In 2006, Microsoft acquired the Seattle-based Seadragon Software, reputedly for improving image access for cell-phone users. Seadragon specializes in high-resolution image viewing and manipulation that has applications in digital asset management and web image services. This emerging technology could provide efficient, seamless zooming functionality for museum’s wishing to make high-resolution images available through the web.

This zooming technology allows for vast amounts of information to be presented using very limited screen real estate. One presentation given by Seadragon founder, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, demonstrates how additional information can be embedded into advertisements — in that instance, the technical specifications of a car. The developers believe that the only limitations for performance should be the number of pixels on the screen.

This Seadragon AJAX demo uses a 114 MB TIFF from the Archimedes Palimpsest Project.

Currently available in AJAX, Seadragon also has a Deep-Zoom functionality built on Microsoft’s Silverlight platform.