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LG3D^?'s First Run

Table of Contents

• App Lifecycle Management
• Arranging Apps in the 3D Space
• Background Related Features
• X Apps Specific Features (available in the app and the session modes only)
• LG3D Apps
  • Zoetrope Imageviewer
  • Lg Scope 3D Fileviewer
  • Cosmo Scheduler D
  • K-Web 3D UI Demo
  • Swing Node Test
• Terminating LG3D

App Lifecycle Management

• Start an app -- click the left mouse button on an icon on the taskbar or move the mouse over the "StartMenu" icon and select an app from there.
• Close an app -- click the right mouse button on the thumbnail of the app you want to close.
• Iconifying an app -- this is currently (0.7.1) application specific.
• Uniconifying an app -- click the left mouse button on the thumbnail of the app.
• Easy selection of an app out of many apps -- move the mouse onto one of app thumbnail on the taskbar. The app become opaque whereas other apps become close to transparent. It helps you find a target app to bring forward out of many opening apps.

Arranging Apps in the 3D Space

• Park an app with tilt -- push the middle mouse button on the app window and drag it toward the side you want the app to park. Whle dragging, you should see a red line. Draw a horizontal short line (like 1cm) toward one of the two sides of the screen. The app should be parked on that side when you released the mouse button. For an X app, you need to move the mouse cursor on the window decoration before starting the gestrue.
• Unpark an app -- click the left mouse button on the parked app.
• Change to the bookshelf view -- click the right mouse button on the background. If you click in the right half of the background, all the apps are moved to the right side (and so does it for the left too).
• Unpark an app in the bookshelf view -- click left mouse button on the parked app.
• Exit bookshelf view -- click the right mouse button once again on the half of the background where all the apps are parked. If you click the other half of the background, all the apps first get parked on that side. If there is an app which is not in the bookshelf view, it first gets parked. In such a case, you can click the right button once again to unpark all the apps.
• Rotate the 3D view of apps -- Push the left mouse button on the Java logo around the top right corner. Drag the mouse. All the apps get rotated according to the mouse drag. Releasing the mouse button moves all the apps back to the original position.

Background Related Features

• Changing the background -- Launch the background manager by clicking left mouse button on the second right icon on the right side of the taskbar. Click the left mouse button on the left and right arrows to navigate through the background images. You can also click the left mouse button on a thumbnail image to move the background to front. Click the "OK" button to select the image. If you are interested in specific kind of background, click one of the buttons on the left side -- for example, if you click the "Panoramic" button, the background manager shows the panoramic backgrounds only.
• Features available only in Panoramic backgrounds
  • Pan the view -- Move the mouse close to either side of the edges of the LG3D^? screen. If mouse cursor changes its shape to one that has tow arrows horizontally, you can pan the view toward this direction by clicking the left mouse button.
  • Switch to the overview mode -- Click the right mouse button on the taskbar. The view changes to the overview mode. Click the right mouse button on the "desktop" to make it the current.

X Apps Specific Features (available in the app and the session modes only)

• Take notes on the backside of app window -- click the right mouse button on the header part of the window. Click the left mouse button once inside the yellow area and type in notes. Click the right mouse button once again in the surrounding area to flip back the window. Currently the notes text is stored using the window title as a key. So, if you bring up an X window that has the same title (e.g. an X term in the same directory, or a web browser showing the same web page) you should see the notes you put previously.
• Configuring Mozilla Firefox using the back side -- Start Firefox using "StartMenu" by choosing "Internet"->"Mozilla". "StartMenu" is located at the left end on the taskbar. From the menu of the Firefox window, choose "Edit"->"Preferences". The Preferences configuration dialog will appare on the back side.
• Configuring gnome-terminal using the back side -- Start a gnome-terminal from a terminal window. From the menu of the gnome-terminal, choose "Edit"->"Profiles". The gnome-terminal window will flip and the configuration dialog will appear on the back side. Other configurations like "Current Profile" and "Keybindings" will also appear on the back side.

LG3D^? Apps

This section is a quick guide to try out the LG3D^? apps (so, it doesn't cover all the available features).

Zoetrope Imageviewer

• Launching the Demo -- "StartMenu->Media->Zoetrope"
• Changing the image -- move the mouse on the center thumbnail of the wheel on the left. Use mose wheel to navigate though the images. (FYI, images are from "JavaOne" 2004 taken by Yuichi Sakuraba, the author of this app)

Lg Scope 3D Fileviewer

• Launching the Demo -- "StartMenu->Utilities->LgScope Filemanager"
• Looking into a subdirectory -- double-click left mouse button on a "directory bar".
• Going up to the parent directory -- left-click on the red cone shape found around top left.
• Changing the layout -- click on "Tile" button around the top middle. Repeat clicking will repeat 4 different layouts.
• Viewing file info printed on "sides" -- drag the Java logo arount top right to rotate the view so that you can see the sides of the boxes.
• Changing the color of the boxes -- click left on the color cube located around top right.
• Viewing the contents of a text file -- double-click left mouse button on a box that represents a text file. Click right on the red ball located above the text viewer to close the viewer window.
• Warning -- It can slow donw the system significantly if you keep looking into directories with lots of files. Restart LG3D^? if it happens (this issue is to be fixed).

