Interactive Rendering of Materials and Biological Structures on Atomic and Nanoscopic Scale

dc.contributor.authorLindow, Norberten_US
dc.contributor.authorBaum, Danielen_US
dc.contributor.authorHege, Hans-Christianen_US
dc.contributor.editorS. Bruckner, S. Miksch, and H. Pfisteren_US
dc.date.accessioned2015-02-28T07:03:09Z
dc.date.available2015-02-28T07:03:09Z
dc.date.issued2012en_US
dc.description.abstractThe properties of both inorganic and organic materials and the function of biological structures can often only be understood by analyzing them simultaneously on atomic and nanoscopic, if not mesoscopic, scale. Here, the problem arises to render millions to billions of atoms. We propose a method by which it is possible to interactively visualize atomic data, bridging five orders of magnitude in length scale. For this, we propose a simple yet efficient GPU rendering method that enables interactive visualization of biological structures consisting of up to several billions of atoms. To be able to load all atomic data onto the GPU, we exploit the fact that biological structures often consist of recurring molecular substructures. We also exploit that these objects typically are rendered opaquely, so that only a fraction of the atoms is visible. The method is demonstrated on both biological structures as well as atom probe tomography data of an inorganic specimen. We conclude with a discussion about when during ascension from atomic to mesoscopic scale level-of-detail representations become necessary.en_US
dc.description.seriesinformationComputer Graphics Forumen_US
dc.description.volume31
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/j.1467-8659.2012.03128.x
dc.identifier.issn1467-8659en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8659.2012.03128.xen_US
dc.publisherThe Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.en_US
dc.titleInteractive Rendering of Materials and Biological Structures on Atomic and Nanoscopic Scaleen_US
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