Hearing biochemical structures

Abstract

Accurately perceiving the structure of biochemical molecules is key to understanding their function in biological systems. Visualization software has given the scientific and medical communities a means to study these structures in great detail; however, these tools lack an intuitive means to convey this information to persons with visual impairment. Advances in spatial audio technology have allowed for sound to be perceived in 3-dimensional space when played over headphones. This work presents the development of a novel computational tool that utilizes spatial audio to convey the three dimensional structure of biochemical molecules.