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Overview
Due to the advances in communication bandwidth, network availability and processor speed, more and more data is being collected and made available. Scientists and business professionals need better means to understand, assimilate and communicate the information contained in this data. Visualisation has become an increasingly important tool for this task.
Some of the key industries that can significantly benefit from advanced visualisation services include:
- Defence – simulation and modelling
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (Design, Manufacturing & Environment)
- Education and Training
- Environmental modelling including sediment transport models, pollution, etc
- Exploration Geophysics (hydrocarbons and minerals) – using geophysical surveys to locate oil & gas, and mineral deposits and determining their extent eg: seismic processing, reservoir modelling
- Health and Bioinformatics
- Maritime Construction (digital design & manufacturing; CFD for ship hydrodynamics and load prediction for off shore platforms)
- Digital media and content (image processing and recognition)
- Production and manufacturing
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Visualization Facilities
ISA Innovation’s Visualisation Laboratory is an ideal facility for organisations that have highly intensive data processing and data display requirements. It is equipped with state of the art visualisation hardware to provide a fully immersive, 3 dimensional modelling and scientific visualisation environment.
Visit the Perth VisLab
Visit the Bunbury VisLab
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Perth VisLab
A feature of the Perth Visualisation Laboratory is the large five meter wide projection screen (approximately 2 meters high). Two projectors behind the screen display a total of 2.6 million pixels (native resolution).The fact that the projectors are rear mounted means that the audience and presenters are free to walk in front of the vibrant display and immerse themselves without casting shadows and obscuring the image as with traditional front projection. Wide screen visualisation with edge blending ensures that a single high resolution visualisation or presentation can be achieved without a noticeable gap between the two projectors.
In order to ensure a high quality projection system, Christie Mirage projectors are used to display high resolution images in active stereo (3D) using 3-chip DLP hardware.
The basis of a 3D stereoscopic projection system deliver a left and right eye rendering of a scene to the left and right eyes of audience members. This convinces the brain that what is being seen is in fact a three-dimensional scene and leverages our stereopsis (depth sense). Active stereo achieves the delivery of left and right eye images by rendering them to the screen in quick succession. What appears is a “flipping” between left and right eye images at 120Hz. LCD shutter glasses are synchronised with this “flipping” so that when the left image is displayed, the right eyeglass is opaque, and vice-versa. This ensures that each eye only the correct perspective of a scene.
Control System
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An important aspect of the Visualisation Laboratory is the ease of use when using such a complex system. A touch-screen monitor controls all of the audio and video switching necessary to smoothly transition between different tasks and different sources. This is achieved by using matrix-switch technology, whereby any input source can be routed to any output device. The touch screen also controls the lighting, ensuring that the correct level can be chosen to suit a bright collaborative environment, or a darkened theatre environment.
Another important control tool in the Visualisation Laboratory is the electronic whiteboard; this aids in the presentation of visualisation projects and ad-hoc discussions using a traditional whiteboard that is captured digitally.
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Connectivity
A challenge of the Visualisation Laboratory has been to provide quick and easy connectivity for visualisation tasks. Clients can utilise our existing hardware, including ISA Technologies' Supercomputing facilities and visualisation workstations, to display visualisations; or they can connect laptops, mini-PCs and similar hardware to the projection system. Using the control system, external devices can switch video and audio sources to the projection system. For example, a power point presentation can be run from a laptop, and displayed beside an electronic whiteboard session. External devices can also be connected to ISA’s LAN for network and Internet access. A front projection wall has also been included in the design of the visualisation laboratory. Clients can use it as yet another display surface by using their own mobile data or overhead projectors.
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Bunbury VisLab
The Bunbury VisLab, scheduled for completion in a few months, will feature a large five meter interior glass partition with projection film technology applied to create a rear projection screen. Active stereoscopic hardware will be used to create an immersing and spatially enriched environment for real time simulation and 3d video playback with surround sound.
