With 90% of the iron ore in Europe contained within Northern Sweden, it’s not surprising the Luleå University of Technology is a hub of mining and geological expertise.
With links to institutions around the globe, including Canada, Australia and the UK, the Luleå team had had plenty of opportunities to assess, not only the different types of Virtual Reality (VR) hardware and software, but also the advantages it can deliver.
They chose a high-end Virtalis ActiveWall 3D/VR display system with GeoVisionary software. The ActiveWall boasts a 6m wide solid Da-Lite screen, two Christie 4K blended rear-projectors and wireless tracking from Intersense. Virtalis’ Swedish partner, MindSpace, is supplying the audio visual elements of the facility, including the audio and the AMX control system.
Gustav Jansson, Luleå’s associate senior lecturer in Industrialised Construction, explained: “In both teaching and research within GeoMining we often struggle to understand and communicate the 3D shapes that are in the ground from 2D drawings. VR helps us to visualise. My own specialty is Construction Infrastructure and VR will help us design the most efficient processes whilst maintaining standardisation. Colleagues in Ore Geology, Architecture, Timber Structures, Construction Engineering and Management and Mining Engineering will all benefit from this investment in top spec Virtalis hardware.”
Luleå’s Ore Geology Department has also bought several licences of Virtalis’ GeoVisionary, the specialist software for high-resolution VR visualisation of geological and geoscientific data. “We’ll be using GeoVisionary with our industrial partners, for shape data analysis, linking up with GIS, and for visualising interactive events, such as a blast”, said Jansson.