Geoscientists and mineral explorers are working in a world of increasing types, volumes and complexity of data. The problem isn’t so much what data should we acquire, but rather how do we make use of the mountains of information at our disposal and turn it into new insights and new knowledge?

This dilemma is exacerbated by the limitations of current tools to reliably, efficiently and intuitively analyse complex data, and the interoperability of our data repositories.

Virtual and augmented reality are rapidly evolving technologies that may offer novel solutions through data immersion. This approach encapsulates the concept of “space to think”, where different scales and contexts of data analysis can be bridged, intuitive gesture-based tools for data interaction can be used, and new ways of analysing information can be introduced to support rapid and informed decision-making.

This presentation will provide a demonstration of three recent projects developed at UniSA that use immersive technologies to work towards the goal of an exploration metaverse, encompassing augmented reality core logging, virtual collaboration and visualisation of spatial datasets, and immersive analytics for geoscientific data.