The Web planetarium presents a three-dimensional view of the World-Wide Web as the user navigates it. This electronic landscape is interpreted as a virtual planetarium, a notion based on a free spatial interpretation of the hyperlinked structure of the Web.

A regular HTML "site" is shown as an abstract "blob-like" shape, and links betwen sites are shown as animated lines between the corresponding abstractions. Thus, a three-dimensional graph is continuously generated as the user surfs the Web.

Our vision is to propose a scheme where Web site designers build their sites as much for three dimensional browsers, as they are built for HTML browsers today. This would mean designing a virtual three-dimensional appearance that is appealing both at a distance and when entering the site, and to carefully select your “neighbours” in virtual space, thus creating a dynamic, decentralized electronic landscape.

The Web Planetarium has been demonstrated using different display technologies:

• At the SurroGate exhibition at ZKM, using the EVE dome.
• Using the Virtual Desktop of GRAF.
• Using the high-resolution AddVisor HMD from Ericsson Saab Avionics.
• And, of course, with the regular desk-top based PC type of setup that most people have to live with.

Many of the concepts introduced in the Web Planetarium were introduced with WWW3D, a joint effort between Mårten Stenius and Lennart Fahlén at SICS and Dave Snowdon, then at Nottingham University.

Contact us for further details:

Web: http://www.sics.se/dce/projects/escape/webplanet/
Email: mst@sics.se (Mårten Stenius)
Phone: +46-8-633 1570 Fax: +46-8-751 7230
Snail-mail: SICS, Box 1263, SE-164 28 Kista, Sweden