January 26th, 2006
Microsoft captures Seadragon
As part of its Live Labs initiative, Microsoft acquired Seadragon, a Seattle-based startup with technology for viewing and interacting with "high-resolution images, vector graphics, applets and other documents, locally or remotely, at any visual scale, and in an environment that allows fluid navigation in two or three dimensions," according to the Web site. Currently, the company said it is collaborating with libraries on rendering large collections, both local and remote, of visual materials. Seadragon also has several granted and filed patents, such as "System and Method for Exact Rednering in a Zooming User Interface," and "Method for Interacting Efficiently with Dynamic, Remote Photo Albums with Large Numbers of Potentially Large Photos." Based on the scant information and demos on the Web site, Seadragon appears to have a powerful visualization lens that could be applied to delivering high-resolution, navigable information to any size screen.
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
