I am looking for a method to show a specific are of a web page or
picture defined by the position of the mouse. Using the metaphor of a
flashlight:
The page should be completely dark (black) upon loading. As soon as
the user moves the mouse (flashlight) a pre-defined area around the
mouse cursor is shown (lights up) to the user.
Another way of describing it is two layers (bottom picture/top black)
where the top layer is made transparent in the area the mouse is
moved. It should be possible to record the movement of the mouse and
to control the shown area.

What is the preferred method to program something like this and why?

Thanks

Schwepp

I think that the best method is the use of macromedia flash and
actionscript because flash gives excellent results in all the
referring to interactivity.

I saw something similar of the flashligh with javascript and dhtml

Hi, 

I believe this should be possible using CSS and Javascript. 

The 'flashlight' could be made as a transparant PNG. Then using
Javascript it should would be possible to reposition DIV elements on a
higher z-index to black out the remaining page and move the
'flashlight'.

However, I don't have the time to create anything like that myself at
the moment - maybe another researcher can come up with something.

Regards,
Sycophant

hi Schwepp - I think you are looking for something like this:

http://www.dhtmlcentral.com/script/script.asp?id=27

Hope this helps,

Jon