Archive for the 'non-commercial' Category

myBlank

A customizable personal start page

myBlank

myBlank is a single page assisting various frequently occuring tasks. It supports browsing the internet, provides fast access to news sites, and to personal bookmarks. Other ‘portlets’ such as weather forecast, or a group message system can be integrated, too.

A ‘HyperSearch’ provides fast and easy access to different search engines.

The page is customizable, i.e. the user can add new search engines, add and categorize his bookmarks, and set options, e.g. if links are to open in new windows.

keywords start page, home page, search engines, bookmarks, portal, portlet, RSS, news syndication
date 01/2005
link MyBlank (coming soon)
participants René Sander, Till Nagel
tasks
categories personal, non-commercial
client
employer

Improving information access by visualizing visited hypertext pages

My diploma thesis. The original title is “Unterstützung des Zugriffs auf Informationen mittels Visualisierung besuchter Hypertextseiten”

Improving information access by visualizing visited hypertext pages
keywords information visualization, browser history, timeline, HCI, cognitive psychology, memory
date 07/2001 - 03/2002
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participants
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categories non-commercial, research, university
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3dhtml

3dhtml is a DHTML toolkit that supports the development of 3D applications

3dhtml

3dhtml is a DHTML toolkit that supports the development of 3D applications.

The toolkit makes it easy for DHTML programmers to build their own animated three dimensional graphical applications with models, materials, transformations, modifiers, etc.

It gives developers high-level constructs for creating and manipulating 3D geometry and for constructing the structures used in rendering that geometry. In order to do so, it provides JavaScript libraries, documentation and a bunch of pretty examples.

The object-oriented libraries are written to work in cross-browser environments and offer a simple (but multiplatform and plugin-less) 3D framework using JavaScript.

While working on my diploma thesis my friend René and I extended our contribution (Heart3D) to the 5k competition. What we thought is a rapid weekend fun project ended up in a some weeks long venture.
Happily it became a pretty successfull project:

  • Peak of 5000 visitors and 300 downloads daily.
  • Mentioned by lots of big design and tech sites. (Surfstation, MetaFilter)
  • Nice feedback in the JavaScript community.
  • Was reviewed on many major script sites. (HotScripts, SelfHTML)

(The project is sleeping at the moment and wasn’t updated for new browsers for a while)

keywords DHTML, JavaScript, 3D mathematics
date 11/2001
link 3dhtml
participants Till Nagel, René Sander
tasks 3D mathematics, DHTML, JavaScript, OO-Design, tutorial, examples
categories personal, non-commercial
client
employer

Information visualization and interaction

A term paper on information visualization and interaction

A primer on Information Visualization.

Amongst others, topics covered in this paper include the visualization process (filtering, mapping, rendering, and usage of data), the distinction between data and information, as well as graph and network theory.

The later chapters focus on interaction and interface techniques and introduce the concepts of zoom + pan, focus + context, and other, more innovative visualization methods (e.g. TreeMap, fisheye and hyperbolic views).

Finally, the paper evaluates some products and projects, such as Cone Tree, Perspective Wall, and the well-known Map of the Market.

keywords information visualization, structure, meta-data, graph, network, navigation
date 06/2001
link
participants
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categories non-commercial, research, university
client
employer