Computer Tomography and Imaging	Rapid Development

Kehlco Scientific Visualization Systems provides UNIX^®-based software tools for scientific, engineering and other technical applications using image-producing devices such as microscopes, video cameras, digital cameras, ultrasound, catscan and MRI. These devices are utilized by professionals in materials science, seismology, reservoir engineering, petrophysics and medical disciplines, among others.

Drilling Fluid Surface Cross Section

In addition to consulting services, Kehlco develops custom software to support computer tomography and imaging for complex research activities, including core sampling and analysis in the petroleum industry.

PV-WAVE-based imaging products compute and analyze quantitative values. Petroleum industry companies spend millions of dollars extracting core samples from the ground and analyzing their contents. Maintaining the integrity of the samples with nondestructive techniques is critical for this type of research.

"Because our tools are based on PV-WAVE, clients can quickly perform computations on 2D and 3D data sets. Within minutes users can determine the physical properties of a sample, its density, porosity, saturation, atomic number and more, all with PV-WAVE's easy-to-understand graphical user interface," said Bob Kehl, president of Kehlco.

Using Kehlco's software integrated with PV-WAVE's customizable, visual exploration tools (PV-WAVE Navigator), Kehlco clients can perform the following functions with the click of a mouse:

Arbitrary Slicing and Measurement
Display all scan slices, perform oblique slicing and rendering and produce tabular cross-sectional statistics for export to spreadsheet files.

Axial Slice Alignment

3D Rendering of Sample Volume

Align sequences of slices with linear proportioning.

Morphology
Examine scanned objects using filters on slices and volumes.

CT Beam Hardening Adjustment
Compute beam hardening adjustment for each pixel in scanned slices.

General Computations
Perform computations on any numerical object (scalar, vector, 2D, 3D, etc.) regardless of whether the data represent constants, slices or entire volumes.

Data Exploration, Statistics and Analysis
Compute and display image statistics for every operation and/or graphics object, including cross-plots, histograms and color-coded legends.

Volumes and Slices of Interest Interactively
Define slices and volumes by using various shapes as masks, such as circles, polygons and rectangles.

General Display
Perform 2D and 3D rendering, including isosurfaces of slice and volume, and change aspect ratios to reflect true dimensions of 3D objects.

PV-WAVE greatly accelerates project implementation. "Because of its inherent rapid development capabilities, PV-WAVE saves me money and shortens development cycles," said Kehl. "I can quickly adapt PV-WAVE's custom visual exploration tools to the specific needs of my clients."

"In the mid 1980s, the products used to perform these analyses were very rudimentary. There was no GUI, and the tools had limited capabilities. I used to spend at least two weeks writing code in FORTRAN; now computations take five minutes. PV-WAVE speeds up the process by at least 70 to 80 percent," said Kehl.

Ground Core Sample Imaging

"Most important, PV-WAVE is an intuitive and a facile product that improves my clients' productivity. They don't need to be computer experts to perform their analyses. They can focus on their expertise as core analysts instead of programming," Kehl explained.

One of the main benefits Kehlco's clients realize with PV-WAVE's capabilities is the ability to perform point-and-click calculations on objects of any type with any dimensions. "PV-WAVE is a flexible tool because it supports data without needing prior knowledge. It doesn't care if the data is 2D, 3D, real or integer. It allows users to build buttons and slides that easily control manipulation of complex data," said Kehl.

PV-WAVE offers flexible portability across platforms. Kehl has used PV-WAVE's export capabilities to transfer applications from XWindows to Windows^® 95 without having to make significant changes. In every case, Kehl has successfully ported images between UNIX^®, Hewlett Packard^®, Sun OSS, Sun Solaris, Silicon Graphics^® and PC formats.

In addition, PV-WAVE has built-in features that support many industry-standard formats for desktop publishing, so images are easily manipulated and exported to other applications and platforms.

"Volume Visual Numerics has anticipated my needs and my clients' needs by adding enhanced features to PV-WAVE that improve productivity while keeping support costs low," Kehl added.

Visual Numerics provides first-rate support. Because of the complexity of his development projects, Kehl works with Visual Numerics' technical support department at least once a day.

"I have received excellent and responsive support from Visual Numerics' staff. Their Website is also a great resource for information. It's easy to navigate so I can find answers quickly," said Kehl.