Visualization News

Timmins sees in 3D with world’s first library VR studio

On the 1st of December, Timmins, Ont., became the first city in the world to host a virtual reality facility in a public library. The Timmins Virtual Reality Studio is funded in part by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp., within the $3.4-million Northern Advanced Visualization Network (NAVNet) project, managed by Laurentian University’s MIRARCO.

The studio is housed in the Tembec Room of the newly-built Timmins Public Library. MIRARCO’s start-up director, Andrew Dasys, says, “Mining is starting to catch on that this is more than just pictures. Fine tuning your exploration program, or developing better methods to ‘read’ your data, is just the tip of the iceberg. When you have the brightest technical minds in the same room, looking at your models, it’s almost magical.”

Says Rick Bartolucci, Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development & Mines, “There is huge potential in Northern Ontario, and projects such as NAVNet will help bring that potential to the surface. This project will not only help mining and exploration companies to access more effective ways to interpret their data, it could possibly lead to new ore finds, new Ontario investments, and new jobs.” Learn more about the project at www.mirarco.org/navnet.php.