Data manipulation critical to cure information overload

The CoreCavesm is a four-wall fully immersive environment designed by Mechdyne Inc.

• A curved screen enhances the sense of being surrounded and allows professionals to use peripheral vision to make the experience even more real. [21,072 bytes]
• It is important to use probability-based decision-making tools when optimizing well paths for multi-well platforms. [24,031 bytes]
• NASA International Space Station will be designed using Continuumtrademark collaboration software. [22,424 bytes]

We live in the information age in a world awash with information, suffering from information over load - or do we? Perhaps we actually live in the data age, a world awash with data. Perhaps we simply suffer from data overload and lack of proper information presentation tools. Perhaps the problem is a human/computer interface bottleneck and perhaps the time is right for change.

The science of immersive realization brings to the oil and gas geoscience community comprehensive working environments and software solutions which will enhance users' current software investments, not replace them. Immersive technology services centers are planned in Houston, London, and Stavanger, to open in early 1999. They will offer a suite of commonly used interpretation and geotechnical tools coupled to a full multi-sensory visualization and collaborative environment.

The human mind sifts effortlessly through data, exploring information to gain and retain knowledge. Until very recently, humans have had to adapt their senses and normal cognitive processes to use computers. Now, through the introduction of human scale visualization, multi-sensual data presentation, data immersion, and the concept of perceptual computing, we can train computers to work with humans rather than being forced to train the human to use the computer.

Problem, solution

The average geoscientist today is dealing with 100-1,000 times more digital data than 10 years ago. The typical interpreter is overloaded with data and is often equipped with inappropriate tools that he does not have time to use, or the time to learn. Oil companies have less and less staff to do more and more work.

Seismic vessels churn out more and more seismic data in more efficient ways. Clearly, unless we can find better ways to extract unambiguous and cost-effective oil and gas prospects from these mountains of data, the economic underpinning of the geophysical business will disappear.

To achieve the necessary increase in efficiency in information processing, a human/computer interface revolution of the order of the mouse/GUI paradigm shift achieved by Xerox Park and Apple Computer is required. To reach this lofty goal, a number of essential components are mandatory. These include high-speed stereo graphics and immersive technologies, voice synthesis and recognition, and much cheaper, faster multiprocessing computers. As volume sales increase, all of these components are now available and are becoming realistically priced.

At SIGGRAPH (Association of Computer Machinery special interest group on graphics) this year, one manufacturer announced a visualization computer that matched both the polygon per second handling and texture RAM capability of the top-of-the-line visualization computer at less than 1/20th of the price.

Blending these components together to provide an operating environment is the goal, not by undermining, but by enhancing the huge oil industry investment in geoscience software. To that end, Continuum Resources elected to use MuSE Technologies' MuSE (Multi-dimensional, User-oriented Synthetic Environment) and its companion collaborative product Continuumtrademark, to develop its browser and related geoscientific tool kits and provide the user interface and seamless collaboration capabilities for the service centers. Partner software solutions in survey planning, interpretation, drilling, reservoir engineering, data analysis, and oilfield economics will all be available in early 1999 in the centers.

Key components

There are four principal components of perceptual computing and the enhanced knowledge mining that it enables:

• Human scale visualization
• Data immersion
• Interdisciplinary collaboration
• Multi-sensory data mapping and realization.

Human scale visualization is not the same as immersion. No matter how large your home TV set is, it is impossible to get a true sense of motion when high dynamic action sequences are watched. Transfer the same images to an IMAX screen and there is real danger of motion sickness. The difference lies in the use of peripheral vision and the sense of true scale.

Using a curved screen enhances the sense of being surrounded and uses peripheral vision to make the experience even more real. To achieve these effects, it is not necessary to use stereo projection or any special "glasses." This type of presentation works very well for larger groups where the required degree of interaction is minimal.

Data immersion, on the other hand, offers a different form of experience. In the ultimate rendition of immersive environments, the six-wall virtual room, the observer is literally surrounded by data scaled to fit the central observation point. Spatial relationships within the data are "correct," depth perception is "real," and measurement made within the environment will scale correctly to the real world.

This environment implies physical interaction with the data. A well passing through the seismic cube may be "manually" shaped to intersect some secondary target, while a mathematical model ensures that cost-effective drilling and geomechanical constraints are met.

