Overview

GPR-SLICE is a proprietary software package designed and written by geophysicist Dean Goodman of the Geophysical Archeometry Laboratory in Los Angeles, CA. It is used for creating 2D/3D subsurface images from raw Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) data, and has a wide variety of applications including geotechnical, engineering and archaeological. It is currently being utilized by more than 140 private, educational, and governmental organizations worldwide.

Functionality

Dr. Goodman decided to contract out his programming work for the first time in 2005, which is what enabled me to design and produce the first version of my GPR-SLICE View add-on module. Although GPR-SLICE View cannot operate on raw GPR data directly, it offers significant advantages over the original GPR-SLICE in the manipulation and display of the final radargram imagery.

Prior to the introduction of the module, users would numerically specify their desired viewing angle, depth, color palette, and any other information that would affect the appearance of their display. They would then wait for the software to produce a still jpeg image. If they wanted to change the angle of the view, cut away any of the volume, or perform any other manipulation, the processing would have to be repeated.

GPR-SLICE View uses OpenGL to render Dr. Goodman's 3D volumes in real-time, substantially decreasing the time required by the end-user to locate and identify important geological features. It enables the user to move freely about the volume, rotating, zooming, and selectively adding or removing slices to reveal interior features. It supports multiple color palettes, isosurface rendering, and can output any given display to a static jpeg image file. And because it is a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) application, several volumes can be opened and manipulated simultaneously for comparison.

Screenshots

Please roll your mouse over each image for a larger version and a short description.

A horizontal slice of a burial chamber discovered in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. Notice the clearly visible road through the left of the image. This is presumed to have been created by ancient farmers or field workers long after the completion of the tomb itself.

This shows the software's ability to create fences from solid volumes. Note that a different color palette has been applied to emphasize the geological features in the data sample.

Each of the two solids here is being rendered with isosurface removal. This means that any areas where the radar pulses were reflected below a minimum threshold are hidden by the software, further emphasizing the important features. Note ring-shaped burial mound in the volume to the right (Ikime, Japan).

This is an image produced by the original GPR-SLICE Software. You can see that it is similar to those produced by GPR-SLICE View, although this is a static image - in order for it to be changed, rotated, or altered in any way it must be reproduced from scratch.

Dr. Goodman and myself collecting the radar data for later processing (Miyazaki, Japan).

Surveying a fifth-century burial mound (Miyazaki, Japan).