We wanted to take the opportunity to share some background information about our most recent project, especially if anyone is also developing or thinking about multi-touch experiences.
As part of a travelling art exhibition, Inspiring Impressionism, we've developed a set of interactive multi-touch tables. The show opened last month at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and then comes to the Denver Art Museum in early February. So far, public response has been great and the technology works well. From an experience point of view, there were three fundamental goals: - introduce works of art that might not appear at all the venues - allow visitors to explore the detailed brushwork of masterworks and impressionist works - create a social experience in which multiple visitors can engage at the same time In short, visitors can choose from ten different works and when they touch the table surface a magnified view of the artwork appears, their fingertip is essentially the magnifying glass. The part that's worked out surprisingly well is that multiple users are naturally drawn to the tables and more than one person uses them at the same time, a departure from the limitations of traditional touchscreens. On the technical side, we've developed the tables as a platform that can be easily adapated and used for different experiences than what we've necessarily designed. The hardware and vision system work independently of the front-end user experience, with the vision system simply throwing a data stream to a receptive application. We've put a preliminary webpage together that goes into additional detail about the project available at <http://blogs.denverartmuseum.org/technology/projects/multitouch/>. There's also a youtube video showing the interface and technology at work at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVN-a4x9aTs>. If you're in Atlanta before mid-January, please stop by the High and check out the exhibition. After that, stop by and say hello in Denver. This project was developed entirely in-house (although the software is based on open-source software which is referenced on the above webpage). We'll keep adding to the webpage, but we're happy to share the technology bits, how we've adapted the software (and the software itself), and the physical setup and installation (costs for the physical setup is under $10k). Some of this was surprisingly hard, and if we can help some others suffer a bit less, we're happy to help. Please feel free to send email to <bwyman at denverartmuseum.org> if you'd like to know more or have any questions. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002 <bwyman at denverartmuseum.org>