Library virtual lab first of its kind.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: NEWS

Timmins is the newest site for a virtual reality lab (VRL) designed at Sudbury's Laurentian University to help mining engineers and geologists better analyse their exploration data.

Similar to Laurentian's Sudbury-based system and a smaller unit installed at Red Lake in northwestern Ontario last year, the technology takes complicated geotechnical datasets and projects a three-dimensional stereo image on a large screen.

Scheduled to open this September, the Timmins lab is the latest spinoff by Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corp. (MIRARCO), a non-profit research centre on Laurentian's campus.

As part of the provincially funded Northern Advanced Visualization Network (NAVNet) initiative, MIRARCO technicians plan to get the hardware installed in the Timmins Public Library in time for a September launch. The project received support from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. Corp.

"I think it will be the first virtual reality in any library in the world," says Andrew Dasys, NAVNet's project manager. "It creates a whole new way to look at information" with a strong educational outreach component aimed at getting young people interested in the sciences, engineering, geology and mining.

Two years ago, MIRARCO was awarded $1.7 million by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. to establish the two-year NAVNet initiative. The plan is to create a network of virtual reality labs across the North in Sudbury, Red Lake, Timmins and eventually Thunder Bay, for use by mining and exploration companies and for mining-related research.

The first VRL, which opened at Laurentian in 2001, has proven to be an enormous time saver for mining and exploration companies, helping them better understand their drill-hole data and interpret ground conditions, as well as the location and quality of mineral deposits.

The process enables engineers with 3D glasses to examine their data on a large radial screen and to take a virtual ride underground through mine workings.

It's been key for many companies in speeding...