haptic and visual rendering for multi modal exploration of molecular information

The paper presents a system for the multi-modal rendering of molecules. Chemists typically deal with phenomena that are not directly experienceable and usually described by huge amount of data awkward to understand directly. Software tools have been introduced to support data interpretation, without a high degree of interactivity and explorability of the data. This work goes beyond the classical visual representations of molecules and introduces some new ways of exploration and navigation of information on which inter-molecular interactions are based. Target users are researchers and teachers, as integration to their activities. Two different modalities are used: haptical and visual. The former modality consists in the addition of a haptic interface that enables users to feel the interaction forces exerted by the electric field around a molecule. The latter modality shows the features of the same electric field by allowing the user to navigate the information about the values of the field using a visual color-based rendering and adding other visual cues. Implementation details, case studies, and results on the two modalities are described. Eye-tracking, awareness tools, machine learning, coordination, expertis

Haptic feedback in teleoperation in Micro-and Nano-Worlds.

International audienceRobotic systems have been developed to handle very small objects, but their use remains complex and necessitates long-duration training. Simulators, such as molecular simulators, can provide access to large amounts of raw data, but only highly trained users can interpret the results of such systems. Haptic feedback in teleoperation, which provides force-feedback to an operator, appears to be a promising solution for interaction with such systems, as it allows intuitiveness and flexibility. However several issues arise while implementing teleoperation schemes at the micro-nanoscale, owing to complex force-fields that must be transmitted to users, and scaling differences between the haptic device and the manipulated objects. Major advances in such technology have been made in recent years. This chapter reviews the main systems in this area and highlights how some fundamental issues in teleoperation for micro- and nano-scale applications have been addressed. The chapter considers three types of teleoperation, including: (1) direct (manipulation of real objects); (2) virtual (use of simulators); and (3) augmented (combining real robotic systems and simulators). Remaining issues that must be addressed for further advances in teleoperation for micro-nanoworlds are also discussed, including: (1) comprehension of phenomena that dictate very small object (< 500 micrometers) behavior; and (2) design of intuitive 3-D manipulation systems. Design guidelines to realize an intuitive haptic feedback teleoperation system at the micro-nanoscale level are proposed

Advances in Human-Protein Interaction - Interactive and Immersive Molecular Simulations

International audienc

A semantically adaptable integrated visualization and natural exploration of multi-scale biomedical data

The exploration of biomedical data which involves heterogeneous sources coming from different spatial scales and medical domains is a challenging topic in current research. In this work, we combine efforts regarding multi-scale visualization, multimodal interaction and knowledge formalization for the exploration of multi-scale biomedical data. The knowledge formalization stores and organizes the information sources, the integrated visualization captures all relevant information for the domain expertise of the user and the multimodal interaction provides a natural exploration. We present a concrete example of use of the proposed exploratory system designed for a biologist investigating multi-scale pathologies.This work was supported from the EU Marie Curie ITN MultiScaleHuman (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-ITN, Grant agreement no.: 289897). The authors would like to thank all the partners for providing biomedical data sets.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Usability Assessment of a Multimodal Visual-Haptic Framework for Chemistry Education

In this work, we assess the usability of a virtual environment where the force of interaction between the electrostatic field around the molecule and a charge associated to the proxy of a haptic device can be felt. Feedbacks to user are provided in a multimodal visual and haptic way, and auxiliary information are also rendered

Visualization methods for analysis of 3D multi-scale medical data

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Haptics Rendering and Applications

There has been significant progress in haptic technologies but the incorporation of haptics into virtual environments is still in its infancy. A wide range of the new society's human activities including communication, education, art, entertainment, commerce and science would forever change if we learned how to capture, manipulate and reproduce haptic sensory stimuli that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. For the field to move forward, many commercial and technological barriers need to be overcome. By rendering how objects feel through haptic technology, we communicate information that might reflect a desire to speak a physically- based language that has never been explored before. Due to constant improvement in haptics technology and increasing levels of research into and development of haptics-related algorithms, protocols and devices, there is a belief that haptics technology has a promising future