Slashdot Mirror
PARC's Popout Prism Aids Web Navigation
sulo writes "Popout Prism is a Web Browser that reduces the amount of time users end looking for information in Web pages. By creating visual "popouts" that emphasize critical elements in Web pages, Popout Prism draws users' attention to the right information." Not a very complicated idea, but one that could be useful.
Perhaps Microsoft could implement this in a future version of IE?
Clippy: Were these the type of asian schoolgirl sluts you were looking for?
Mike
To see the Popout Prism browser in action, view this short video demo. Popout Prism Demo mpg (27mb)
The product download is only 900 kb, while the demo video is 30 times the size. No, really, ubiquitous multimedia on the web is right around the corner...
I'm much funnier now that I'm a subscriber.
...get crackin!
probably the same way as you'd see a level in a game such as Unreal Tournament.
Gah! My eyes!
KappaStone
This is just what I need, more Java stuff to slow down my PC.
Hmmmm... I think it can't be Java, because otherwise it would run on more than just Windows with IE.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
This stuff wouldn't be necesary if web designers were better doing their jobs. Sure it might be warranted on all the poorly designed web pages, but when you arrive at one that is well designed, you know exactly where to go.
I used Popout Prism on match.com, and those chicks looked *awesome*... Can I get some glasses that do this IRL, or do I just have to drink a lot of beer to get the same effect?
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
Careful if you take too long; he could start suggesting some enhancers Knowing M$, they probably keep a database of this...
KappaStone
If the user is looking for specific information/keywords that are too small to read on the display, the browser could "popout" a magnified/highlighted/easier to read version of the surrounding context.
And rather than coming out with a whole new browser, maybe it could be incorporated into The Google Toolbar or something similar....they've recently added new features to make searching within a webpage easier.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Thanks Parc!
I would assume they use a little trick figured out, oh, a few thousand years ago, called perspective.
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
I'm using it on /. right now and nothing pops out.
Oh, and it will probably suck more bandwidth to do it, too.
In event of further Slashdotting, here's Google's copy
...you can still get some info and a download here (well, for the moment anyway).
Have we all lost the ability to scan for information that we need on a webpage or any other source. Next they'll develop books that have the "keywords" you enter into your pda come off the page and slap you in the face.
Just another technology to help those of us with tech-driven ADD[slashdot.org]
Those whose idea of a Web page is a Photoshop mockup or big fat Flash banner will hate this browser, and people using this browser will hate such pages.
Those who produce well-structured and meaningfully-styled Web documents have nothing to fear from it... but people surfing such pages probably won't gain that much from using this browser.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Ok, the file you download from the website is in a.01[1] format! How do you run the darn thing? Help?
----
"Those who quote others are more likely to one day be quoted" -Tom Planter
they appear to have fscked up their installation regarding JAVA.
i have 3 or 4 different JVM versions on my box - and normally i can run just about everything without any problems. the highest version of JAVA I have is 1.4.1 and whenever i run their installer it tells me that JAVA is not found and then it installs JRE 1.3.1 and then does exactly the same thing.
SYNOPSIS: if you have anything higher that 1.3.1, this probably won't work.
...which is a pain, because I've got 1.4.1 installed and it won't let me even install the Popup Prism. *sighing and shaking of head*
Gimme Lynx or gimme death...
Actually just gimme emacs-w3, that's close enough to death anyways.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
It doesn't, it looks pretty flat to me - it's only 3d because it shows the box over the top of the site.
Acutally it's incredibly cool, but I can't see it being used very often.
Why can't they simply take us there directly :-).. pre-emptive multi-browsiing or some such technology should be great.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
This is just what I need, more Java stuff to slow down my PC. Hmmmm... I think it can't be Java, because otherwise it would run on more than just Windows with IE.
You think wrong. There are version differences in Java, and some programmers are dumb enough to write to a particular Java implementation, like Java 1.3 for instance, for a particular platform, like Windows for instance, for a particular application, like IE for instance. RTF download page.
