"Deep Zoom is the fastest, smoothest, zooming technology on the Web, bringing the highest resolution images and frame rates with the lowest load times to users. Deep Zoom also enables the display of thousands of items simultaneously, giving designers and developers new opportunities to create innovative navigation paradigms for both applications and the Web."

This is no exaggeration: deep zoom technology is ridiculously exciting to witness in action. Beyond that, there are still many unexplored possibilities for its use. As the Internet has allowed us access to more and more resources, the digitization of archives, historical, and library materials has rapidly moved from discussions for the future to critical necessity for the present. Deep Zoom offers a new way to access these digitized resources.

Curious about what Deep Zoom really does? Check out this video demonstration:

Implications for Archives and Research

What is so exciting about Deep Zoom is that it deals clearly with some of the issues that affect digitized archives: namely, that a digitized document can't compete with access to the actual document. This is an issue that can plague serious researchers. While they may be able to view the digitized material, the detail and quality are insufficient for their needs; in other words, they still have to access the original, even if it means a trip across the country or to another country entirely.

As an example, have a look at this image on the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project website. Just click on the link and then click on "Images" in the upper left. You will see a digitized image of a manuscript fragment as well as the interpretation of the text. This digitized version is acceptable for casual observers (though it's unlikely that there are many of those here!), but a serious researcher would need more than this. In effect, the researcher would still need access to the original. With Deep Zoom, this image can be magnified so fluidly that the digitized image becomes even more useful than the original document.

Try it out with Zoom.it

If you'd like to get your hands on a bit of this technology, but aren't familiar with Silverlight, which is used to create Deep Zoom, try out Zoom.it. Zoom.it adds deep zoom technology to an image on the web. Just copy and paste a URL onto the main page and click "Create"!

What other uses are there for this exciting new tool? What would you do with Deep Zoom?