3D Visualization of Biological Data in Ultra High Definition Virtual Reality

Visual computing is an indispensable tool in biology, revolutionizing the way researchers interact with complex biological data. The integration of high-resolution Virtual Reality offers rich visualization experience, crucial for advancing our knowledge in areas such as genomics, proteomics, and cellular biology. Recent VR-based biological visualization often deploys lower-resolution Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), limiting the observation of fine structural detail. Moreover, the simultaneous exploration of multiple datasets in an interactive manner is still a research challenge. This work presents an interactive 3D reconstruction and visualization system for biological data in ultra-high-definition VR. The system supports volume rendering, flexible rendering, and the simultaneous visualization of multiple datasets, all within an 8K VR environment. Intricate cellular and subcellular structures as well as detailed protein folding patterns and subtle variations in tissue density are visualized, critical for accurate medical diagnosis and research. Our system’s performance is evaluated based on loading time, frames per second, and device latency, while handling large biological datasets. A think aloud study provided expert feedback.