Tried downloading the general version. Don't work with Java 1.4. Tried downloading the version with Java 1.3. Don't work, probably because I still have Java 1.4 as well as Java 1.3 on there. Tried changing the Java version used in IE. Didn't help. Asked question, "why should I have to go through this kind of trouble to get search term highlighting in a browser I rarely use anyway?" Unintalled Java 1.3 and deleted the damned thing.
Next time, use a real browser, buddy.
Actually it was just around 1000 years ago that perspective was first formulated by al-Haytham, and a few hundred years later that people began to apply it to the arts.
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
Yet Socrates himself is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
Flaming red banners in 1-inch fonts flashing at 5 times a second. Boxes poping up all over the screen. Boxes that follow your browsing and won't get out of the way. And now...
TT
That couldn't possibly have applications in the adult entertainment industry, right?
stuff |
But we already have that. It's called BannerAddRemover. If you also disable java/javascript, automatic redirection, popups and asp, you are able to get straight to the interesting links.
When Google converts a PDF file to HTML it highlights your search terms in different colors. I myself have often resorted to the Edit, Find (on This Page) options in IE.
I agree that this shouldn't be a necessary feature, that the web designers should construct their pages to be searched easily, but the reality is that many people who have valuable information to post on the internet aren't able to lay out a webpage (a researcher is not necessarily a good graphic artist or may not have the time to do much more than stick his data on the web.)
Anyway, while this idea is hardly innovative or practically implemented (who's going to switch to a new browser just for this feature?), it's a decent idea.
while (!sleep){
sheep++;
}
IE developers will wake up and smell new advertising opportunity.
IE adds pop-out technology to browser
Websites start using new pop-out technology.
Mozilla/Opera adds following option:
File > Preferences > Windows > Turn off pop-outs
Going in circles is fun.
-n-
-n-
Now this helps you actually find the content of a page, web advertisers are going to start kicking up a fuss that Popout Prism is perceptually downplaying the importance of their ads...
I'd check out the site, but it's already slashdotted. But, from the description given, it sounds like yet another useless idea. Why? How many times have you gone searching for some topic using google, or whatever search engine, only to get you to a page that does everything it CAN to try to draw your attentiona AWAY from the actual content you are looking for (which usually seems to be rahter minimal/useless anyhow) just to try to throw ads at you or get you to purchase/subscribe some product?
This'll end up being just another technology that gets hijacked to make the browsing experience WORSE, not better. And as far as the few, quality sites, I don't need anything like Popout Prism - I can find the info I want VERY EASILY on a good site.
This Popout Prism sounds to me like a complete waste of developer brain-time.
That would REALLY let me find my important information quickly!
Why don't more people use blink on their websites for drawing attention to important information?
Just hit "/", type the word you are looking for, and *BAM*, it gets highlighted and jumps to the next instance of the word.
Okay, so it may not be the same thing, but it is a superior alternative.
Popout Prism's next feature will be a rubber mallet that Pops Out of a drive bay and whacks you in the head when you've moused over the meaningful content.
:)
TT
(no text)
"You think wrong. There are version differences in Java, and some programmers are dumb enough to write to a particular Java implementation, like Java 1.3 for instance, for a particular platform, like Windows for instance, for a particular application, like IE for instance. RTF download page."
Well, Sun changed the way some things work between version 1.3 and 1.4 breaking some GUI applications. They don't provide any backwards compatability. It's not the programmers fault. As for a particular platform like Windows or Solaris or Linux, there is nothing in Java itself that is tied to a particular plaform. You do have the ability, however, to make system calls in Java thus making your app plaform dependent.
-- Jason
-1: anti-intellectual ignoramus
The "popout prism" itself is a kind of sidebar which displays the entire unscrolled page in thumbnail form, with a box highlighting the area you're currently looking at. If you use thumbnails in Adobe (Acrobat) Reader or the navigation panel in Photoshop, you've seen the same sort of thing.
