The Virtual Photonics Technology Initiative was established by the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program (LAMMP), an NIH/NIBIB Biotechnology Resource Center at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic in April 2008.
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(a) Design and distribute easy-to-use open-source software tools with graphical-user interfaces that simulate the propagation and distribution of optical radiation in cells and tissues.
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(b) Supply educational resources that provide the appropriate foundation for the proper usage of these computational tools.
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(c) Develop improved computational models to simulate and design optical diagnostic, imaging, and therapeutic modalities.
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(d) Stimulate the formation of an active community of 'experts' in Computational Biophotonics interested in offering their expertise and in developing advanced simulation tools to advance this open-source effort.
The primary vehicle for the accomplishment of these goals is the ongoing development of the Virtual Tissue Simulator (VTS). The VTS is being designed as a modular and scalable platform to provide an integrated suite of computational tools to define, solve, visualize, and analyze relevant forward and inverse radiative transport problems in Biomedical Optics. We intend to develop specific Application ToolKits (ATKs) that will provide a user-interface customized for the simulation of issues specific to an application domain. Examples include Small Animal Imaging and Fiber Optic Probe development.
To access the latest release, past releases and downloads, click here.
To access getting started instructions in Linux, Mac or Windows, click
For detailed instructions on how to launch the VTS GUI, click here.
Use the following citation or acknowledgement in publications or applications that make use of this open source software or underlying technology and research:
"We acknowledge open-source software resources offered by the Virtual Photonics Technology Initiative (https://virtualphotonics.org), at the Beckman Laser Institute, University of California, Irvine."
In addition, for any work that utilizes the Virtual Photonics Monte Carlo software, cite the following publication:
Carole K. Hayakawa, Lisa Malenfant, Janaka C. Ranasinghesagara, David J. Cuccia, Jerome Spanier, Vasan Venugopalan, "MCCL: an open-source software application for Monte Carlo simulations of radiative transport," J. Biomed. Opt. 27(8) 083005 (12 April 2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.27.8.083005
For more information about coding conventions and how to contribute to our Open Source effort see our developer website
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Virtual Tissue Simulator (VTS) Project.
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