cellVIEW: A tool for illustrative and multi-scale rendering of large biomolecular datasets

Mathieu Le Muzic, Ludovic Autin, Julius Parulek, Ivan Viola

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

65 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this article we introduce cellVIEW, a new system to interactively visualize large biomolecular datasets on the atomic level. Our tool is unique and has been specifically designed to match the ambitions of our domain experts to model and interactively visualize structures comprised of several billions atom. The cellVIEW system integrates acceleration techniques to allow for real-time graphics performance of 60 Hz display rate on datasets representing large viruses and bacterial organisms. Inspired by the work of scientific illustrators, we propose a level-of-detail scheme which purpose is two-fold: accelerating the rendering and reducing visual clutter. The main part of our datasets is made out of macromolecules, but it also comprises nucleic acids strands which are stored as sets of control points. For that specific case, we extend our rendering method to support the dynamic generation of DNA strands directly on the GPU. It is noteworthy that our tool has been directly implemented inside a game engine. We chose to rely on a third party engine to reduce software development work-load and to make bleeding-edge graphics techniques more accessible to the end-users. To our knowledge cellVIEW is the only suitable solution for interactive visualization of large bimolecular landscapes on the atomic level and is freely available to use and extend.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationEurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, VCBM 2015
EditorsKatja Buhler, Lars Linsen, Nigel W. John
PublisherEurographics Association
Pages61-70
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9783905674828
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015
Event2015 Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, VCBM 2015 - Chester, United Kingdom
Duration: Sep 14 2015Sep 15 2015

Publication series

NameEurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, VCBM 2015

Conference

Conference2015 Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine, VCBM 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityChester
Period09/14/1509/15/15

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project has been funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) through project VRG11-010 and also supported by EC Marie Curie Career Integration Grant through project PCIG13-GA-2013-618680. Additionally, this work has been carried out within the PhysioIllustration research project 218023, which is funded by the Norwegian Research Council. Autin,L. received support from the National Institutes of Health under award number P41GM103426.

Funding Information:
This project has been funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) through project VRG11-010 and also supported by EC Marie Curie Career Integration Grant through project PCIG13-GA-2013-618680. Additionally, this work has been carried out within the Phys-ioIllustration research project 218023, which is funded by the Norwegian Research Council. Autin,L. received support from the National Institutes of Health under award number P41GM103426.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Eurographics Association 2015.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

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