ZOIL - Zoomable Object-Oriented Information Landscape

The ZOIL Software Framework for C#/WPF/Surface SDK: Distributed Zoomable User Interfaces for Natural Interaction in Multi-User, Multi-Display and Multi-Device Environments.

ZOIL (Zoomable Object-Oriented Information Landscape) is a software framework written in C# for the .NET 4.0/WPF platform. ZOIL's development is part of a research project lead by Hans-Christian Jetter at the Human-Computer Interaction Group of the University of Konstanz. It makes use of different external frameworks and APIs, e.g. Versant’s db4objects (db4o) object database and the Microsoft Surface SDK, to enable application programmers to easily provide a large zoomable visual workspace in their applications. This visual workspace in form of a zoomable information landscape has following properties that make ZOIL particularly interesting for natural and post-WIMP interaction in multi-user, multi-display and multi-device work environments for tangible and ubiquitous computing:

• Semantic Zooming – For each object in the information landscape multiple size-dependent representations can be defined. While zooming in, an object can smoothly change its form, content, and nature.
• Persistent – The information landscape has a data model that can be persisted and shared across devices using a client-server architecture based on Versant’s db4o.
• Distributed and Real-Time Synchronized – The information landscape’s data model is synchronized in real-time across devices using a a client-server architecture based on Versant’s db4o. This enables multi-user and multi-device scenarios, in which multiple collocated or remote devices and users synchronously collaborate inside a single workspace.
• MS Surface Support and Device Independent – At the current stage, ZOIL’s architecture offers support for typical mouse and multi-touch manipulations (Surface SDK) and input from OSC (Open Sound Control). While this part of ZOIL is still provisional, different applications of ZOIL also demonstrate support for tangible physical objects and digital pens.