Towards Commodity, Web-Based Augmented Reality Applications for Research and Education in Chemistry and Structural Biology
This work addresses the need for accessible, immersive tools for research and education in chemistry and structural biology, though it is incremental as it builds on existing web technologies.
The authors developed web-based augmented and virtual reality applications using commodity, open-source technologies to create immersive, interactive interfaces for chemistry and structural biology, enabling molecular visualization, coarse-grained modeling, and on-the-fly calculation of experimental observables.
This article reports prototype web apps that use commodity, open-source technologies for augmented and virtual reality to provide immersive, interactive human-computer interfaces for chemistry, structural biology and related disciplines. The examples, which run in any standard web browser and are accessible at https://lucianoabriata.altervista.org/jsinscience/arjs/armodeling/ together with demo videos, showcase applications that could go well beyond pedagogy, i.e. advancing actual utility in research settings: molecular visualization at atomistic and coarse-grained levels in interactive immersive 3D, coarse-grained modeling of molecular physics and chemistry, and on-the-fly calculation of experimental observables and overlay onto experimental data. From this playground, I depict perspectives on how these emerging technologies might couple in the future to neural network-based quantum mechanical calculations, advanced forms of human-computer interaction such as speech-based communication, and sockets for concurrent collaboration through the internet -all technologies that are today maturing in web browsers- to deliver the next generation of tools for truly interactive, immersive molecular modeling that can streamline human thought and intent with the numerical processing power of computers.