Data immersion can be achieved on a much smaller scale. The CoReOfficeSM features an individual immersive environment featuring joystick navigation control, head tracking, voice synthesis and recognition, and stereo projection using Crystal Eyestrademark. Although not featuring physical collaboration, the individual user offices are connected to a common dataspace and the asset team can and will work collaboratively.

Collaboration

All workers in immersive environments experience a benefit from the close proximity of both the data and their colleagues. Fear of commitment to opinions is lessened and the decision-making process shortened. Mike Zeitlin of Texaco, a leader in the field with practical project experience, has seen improvements in project cycle times from months to days.

While physical collaboration within the environment offers major benefits, collaboration in dataspace within an office complex, from offices on different sides of the world, or between different centers of excellence on a continent offers additional benefits. These include saved travel costs and "just in time" use of available expertise.

As an example, NASA has adopted the MuSE Technologies' Continuumtrademark collaboration product to provide seamless integration of computer work environments between multiple NASA centers, specifically for work on the International Space Station project.

Scientists in different NASA locations work in the same shared dataspace and can work either alone or can actively collaborate as required. With the data volumes in the working model present at multiple geographic locations, only state data transfers are required to effect the collaboration, allowing low bandwidth communications like ISDN to be used effectively.

Multi-sensory data mapping and realization provides the greatest challenge and yet is the most intuitive step. Every human being, every day, deals with terabytes of multi-sensory data. Smell, touch, and sound all enhance visual perception. Unfortunately, our geoscience presentation tools have converted our real world data to a flat screen 2D and quasi-3D colored graphic. Geoscientists inhabit a world starved of sensual richness. The interpreter sitting in his office is a victim of sensory deprivation and his or her accuracy and efficiency suffers accordingly.

It is intuitively obvious that more data can be explored concurrently if multiple human senses are used. Considerable research is being done into the most beneficial sensory mapping of data. Intriguingly, as individuals' optimal data maps may be different, the possibility of individual personality profiles being used in the private environment is a possibility.

At the office "desktop" level, combinations of multi-dimensional visual data can be fused with multi-dimensional audio data to produce a rich knowledge landscape that approximates the real world. From this entry-level system, additional haptic devices can accommodate the tactile senses and allow physical interaction with the data.

When applied to other types of oil and gas problems, entire field management processes can be visualized. Managers can "fly" through their fields, interrogating recognizable objects to determine production rates, temperatures, pressures, flow, and other engineering data. This visual database sits on top of the existing digital databases and is the portal to the immersive environment.

Evacuation plans can be enacted and modeled. Multi-dimensional economic data can be visualized and interacted with in "what if" games conducted by the manager, who will see three and more dimensional, rather than conventional 2D results.

While the challenge is learning how to map the data to the "best" sense, the major saving is that training requirements are minor. The interpreter is being trained simply to act like a human being, rather than being a slave to a computer. Stress levels for dealing with large multi-component data volumes and datasets decrease and efficiency increases dramatically.

The new environments themselves not only offer new opportunities but also highlight an existing corporate database problem. Immersive environments, by definition, operate in the realm of spatial integration of multi-component data. The data to be fused often comes from diverse databases from different geodetic, cultural and environmental sources, in different formats and on different media. Many variables within the database will have associated statistical probabilities and are not absolute values.

For the geoscientist, visualization of the error bars of this data may be just as important as the data itself. For example, the use of probability-based decision-making tools, when optimizing well paths for multi-well platforms to a large number of subsurface targets is essential from both a safety planning and cost effective perspective. Visual databases of any kind require proper management of coordinate information in a coordinated manner, currently rare within the oil and gas community.

Summary

The application of multi-dimensional, multi-sensory data goes far beyond geoscience. True three-dimensional immersive interactive databases bring a human dimension to any mathematically expressible problem or data set.

Just as reams of computer printout were converted to the single Exceltrademark graph, allowing easy identification of anomalies and means, the immersive environment and its perceptual computing interface will enable users to efficiently explore terabytes of data to discover the embedded knowledge trapped within.

We do not suffer from inform ation overload; we suffer simply from inefficient data presentation. The new immersive technologies, coupled with more natural computer interfaces and a new set of analytical tools, designed and built to be optimized for the new environments, promise a solution to the current interpretation, data integration, and decision-making bottleneck.

Copyright 1998 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.