Ajax and the Ken Burns Effect 239
An anonymous reader writes "IBM DeveloperWorks has an interesting project posted that shows how to design a client-side slide show using the 'Ken Burns Effect.' From the article: 'If the Web 2.0 revolution has one buzzword, it's Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax). [...] Here, you discover how to build XML data sources for Ajax, request XML data from the client, and then dynamically create and animate HTML elements with that XML.'"
This is detailed Ajax, Ken Burns style... (Score:5, Informative)
"In his documentaries, Burns often gives life to still photographs by slowly zooming-in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, in a photograph of a baseball team, he might slowly pan across the faces of the players and come to a rest on the player the narrator is discussing. ... This technique came to be known as the Ken Burns Effect, even though he did not originate the technique, and has become a staple of documentaries, slide shows, presentations, and even screen savers."
Ken Burns effect in Ajax: Use good ole DHTML and XML to whip stuff around on your screen. Or as the link says "I animate the images with random slow moves, zooms, and fades to give a pleasing version of the Ken Burns Effect without having to download Macromedia® Flash or any other heavyweight animation tools."
Yeah right, just the one buzzword then... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Risk the Client PC's Limitations ? Not yet ... (Score:3, Informative)
I admire the coding, but... (Score:4, Informative)
I'd guess this is due to inefficiencies in the browser itself. I've seen similar issues when I've played around with animating multiple text objects (moving, resizing, and changing opacity) in the past.
Google agrees with you , this is why Gmail.... (Score:4, Informative)
* Filter creation
* Settings (Including Forwarding and POP)
* Spell checker
* Keyboard shortcuts
* Address auto-complete
(from http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answ
Google really sets a fine example here by letting users choose what kind of interface they prefer , even though they could easily just ignore these users, as I personaly dont know anyone that uses this feature . Making a dual interface for AJAX applications on all these fluffy Web2.0 sites is a good idea , specially for mobile/light clients like that 100$ laptop [mit.edu]
Re:Yet another thing XML complicates... (Score:2, Informative)
They do it all wrong! (Score:3, Informative)
I've taken the dive into Ajax recently to do dynamic in-page searching. For a web-app I develop for my work, on a particular page the user needs to select a client (from the thousands we have in our database). I have a spot on the page where they can provide search criteria for the client they want to select. I perform the search with Ajax, display the results, and the user selects which client they want to pick.
I've found the the step of displaying the results can be slowest step. At first, I had the Ajax function return a JSON associative array containing the data. I would then loop through it and create the HTML I needed through Javascript (much as they do in the linked example).
However, if something along the lines of hundreds of records were returned, the client's browser would freeze for a period of time (depending on the performance of the client's machine) while generating that HTML. This became unacceptable.
The superior way to display the results is with XML transformations. Beleive me, it's a monumental difference, and if you're doing something like I was, you should look into it. Have the Ajax function return XML, then use an XSLT style sheet to transform those results into the HTML you want to display. It's super fast, and worth the trouble.
Re:WHERE'S THE DEMO??? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This is detailed Ajax, Ken Burns style... (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, the main reason is that 1) most TV viewers expect to see action rather than still images, and 2) a lot of Ken Burns's material either predates motion pictures OR was never captured on video media. It's common knowledge in the broadcast industry that most viewers are so conditioned to expect movement that they become irritated and bored by still images and tune them out. Burns simply employed "The Ken Burns Effect" to give still images the sense of movement and thereby hold the interest of the "patience impaired" subset of his audience.
Re:what I never hear about web 2.0... (Score:2, Informative)
Having said this, people always jump on the "AJAX isn't accessible" bandwagon, which is plainly a load of crap. My AJAX apps work fine in all the popular screenreaders. How does a user know the information has changed? Provide an option for the user to turn on change notifications, which show an alert() when the page is updated.
Re:Term coined by Steve Jobs haha (Score:1, Informative)
iPhoto was released on January 7th 2002 [apple.com].
Here [google.com] is a random post from 2000, someone asking for a "poor mans Ken Burns effect".
Pan and Scan [wikipedia.org] is only known as the proper name for the Ken Burns effect by little children playing "I can be graphical too mate". "Pan and zoom" may have been what you were looking for.
This is like a 1 minute search using the Google. May want to try that next time before putting your foot in your mouth