Right Click
Right Click is a series of events that explore the IT issues facing small and medium-sized businesses in New Zealand today and the options and solutions available.
This year I was privileged to travel around New Zealand and present a half hour presentation titled the Technology of Tomorrow.
I promised to provide a copy of my presentation here and also provide more information about how I constructed certain pieces of my demo for businesses web companies that have been pointed to this site.
Since my presentations Microsoft has released Silverlight 2 which is the technology I presented during my talk.
Step 1) Install Silverlight 2 on your computer.
Step 2) Watch the presentation below.
Download a higher resolution version of the presentation.
The components shown in the 76 Design demo:
1) Deep Zoom as part of Silverlight 2, see live example
Other Deep Zoom examples - Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia and Photos from Tech.Ed 2008
I mentioned in the presentation that you can host the deep zoom with Microsoft. Right now the PhotoZoom service which is the easiest to use but least flexible has been updated to support the released version of Silverlight 2.
Silverlight Streaming (which is a more flexible developer oriented service) hasn’t been updated to support the released version of Silverlight just yet. I’m not sure how long it will take a for this service to tick over but please check on the Silverlight Streaming blog for an update.
There is a free tool that you can use to build Deep Zoom’s like the example above.
b) Microsoft ICE (not yet updated for the release version of Silverlight 2)
Microsoft ICE can be used in conjunction with the Deep Zoom composer or PhotoZoom web site to stitch together multiple photos into one large high resolution photo like the one below that I took in Hastings during the Right Click tour.
2) Live Mesh for sharing files across computers.
If signing up doesn’t work for you make sure that your live ID is set to New Zealand.
Go to https://login.live.com and ensure that your Country/Region is set to New Zealand
3) Windows Messenger control embedded in the web page. Remember to ensure that you only show this when someone is logged in to respond, my code sample doesn’t do this.
I recommend that you look at the Windows Live Quick Applications to get started with these concepts.
Instructions on integrating Windows Messenger are here.
Demo page is here, (Click on the “Click Here to Email 76 Design to test”, sorry the messenger client will be offline as I’m not there to respond ;)
4) Virtual Earth integration,
Demo page is here (click on the picture of the map in the bottom right)
5) Extra’s section with integrated photos and video
Photo Integration
a) Sign up for a space at https://spaces.live.com/
b) Click the photos link, click the link on the right that says Embed for the code to link with your website.
Video Integration
a) Download the trial of Expression Encoder 2 (it turns into the express version after the trial runs out).
Get the Silverlight Streaming publishing plugin.
b) Sign up for Silverlight Streaming and upload the video directly through the web page.
c) Try the new Movie Maker Beta which now included the ability to publish videos to the Internet.
6) The future technology section leveraging Photosynth from our research labs.
a) Install the photosynth plugin
b) Check out the demo page here.
c) Make your own at https://photosynth.net
The Silverlight Jewelers example
I have been asked by the person that wrote this proof of concept not to share it here or in the videos above since it is still in the process of being used to “pitch” for new work.
In the absence of this example please take a look at https://silverlight.net/Showcase/ for examples.
The Otto Fashion Kiosk
Read more about the solution here, download it yourself to try here (click the "Otto-Store Installieren" link, and cancel when looking for the German version of media player). It will take a while to load the first time round.
Also because a few people asked…
The zoom tool I used during my presentation is called ZoomIt and is available here.
The mobile phone display tool is called SOTI.
Hopefully all of this has got you thinking about how to extend your business online.
ENJOY!