In October of last year, an interesting company came onto the scene with the most unique-looking microscopes ever released. Nanotronics Imaging specializes in 3D scanning at the microscopic level, but its nSPEC microscope may have caught more attention for its 3D printed design from fashion designer Francis Bitonti. From a technical point of view, however, nSPEC offers new possibilities for examining tiny things in 3D and, today, Nanotronics revealed just one of those possibilities with nVisible, a piece of VR software for virtually walking through molecules and atoms.
Unveiled at the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, nVisible is a VR platform that works with data collected by the nSPEC to allow for exploring microscopic materials in 3D. You can see the platform in action below and in a separate video here. Matthew Putman, CEO and co-founder of Nanotronics, describes the technology in this way, “Science is at the cusp of a new industrial revolution where the ability to understand the world at nanoscale will enable radical advancements across numerous industries. To create the future, you have to be able to see it. So with nVisible we are turning 3D microscopic visualizations into exploratory, interactive content that will allow researchers, technicians, and scientists an experiential way to gather insights and collaborate at the atomic level.”
Nanotronics will be demonstrating the capabilities of their nVisible software via a short film at the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards today, where the company will receive an award for its work. The film carries the viewer into the molecular and atomic level of a moth’s wing in extreme detail. And, at Pioneer Works Center for Art and Innovation’s annual Village Fete, attendees will actually get to experience the wing in VR.
Along with the new tech, Nanotronics has announced that Eric Drexler, a pioneer in nano-scale manufacturing with atomic precision, has joined the company’s strategic advisory board. Drexler, who just finished his book Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization while in residence at Oxford, said, in reference to his new position, “The ongoing revolution in nanoscale engineering is transforming our lives: Every chip in every cell phone is a product of nanotechnology. To make progress in this realm, scientists and engineers must be able to see what they are doing. Nanotronics is pushing forward the necessary state of the art and bringing new capabilities to industry and research labs around the world.”
Nanotronics’ work is an exciting addition to the emerging world of mixed reality/reality computing in that brings the world of VR and 3D scanning down to the microscopic level, where doctors and researchers can benefit from immersive technology to yield results that will have a huge impact on scientific progress. I have no doubt that the company will be there to make sure that science can benefit from this framework.
