Museum Exhibit Prototype

There’s another industry that sometimes tries new ways to engage users. I’ve visited many museums around the world and sometimes exhibit curators make the effort on trying new interactive platforms. Some fail but some are good. I visited a contemporary museum in Stockholm where they had an Andy Warhol exhibit. They used tablets as mini-kiosks to show the history of his work. It looked amateurish coming from a big museum. But who knows, maybe they ran out of time?

A better example of using new technology in an art exhibit was Bjork’s Digital exhibit in Los Angeles. Developers collaborated with the artist/musician in making interactive pieces for her songs. It was very visual and interactive. Each song was represented differently and the overall exhibit was a unique experience.

So I did this project in an effort to replicate a real life interactive experience in a museum. It has hand gestures to move a 3D object using a Leap Motion wired with Socket.io. The hardware would be a monitor or projector, a Leap sensor, and web browser connected to a local Node server. You add all of this up and you have the tools to make a cool digital exhibit. The Natural History Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits first came to mind.  A visitor can simply use their hands over the sensor with a monitor or projector nearby. In this case it could be prehistoric mammal moving in 3D space controlled with a hand gesture.


Instructions:

1. Go to https://bearvr.herokuapp.com/#/fixed on desktop browser (Works in Chrome).

2. Make sure you have your Leap Motion connected. You can purchase one on Amazon.

3.  Move your hands around the Leap and it will move the bear.

Screen Shot 2017-07-24 at 1.53.58 PM