NRC: Naturalist Tables, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2012

Small Design Firm developed two completely custom interactive tables for the Nature Research Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Visitors to the museum are invited to pick up actual specimens from the museum collection and place them on to the table surface. When the table reads the tagged specimen, video projection from above reveals activities and field guide information pertaining to the specimen.

There are over a hundred available specimens, ranging from mounted insects and preserved amphibians, to mammal study skins and bird skulls. Housed in the Naturalist Center, these tables use a combination of capacitive touch technology and RFID tracking to create a truly unique, hands on, research experience.

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NRC: Storm Central & Real Time Weather Station, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2012

The Storm Central desk features three stations at which visitors can track a hurricane or make their own weather forecast. Each day live weather data is displayed along with helpful tips from WRAL meteorologist Greg Fishel. Visitors use this information to enter what they think the weather will be like the next day. Upon completing a forecast, visitors can then compare their forecast to WRAL’s.

The Tracking activity provides an introduction to the anatomy of a hurricane and explores the multitude of factors that contribute to their unpredictable nature. Greg Fishel keeps the visitor updated with a day by day report of the location and intensity of the storm. This information is then used to plot where the storm will hit next and whether it will increase or decrease in severity. This interactive demonstrates that, while tracking a hurricane can sometimes be difficult, gathering and sharing the most accurate data is crucial to keeping the public safe and informed.

Nearby, a model of a weather station shows how meteorologists collect data in the field. Using a touchscreen, you can bring up webcams and current weather conditions from five locations around the United States. The thermometer will show the correct temperature in Alaska, the humidity in Puerto Rico, the precipitation on Mount Washington in New Hampshire and the air pressure in Raleigh. A real wind gauge will even spin to show the wind speed and direction at each station. Here you can learn about the different instruments used to measure the weather and see some extreme weather right in front of your eyes.

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NRC: Touchscreen Interactives, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2012

The Nature Research Center encourages visitors to engage with and become a part of the ongoing research at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Several interactive touchscreen applications were developed by Small Design Firm to help facilitate this interplay.

On the first floor of the Research Center, an embedded touchscreen acts like a window into the surrounding streambed scenery. At this station, visitors become researchers by collecting macroinvertabrates and tallying their populations to determine water quality. Get your hands “wet” and collect some water bugs!

On the third floor, geologists are trying to determine what may have left trace fossils on a slab of rock over 500 million years ago. A touchscreen allows visitors to navigate high resolution photography of the surface of the rock, discovering fossils along the way. Video projection from above illuminates key features on the surface of the adjacent slab specimen.

On the same floor, visitors are again asked to take on the role of scientist when analyzing the DNA of several species at the Natural History CSI interactive. By using DNA barcoding, visitors discover the true identity of a species. They learn how modern science is used to solve real mysteries every day.

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N-YHS: Federal Wall, New York, NY, 2011

The Federal Wall engages visitors in the relationships between objects, events, ideas and people. The wall uses art, historic documentation, period ephemera, and the words and deeds of historic figures in conjunction with digital displays and augmented reality to tell the story of the Founding Period.

Five 46” touchscreens merge the physical environment of the display wall with computer-generated imagery, text and visual effects. Visitors explore this augmented reality by rotating the screens to view objects physically present in the environment and interact with their virtual representations, associated text and additional virtual objects stored in the collection. The layers of virtual information makes visible the connections of all present objects and expands interpretation.

Each augmented reality station consists of one 46” touchscreen mounted portrait style on a custom designed pillar which stands on the floor. The screens are about eight feet away from the wall to allow people to get up close to the objects. Each screen pivots horizontally and an attached rotation sensor monitors its orientation. They can pivot to the left and right, allowing access to neighboring gateways.

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N-YHS: Collections Highlight Showcase, New York, NY, 2011

The Collection Highlights Showcase features unique and interesting objects from the New-York Historical Society’s collection and guides people towards the larger collection and archive upstairs. Six columns with vertical screens offer a simple dynamic presentation of images that are grouped thematically. Each column displays either an independent image or sections of a single image which expands across all the screens. Visitors can watch or glance at the columns multiple times and from multiple areas in the exhibition.

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N-YHS: Interactive Columns, New York, NY, 2011

The Interactive Columns allow visitors to peruse six stories presented on touchscreen displays. Each touchscreen presents a different theme investigating New York’s exceptional role in American History. Mounted alongside the touchscreens are key objects that relate to the topics under discussion.

The visitor interacts by swiping their finger on the screen horizontally to choose between the different articles. Their finger movements appear to “drag” the articles from side to side, with a one-to-one correspondence. By swiping up and down an article can be dragged to reveal its entire length. Images and text within the articles can be enlarged with a double tap to view in greater detail and restored to their place in the article with an additional double tap. It is also possible to use a ‘pinch’ and ‘unpinch’ two finger gesture to reduce and enlarge the articles. After a few minutes of inactivity, the application transitions to an introductory image, waiting for the next visitor to swipe the articles into full view and begin exploring.

