Around 1990 or 2000, I was able to see how some of the big energy companies in Houston were using SGI machines' 3D capabilities.
They'd have rooms about 10 feet square with projectors hanging from the ceiling that would take seismic data and render it on the walls as colorful images of oil deposits and different strata of rocks and gas and water and such. Using a hand controller, the employees could "walk" through the earth to see where the deposits were and plot the best/most efficient route for the drilling pipes to follow.
Pretty much today's VR gaming headset world. Except, without a headset. And this was almost a quarter of a century ago.
I can't imagine what the energy companies are doing now, with their supercomputers and seemingly limitless budgets.
Around 1990 or 2000, I was able to see how some of the big energy companies in Houston were using SGI machines' 3D capabilities.
They'd have rooms about 10 feet square with projectors hanging from the ceiling that would take seismic data and render it on the walls as colorful images of oil deposits and different strata of rocks and gas and water and such. Using a hand controller, the employees could "walk" through the earth to see where the deposits were and plot the best/most efficient route for the drilling pipes to follow.
Pretty much today's VR gaming headset world. Except, without a headset. And this was almost a quarter of a century ago.
I can't imagine what the energy companies are doing now, with their supercomputers and seemingly limitless budgets.