A multi-sensory system for manipulating geological datasets: Bimanual or multi-user interaction

In geological area, such as petroleum and mining exploration, virtual reality (VR) immersive systems have been largely used for geological data treatments. Most of such VR systems involve unimanual interaction with data in a stereoscopic visual environment. Many research activities have shown that bimanual interaction tends to provide better performance when compared to unimanual interaction. Thus, we have designed a multi-sensory input and feedback system, which allows bimanual or multi-user interaction for analyzing and manipulating geological datasets. Within a three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic visual environment, this system uses a haptic (force feedback) device to facilitate the analysis of geological datasets with the sense of touch; and a range camera to track in real time the position of a customized tool for manipulating (translating and rotating) the datasets. Our first implementation of the system has verified its appropriateness for user interaction.