Interactive Visualization And Interpretation of Geologic Surfaces In 3-D Seismic Data

Summary A unified approach is presented for the interactive exploration of seismic datasets in real-time. This method combines 3-D structure analysis and implicit surface modeling with a real-time visualization by working directly on a graphics processing unit (GPU). A streaming level set algorithm steers a surface according to features in seismic data and immediately visualizes the results. This technique is implemented using the CUDA programming environment and results are compared to a CPU implementation to show the benefits of using the GPU for seismic data interpretation. A user study is conducted in order to demonstrate real-world usability of the technique. The results present a new interactive visualization system for interpreting geologic surfaces in seismic datasets such as faults, channels, and geobodies.