Real-time sonification of molecular data in immersive virtual simulation environments

虚拟现实中的分子表示是一个崭新的研究领域，具有广阔的应用前景。学术界和工业界都对虚拟现实的潜力感兴趣，以了解和设计广泛的纳米结构，包括材料和药物。大卫Glowacki博士的研究小组是国际领先的开发和应用的商品虚拟现实技术的分子研究应用的新类别。早期的结果是非常有前途的，并表明，原生的三维可视化和操纵复杂结构的方式提供了显着的优势相比，标准的2d显示器。随着沉浸式显示环境在科学可视化中的使用可能会变得越来越普遍，它立即变得明显，这些环境是多么安静。我们的大脑天生就能处理三维听觉信息，而在当前这一代虚拟沉浸式显示器中，它的缺失是惊人的。我们相信，在虚拟世界中包含数据发音策略将显着提高研究人员处理数据的能力，并深入了解分子结构和动力学。与我们的眼睛相比，我们的眼睛具有相对较小的动态范围和较慢的时间分辨率（~25 Hz），我们的耳朵具有跨越3个数量级的动态范围，并且时间分辨率明显更快。在这个博士项目中，Alex Jones将研究实时分子数据流的声化策略。他将研究如何将广泛的分子数据分类器有效地转化为音频流，并进行详细的人机交互研究，旨在调查这些各种发声策略与更传统的图形表示相比的功效。例如，一个特定的研究领域将旨在调查分子的不同部分在多大程度上将动能分配到具有节点和反节点的运动中，这些运动可以直接转化为声音频率和位置。这是一个令人兴奋的新研究领域，因为只有少数研究论文涉及分子数据声化的主题。在博士期间，Alex Jones将受益于与以下公司的合作关系：（1）Interactive Scientific，一家位于布里斯托尔的软件初创公司，专门从事利用虚拟和增强现实的沉浸式科学模拟环境;和（2）C4 X药物发现，一家位于曼彻斯特的制药公司，有兴趣在自己的药物发现管道中使用沉浸式模拟和可视化环境

Molecular representation in virtual reality is a brand-new field of research with a promising future. Both academics and industrialists have become interested in the potential of virtual reality for understanding and designing a wide range of nano-structures, spanning both materials & pharmaceuticals. Dr. David Glowacki's research group is amongst the international leaders in developing and applying brand new classes of commodity virtual reality technology for molecular research applications. Early results are extremely promising, and indicate that natively 3-dimensional ways for visualising and manipulating complex structures afford significant advantages compared to standard 2d displays.With the use of immersive display environments in scientific visualization likely to become increasingly more common, it becomes immediately obvious how silent these environments are. Our brains are hard-wired to process 3-dimensional auditory information, and its absence in the current generation of virtual immersive displays is striking. We believe that inclusion of data sonification strategies in the virtual world will significantly enhance the researcher's ability to process data and gain insight into molecular structure and dynamics. Compared to our eyes, which have a relatively small dynamic range and a slow time resolution (~25 Hz), our ears have a dynamic range spanning 3 orders of magnitude, and significantly faster time resolution.During this PhD project, Alex Jones will investigate strategies for sonification of real-time molecular data streams. He will examine how a wide range of molecular data classifiers can be effectively translated into audio streams, and carry out detailed human-computer-interaction studies aimed at investigating the efficacy of these various sonification strategies compared to more traditional graphical representations. For example, one specific area of research will be aimed at investigating the extent to which different parts of a molecule partition kinetic energy across themselves into motions with nodes and anti-nodes, which could be directly translated into sound frequencies and localities.This is an exciting new research domain, owing to the fact that there are only a handful research papers in total that address the topic of molecular data sonification. During the PhD, Alex Jones will benefit from collaborative links with the following companies: (1) interactive Scientific, a Bristol-based software startup with specialities in immersive scientific simulation environments utilizing virtual and augmented reality; and (2) C4X drug discovery, a Manchester-based pharmaceutical company with interests in using immersive simulation and visualization environments within their own drug discovery pipeline