Augmenting comprehension of geological relationships by combining 3D laser scanning of meso- and macro-scale visualization techniques

地理信息系统(GIS)广泛应用于地学和工程领域，用于研究和可视化复杂的数据集。ESRI加拿大公司(行业合作伙伴)是地理信息系统领域的全球领导者，不断推动其技术的创新和新颖应用。鉴于激光扫描在各种空间尺度上获取数字数据集的普及，地质工程领域出现了将中尺度物体(即岩石和岩心的手样)集成到宏观尺度(地理信息系统，这里是ESRI的ArcGIS软件)可视化环境中的机会。这是一项具有挑战性的任务，因为它需要在一个公共平台上无缝集成多尺度数据和相关的属性/参数(即岩石表面粗糙度、光泽、取向)。这项研究工作的结果将使知情的用户能够利用地质工具访问ArcGIS软件的所有内置功能，这些工具可以统一数据，以减少主观性和偏见。简而言之，我们的目标类似于地质工程的“街景”。通过这一研究伙伴关系，ESRI加拿大公司将在各个领域追求身临其境的技术，为地球科学教育工作者和研究人员提供一个革命性的工具箱，这是ESRI加拿大公司快速增长的客户基础。作为最终用户/客户直接受益于这一研究协作的具体部门是教育(各级)、自然资源(勘探和开发、采矿)和测绘。

Geographical information systems (GIS) are widely used throughout the geosciences and engineering fields for investigating and visualizing complex datasets. ESRI Canada (the industry partner) is a worldwide leader in GIS that is continuously pushing the envelope for innovative and novel applications of its technology. Given the proliferation of laser scanning for acquiring digital datasets at various spatial scales, an opportunity arises for the field of geological engineering to integrate meso-scale objects (i.e., hand samples of rocks and cores) into the macro-scale (GIS, in this case ESRI's ArcGIS software) visualization environment. This is a challenging task as it requires the seamless integration of multi-scale data and associated attributes/parameters (i.e., rock surface roughness, luster, orientation) on a common platform. The results of this research work, will enable informed users to access all of the built-in capabilities of the ArcGIS software with geological tools that can unify data to reduce subjectivity and bias. In simple terms, our goal is akin to 'street view' for geological engineering. ESRI Canada's pursuit of immersive technology in various sectors will be facilitated through this research partnership resulting in a transformative toolbox for geoscience educators and researchers, which is a fast-growing customer-base for ESRI Canada. The specific sectors that will directly benefit as end-users/clients from this research collaboration are education (at all levels), natural resources (exploration and development, mining) and mapping.