Check out the cool PicLens browser extension for Firefox or Internet Explorer on Windows or Mac. It gives you a full screen experience of flying through a photostream from a variety of websites. Simply install the extension and a small “play” button will appear over pictures on certain websites (such as Flickr, Facebook, etc.). Click on the play button and you’ll see a wall of the images that you can maneuver through. It’s very cool. Try it on the first photo of your Flickr contacts or on Rita Niland’s pictures from the UGame ULearn conference, but be sure to use it when I post pictures of the amazing DOK and Amsterdam public libraries next week!
I found this cool little toy in CuriousLee’s Flickrstream, which is the type of unintended consequence I’ve been talking about with groups lately. I’m fascinated by how an image sharing site end up being used for bookmarking or knowledge exchange. I wish more library data lived out in the rest of the world so that we could see what kinds of unintended uses spring up around it.
Wow! That’s an amazing tool.
Comment by pollyalida — March 15, 2008 @ 1:07 am
I can’t install it because it said the application “is not compatible with [my] Web Browser build type (linux_x86_gcc).”
grr…
Comment by ranti — March 15, 2008 @ 4:06 am
Love it! Works great. We should use this to present library data.
Comment by Jaap van de Geer — March 15, 2008 @ 5:03 am
Yes, Jaap, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to browse the library’s shelves this way? Fly through your search results!
Ranti, are you running Linux? Unfortunately, this only works on Windows and Mac, but maybe if enough people contact them they’ll try to port it to Linux. Sorry.
Comment by jenny — March 15, 2008 @ 7:25 am
Browsing book shelves would be a cool application of this.
Comment by pollyalida — March 15, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
Not your fault, Jenny. 😉 I was grumbling because I am using their cooliris program since it came out the first time. So, naturally, I was expecting that I could just install PicLens and use it right away. Yes, I did contact them.
Being able to browse the library shelves was the thought that came to my mind too.
Comment by ranti — March 15, 2008 @ 11:21 pm
[…] The Shifted Librarian blogged about PicLens, a cool photo application that turns your browser into a 3-D experience for viewing pictures. I played around with it for a while and can see students having a lot of fun! The free download is avaliable at http://www.piclens.com/site/ie/. It works with Google, Picasa, flickr, Yahoo!, Facebook, and more! […]
Pingback by PicLens « Schu’s Blog of Lit and More — March 19, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
[…] there’s PicLens! It wasn’t until this morning that I found Jenny Levine’s recommendation for this very cool tool. Tedium transforms to levitation. There is a sense of flying past the 3D […]
Pingback by PicLens –wish I had this yesterday « CE Buzz — March 21, 2008 @ 2:23 pm
Hey guys,
Thanks for blogging on PicLens — we’re glad to hear you all have decided to try it!
It’s hard to really capture the awesomeness of PicLens in words (after all…ONE picture is worth a thousand, and we have a whole wall of them!), so here are links to two videos demos that give you an idea of what all the PicLens excitement is about. The first is by our team and the other by a PicLens fan.
http://www.piclens.com/demo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uRG40tqC8dM
Thanks, again.
Meg & The Cooliris Team
Comment by Meg & The Cooliris Team — March 24, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
I use this all the time! It is such a neat tool especially when you have to browse through so many images.
Comment by Adity — March 25, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
[…] of photos in a flash. Works with YouTube, Picasa, Photobucket and other image rich web sites. (via ShiftedLibrarian) TAGS:No […]
Pingback by pafa.net » Finding Photos - flickr Search Tools — April 24, 2008 @ 6:13 pm