Cosmo Scheduler D

• Launching the Demo -- "StartMenu->Office->CosmoSchedulerD". Answer "YES" when you asked to run in a demo mode. It will show a solar system like view. Each orbit represents a kind of event, and each planet represents an event. The more important an event is, the larger the planet becomes.
• Navigation through the schedule -- Press the Ctrl key. While keeping the key down, use the mosue wheel to move the time forward and backward.
• Changing the view mode -- move the mouse cursor on the Sun. Pressing the right mouse button down, you will see two icons above and below the mouse cursor. While keeping the right button down, move the cursor on the "layout" icon and release the button. It will change the view to a different kind. Three kind of views are available in total.

K-Web 3D UI Demo

• Introduction -- K-Web is an educational project which attempts to present and teach the history of science and technology in a non-lineary, multi-discplinary and holistic way. It is based on the research of James Burke, who produced the popular PBS Connection's series in the 1980's. It's focus is not merely on historical figures and events but the relationships between them. For example, starting with a relatively innocuous topic like "chewing gum" a student can trace a path of relationships and influences through the Kweb and ultimately arrive at Igor Sikorsky and the invention of the helicopter. Through exploring the kweb, a student can discover his or her own "historical journey." The kweb information on the net currently consists of 2500 "nodes." (A node is an individual historical topic, usually a person, invention or idea). For more on K-Web, refer to k-web.org.

• The K-Web 3D UI Demo -- The purpose of the lg3d kweb demo (called kwebdemo1) is to demonstrate new UI concepts for navigating the kweb. It was co-developed by the Burke Institute and Sun Microsystems. The Burke Institute currently has a project which provides a 2D-only interface to the kweb, but kwebdemo1 seeks to employ 3D technology to make exploring the kweb more productive and enjoyable.

• Caveat -- kwebdemo1 is a canned demo. This means that it is programmed to run through a predetermined sequence of actions, regardless of what user input you provide. User input is used only to tell the program when to proceed to the next step; the actual type of user input is ignored. For example, in the search dialog you can type "ILoveJava" and it will be echoed as "Mozart". And when the program is expecting a mouse click, it doesn't matter where in the frame you click, just so long as you click somewhere in the frame.

• Launching the Demo --
  • 1. Bring up the LG Start Menu and click on "Media"
  • 2. Click on "K-Web 3D UI Demo"
  • ==> A kweb visualization (called a "plex") will come up and start rotating.
  • 3. Click on the magnifying glass ("search") button in the upper left corner.
  • ==> A Search dialog comes up.
  • 4. Move the mouse over the Search dialog.
  • 5. Type "Mozart"
  • 6. Then click the left mouse button 3 times
  • ==> A Search Choices window will appear. The only choice presented will be Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
  • 7. Click the left mouse button on this window.
  • ==> The Search Choices window will go away and a revised Search dialog will appear.
  • 8. Click the left mouse button on this window.
  • ==> The Search Chocies window will go away and the plex will rotate so that the Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus node is front and center.
  • 9. Move the mouse over the Mozart node and click the left mouse button.
  • ==> A Node Choices dialog will come up.
  • 10. Click the left mouse button 2 times on this window.
  • ==> The Biography window for Mozart will appear. This window contains various links (highlighted in red and underlined) to other historical figures that were related in some way to Mozart.
  • 11. Click the left mouse button over the de Beaumarchais link (about two thirds the way down in the text).
  • ==> The Mozart biography window will disappear and the plex will rotate so that the Beaumarchais, Garond link is front and center. Here is were the kwebdemo1 ends. This is as far as the developer's got. But it sufficient to demonstrate a vision of how exploring the Kweb might be enhanced by 3D techniques.

• Terminating the Demo -- There are two ways to bring down the kwebdemo1 application. The first and slower method is as follows:
  • Slower method
    • 1. Click the left mouse button over the "X" button which is on the flat plane which surrounds the plex.
    • ==> A credits window will appear.
    • 2. Click the left mouse button over the credits window to quit the demo.
  • A second (faster) method of terminating kwebdemo1 is to click the right mouse button over it's thumbnail (the round earth icon).

Swing Node Test

• Launching the Demo -- "StartMenu->Test->Swing Node Test". On the upper left, it shows a swing window in the 3D space, and at the center a swing panel put on a waving cloth. Note that the swing panel on waving cloth is active and reacts user input. Rotate the view by dragging the Java logo to show the Swing panels are really in the 3D space.
• Changing cloth simulation parameters -- use the Swing panel on the left side to change the parameters for the cloth simulation.

Terminating LG3D^?

• Left mouse click on the "kill" icon at the right end of the taskbar.