PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | January 29, 2007
Proc. SPIE. 6495, Visualization and Data Analysis 2007
KEYWORDS: Image visualization, Optical filters, Visualization, Databases, Computer programming, Data visualization, Volume rendering, Image filtering, Prototyping, Volume visualization
In recent years, multi-volume visualization has become an industry standard for analyzing and interpreting large surveys
of seismic data. Advances made in computer hardware and software have moved visualization from large, expensive
visualization centers to the desktop. Two of the greatest factors in achieving this have been the rapid performance
enhancements to computer processing power and increasing memory capacities. In fact, computer and graphics
capabilities have tended to more than double each year. At the same time, the sizes of seismic datasets have grown
dramatically. Geoscientists regularly interpret projects that exceed several gigabytes. They need to interpret prospects
quickly and efficiently and expect their desktop workstations and software applications to be as performant as possible.
Interactive, multi-volume visualization is important to rapid prospect generation.
Consequently, the ability to visualize and interpret multiple seismic and attribute volumes enhances and accelerates
the interpretation process by allowing geoscientists to gain a better understanding of the structural framework, reservoir
characteristics, and subtle details of their data. Therefore, we analyzed seismic volume visualization and defined four
levels of intermixing: data, voxel, pixel, and image intermixing. Then, we designed and implemented a framework to
accomplish these four levels of intermixing. To take advantage of recent advancements in programmable graphics
processing units (GPUs), all levels of intermixing have been moved from the CPU into the GPU, with the exception of
data intermixing. We developed a prototype of this framework to prove our concept. This paper describes the four levels
intermixing, framework, and prototype; it also presents a summary of our results and comments made by geoscientists
and developers who evaluated our endeavor.
