For a number of years, MONKEYmedia worked with videographer/architect Rachel Strickland at Interval Research Corporation, Paul Allen's high-technology research lab. Working on techniques for organizing and browsing huge amounts of video information, we were not worried about platforms, but looked several years out trying to get the techniques right.
How do you make an interactive environment that lets things call attention to themselves? How do you make it possible for people to discover patterns and relationships in the material by noticing what's there rather than relying on someone else's labels and pointers? How could this medium enable viewers to assume an attitude of attentiveness and active noticing?
In Hako[bu] we address large bodies of thematically disparate content in a variety of media types through the development of malleable three-dimensional media navigating environments. (Try the QuickTime VR version in the frames version of our site.)
Though we can't show our current proprietary technology, in the examples illustrated here participants seamlessly navigate topical regions of information and zoom into or between cross-related topics and media elements.
Interval Research Corporation Web Site