Shoothill uses Microsoft Deep Zoom on Darwin image to highlight the potential of innovative software
22nd April 2009
SHOOTHILL, a Shrewsbury-based specialist software developer, working closely with Shropshire Tourism (UK) Limited and the world renowned Darwin expert Dr. John van Wyhe, has produced a digital image of the famous scientist that is made up from scanned images of the entire contents of Darwin’s “On The Origin of Species”. The image looks like a normal black and white picture at first, but when you zoom in using a mouse-wheel you can see that it is made up of hundreds of printed pages.
Managing Director of Shoothill, Rod Plummer, said, “We are based in Shrewsbury, a town strongly connected with Charles Darwin. Knowing that next February is the 200th anniversary of his birth we wanted to find an interactive way to give access to the pages written by the great man, in something beyond a traditional book style and it was the Deep Zoom feature in Microsoft’s Silverlight that inspired us to create this showcase.”
Simon McCloy, Chief Executive of Shropshire Tourism, was excited at the proposal made by Shoothill with regards to the Darwin celebrations, “We were instantly won over by the depiction of “The Origin of Species” presented by Shoothill and have since discussed with them using their expertise in Microsoft Virtual Earth to really bring the celebrations next year, (of Darwin’s bicentennial), to life and engage worldwide interest in Shrewsbury’s most famous son.”
Microsoft’s Silverlight enables programmers and designers to create rich interactive applications on the web. Plummer says that the potential uses for the system are almost endless. “The Deep Zoom feature in particular is very powerful and we can see it being used to provide an easy way to find information on a particular area very quickly and easily or as a quick and simple way of storing and searching through hundreds of scanned documents. We believe that it will, in time, replace microfiche and be used extensively for document management applications.”
Shoothill is an accredited Microsoft Development Partner and is working closely with the company on a number of development projects. As well as Silverlight, the company also has expertise in developing location-based applications utilising Microsoft’s .net suite of tools and its Virtual Earth mapping system.
Geoff Hughes, Platform Strategy Advisor at Microsoft said, “Shoothill have embraced the concept of Silverlight very quickly and are working on a number of exciting and innovative applications to harness the capabilities provided by the software, and in particular the Deep Zoom functionality. Shoothill is harnessing the power of software on the desktop with software in the "Cloud" to develop rich, compelling interactive user experiences”
The Darwin image that Shoothill has created is made up of each of the 518 scanned pages from The Origin of Species and contains 180 million pixels. To view it go to www.shoothill.com/darwin – full instructions on how to use the document are available on the website.
Dr. John van Wyhe is the Director of Darwin Online, a website containing Darwin’s complete publications and much more. These can be found at darwin-online.org.uk.
Shropshire Tourism are planning a series of events to mark the anniversary of Darwin’s birth and these can be found at www.discoverdarwin.co.uk.
About Shoothill
Shoothill is a highly specialised developer of Geo Spatial business applications using Microsoft Virtual Earth at its core.
We work in many arenas and sectors and our experience has shown that no matter what your business, Shoothill can develop business improvement tools that deliver commercial benefit and competitor advantage
Whether you are using a mapping system already, or wish to look into the possibilities of Geo Spatial application development, Shoothill are the perfect partner. We will provide impartial and professional advice and give guidance on what technologies are best suited for your business.
For further information please contact us at:
Shoothill Ltd
+44 (0) 845 4210390
info@shoothill.com
