Feature

Viewing Optics Express Movies on Unix

Bob Jopson

"This is so unbelievably cool. . . now I want to read the article so I can understand it," said an OSA member—after a half-hour of telephone coaching—when he first viewed a movie of the output beam patterns from a quasi-stadium-mode resonator on Optics Express. In that instant he understood how online journals, with their color, movement, and sometimes sound, can provide a new and potentially better way of conveying technical information. For instance, Figure 3 of that same article contains four curves, two of which mostly overlap. Without color, the curves would be indistinguishable. The member's enthusiasm was enhanced, no doubt, by a rapidly approaching conference deadline, but, even lacking a dire desire for diversion, you, too, will be pleasantly surprised the first time you view a multi-media Optics Express article.