In this photo taken Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Chicago, brain surgeon Ali Alaraj talks about the first time he viewed the brain using the CAVE2. You can walk between the blood vessels, said the University of Illinois College of Medicine neurosurgeon. You can look at the arteries from below. You can look at the arteries from the side". CAVE2 is a system of 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels that encircles the viewer 320 degrees and creates a 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover of the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In this photo taken Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Chicago, University of Illinois-Chicago computer scientist Jason Leigh, co-inventor of the CAVE2 virtual reality system, stands in the CAVE2's doorway where the system's 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels encircles the viewer 320 degrees and creates a 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In this photo made Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Chicago, University of Illinois-Chicago computer scientist Jason Leigh, co-inventor of the CAVE2 virtual reality system, stands in the CAVE2 where the system's 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels encircles the viewer 320 degrees and creates a 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In this photo made Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Chicago, Andreas Linninger, University of Illinois-Chicago professor of bioengineering, chemical engineering and computer science, left, adjusts his 3D glasses as brain surgeon Ali Alaraj talks about viewing the brain inside CAVE2. CAVE2 is a system of 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels that encircles the viewer 320 degrees and creates a 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover of the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In this photo made Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Chicago, Andreas Linninger, University of Illinois-Chicago professor of bioengineering, chemical engineering and computer science, left, views the brain inside CAVE2. Linninger heads a study that would compare CAVE2 to conventional methods of detecting brain aneurysms and determining proper treatment. CAVE2 is a system's of 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels that encircles the viewer 320 degrees and creates a 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover of the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In this photo made Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Chicago is the CAVE2 "wand." The wand and a pair of 3D glasses enables viewers inside CAVE's 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels encircling the viewer 320 degrees, the ability to control movement in the 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover of the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
University of Illinois-Chicago computer scientist Jason Leigh, co-inventor of the CAVE2 virtual reality system, poses with a pair of specially designed 3D glasses in the CAVE2 where the system's 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels encircles the viewer 320 degrees and creates a 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain.Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
CHICAGO (AP) — Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3D glasses can do …