Toward mobile 3D visualization for structural biologists

Abstract

Technological advances in crystallography have led to the ever-rapidly increasing number of biomolecular structures deposited in public repertoires. This undoubtedly shifts the bottleneck of structural biology research from obtaining high-quality structures to data analysis and interpretation. The recently available glasses-free autostereoscopic laptop offers an unprecedented opportunity to visualize and study 3D structures using a much more affordable, and for the first time, portable device. Together with a gamepad re-programmed for 3D structure controlling, we describe how the gaming technologies can deliver the output 3D images for high-quality viewing, comparable to that of a passive stereoscopic system, and can give the user more control and flexibility than the conventional controlling setup using only a mouse and a keyboard. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.