Liza Kolev Project 2 Proposal Plan
MRI Imaging with Unity and Paraview
Motivation
When thinking of Project 1 ideas, I was considering looking at brain imaging scans of athletes in different sports. While it is not possible to find the data for this idea at the current time, I was able to find brain imaging datasets of two other studies: imaging of the effects of sleep deprivation and imaging of acute and chronic brain injury.
After reading the Seven Scenarios paper, I would like this project to focus on communication the message of both of these studies as well as allowing there to be collaboration betweeen users. In order to compare software, I aim to have one dataset be shown through Unity and the other in Paraview.
N.B. After discussing with Jakobi via Slack, if the MRI imaging doesn't work out, I will continue on with Project 1.
Sleep Deprivation MRI Set
The dataset can be found here. It is NIfTi data type.
Description: "Sleepiness is a brain state with pervasive effects on cognitive and affective functioning. However, little is known about the functional mechanisms and correlates of sleepiness in the awake brain. This project aimed to investigate overall effects of sleepiness on brain function with particular regard to emotional processing."
Acute and Chronic Brain Injury MRI Set
The dataset can be found here. It is NIfTi data type.
Milestones
04/04/23:
Research MRI imaging on the wiki to help concretely decide on Project 2
Read Shreya D'Souza's journal about their use of Unity/Paraview to view MRI imaging
Download datasets and test viewing in Unity/Paraview
04/06:
Using Unity's VR template to set up a new VR project
Start setting up the collaboration with this VR project so that it is possible for two people to get into the app
04/11:
Start looking into how to ensure that users can see each other in the VR visualization
04/13:
Import MRI images into VR project
04/18:
Create Google Form for In-Class acitivity
Set up page about project and prepare parts about classmates' responses to Google Form
04/20:
Make video tutorials for any part of Unity or Paraview that was used in project that don't already exist on the wiki
04/25:
Create in-class activity handout
04/27:
Add any dataset or datatype found to Scientific Data page
Add thoughts on the datatypes used in my project on a separate page linked to Scientific Data page
05/02:
Contribute to wiki with data, tutorials, and pages; Make sure both visualizations work in collaboration settings. Any additional updates to project visualizations
05/04:
Contribute to wiki with data, tutorials, and pages; Make sure both visualizations work in collaboration settings. Any additional updates to project visualizations
In-Class Activity
There will be two visualizations: one for the sleep deprivation set and one for the acute and chronic brain injury. Students will be put in pairs so that they can collaborate while looking at the dataset. Like in Project 1, there will be a Google Form at the end of the class activity to gauge everyone's thoughts on the data visualization and the collaboration capabilities.
Wiki Deliverables
A deliverable that will probably occur at the end of the project will be a page with the results from the class activity and an evaluation of Unity/Paraview as MRI imaging visualizers.
Add data to scientific data page (includes data not used in project but found during research)
Make video tutorials for any part of Unity or Paraview that was used in project that don't already exist on the wiki
Collaboration Aspect
The aim for this project in terms of collaboration is similar to what we saw with DinoVR in class. Due to my current level of knowledge, I am aiming for only two people to be able to enter the VR visualization and to see the data at the same time. In addition, one person would be able to change what is being viewed in the visualization. However, unlike DinoVR, I would like it to be that the users have two separate pointers so that they can see each other.