Collaborative Virtual Environments for Creative Molecule Design

Abstract

Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes in living organisms. One of he most common industry roles in biochemistry is to develop biochemical products and pro- cesses by engineering new molecule structures. There are many applications available for use in studying and editing molecules and there properties, but many of them are still single user applications and are still controlled by the conventional desktop keyboard and mouse. This project aims to improve current molecular software tools by introducing a collaborative virtual environment. This will enable may users to participate in the research and development through auditory and visual interactions. Rendering molecules in 3D within a virtual environment will immerse users further into their work. The application will be able to render the work environment to many types of displays including PowerWalls and CAVEs. The new visual aspect of the virtual environment will enable users to have a more creative approach to engineering new molecular structures by gaining an intuitive and visually appealing work environment. This document describes an extensive design of the system, methods used for implementing the design, tests carried out in the created environment, their results, and conclusions of the overall project.