Hey Guys!
Las Thursday we visit the New York Hall of Science which was a tremendous experience (is not expensive, relatively ease to get to, it’s worth it). Unfortunately from the whole of the visit one piece had a huge impact in all of us (can I affirm that for all of us?). And that’s unfortunate because I fell oblige to post about it, just like my dear college did already. Lets go:
Name of Exhibit
Connected Worlds
Sponsor of the exhibit
Google; JPB Foundation; National Science Foundation; NASDAQ Educational Foundation Inc.
Location of exhibit/installation
New York Hall of Science – The Great Hall
Still images of exhibit by itself
Still images of the exhibit being used by a visitor
Description of the mode of interactivity
The user can interact with this piece by gesture: extending their hands up to create a seed; moving the arm fast horizontally to cut trees and plants; and by moving the “logs” on the floor to alter the directions of the water stream.
Description of the interface
Connected Worlds surrounds the user with 7 screens on the walls (6 ecosystems + waterfall), that allows the user to do gestures to interact with it (Kinect); the floor is a screen as well that can be interacted using the “logs” to change the water direction; has a touchscreen outside the “main ambient” in which the status of each ambient can be checked and it’s possible to see the history of that cycle (Cycle ends when the program in reseted).
Description of the content (story, images, narrative) that is displayed on the exhibit
Connected Worlds displays 6 independent ecosystems – independent in the sense that each one can evolve regardless of the condition of the one adjacent to it – and how all those ecosystems depend on the cycle of the water (if one ecosystem don’t get enough water it dies; if that ecosystem was responsible for water evaporation other ecosystems will die from lack of water).
Other then visual, the piece has a very Zen soundtrack and the room where the piece is located is warmer then the rest of the museum, making the immersion (at least for me), multi sensorial and therefore more profound.
Description of the technology used in the exhibit
Connected worlds has 7 projectors pointing to the walls, each one shows a different ecosystem + the waterfall; has 7 projectors pointing to the floor; has 12 – that I was able to count – Kinects (2 per screen) to capture the user arm movement; has infrared sensors pointing to the floor to recognize the position of the logs and therefore chance the water stream.
Information about the designer of the exhibit
Design I/O LLC; Center of International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University; Games of Learning Institute, New York University; Dr. David Rand, director of Human Cooperation Laboratory, Yale University; Technology Provider: Panasonic Systems Communication Company of North America.
Video recording of the exhibit in use
Connected Worlds – Interaction
Information about number of people served by the exhibit in an hour or day
I would say about 4/5 people per hour. When we got to it, it was empty. The group stayed for about 40 minutes, by the time we were leaving there was a group of 4 people playing with it. I stayed in the museum for a bit longer after my peers had left and I was able to see another group of about 4/5 people playing with it.
Information about the way the technology tells the story of the installation
The installation simulates a “world” with it’s 6 ecosystems and prompts the user to interact with those and the water that’s running on the floor to make them health and evolve. The size of the plants (seeds) the user can plant in one habitat represents one of the 4 levels of healthiness of that ecosystem (in the healthier level animals start to pop in).
Interview with people who have used the interactive
Didn’t get one of those…