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As well as a visualisation laboratory, ISA's Bunbury VisLab will also function as an enterprise business boardroom complete with audio/visual conferencing, remote collaboration (for both desktop and 3D applications), and a digital whiteboard. Conferencing and collaboration will form a quintessential part of running operations across both Perth and Bunbury and be achieved by using VisLabs at both sites.
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One of the first research projects for the Bunbury VisLab will be to create a Laser Light Plane (LLP) for multi-touch interaction over the five meter rear illuminated glass screen. From the outset, existing, portable, multi-touch technology can be used to control the equipment in the room, from zoned lighting, to audio levels and video signal switching. This is achieved through web browser interaction and ISA's control suite software.
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Applications
Visualisation Research
ISA Innovation also conducts testing, benchmarking and research to constantly evolve these services. ISA Innovation recently used the Perth Visualisation Laboratory to test IBM’s Deep Computing Visualisation (DCV) in a commercial environment. This involves visualisation in the laboratory using SVN as well as Remote Visual Networking (RVN). RVN can be used to offer remote visualisation whereby customers using “thin technology” can leverage the visualisation cluster and specialist graphics hardware on-demand from a remote location.
Virtual Reality Environments - VR4MAX
ISA Innovation is the South East Asian and Australasian reseller for VR4MAX. Built by Tree-C Technology B.V. in the Netherlands, VR4MAX is an Autodesk 3ds Max plug-in that turns fully rendered 3D models into a real-time interactive experience with only a few mouse clicks. It offers:
- Maximum frames per second from your hardware
- Simple and robust workflow from modelling to VR
- Virtually unlimited model size
- Event action and physics simulation
- Fully scalable from laptop to VR theatre
Clients use our Visualisation Laboratories to walk though their models in 3D and we are able to offer remote 2D or 3D* presentation / interaction with these same models in real time, over the internet for others.
For more information contact us or visit http://www.vr4max.com
* Depending on available facilities in your location
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Oil and Gas
The oil and gas industry has many visualisation tasks, one of the most prevalent being seismic interpretation. Interpretation involves the use of High Performance Computing facilities to process raw data gathered from instruments and requires visualisation to interpret the results. This can be achieved with side by side comparison of two-dimensional data, but may also require visualisation of three-dimensional data. Another important visualisation task is reservoir modelling and planning involved to drill and access reservoirs. Stereoscopic projection makes it possible for a team of experts visualise reservoirs and plan aspects of the drilling process in three-dimensions. There are many more tasks from the oil and gas industry that have application to a facility such as ISA Visualisation Laboratory. The facility has been designed to have generic capabilities that can be applied to many more tasks.
Computer Aided Engineering
The Visualisation Laboratory is suited to engineering and related visualisation such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and general transient dynamic finite element programs (such as crash testing, explosion simulation, metal forming, etc.). The laboratory suits a collaborative design/analysis environment where multiple parties are interested in constructing problems, converging solutions and viewing results. Software packages such as LS-Dyna, StarCD, and Fluent can be used with a combination of High Performance Computing processing and visual analysis in the laboratory. For example a ship design can be presented and discussed; participants can change aspects of the design then run simulations and converge to a solution using High Performance Computing facilities; the new results can then be presented and discussed, all achieved from the Visualisation Laboratory.
Simulation, Training, and Prototyping
The large screen and the use of active stereoscopic projection means that the Visualisation Laboratory can also be used for simulation, training, and prototyping purposes. In each of these cases a level of immersion is useful in engaging participants, and presenting them with a realistic view of a situation in a collaborative environment.
Scientific Visualisation
Scientific Visualisation often involves large datasets and can also require significant processing power to create these datasets from raw data. The visualisation cluster has been constructed to incorporate large amounts of memory, and fast disk access. This makes it possible to interpret data and present results in a collaborative environment.
Client Presentations
Presentations to clients can be taken to a new level using large screens and stereoscopic projection. Architectural visualisation is one area in which this trend is already prevalent.
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