Australian National University

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How to give added interest, flexibility and detail to images of sites and artworks? To my mind VRML is a dead duck; video is insufficiently flexible, and stereo looks promising. For the present, we are left with variations on zoomable panoramas, with hotspots which lead to another location or action.

Zoomable, Hotspotted Multi-Image Presentations

The following examples use the flexibility of a program called Pixmaker, which presents a hotspottable, zoomable and pannable "home page" in a browser window. The hotspots can be marked, appearing as titles as the mouse moves over them; the targets can be reached by clicking on the hotspots (which may be toggled on or off), or by using the listing of targets to the left of the image. Dragging the mouse pans or tilts the image (which will usually be much bigger than the browser "window"); holding down the key and dragging with the mouse zooms in and out.

To use effectively, make the browser window as big as possible. Over the web, zooming etc will probably be jerky - but I believe this method of multiple-image presentation currently offers the easiest way of navigating sets of high-quality images over the web. In the Chora fresco, for example, the images zoom easily to bruskstroke level; while in the various mosaics we see the individual tessera at 1:1 or better.

  1. Istanbul, Haghia Sophia, mosaics: deesis;
  2. Istanbul, Haghia Sophia, mosaics: Christ with Constantine and Zoe;
  3. Istanbul, Haghia Sophia, architecture: columns, capitals marble veneer in NE quadrant of nave;
  4. Istanbul, Chora, Parecclesion, fresco: Anastasis;
  5. Istanbul, Chora, exo-narthex, mosaic: Journey to Jerusalem;
  6. National Gallery of Australia, Nepal: Avalokiteshvara;
  7. National Gallery of Australia, India: Pala-Vishnu;
  8. National Gallery of Australia: Italian Quattrocento Madonna relief;
  9. National Gallery of Australia: Burmese Shan Buddha;
  10. Palermo, Palatine Chapel: altar, ambo and candlestick;

Control & Detail Imagemaps

Frequently a single image, even if large, cannot capture all the detail the viewer would like to see. Zoomable images are one answer, hotspots another - both of which we have seen above.

Another possibility is to place a view of the whole object in one browser window, and have the various (non-zoomable) details appear in an adjacent window as the mouse passes over particular areas:

  1. Rome, SM. del Popolo: Chigi Chapel;
  2. Rome, SM. del Popolo: Ascanio Sforza monument;
  3. Rome, SM. del Popolo: Basso della Rovere Chapel;

Mapping Architecture to Site Location

One difficulty of looking at panoramic images of sites and/or architecture in a web browser is linking what is seen to the context. A splendid applet from Duckware is appropriately called PMVR - Poor Man's VR but produces a far better result for much less work. The idea is to map a site plan or a map to the panorama, and then show the changing field of view as the panorama is displaced side-to-side or zoomed. Try these roughish panoramas of architecture and sites in Rome:
  1. Rome, various: panoramas with associated city-plans;