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Friday Space/Time Warp
July 6, 2007
I have long been fascinated by the possiblities of a more graphical search, so I was immediately drawn to the new SpaceTime 3-D browser. This Windows application download requires a hefty computer with some graphical capabilities and a zippy connection (about the level of Second Life demands) but the results are worth it. If you can't download this to check it out, there is a very nice series of videos on the front page of the website at http://spacetime.com that demonstrate the capabilities of the software.
Looking at this product in action, the first thing that comes to my mind is that it turns data browsing into a video game. Wait...that is not a bad thing! In fact, it could be a very good thing. Most people are much more able to synthesize data that are presented in a visual/spatial/graphical format. Consider the difference between this:
nc,51183823,1,"July 05, 2007 13:30:33 GMT",38.8152,-122.8175,1.9,2.40,13
ak,00084173,6,"July 05, 2007 13:26:37 GMT",63.0800,-151.5505,1.7,3.20,06
us,2007ekax,6,"July 05, 2007 13:26:22 GMT",-42.2510,-19.5880,5.2,10.00,36
ci,10259621,M,"July 05, 2007 13:26:16 GMT",36.2801,-118.3505,2.2,5.60,15
ci,10259617,M,"July 05, 2007 13:22:27 GMT",33.7701,-117.9503,1.6,8.30,21
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/catalogs/eqs7day-M1.txt
and this:
Now, imagine the difference between browsing a list of result links and flying through a series of actual page views. All I can say is that this would make an incredible interface for a library collection. Fly through the virtual stacks (only they aren't limited to a single, outdated form of categorization) and then dive into an item to learn more about it. Way cool...
Posted by Chris Harris on July 6, 2007 | Comments (0)
