A 3D Representation of a Large Pedigree with Affective Disorder and Epilepsy
On this page is a 3D depiction of a large, inbred pedigree overlaid with bipolar phenotypes. It is possible to navigate through the pedigree directly in your browser using zoom, slide and rotate functions.
How to interpret the 3D pedigree
Mates are joined with horizontal lines. Children are shown in the generation level below, radiating outwards. For example, the figure at left shows two parents and their seven children. Multiple partners are shown using more than one horizontal line emanating from one person. There are three such examples in the 3D pedigree.
Gender is depicted with shape (cubes for men, spheres for women). Phenotypic information is show with colour; on one half of each icon dark blue indicates bipolar affective disorder, light blue represents unipolar recurrent depression, and white represents absence of both. On the other half red represents epilepsy. It is possible for an icon to be red in one half and blue in the other. The individual ID number is shown below each person's icon.
Green circular shadows appear in the pedigree to aid interpretation. Each shadow represents a clade, or set of founders and their descendents. The founders of each clade appear at the centre of each circular shadow when viewed from on top. The dotted lines show the link between a set of parents and their child who has married into another family. Consanguineous marriages are represented with a double line.
The 3D Pedigree
If you can see several green discs on a black background, then you have installed BS Contact VRML/X3D successfully.
How to Navigate Around the Pedigree
Returning to the initial viewpoint
The initial viewpoint is chosen by the browser. You can return to this viewpoint at any time by pressing esc. Note: we've noticed that when you first display an individual pedigree, it sometimes appears zoomed right in. It is helpful to press esc when this happens to view the entire pedigree.
Examine mode
The default mode for movement is 'examine'. It is chosen by typing ctrl-shift-e (The cursor will have a little 'E' next to it). This allows you to zoom in and out by clicking on an object and using the scroll wheel. The scene may be rotated by holding down the left mouse button whilst moving the mouse. Note: if the zoom becomes "sluggish" click on an object to zoom toward and try again.
Targeted zooming
To zoom toward a particular object, hold down F3 (changing the cursor to crosshairs) and click on the object. Repeat if you don't get close enough to the object as you desire.
Slide mode
Another useful mode for movement is 'slide', chosen by typing ctrl-shift-s (the cursor will have a little 'S' next to it). You can then slide in any direction by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse.
Making an object the centre of the scene
When rotating a pedigree, the centre of rotation will often be chosen by the browser to be the centre of the pedigree. You can change the centre of rotation to be some object, say, an individual by using a targeted zoom into that object (see Section 5.2) and, when very close to the object, holding down the left button over the object, and jiggling the mouse. This sets a new centre for rotation as well as zoom, as long as you are near enough to that object, or else BS Contact resets the centre as the middle of the scene. For one reason or another sometimes this technique isn't so easy to perform!
You can also sometimes rotate about an object by clicking on it and holding down the button while you move the mouse. This sometimes works if you are relatively close to the object.
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