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Multi-User Collaborative VR

The data we collect is so complex and so vast that to turn them into meaningful information about the reservoir and make sense of this information often times requires the collaborative effort of many different scientists and engineers. They can be geologists, geophysicists, log analysts, reservoir engineers, drillers, production engineers, and many, many others. A team of such experts that manage a particular reservoir is sometimes called an asset team. Members of the asset team are usually in different places around the world and it’s very hard to get everyone in the same room for a meeting to make sense of the data or take a critical decision. To help these people work together we build so-called iCenters.

iCenters have facilities, which enable us to collaborate in two different ways.
First, they contain a state of the art videoconferencing system. Video calls are placed using a 384 Kbps ISDN connection (about seven times the speed of a standard personal computer modem), which allows for smooth video and audio transmission. The large screen has enough space on it to take a real close-up of a person on the remote end or it may be divided to have several sites communicate together (just like they do on TV newscasts). Seeing a person who is thousands of miles away closely on a large screen gives the impression that this person is near by. One can notice emotions, look the other person in the eyes, get a feeling for the person’s mood. Sometimes, the remote room is closely matched in colors and furniture to the local room, and then the impression of closeness is even stronger.

A second level of collaboration goes a step beyond simply meeting with other people. What we want to do is look at the data together, point out some features in the data to the colleagues or see what they have to show us. Here, we also want to be virtually in the same space, but in this case it is the same data space rather than a shared virtual room. The combination of iCenters’ high-end visualization equipment and sophisticated software gives us this ability.

The software usually works like this: The data used to generate the model of the Earth is stored somewhere in a central place. The same program is run on both local and remote ends, and on both ends the views of the model are generated. The views don’t have to be the same: people may have to choose to look at different parts of the model until they are ready to focus on something together. At this point, one person invites another to look at something; he takes control of the other person’s viewing environment (through a software command) and the two views are synchronized. Now both are looking at the same thing. If I rotate a well around, you’ll see it rotated; if I fly around a salt dome, so will you. Since data is in only one place, all that the software sends between the remote ends are small packets that contain information about changes in the view state. That way the two views are synchronized in real time.

Some programs also create virtual representations of “players” in the data scene, so-called avatars. That way you can see exactly where I am, and not just look at the world through my eyes.

Having large screens and tracking devices makes collaboration easier because it helps people forget that they are working with a computer and feel like they are really together in one world.