SBIR Phase II: Exploring Complex Biological Concepts in an Interactive 3-D Learning Environment over the Internet

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will create a 3D, interactive learning system to communicate complex scientific concepts from biological and medical science, which are difficult to grasp via long narrative scripts. The detailed technical specifications formulated in Phase I will be developed into a software solution distinctive from what is available today. This learning tool allows the user to inquire about objects in a visualization context, where specific aspects of these objects can be manipulated. Syandus has adapted sophisticated real-time 3D rendering technology common to video games as follows: 1) by creating the ability to interact with time driven, 3D process models of complex scientific phenomena; and 2) by associating textual information with these visualized objects and processes. At a user's mouse click, objects intelligently reveal what they are about in deeply layered text, illustrations and linked files. This interface can aggregate all kinds of information, such as all of a pharmaceutical company's technical information on a disease. Finally, Syandus is building the software to be delivered across the Internet through a standard browser interface or launched from a CDROM and automatically updated via a narrowband Internet connection. The differentiation among pharmaceutical products is ever increasingly grounded in rapidly evolving complex science, thus making essential a mechanism for aggregating and communicating scientific information that relates how drugs work to disease states. Focusing on the pharmaceutical industry as the firm's first target market, Syandus proposes to create a tool to help physicians understand the breakthrough medicines to treat complex disease states that adversely impact people's lives. The firm's custom projects will result in enduring resources for medical students, professionals and healthcare consumers. As the technology matures, the firm will pursue higher education markets. Through Internet connectivity, the product can reach wide audiences across the globe.