Turning the Pages uses 65-megapixel cameras to digitize the pages and animates the turning process. Shown is a page from the library's copy of Leonardo da Vinci's codex. The technology was developed in conjunction with London-based Armadillo Systems.
"It gives you the look and feel of turning the pages," said Stephen Lilgert, head of infrastructure strategy and development at the British Library. "At the launch of Vista, Bill Gates did one of the events here at the library itself. The codex was digitized and made available to people running Vista, and it will work with (Windows) XP as well. With the Vista version, you can make notes on it."
Versions are available for Adobe Shockwave on the PC and Mac, but a more detailed version is limited to Microsoft's Silverlight platform. No Linux version is available.
"We are moving the Shockwave version onto Microsoft's Silverlight technology," said Lilgert, noting similar Silverlight effort at the U.S. Library of Congress. The Shockwave one is OK, but it is still not the same level of zooming that you get with Silverlight."
Photo by British Library
Caption by Colin Barker
