Virtual Reality Modeling Language 2.0 Control Help Page

Introduction Objects toggle Objects link Hide controls Help toggle Rotate Title/Scale toggle Image toggle Automatic dissection toggle Manual dissection toggle

Introduction

The advent of tools which can move the realm of the Internet from the 2-dimensional to the 3-dimensional is important, especially for an application of neuroanatomy for Flybrain. With the introduction of programmable behavior to the VRML 3D coding, the 'Moving Worlds' Standard, the user can not only explore the surfaces of a group of static 3D objects, but truly manipulate the structures, doing realtime dissections, all with full control of the model's behavior.

For a full list of VRML 2.0 compliant browsers, please visit the following page. This model has been optimized for the fully VRML 2.0 compliant SGI version of Cosmoplayer, but also works with the PC Version 1.1 Beta 3a.

Cosmoplayer General Controls

Action	Shortcut
Rotate or tumble	Alt+Left Mouse Button
Pan (slide camera)	Ctrl+Left Mouse Button
Move toward/away (dolly)	Ctrl+Alt+Left Mouse Button
Follow a link	click Left Mouse Button
Go to previous viewpoint	Page Up
Go to next viewpoint	Page Down

Along with the standard dashboard controls included with the 3D browser, the Flybrain Managers have been working to construct another set of controls specific to the 3D model being presented, that will give the user full range of control for many different actions.

There are four viewpoints (front, side, and rear shown above) provided with this model. The frontal viewpoint serves as default.

On the left face of the main blue rectangle are embedded eight spheres, which correspond to the eight objects composing this model. Clicking the spheres turns the individual objects off, while transforming the spheres to squares in the 'off' position.

The example at left is provided as an example of turning individual objects to the off position. The orange, pink and white squares indicate that the mushroom bodies, ellipsoid boy and fan-shaped body have all been turned off. The antennal glomerular-tract, protocerebral bridge, and noduli (purple, blue, and turquoise, respectively) can be seen clearly behind.

Clicking on the squares resets the switches and allows the indivdual objects to be displayed.

The green rectangle below the main blue rectangle control functions as a toggle switch to hide and show the VRML 2.0 Controls. When the controls are hidden, a green translucent rectangle on the right side of the viewer will be visible. Clicking on the dark rectangle re-enables the controls.

Beneath the Hide Controls toggle switch can be found a red rectangle, which enables the help screen. This screen lists the functions of the controls (grey), and describes the relationship between the object switches/links and associated anatomical structure (white).

	Object	Color
	Mushroom Body Kenyon Cells	Grey
	Mushroom Bodies	Orange
	Ellipsoid Body	Pink
	Fan-Shaped Body	White
	Protocerebral Bridge	Blue
	Noduli	Turquoise
	Antennal Glomerular Tract	Purple
	Antennal Lobes	Violet

The help button leads to this description page.

Beneath the Help toggle switch can be found a blue rectangle, which enables the model to rotate automatically. Clicking on the switch causes the color hues to change from blue to grey, and rotation starts, through 360 degrees on the horizontal plane. Clicking on this Rotate toggle switch again returns the switch color to normal and stops model rotation in place.

This function works only when the browser is set to the default Frontal Viewpoint.

Beneath the Rotate toggle switch can be found a green rectangle, which enables the functional toolbar and scale. The toolbar functions similarly to the toolbar on the main html pages of Flybrain. The Flybrain Logo button links to the main page of Flybrain. The Status button indicates the current status of the page. The Index button links to the Flybrain main index page. The Search button links to the Flybrain search engine query page. The Access button links to the acession number retrieval page. Full documentation of the Flybrain toolbar can be found here. The scale is loaded as a seperate file, and can be easily calibrated to match the size of the structure at its surface.

Clicking again on the switch hides the toolbar and scale.

Beneath the Rotate toggle switch can be found a green rectangle, which enables a slider control to insert 2D images into icorrect depth of plane for the 3D model.

The current embedded series are HRP-DAB immunohistological preparations of the transformant Drosophila line 747 (Yang et al. Neuron 15, 1995, 45-54), showing partial staining of the Mushroom Body neuropil. Histology by Ilya Vilinsky.

At the bottom of the controls, a red sphere can be used as Automatic dissection toggle, to automatically dissect the model along the anterior plane. The normal view corresponds to the red sphere, while the exploded view corresponds to the larger green sphere. Upon clicking the larger green sphere, the switch is rest and the objects return to the normal position.

Manual dissection toggle

At the bottom of the controls, embedded in the Automatic dissection toggle switch sphere, is the Manual dissection toggle, a switch to enable the user to manually move the objects along the frontal (transverse) plane. Clicking on the switch will move the small dark sphere to the on (right) position. The small sphere color hue will change from red-grey to green-grey. Clicking on the switch again will move the switch to the off (left) position, and the color hue will return to red-grey.

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