TIM, a ray-tracing program for METATOY research and its dissemination

TIM (The Interactive METATOY) is a ray-tracing program specifically tailored towards our research in METATOYs, which are optical components that appear to be able to create wave-optically forbidden light-ray fields. For this reason, TIM possesses features not found in other ray-tracing programs. TIM can either be used interactively or by modifying the openly available source code; in both cases, it can easily be run as an applet embedded in a web page. Here we describe the basic structure of TIMʼs source code and how to extend it, and we give examples of how we have used TIM in our own research.Program summaryProgram title: TIMCatalogue identifier: AEKY_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEKY_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queenʼs University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: GNU General Public LicenseNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 124 478No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 4 120 052Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: JavaComputer: Any computer capable of running the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 1.6Operating system: Any; developed under Mac OS X Version 10.6RAM: Typically 145 MB (interactive version running under Mac OS X Version 10.6)Classification: 14, 18External routines: JAMA [1] (source code included)Nature of problem: Visualisation of scenes that include scene objects that create wave-optically forbidden light-ray fields.Solution method: Ray tracing.Unusual features: Specifically designed to visualise wave-optically forbidden light-ray fields; can visualise ray trajectories; can visualise geometric optic transformations; can create anaglyphs (for viewing with coloured “3D glasses”) and random-dot autostereograms of the scene; integrable into web pages.Running time: Problem-dependent; typically seconds for a simple scene.References:[1]JAMA: A Java matrix package, http://math.nist.gov/javanumerics/jama/.

► TIM is a program that visualises scenes that appear wave-optically forbidden.
► TIM can render scenes for 3D viewing, as anaglyphs or autostereograms.
► TIM can be modified and incorporated into web pages.
► TIM can be used for research and its dissemination.