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NCMIR Researcher is Helping to Bridge Art and Science Through the Use of Dynamic Medias

August 3, 2007 — Ruth West, director of visual analytics and interactive technologies at NCMIR and a team of engineers, computer scientists, biologists, and artists have created interactive artwork for exploring new ways of representing nature in the era of metagenomics. Viewers can interact real-time with genetic sequences of marine microorganism on CalIT2’s 100-million-pixel autosterographic display. The immersive visualization display is titled ATLAS in silico and is on display August 4-6 at UCSD’s CalIT2 as part of the annual SIGGRAPH conference that features cutting-edge computer graphics and interactive technologies. Attendance at this year's conference is expected to attract 25,000 to San Diego.

Using a newly-developed audio rendering technique, the immersive ATLAS in silico display allows viewers to interact with genomics and environmental data in real time using a 3-D virtual reality environment. West’s display uses advanced visualization and spatialized audio technologies to display a visual atlas of the ocean’s microbial life as expressed by their genetic sequences. The genetic data was obtained through the Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Metagenomic Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA) program that is based at CalIT2. Genetic sequence and metadata were collected around the globe during the Global Ocean Survey study carried out by the J. Craig Venter Institute (http://www.jcvi.org/), a partner in the CAMERA program.

Sample images and audio: http://atlasinsilico.net/about.html

Detailed CalIT2 press release: http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1143

CAMERA highlight on CRBS Web site: http://crbs.ucsd.edu/camera_03-2007_highlight.htm