Convergence of Augmented Reality and Scientific Visualization, and its Application to Energy, Medicine and Sports

What do we find in common among systems that seek to convey meaningful images to an oil reservoir interpreter, a medical doctor and an ordinary sports fan enjoying a broadcasted game on TV? They are generated by a system that processes captured signals and produces images conveying relevant information to the viewer. These processes are based on Computer Vision techniques to analyze the signal in order to predict forms and find features mainly to answer a “what, where and when” type of question. With such information, Virtual Reality techniques are used to produce meaningful images to the human observer. These systems can be understood as the convergence of the Augmented Reality and Scientific Visualization areas. This study presents some industrydemanded systems developed by the Tecgraf group which reflect this convergence.