Copernicus Adding the Third Dimension to Wikipedia

From Devwiki

Jacek Jankowski

In this paper we present the possible way of evolution of Wikipedia towards the three dimensional Web. We introduce Copernicus - The Virtual 3D Encyclopedia. It resembles Wikipedia. However, in comparison to a classic wiki page, the background in Copernicus is a 3D visualization of the place/object described in the article.

  1. Introduction

Wikipedia emerged in January 2001 and it currently ranks among the top ten most-visited websites worldwide [1]. Questions arise: Can Wikipedia be improved? Can it offer a better user experience? Can it magnetize even stronger? During our research on designing interactive interfaces we came up with 2-Layer Interface Paradigm [3], which assumes that building graphical user interfaces involves the integration of two layers. The first layer is a 3D scene, which a user cannot directly interact with. The second layer, above the 3D view, is HTML content. Only taking actions on this content (e.g. pressing a hyperlink, scrolling a page) can affect the 3D scene. Our approach builds upon well established hypertext model, it does not rapidly change the style of interaction, from the one users were used to in classic HTML pages. We decided to use 2LIP to bring Wikipedia into the third dimension.

  1. Copernicus

In order to illustrate our idea we have implemented the prototype system called Copernicus [2]. Our main guidelines during building the system were:

   * to make it similar to the today’s Wikipedia.
   * to visualize the content in the foreground with the 3D scene in the background; the camera shows places that user is currently reading about.

The welcome page of Copernicus is very similar to the home page of Wikipedia; the only difference is a spinning earth instead a sphere of puzzles. Other features known from Wikipedia, such as changing the language of content, or searching, are also provided. If the user wants to look for information about a specific geographical region, the camera will move to this particular place on globe. For instance: the camera will "fly" towards Egypt as a result of searching for "giza"; eventually, the complex of Giza Pyramids will be presented to the user. Pages with articles are also similar to those from Wikipedia. Their layout is the same; the menu on the left hand side, the article on the right hand side. The background, however, is a three dimensional visualization of the place or object described in the article. While reading an article user can be presented with details from the 3D scene; clicking on the hyperlinks, related to the interesting places, or scrolling the text of the article can cause predefined camera movements. For example: a user reading an article about Mayan Pyramids, The Temple of Kukulcan in particular, might be interested in taking a closer look at the Jaguar Throne. Clicking related link he/she will activate an animation – the camera will smoothly move over the 3D scene and it will show the chamber inside the pyramid. Copernicus also allows users to change font size and opacity level of text areas. They can make their reading experience more convenient by adjusting these parameters.

  1. Conclusions

Copernicus is a prototype application that can be placed between Web 2.0 and Web3D. On one hand it will allow collaboration, and on the other hand it derives from 3D world. Thanks to a small difference between current web browsing and the one proposed in this article, users probably will have no problems with using this system. We believe that this kind of evolution is necessary to prepare people for the fully three-dimensional Internet.