VRVis Zentrum für Virtual Reality und Visualisierung Forschungs-GmbH

The internationally recognised VRVis is Austria‘s leading nonprofit research institution in the field of visual computing and is part of the Austrian Flagship Research Competence Program COMET conducted by FFG. Through our expertise in basic research as well as in applied research, we are instrumental in positioning Austria as a leading technological and knowledge-based region in Europe. Internationality is reflected not only in our scientific network, but also in our team, our cooperation partners as well as clients from all over the world.

As a nonprofit research institute, VRVis sees its main task in building a bridge between science and industry. To achieve this goal, we build a strong interdisciplinary framework of national and international scientists, researchers, government organizations, SMEs and corporations, other nonprofit institutions as well as industry and cultural experts to develop technologies and solutions to benefit our society. VRVis transfers the know-how of top-level visual computing technology to business and industry and other branches of science to optimally leverage all possible potential through state-of-the-art R&D findings, especially by utilizing the large data sets specific to each branch and sector. We publicise our projects and achievements as well as the various uses of visual computing to the general public through active science communication to contribute to public discussion and raise awareness about technological impacts and advantages.

The core competence of VRVis is the use of the key enabling technologies data analytics and visual computing to combine the strengths of human perception with the processing power of computers to generate information and images from large and complex data. In this, VRVis focuses on the human user making decisions based on tailor-made visualization methods and solutions ("human in the loop"). Artificial intelligence research, on which VRVis is increasingly focusing, will continue this concept.

Visual Computing is not limited to any industry, so our research projects at VRVis cover a wide range of data types and applications including engine simulation, image analytics, 3D reconstruction, laser range scans, financial data, energy data, hydrodynamic modelling, automatic segmentation of point clouds, and seismic measurements for oil field research - to just name a few. Our research aims to provide means to visualize, analyze and interact with data to translate the inherent information for the human user as an essential basis for decision-making. The key factors are real-time capability, usability as well as quality and accuracy of the resulting methods and applications.

Visual Computing is a cross-section technology. This means that there is not a fixed industry area for the application of the research results, but rather a large number of markets using the computer graphics tool. Solutions and prototypes are developed by us according to customer-specific requirements and have direct reference to current tasks in industry and economy. The following is a list of the markets in which we operate:

• Automotive Industries
• Climate Change Adaption
• Cultural Heritage
• Energy sector
• Industry and manufacturing
• Infrastructure and traffic solutions
• Medicine and biotechnology
• Geology
• Planetary science
• Other markets

We collaborate with small and big companies as well as local and international enterprises, but support especially SMEs with our know-how and our broad services in R & D. Especially SMEs benefit through the access to the newest key enabling technologies, which we provide thanks to our award-winning in-house research as well as our extensive international network of scientific partners. Through this we offer SMEs and local enterprises the opportunity to gain a decisive technological advantage.

Competences

• Artificial intelligence
• Machine learning, deep learning
• Biomedical visualization
• Image data mining and spatial indexing
• Image data and open research data management
• Human computer interaction
• Visual analytics
• Virtual reality and augmented reality
• Interactive visualization
• Geospatial visualization
• 3D reconstruction
• Additive manufacturing
• Disaster management and visual decision support
• Hydrodynamic simulation and modelling
• Digital twins

Software Platforms

Many years of intensive research have led to a large number of software components that have developed into platforms and now provide an effective basis for many innovative projects. The fields of application range from high-performance visual computing and biomedical visualisation through to data analysis tools and the evaluation of simulation results.



The following VRVis software platforms are being used in a number of application-oriented projects:

• Brain* for management, analysis and visualisation of very large collections of spatial neuroscientific data
• Aardvark for smart modelling, photogrammetric reconstruction and interactive presentation
• GEARViewer is a powerful visualisation framework for infrastructure projects
• PRo3D short for Planetary Robotics 3D Viewer, is an interactive 3D visualization tool allowing planetary scientists to work with high-resolution 3D reconstructions of the Martian surface.
• Visplore for validation, analysis, and decision making on the basis of multivariate data
• Visdom combines visualisation, simulation, and analysis techniques to assist decision making in the geospatial domain.