There are a few visualisation packages out there that either have VR support now or are very close to having it in place. I've personally had a chance to briefly try out the Oculus Rift (aka seasickness simulator) in VMD. The challenge with these things is doing the head-tracking, re-calculating the display, and showing it fast enough that the delay doesn't cause disorientation/dizziness - or, alternatively, predicting head movements well enough so that the eyes see what they expect. It's getting very close, but still imperfect.
If you want to get really excited, though, check out the Microsoft Hololens and start imagining the possibilities.
Cheers,
Tristan
-----Original Message-----
From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert Sweet
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2015 11:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ccp4bb] VR – I can’t believe no-one is talking about this!
Iʼm a synchrotron geek and Iʼve not actually solved a structure for years, and I certainly never ran COOT. The NY Times recently send all of us subscribers a stereo viewer: http://www.google.com/get/cardboard/ It came with our Sunday paper. It helped introduce a new NYT feature, which is virtual-reality news stories. Here is the website presenting this feature as it is today:
http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/nytvr/ The initial feature was the
one entitled The Displaced.
I donʼt happen to own a Smart Phone, but my son Charley (a photographer) does and probably most of you do. He hadnʼt really learned about this, but he happens to be home for Thanksgiving and tried it out. I watched the full episode entitled Backwater on the nytvr web site. It's pretty thrilling!
To me the idea of touring the inside of a protein molecule pops up instantly. Back in the early days of stereo images for computerized model building, folks would talk about "virtual reality." To me this wasn't virtual, it was REALITY; I WAS inside the molecule looking around. Is any of you looking at this smartphone/stereo viewer combo? Why is there no chatter on ccp4bb? What a great way to recruit grad students!
Bob
=========================================================================
Robert M. Sweet E-Dress: [log in to unmask]
Principal Investigator, LSBR: The Life Science ^ (that's L
and Structural Biology Resource at NSLS-II not 1)
Photon Sciences and Biosciences Dept
Office and mail, Bldg 745, a.k.a. LOB-5
Brookhaven Nat'l Lab. Phones:
Upton, NY 11973 631 344 3401 (Office)
U.S.A. 631 344 2741 (Facsimile)
=========================================================================
