A video based on the Multi-scale Multi-physics Heart Simulator, a computer simulation developed by The University of Tokyo and RIKEN, won the prize for “Best Visualization or Simulation” at SIGGRAPH 2015, a major international meeting that features advances in computer graphics.

The award-winning video explains the structure and function of the human heart using the results of UT-Heart, a multi-scale, multi-physics heart simulator run on several supercomputers including the K computer that RIKEN operates. Using the power of supercomputers, the simulation starts by modeling the contractile proteins within heart cells and looks at how these actions translate into the macro-scale beating of the heart. The simulation is groundbreaking in its accurate modeling of the motions of the heart, including the actions of valves, to accurately show how blood flows through the system.

The goal ultimately is to use the knowledge gained from the simulator to contribute to research on therapies for cardiac diseases and evaluations of pharmaceuticals.

The prize will be presented during the Computer Animation Festival at the Los Angeles Convention Center during SIGGRAPH 2015, which will be held in August 2015. This video (and other materials) are available on the website of the RIKEN HPCI Program for Computational Life Sciences.

Watch the Video!