In addition, it lets you type in keywords above the thumbnail and highlight those words in the thumbnail for you to navigate to quickly. That's what makes the popout useful for pages that contain more words than images.
You're just a bit mistaken on the order of things:
- PARC develops something
- Jobs invites himself to dinner, salivating all the way through
- Gates waits for Apple's refinement, makes an announcement, then releases three years later
Attributing the invention of perspective to an A-rab is doubleplusungood badthink! Off the the gulag, err... camp X-Ray with you!
But you're still here.
Introducing Poopout Prism. When countless slashdot readers access the website, the important information becomes no longer accessible . . .
`which fortune`
Didn't you know that eventually the web will just be one big text file and the way it is viewed will be governed by your browser and its plugins?
Now where was I. . ?
Oh yes!
. . bastards!
-FL --Image nuke should come with a mouse-over + keyboard shortcut option.
...another attempt to save us from the need to learn to write well.
Clippy: Were these the type of asian schoolgirl sluts you were looking for?
Gives new meaning to perky breasts.
WTF just hit my nose out of my display?!?
Is it me or does this look rather similar to Apple's old OpenDoc Browser Cyberdog? If my memory serves me (not something to rely on) then there was a plugin called something like 'Hot sauce' that basically converted href's into a dynamic page surprisingly similar, mind you the garish colurs tended to hurt my eyes.......
vi man page
Their license is pretty restrictive - licensees have 90 days to evaluate the product and provide them with free feedback, then must delete the software. Maybe they'll eventually release a product that will be free or cost money, maybe they won't release anything. I can't wait to try it out!!
Opera has a lot of neat features when it comes to finding the goodies on a page. E.g., you can force your own stylesheets on a page, even multiple ("User Mode"). So I have a standard b/w stylesheet that underlines and colors links no matter what the designer intended, and another one to switch off all images (except those that are links).
...
Also, you can zoom in and out pages: 25% gives a nice "thumbnail" style overview, while 400% should be enough for even the smallest, err, details. Bonus: Images and Flash movies are resized as well, so this is much better than IE's feature. Press "W" to move from headline to headline (assuming the designer actually used H1 and not just f****ng bold). Pressing [ctrl][j] brings up a window that shows all links on the page. Just select those you want and open them in a background window etc. etc.
And just pressing F12 will give you a Popup menu to switch off all that nonsense that often keeps you from reading: GIF animation, background Audio, Java, Popups
Also, Opera will allow heavy customization. Almost every element of the UI can be tweaked and moved around. Whether you want a minimalist, near-fullscreen browser or a large set of custom stylesheets, search engines etc. at your fingertips, new keyboard shortcuts or Google Toolbar style Bookmarklets: Just tweak a few INI files.
PS: If it's only highlighting you want: When you're on Windows, the Google Toolbar is very helpful. Also, there's Text Spotlight, which does the same thing system-wide, not only in the browser.
When I glance over "Popout Prism" on the page, I keep seeing "priapism."
I'm sure you all remember that infamous spyware component, gator. This sounds like the exact same thing Gator does, but in a less offensive way.
Popup Prism Blocker!
sulli
RTFJ.
I've seen several Java programs that were Windows-dependent (sort-of) because they used Windows-style paths. Fortunately, C:\PATH\FILE is a valid file name in Unix, so I could actually work around the problem to get some of those programs to sort of work by creating symlinks with funny names...
I get the feeling that they're suggesting with their page that they're doing a trial of their algorithm, not providing some kind of web browser that will be released for popular use. The ideas I get from a license requesting feedback and from the page (after the 5 minute load time) don't necessarily point me in that direction of thinking. However, I see three paths for this tool to follow:
I don't have their page open anymore, and I won't wait for it to load again, but I remember reading a sentence to the effect of "This web browser is testing our new PARC technology." I honestly don't think they're stupid enough to be trying to market a web browser with this.
