ImmersiveViz

ImmersiveViz

ImmersiveViz was developed as a component to monitor head tracking and rotate the molecule displayed in such a manner to provide an immersive experience. The ImmersiveViz (MolViz) software integrates two forms of head tracking: Wiimote infrared (IR) based (active tracking) and webcam based (passive tracking). By rotating the molecule in a direction opposite to the motion of the user's head we provide a 3D experience; to the user, it appears as if they are 'peeking' around the side of the object.

Our system contains a head tracking thread which communicates the users position to a PyMol script via a socket. The PyMol script unpacks the message and updates the world respectively. All rotation is done around the virtual origin in PyMol and zoom is also considered.

We are also developing a Wiimote-based interface whereby the Wii remote can be used as an high degree-of-freedom input device (i.e. a 3d mouse).

Contributed by Christian Muise and Ryan Lilien at the University of Toronto.

Availability

Additional Information

• Project Information: http://molviz.cs.toronto.edu/molviz
• Project Discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/molviz

PyMol Script

• Project Page: http://code.google.com/p/immersive-viz/
• Source: [here] and [here]
• Instructions: [here] and [here]

Head Tracking

• Project Page: http://code.google.com/p/htdp/
• Source: http://code.google.com/p/htdp/source/browse
• Instructions: http://code.google.com/p/htdp/wiki/Users