Using a commodity high-definition television for collaborative structural biology

• Published in: Journal of applied crystallography Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 1153 - 1157
• Main Authors: Yennamalli, Ragothaman, Arangarasan, Raj, Bryden, Aaron, Gleicher, Michael, Phillips Jr, George N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 5 Abbey Square, Chester, Cheshire CH1 2HU, England International Union of Crystallography 01.06.2014; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Biology; collaborative structural biology; Commodities; Controllers; Crystallography; Games; HDTV; High definition television; Laboratory Notes; protein structure visualization; Proteins; Stereoscopic; Television; Visualization; collaborative structural biology; protein structure visualization
• ISSN: 1600-5767; 0021-8898; 1600-5767
• DOI: 10.1107/S160057671400939X

Visualization of protein structures using stereoscopic systems is frequently needed by structural biologists working to understand a protein's structure–function relationships. Often several scientists are working as a team and need simultaneous interaction with each other and the graphics representations. Most existing molecular visualization tools support single‐user tasks, which are not suitable for a collaborative group. Expensive caves, domes or geowalls have been developed, but the availability and low cost of high‐definition televisions (HDTVs) and game controllers in the commodity entertainment market provide an economically attractive option to achieve a collaborative environment. This paper describes a low‐cost environment, using standard consumer game controllers and commercially available stereoscopic HDTV monitors with appropriate signal converters for structural biology collaborations employing existing binary distributions of commonly used software packages like Coot, PyMOL, Chimera, VMD, O, Olex2 and others.