Bourne P, Gribskov M, Johnson G, Moreland J, Wavra S, Weissig H
San Diego Supercomputer Center, CA 92186, USA.
Pac Symp Biocomput. 1998:118-29.
Illustrations of macromolecular structure in the scientific literature contain a high level of semantic content through which the authors convey, among other features, the biological function of that macromolecule. We refer to these illustrations as molecular scenes. Such scenes, if available electronically, are not readily accessible for further interactive interrogation. The basic PDB format does not retain features of the scene; formats like PostScript retain the scene but are not interactive; and the many formats used by individual graphics programs, while capable of reproducing the scene, are neither interchangeable nor can they be stored in a database and queried for features of the scene. MICE defines a Molecular Scene Description Language (MSDL) which allows scenes to be stored in a relational database (a molecular scene gallery) and queried. Scenes retrieved from the gallery are rendered in Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and currently displayed in WebView, a VRML browser modified to support the Virtual Reality Behavior System (VRBS) protocol. VRBS provides communication between multiple client browsers, each capable of manipulating the scene. This level of collaboration works well over standard Internet connections and holds promise for collaborative research at a distance and distance learning. Further, via VRBS, the VRML world can be used as a visual cue to trigger an application such as a remote MEME search. MICE is very much work in progress. Current work seeks to replace WebView with Netscape, Cosmoplayer, a standard VRML plug-in, and a Java-based console. The console consists of a generic kernel suitable for multiple collaborative applications and additional application-specific controls. Further details of the MICE project are available at http:/(/)mice.sdsc.edu.
科学文献中的大分子结构插图包含高水平的语义内容，作者通过这些插图传达该大分子的生物学功能等诸多特征。我们将这些插图称为分子场景。这类场景若以电子形式提供，却不易于进行进一步的交互式查询。基本的蛋白质数据银行（PDB）格式无法保留场景特征；像PostScript这样的格式虽能保留场景但不具备交互性；而各个图形程序所使用的众多格式，虽能够重现场景，却既不可互换，也无法存储在数据库中并针对场景特征进行查询。分子交互计算环境（MICE）定义了一种分子场景描述语言（MSDL），它允许将场景存储在关系数据库（一个分子场景库）中并进行查询。从库中检索到的场景会以虚拟现实建模语言（VRML）进行渲染，目前在WebView中显示，WebView是一个经过修改以支持虚拟现实行为系统（VRBS）协议的VRML浏览器。VRBS提供多个客户端浏览器之间的通信，每个浏览器都能够操纵场景。这种协作水平在标准互联网连接上运行良好，有望实现远程协作研究和远程学习。此外，通过VRBS，VRML世界可以用作视觉提示来触发诸如远程模体搜索之类的应用程序。MICE仍在大力研发中。当前的工作旨在用Netscape、Cosmoplayer（一个标准的VRML插件）和一个基于Java的控制台来取代WebView。该控制台由一个适用于多个协作应用程序的通用内核以及额外的特定于应用程序的控件组成。有关MICE项目的更多详细信息可在http:/(/)mice.sdsc.edu上获取。
