JURGEN: I can create virtual worlds that could never exist in reality that no one has ever
thought about that I am the first one to really build and make visible and make accessible to people.
NARR: At the University of California - San Diego, researchers use the most
sophisticated 3D virtual reality technology to bring raw data - billions of numbers in a computer - to life.
JURGEN: You can walk around in them. Things can happen in them. They are a
lot like a big computer game only that you have a lot more freedom designing what you
really want to do. I am Jurgen Schultz. I am a Project Scientist at the CalIT center,
that's the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at the
University of California at San Diego.
NARR: He's part computer scientists, part virtual reality researchers, and part video game designer.
JURGEN: I develop software and research user interfaces and display technology for virtual environments.
NARR: And this room is called the "star cave," where Jurgen's clients get to literally stand inside their own research.
WOMAN: Here we go, yeah. JURGEN: Beautiful – now we can see the surface of the protein.
JURGEN: The virtual reality center here at the University of California at San
Diego is the leading virtual reality center in the world. WOMAN: This is really valuable.
NARR: This researcher is studying the molecular structure of proteins… it was Jurgen's job
to turn her raw data into virtual reality.
WOMAN: This is fantastic because this is something that typically is on the order of about a billionth of a meter so on the nano scale.
NARR: Her research will help develop new drug treatments for diseases such as African Sleeping Sickness and Bird Flu.
WOMAN: This is a protein that’s involved in African Sleeping Sickness. So we are trying to
develop drugs that actually will bind inside this protein and prevent it from working.
JURGEN: This cave environment is composited out of 15 screens. Behind each screen is a
computer that drives 2 projectors projecting high definition quality images on
the screen. These are the kind that you might find in the gaming environment. These are
high end gaming machines really. We use a very advanced optical tracking system. Its based on
infrared light. You can grab things – put them somewhere and then grab something else – put
it somewhere – change a dial and it works much like a Wii device but its really truly three dimensional.
NARR: And Jurgen is constantly finding new ways to benefit science… like this revolutionary approach to surgery.
JURGEN: When you look at this cat scan from the back – we can see that these... discs there is a half a disc missing.
NARR: The high resolution and 3-D environment of Jurgen's star cave can allow surgeons to take
more precise measurements of complicated anatomy.
JURGEN: The doctors are able to make fewer mistakes, be more confident and have the
information readily available and thus be able to do faster surgery.
NARR: The star cave is also helping brain researchers by providing a controlled, virtual, environment.
JURGEN: We wire up a subject with EEG electrodes. The major goal of this project is to learn more about the brain and its
activity and its roll in way-finding and navigation.
NARR: It may look like a video game, but it's really science at work.
JURGEN: What we need to do is download the experimental data so we can analyze it.
NARR: When he's not moving through virtual worlds, Jurgen moves to the world outside.
JURGEN: On weekends I like to go to the bay and roller blade with my wife. Today is a beautiful day for
sailing. I love the ocean and I love to be on the ocean. And I love to be on a boat. ...feeling
the wind and figuring out where you want to go and how you can get there.
NARR: Not a whole lot different from sailing through his virtual creations.
JURGEN: What I like about my work is that I have the freedom to do what I love to do and
I can do it here with equipment that I could never afford myself.
NARR: Jurgen received his PhD in computer science - he encourages
aspiring virtual reality scientists to just dive in and learn...
JURGEN: Write your own computer game, learn a programming language and learn about the mathematics and the
linear algebra that is involved in computer graphics. It’s very important that you build a solid
foundation in mathematics and logic. So anything that has to do with it like physics and
chemistry and also computer science and informatics in the high school that is important to
build this background that you will need as a scientist.
NARR: To build these kinds of virtual environments for scientific exploration,
it also helps to have a healthy interest in a variety of fields.
JURGEN: The work that I do contributes to the knowledge in science in the
medical field, in biology, architecture, or archeology, or engineering, structural
engineering, mechanical engineering, it could be chemistry…these environments are
the future of scientific visualization.
MAN: Oh the future was so cool!
NARR: And in Jurgen's star cave, the future is virtually now.