DIVE: seeing better in order to understand better

Software developed at the TIMC lab by Pierre Jacquet makes it possible to visualise heterogeneous scientific data in 3D in a single collaborative environment. It has given rise to a start-up to be launched in May 2024.
During his thesis on tumour metabolism at the TIMC,* Pierre Jacquet was faced with the difficulty of analysing heterogeneous data: simulations, images, etc. To make these data easier to read, he developed software to bring them all together in a single environment. It was such a success that, at the end of his thesis, he decided to extend his invention to all types of scientific visualisations: scatter plots, graphs, diagrams, images, etc. This is how DIVE came about. This software exports scientific visualisations from business software, which are then centralised in a collaborative 3D virtual environment using a headset or augmented reality glasses. The first application envisaged was naturally in the field of health. “Surgeons who operate on tumours, for example, have a wide range of information at their disposal which they have to visualise in their minds: scans, MRIs, etc,” says Pierre Jacquet.  3D scanners exist, but viewing them on a 2D screen is no good. With Dive, we want to transform scanners into holograms that can be observed from every angle and manipulated by several people in real time.” To do this, the doctor wears a mixed-reality helmet-visor that lets them see the room they are in. They can then cut on demand, zoom in, measure and manipulate the subject... choose to display only the muscles, or only the bones.

DIVE Visualisation independent from what is being viewed
But beyond health, DIVE can be useful in many other areas. “The key to the innovation lies in the fact that we have succeeded in describing any type of visualisation in the same way: a scatter plot, an air flow under a car, a temperature map, etc. The result is software capable of sharing any type of scientific visualisation in a 3D environment in a collaborative way.” Ultimately, the software could be used by engineers in industry to design products or analyse defects in equipment
The idea won Pierre Jacquet the Linksium Out Of Lab competition in 2022, and he began thinking about creating his start-up, scheduled for launch in May 2024.

*CNRS, UGA, VetAgro Sup, Grenoble INP - UGA, CHU Grenoble Alpes