Virtual Finger takes scientists through 3D landscapes

The new technology, dubbed Virtual Finger, allows scientists to move through digital images of structures such as neurons and synapses using the flat surface of their computer screens.

Virtual Finger’s technology is claimed to make 3D imaging studies orders of magnitude more efficient, saving time, money and resources across many areas of experimental biology. The software and its applications are profiled in Nature Communications.

Most other image analysis software works by dividing a three-dimensional image into a series of thin slices, each of which can be viewed like a flat image on a computer screen.

To study three-dimensional structures, scientists sift through the slices one at a time: a technique that is increasingly challenging with the advent of big data.

‘Looking through 3D image data one flat slice at a time is simply not efficient, especially when we are dealing with terabytes of data,’ said Hanchuan Peng, Associate Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. ‘This is similar to looking through a glass window and seeing objects outside, but not being able to manipulate them because of the physical barrier.’