I've not downloaded this product, but considering that people have mentioned that it requires a JVM... I'm not sure this is such a smart move, considering that Java can be decompiled super-easily. Unless, of course, they've already got that patent...
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what they end up doing with this.
Kind regards, Devon H. O'Dell
I'm usually not one for the Karma-whoring (TM) but the site seems to be on its knees.
What is Popout Prism?
Popout Prism is an intuitive, elegant tool to reduce the amount of time users spend looking for information in Web pages. By creating visual "popouts" that emphasize critical elements in Web pages, Popout Prism draws users' attention to the right information.
How does it work?
Using perceptual design principles based on PARC research into visual attention, Popout Prism makes critical information "pop out" from the background Web page.
Users operate Popout Prism as they would operate any other Web browser, entering URLs and following links as usual. To make critical information pop out, the user enters keywords. Popout Prism enhances those keywords in the Web page as well as in an enhanced thumbnail overview. Users can quickly scan the enhanced document to find relevant content.
Popout Prism features
Here's a look at some of the key features of the Popout Prism browser:
* "Overview" (left side of Popout Prism): an enhanced thumbnail which gives an overview of the Web page shown in the detail view.
* "Sliding window" (dotted rectangle on the overview): a sliding window that can be used as a scrollbar to navigate to different parts of the Web page shown in the detail view.
* "Detail view" (right side of Popout Prism): a full-size view of a Web page that can be enhanced with popouts.
To see the Popout Prism browser in action, view this short video demo.
Popout Prism Demo mpg (27mb)
Popout Prism was tested internally by technical and non-technical users during a normal work week. The perceptual design principles were effective: Popout Prism users were able to quickly find information, and they preferred the Popout Prism interface to traditional "find" and highlighting techniques.
Can popouts be used in other ways?
Popout Prism is an experimental Web browser that showcases PARC's popout technology. This same functionality could also be included in many other tools, such as knowledge management solutions or code development environments. In the future, we may release a toolkit for generating enhanced thumbnails. If you would be interested in being a pilot user for such a toolkit, please send a note to popoutprism-support@parc.com.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Isn't web browsing innovation dead?
jon
-- http://www.cerastes.org
Well, Sun changed the way some things work between version 1.3 and 1.4 breaking some GUI applications. They don't provide any backwards compatability. It's not the programmers fault.
A nice argument, except...we're talking about a new program here, not a legacy program.
Come on now, what kind of stupid spam tool crap is this? OSDN must have pocketed a few $ on this "story".
Did anyone else notice the copyright notice at the end of the video was 2001? And that the actual page is copyrighted 2002? Now come on guys, I know this is 'News for Nerds. Stuff that matters' but is a two year old project still 'news'?
Sigh. I wish the submitters (and the editors) would stop for a moment, and check out a story before it gets posted. Hey, would it be too much to ask the same of posters? Sure, everyone wants to be the first with a good story / comment, but this seems to be at the expense of any quality these days!
(Picks up walking stick while muttering something about "In my day......")
" To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. "
Making keywords pop-out instead of simply highlighting them doesn't seem all that useful, but I can see using the thumbnail feature to find a site that has, say, a graph of something or a picture of something. Or maybe to find a site you've been to but forgot to bookmark, and could recognize easily by the layout.
Something that will make the blink tag even more irritating than before!
/. supported the blink tag just this once.)
(it would have been nice if
Read, L
On my IBM T221 with 3840 pixels horizontally, many web sites (CNN, for example) end up crunched into a tiny width, nick (posting AC cause I already mod'ed)
It's interesting to look at paintings done before perspective was used. All the people painted are the same size whether they're in the foreground or accross the river and up a tree.
Agreed. I also like the midieval works where children are anotomically identical to adults, only smaller. :-)
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
>:-O