BP Center for Visualization to Open in June 2001

Virtual reality images look so real that visitors wearing battery-operated glasses try to reach out and touch something. This photograph was taken at the press conference announcing the new center in October 2000.

College and industry leaders are eagerly awaiting the grand opening this summer of the BP Center for Visualization. The center promises to continue research in immersive visualization technology applied to oil and gas exploration, and extend this technology into new fields of research, education, and application.

The newest of the college's 19 interdisciplinary research centers was made possible through a $10.6 million gift from BP (formerly British Petroleum) last fall, the largest single donation from a corporation ever made to the University of Colorado. ARCO, which later merged with BP/Amoco (now BP), developed the technology in the 1990s to enhance the probability of success in oil and gas exploration. This important technical development is saving millions of dollars in developing new fields and helping to minimize environmental impact.

The Immersive Visualization Environment (IVE) developed by ARCO scientists, now at CU, transforms numeric data into colorful, three-dimensional images. This allows petroleum scientists to virtually transport themselves underground and ultimately make better decisions about where to locate oil and gas wells.

A virtual reality workroom, resembling a small light-tight theater will house CU's state-of-the-art, re-configurable, 12x12x10-foot IVE. It will be assembled in a 7,800-square-foot facility on CU-Boulder's East Campus that is now being refurbished. Researchers will wear battery-operated goggles to experience virtual reality in immersive 3-D active stereo. More