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N-YHS: Living Painting, New York, NY, 2011

The Living Painting is a unique experience that greets visitors immediately as they enter the reconfigured New-York Historical Society. It transports visitors back in time to the revolutionary moment that caught fire in New York and ultimately let to the founding of a new nation and the New-York Historical Society itself. The installation brings to life Johannes Adam Simon Oertel's painting "Pulling Down the Statue of King George III".

As visitors enter the building, they see what appears to be a large painting at the end of the entry hall. The “painting” actually consists of a five-by-two array of LCD panels. The image on each panel comes within 2.8mm of each edge, so the overall effect is of a single scene over 11 feet wide and nearly 8 feet high transected by a few very thin black lines. The painting depicts a mob of colonists at dusk with the soon to be destroyed statue at the focal point of the scene.

Using sound and animation, various elements of the painting come to life. Subtle animations within the painting are triggered by visitor proximity. Animations consist of drifting smoke, the pulling down of the horse statue, waving arms, and a running dog...just to name a few. Carefully composed audio elements contribute to the feeling that the painting has come to life. Although the resulting experience is still very much like looking at an oil painting, the sense of observing an actual event is enhanced.

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Boston Federal Reserve: NEEA Generator, Boston, MA, 2011

The Generator is a multi-user interactive installation where visitors explore social and economic narratives relating to Boston and New England. It provides a general overview of economic concepts through real world examples and genuine data. The installation is composed of high definition displays and touchscreens. Ten screens are installed in landscape orientation with eight screens installed above these in portrait orientation. Five of the landscape displays are touch screens, and these screens are the portals through with visitors interact with the Generator content.

The design is primarily built from moving text and image elements, with additional simple graphic elements, such as a grid. The information is designed in a three dimensional “virtual space,” however many elements are presented in a more two dimensional form. There are two stories each sub-divided in to chapters. Each of the five landscape touch screens display a chapter and, as visitors interact with the content in the chapters, the content is reproduced in a larger format above them on the portrait screens.

Visitors are able to peruse the content by selecting from a group of images. Once an image is selected it enlarges and provides the visitor with additional information. Some of the images are non-interactive, others include custom animations and many are custom made interactive charts created by Small Design from real data.

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Boston MFA: Dynamic Signage, Boston, MA, 2009

The MFA dynamic signage system consists of three distinct forms. All three signs draw on the same daily XML feed, populated by Sitebots. Each screen displays an overlapping but specific set of content, tailored to its form and location in the museum. The signs primarily serve to promote current and upcoming events and exhibitions at the MFA. It also welcomes visitors to the museum, advertises for memberships, and serves as a billboard for general announcements.

The installation located at the Sharf Information Center is comprised of seven LCD screens run by networked computers. This sign uses letterforms based on the MFA logo along with vivid colors and images to show all exhibitions and events available at the museum on the current day. At less frequent intervals, it shows highlights from the museum collection as well as a welcome screen with the MFA logo. The sign is designed to provide an exciting overview of "Today at the MFA" and spark visitors' interest in the museum's offerings. While it does not replace the printed brochure or calendar, it provides enough detailed information for a visitor to find and participate in selected exhibitions and events.

The Huntington reception desk sign is similar in form to the Sharf sign, with some additional information and restrictions. The sign is five screens wide and displays the list of current exhibitions, showing only those above a certain priority. Every forty five seconds, an exhibition is highlighted in the foreground, with a probability based on its priority level. Flanking this list—and shown at all times—are the current time, the day's operation hours, general admission prices, ticketed exhibition prices, and the name of the current ticketed exhibition. Displayed at the bottom of each screen is a staff label, whose contents can be set with the keyboard connected to the sign, which indicates the current function of the associated desk position. 

A single portrait screen is positioned at both the Fenway and Huntington entrances of the museum. These screens run identical software and serve to welcome visitors to the museum and pique their interest about current exhibitions. The pylons alternates between a welcome screen, which also shows the museum's hours of operation for the day, and a selected exhibition. Only exhibitions of a high priority level are shown on these signs.

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Cardiovascular Center: Donor Recognition, Ann Arbor, MI, 2009

The Donor Recognition System for the Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is an animated presentation of hospital donors, and serves as a recognition of those who have helped to make the Michigan Difference.

The system is comprised of two computers running custom software with four large LCD displays that present the animated program to staff and visitors of the Hospital. An iPod Touch serves as a remote control for the system.

The animations present each donor name, appearing as a circle of text, which bursts like a bubble, spinning the letters away. As the letters drift about, new donor names appear briefly before they, too, burst. Over time, the letters come together into a formal layout of the donor's name, which then drifts down the displays and fades away.

Occasionally, a donor name appears in another form. Shafts of light play down the displays and, from the bottom of one display, a donor name emerges and "swims" away to explore the Donor Wall displays. After a bit, the words regroup and formally present the donor's name. The words stay in formation for several moments, before a cluster of donor names burst apart, and the startled words swim quickly off the top of the displays. These names are larger than the other donor names, and they represent donors who have given a greater contribution, or who have otherwise been selected for special treatment.

The presentation proceeds at a stately pace, presenting names throughout the day and night. After all of the donors have been presented, a new cycle begins to present each name once again. Although all the names are presented each cycle, each presentation is unique in its own little way.

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