screen to separate the two images spatially. While not requiring the use of glasses, this method offers the stereoscopic effect to only one viewer. Memorial University chose to pursue the most advanced method available today - active stereoscopy. To experience the 3-D effect, viewers wear special LCD shutter glasses, and the projection system displays the left/right eye images successively. (See picture on the top of the previous page) The glasses are controlled by infra-red emitters installed in the laboratory, which allows users to roam freely during presentations, and even walk "inside" the three-dimensional image being projected on screen. The shutter glasses are synchronized with the projection system, such that when the image designated for one eye is on the screen, the other eye's lens on the glasses becomes opaque, and vice-versa. "This is done 96 times a second to create the 3-D image, so quickly that viewers don't even notice a flicker.
You just see a continuous image in three dimensions that looks completely solid" says Hall. This whole process goes unnoticed by the audience, and the result is an immersive visualization environment in which an incredibly realistic seabed, complete with surface topology, wells, and faults may be displayed as a full-colour 3-D image on the screen. By manipulating the mouse, the system operator can then 'fly' the audience through the reservoir, and zoom in to examine particular areas of interest. (See photo below). Currently, the laboratory is primarily used to conduct simulations and produce models of oil reservoirs, and, to that end, Landmark Graphics provided its entire suite of applications for processing and interpreting seismic data. Apart from modelling the offshore though, the lab is also being used, for instance, to model ore bodies at the huge Voisey's Bay, Labrador mine site, to simulate how seismic waves travel through rock, and to show subsurface geology derived from variations in surface gravity and magnetic fields. Memorial University is also looking to attract
An operator at the back of the lab controls the displayed images and guides the audience through the 3-D representation.
36 MTR
October 2007
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