Home Page UC Research Humans perform poorly when bombarded with information. Further interface problems arise-ensuring that each participant sees the same view of the world and is aware of the actions of others. Dougal Holmes used a fisheye lens while suspended from a crane on the Commerce Building construction site to obtain the photograph shown in Figure 1. Features near the focal region at the centre of the picture appear relatively undistorted.
Distortion increases with distance from the focal region near the centre of the picture.
Dr Neville Churcher and Dr Andy Cockburn use fisheye transformations to help combat information overload in the interfaces of computer applications displaying information such as maps and technical diagrams. Figure 1 shows a fisheye database design tool in action. The fisheye view enables important regions of complex diagrams to be examined in detail while retaining important context information such as connections to other parts of the diagram. Context information is poorly handled in other presentation techniques, such as zooming and scrolling. There is a tension between each user's need to maintain a focus of interest on a portion of the information space, and their need for general awareness of colleagues' activities.