The Interactive Image Markup Language (IIML) for Creating Interactive WWW Images

David Wojtowicz, Robert Wilhelmson, and Mohan Ramamurthy

The World Wide Web (WWW) has proven to be a very powerful tool for broadly distributing a great deal of earth science information accessed via simple to use interfaces. Largely however, this has consisted of the provision of a limited set of "canned" products that the user selects from, downloads and views. This is especially the case with image based products.

The current limitations of WWW technology prevent a higher level form of interaction between the user and the database such as those commonly found in stand-alone applications. These include more sophisticated graphical user interfaces, the ability to quickly narrow in on specific detailed information (especially by pointing), and the ability to rapidly switch between several types of analysis for rapid comparison. The need to bring this sort of high level interaction to the Web is becoming increasingly evident as information providers seek to construct more powerful Web based tools to help navigate through and analyze increasingly detailed databases.

To enable the development of more interactive, image based, WWW content, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Atmospheric Sciences is developing a technology called Interactive Image Markup Language or, more simply, IIML. This work is part of a larger effort, The HORIZON Project. This NASA funded research and development effort seeks to enhance Web technology in a number of key areas to facilitate easy public access to NASA's large remote sensing data archives.

IIML is a SGML based language similar to HTML that allows one to construct an interactive image to be accessed via the Web. This image may be constructed from many smaller components such as other images and graphic primitives. The designer may individually or multiply set many aspects of these components such as their visibility, color, position, size, etc. The designer may also specify how these attributes are to change in response to specific user actions such as a mouse click on a specific object. Capabilities include provisions for further communication between the server and the client (where the interaction takes place) during the course of the interaction.

One example application would be an interactive map with a single base map that could be overlayed with various layers of contours and other symbols which the user could rapidly switch between. Another kind of interactive map that IIML would make possible is one that instantly displayed detailed information about a specific location when pointed to.

Corresponding Author:

David Wojtowicz
Department of Atmospheric Sciences and National Center for Supercomputing Applications
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
105 S. Gregory Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
Tel: (217) 333-2046 Fax: (217) 244-4393
e-mail: davidw@uiuc.edu