Wednesday, November 25, 2009

352 Media Group: Creating a Microsoft Deep Zoom Silverlight Wall: Great idea, could use some optimization for touch or IWB interaction.

Ever since I explored the Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia website on my HP TouchSmart PC, I've been on the look-out for other great touch-friendly applications created with Microsoft's Deep Zoom and Sliverlight.  Today, I came across an example that holds some promise, although it needs some tweaking before it is truly touch-ready.


352 Media Group is a web development firm that has been experimenting with Microsoft's Deep Zoom in Silverlight.  The results can be seen on the 352 Media Group Deep Zoom Page. On this page, you can interact with the deep zoom wall. You might need to install a Silverlight plug-in on your browser. Scroll down and read the "How Did We Do It?" section for specifics.


Note:  I tried this in three browsers on my HP TouchSmart PC,  Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.  At the top of the viewing box, it says, "Click inside to zoom in".  Clicking the picture or touching my touch screen did not activate the zoom.  However, it did enable me to zoom in the wall through scrolling with my mouse.  

If you touch the picture with your finger, you can move it around, and you can do this with your mouse as well.  At the upper left-hand corner of the frame, there are tiny icons that will allow you to zoom in or out. If the icons were just a little bit larger, with just a little bit more space between them, it would be easy to activate the zoom feature with my finger.


RELATED
Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines: Touch
Windows 7 Touch
Microsoft Silverlight Deep Zoom
Information from Microsoft Live Labs about Sliverlight Deep Zoom
Autostitch
This was the program used to help stitch together the pictures on the wall into a format that could be used with Deep Zoom.

Cross posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.

No comments: