Researchers at Stony Brook University have developed the world’s largest immersive visualization cabins, helping doctors find tiny cancers and much more.
Thanks to a $1 million computer upgrade, if you step into one of the University’s three immersive display chambers, you can visualize tiny parts of the body supersized.
“Because we have a 360-degree view, nothing is hidden,” said Dr. Arie Kaufman, distinguished professor of computer science at SUNY Stony Brook.
It gives doctors a better chance of beating cancer, putting chemists inside a single molecule to develop disease-fighting drugs. Kaufman helped develop the circular high-def chambers, changing the way we can see almost everything.
It may sound familiar to anyone who remembers the 1960s film “Fantastic Voyage.”
“Instead of a submarine going down the blood vessels, we have now the physician inside the colon of the patient, navigating and looking for polyps,” Kaufman said.
(Credit: CBS2)
In another chamber, more than 400 screens give a 1.5 billion pixel view.
Imagine the application for law enforcement being able to clearly see every person’s face at a presidential inauguration or stadium without losing context or resolution.
“We can display all of the citizens of the United States in a class photo,” Kaufman said.
It can help scientists visualize what before they could only imagine, like being inside the Milky Way.
“It’s only a little short of actually being in space,” researcher Saeed Boorboor said.
Or seeing an entire city at once.
“All you have to do is walk closer and you can see a construction worker, you can read billboards,signs,” Boorboor said.
The technology could also revolutionize entertainment. Imagine being surrounded by video displays in the movie theater of the future.
