Tim Davison
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Apple featured CellWalk in a newsroom article on apps built with the Foundation Models framework introduced in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26. The piece describes CellWalk as “the immersive biology app” that “lets users explore a detailed 3D cell down to the molecular level, or take a tour through life’s molecular machines.”
I spoke at KWDC25 — the Koreawide Developer Conference — at the aT Center in Seoul, sharing the design principles behind CellWalk for Apple Vision Pro. The talk, Thoughtful Spatial Design: Exploring Biology from Cells to Atoms , walked through how we make a whole bacterial cell legible and navigable in spatial computing, from continuous scale transitions down to atoms to the interaction patterns…
The University of Calgary covered CellWalk’s Apple Design Awards finalist nod in a June 17, 2025 alumni story . I told UCalgary: “It’s very surreal to find out that our little app about cell biology had the attention of people inside of Apple.”
I joined fellow Apple Design Awards 2025 winners and finalists on stage for The Interface at WWDC25, a curated fireside chat series hosted by UX designer Tamia James. The panel brought together CellWalk (Visuals and Graphics finalist), DREDGE (Interaction winner), and Train Fitness (Inclusivity finalist) to share the stories, craft, and decisions behind the work.
CellWalk was named a finalist in the Visuals and Graphics category of the 2025 Apple Design Awards , announced ahead of WWDC25. Apple describes the category as recognizing apps with “stunning imagery, skillfully drawn interfaces, and high-quality animations that elevate the experience.”
ShipEditor (2016–2017) was a VR game for designing, building, and flying spacecraft and bases. You engineer your ships down to the fuel flow rates of each thruster, then take them out into the void. Features: Accurate (analytical-only) orbital mechanics 6-DOF thruster controls — VR gives full six-degree-of-freedom control, so no clunky fighter joysticks Thruster simulator: place thrusters anywhere…
Abstract Christian Jacob, my supervisor, presented the Lindsay Virtual Human Project at TEDx in 2016. I built this red-blood cell cross section for his talk. What’s particularly cool about this red blood cell is that it’s procedurally generated, on-the fly, as the camera flies around the scene. It utilized my discrete element texture synthesis algorithm to do its magic.
Above: Afshin Esmaeili’s lactose operon simulation running inside Composer. Abstract The Lindsay Composer was an engine powering many of the experiences in the Lindsay Virtual Human Project. I originally developed it for my MSc thesis as the OmijaEngine. When I joined the Lindsay project in 2009, I renamed it the Lindsay Composer, and oversaw its development. Over the course of the project,…
Coming soon to the Apple App Store. Follow our development on twitter: WIP: New UI for zooming around a 250-million atom cell on iPad! I added a new UI for slicing, and a bunch of little animations (check out the focus visualization). This is going to be awesome for biology class! #SciComm #gamedev #xcode #metalapi #ios #apple pic.twitter.com/UDUsZDSTxX — Tim Davison ᯅ (@timd_ca) November…
Abstract LifeBrush is a Cyberworld for painting dynamic molecular illustrations in virtual reality (VR) that then come to life as interactive simulations. We designed our system for the biological mesoscale, a spatial scale where molecules inside cells interact to form larger structures and execute the functions of cellular life. We bring our immersive illustrations to life in VR using agent-based…
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Abstract Textures composed of individual discrete elements are found in everything from human-made glass-tilings to forests and tropical coral. We propose an interactive sketch-based system for synthesizing scenes consisting of many discrete element textures. We have implemented an example-palette, a design window where a user can use our sketch-based tools to create discrete element textures and…
Abstract Building and interacting with 3D agent-based simulations that contain a large number of agents is a significant challenge. What if we want to create an intricate new arrangement of agents, or reconfigure a large number of agents? We present LifeBrush, a cyberworld for interactively painting large and elaborate multi-agent simulations with commodity virtual reality systems that we can then…
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Abstract The huddle is a concept for extending computer games in which the player controls more than one character. It combines several AI methods to allow the player to create a cooperative strategy for his team of characters. It takes away the need for the player to frantically switch his control from character to character to carry out the strategy that he has in mind. The player enters the…
Abstract The goal of SimuDensEndo was to train endodontists in dental surgery inside a realistic virtual reality simulator–AKA root canal simulator (ouch!). Our technology leveraged the Oculus Rift VR hreadset and the Leap Motion hand tracking device. I helped develop volumetric rendering and physics software that translated high resolution scans of real teeth into objects that could be drilled…