At $350,000, the VisWall from VisBox makes eye-popping 3d a reality on an 8 foot by 14 foot screen. In flat screen mode, the display is reported to be twice as sharp as an HDTV. If only we had had one of these when I was in high school. It would have breathed new life into all of those boring biology lectures. Seeing a frog heart in 3d on screen is hardly as satisfying as the look on your lab partners face hours after class when he opens his lunch and finds the amphibious organ sitting next to his sandwich.

The futuristic display works by using dual projectors to impart three-dimensional form and even “feel” to virtual objects, whether a string of molecules seeming to swirl in mid-air, a hovering swath of DNA, or a simulated diseased organ about to be removed.

“You feel like you are entering another world,” said Bruce M. Boghosian, chair of the Tufts mathematics department and adjunct professor of computer science, who uses the VisWall to enrich his studies of fluid dynamics, or how liquids flow under a range of conditions.

“With such powerful visualization, you can immerse yourself in the data,” he said. “You can go right up to streamlines in a fluid or dig into a reservoir to see which way it’s flowing.”

Scientific visualization refers to computer-linked technology that enables researchers to “see” objects, processes, or raw information that may be too small, too distant, or - in many cases - too abstract to scrutinize with the unaided eye. The VisWall, for example, can lead a medical student on a highly-detailed journey through the colon or create a virtual tornado that uses computer models to show how the collision of winds and thermal currents quickly builds into one of nature’s most brutish forces.

“The brain has a large region devoted to processing visual images, it’s very powerful, and often under-utilized in processing data,” said Robert J. K. Jacob, professor of computer science. “We hardly think about it because it is so easy, natural, almost unconscious, but it really does a lot. A key idea behind visualization is to harness all that brainpower to help understand our data.”

According to Tufts, most visualization systems use several projectors or multiple “tiled” screens to produce images based on data entered by scientists or mathematical models produced by computers. The VisWall uses a single screen and two projectors to produce nearly 9 megapixels of resolution. In flatscreen mode, it boasts twice the sharpness of high-definition televisions.

For Caroline G. L. Cao, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, a big attraction of the VisWall is its “haptic” capability - that is, the unit’s ability to use computer-generated feedback to impart a sense of feel or touch to someone using the remote controls. This allows senses in the fingertips to guide the manipulation of virtual scalpels or surgical tweezers onscreen.

“You aren’t just seeing, you are feeling,” said Cao, whose focus is making more tactile surgical training systems. “This is critical, for example, in training or designing tools for laparoscopic surgery,” or for surgery performed with devices manipulated by tubes inserted through tiny incisions in the skin.

Someone wielding a scalpel, for example, can sense the yield of the skin and the controlled slice of blade through soft tissue, said engineering student Kyle Maxwell, a Tufts senior and member of Cao’s surgical simulation team.

Such refined haptic technology is not employed on most laparoscopic training systems, so research using the VisWall could eventually boost the quality of medical training as well as assist in the designing new surgical tools.

“The texture of the skin or the organ changes and deforms according to how you use your device,” Maxwell said. “You use ‘feel’ to figure out the right pressure for cutting away a tumor, say, and removing it with a grabbing tool.”

3D VisWall makes scientists drool, your flat-panel weep