While this type of environment provides a powerful way for a team to explore geophysical data, it also comes with certain behavioral and human factor constraints. For viscenters designed as dedicated rooms in a theater-type setting, close observation of their use has revealed common trends.

For example, the mere act of sitting next to one another while facing a big screen puts the bulk of the users into a more passive spectator mode, while the single driver of the computer plays the most active role. Also, most viscenters are formal environments that must be scheduled with a sizeable group. This makes the activity less a part of the regular workday and more of a special event.

Additionally, many organizations that have the budgets and desire for a viscenter simply do not have the physical room to dedicate to it. Another consideration is that the investment relating to the fa-cility modifications is substantial, and may be impractical in a leased building. These constraints dictate serious considerations when it comes to deploying collaborative visualization widely throughout the enterprise.

New Concept
Anew concept developed at Chevron-Texaco's San Joaquin Valley business unit in Bakersfield, Ca., addresses many of these issues. Chevron Texaco set aside a zone adjacent to an asset team's normal workspace, dubbed it a "collabora-tive information area," and employed some rather innovative alternative display technologies in it.

The centerpiece of the area is an extreme-resolution, table-oriented display system with a 65-inch screen that comfortably accommodates up to six team mem-bers. Mounted above the table are two high-resolution, 24-inch LCD panels. Multiple keyboard and mouse controls are placed around the perimeter of the table, any of which can quickly take control of "driving" the source computers.

The area promotes much more informal collaboration and does so in a way that encourages more active involvement from the participants.

As a standalone system with a small footprint, the company was able to incorporate the table display without any major facility modifications. Chevron-Texaco has operated a conventional large-scale viscenter at its nearby Kern River Field since 1997, and considers the idea of collaboration information areas as an extension of those visualization capabilities, not necessarily a replacement.

Paul Harness, senior petroleum engineer and earth modeling team leader, spearheaded the creation of the collaborative information area. "We have found that the area is more engaging for daily work and is typically 'driven' by more users than the visualization theater," Harness explains. "The theater is still where we go for formal presentations, but this is a great day-to-day collaborative space. The table-oriented display allows people to face one another while they explore the data. This seems to facilitate personal interaction. It is a display that you can literally get your hands on, while the tendency with large screen displays on a wall is to stand away from them. It changes how you interact with the data in ways that you really have to experience to understand.

"It is both old and new," Harness goes on. "It brings back the values of the big chart table and brings in the new electronic data capabilities of visualization. It also seems to be a more approachable technology than the larger visualization theater; it does not scare the less tech-savvy members of our team."

Beyond Geophysics

Theo Mayer is president, chief executive officer and founder of Panoram Technologies Inc. in Sun Valley, Ca. Under his leadership, Panoram has played an instrumental role in defining and developing the visualization industry. To date, the company has deployed more than 130 large-scale visualization systems throughout the world, more than 65 in the oil and gas sector alone. Mayer sits on the science advisory board for the University of Southern California's Integrated Media Systems Center and the development Advisory board for the University of California's $300 million CAL-(IT)2 initiative. He also sits on the board of directors for the program's Center for Immersive Telecommunications for Global Exchange.

Considering how quickly the benefits of visualization have been recognized in geophysical interpretation and production, adoption of the same capabilities in other areas of upstream oil and gas - not to mention midstream and downstream operations - has been surprisingly slow. This will change, however.

The same technology that improves decision making in the process of finding oil and gas can readily be applied to the engineering and design of any product; component, facility or system used throughout the entire process of extracting, processing and delivering it. It can also be applied to training, emergency management, disaster recovery, environ-mental impact assessment, and dozens of other tasks. Some day, a really savvy operator may even figure out a way to finance visualization by reducing insurance premiums through risk mitigation.

In the meantime, the industry is be-ginning to explore the possibilities. For example, at Chevron Texaco, the new collaborative information area is used not only for the analysis of subsurface mod-els, but also for field development design and planning. And companies such as Belgium-based VRcontext offer simulation software (Walkinside™ ) that lets oil and gas operators see a plant in 3-D space from a human perspective, making it perfect for design reviews, plant maintenance and safety training. These kind of applications expand the uses of existing visualization systems, and expand the need for such capabilities in general.



One thing is for certain: The next phase in collaborative 3-D visualization has already begun, and the future looks brighter - and sharper - than ever.


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