Speaker

Cyrille Favreau: Visualization Architect @ Blue Brain Project (EPFL)

Abstract

One of the keys towards understanding how the brain works as a whole is visualisation of how the individual cells function. In particular, the more morphologically accurate the visualisation can be, the easier it is for experts in the biological field to validate cell structures; photo-realistic rendering is therefore important.

The Blue Brain Project has made major efforts to create morphologically accurate neurons to simulate sub-cellular and electrical activities, e.g. molecular simulations of neuron biochemistry or multi-scale simulations of neuronal function. Ray-tracing can help to highlight areas of the circuits where cells touch each other and where synapses are being created. In combination with ‘global illumination’, which uses light, shadow, and depth of field effects to simulate photo-realistic images, this technique makes it easier to visualise how the neurons function.

BRayns is a minimalistic visualiser that can perform ray-traced rendering of neurons. It provides an abstraction of the underlying rendering engines, so that the best possible data libraries can be used for the relevant hardware. This demo shows how BRayns can be used to visualise and debug generated morphologies.

Target audiences

• Scientific Visualization students, developers and researchers
• Ray tracing addicts
• Brain simulation

Note

The talk is spoken in English.

Blue Brain プロジェクトで可視化エンジニアとして活躍する Favreau 氏による, Blue Brain プロジェクトの可視化とその専用レイトレーシングレンダラ BRays の日本初の解説です!