Sampling the past:a tactile approach to interactive musical instrument exhibits in the heritage sector

In the last decade, the heritage sector has had to adapt to a shifting cultural landscape of public expectations and attitudes towards ownership and intellectual property. One way it has done this is to focus on each visitor’s encounter and provide them with a sense of experiential authenticity.There is a clear desire by the public to engage with music collections in this way, and a sound museological rationale for providing such access, but the approach raises particular curatorial problems, specifically how do we meaningfully balance access with the duty to preserve objects for future generations?This paper charts the development of one such project. Based at Fenton House in Hampstead, and running since 2008, the project seeks to model digitally the keyboard instruments in the Benton Fletcher Collection and provide a dedicated interactive exhibit, which allows visitors to view all of the instruments in situ, and then play them through a custom-built two-manual MIDI controller with touch-screen interface.We discuss the approach to modelling, which uses high-definition sampling, and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the exhibit as it currently stands, with particular focus on its key shortcoming: at present, there is no way to effectively model the key feel of a historic keyboard instrument.This issue is of profound importance, since the feel of any instrument is fundamental to its character, and shapes the way performers relate to it. The issue is further compounded if we are to consider a single dedicated keyboard as being the primary mode of interface for several instrument models of different classes, each with its own characteristic feel.We conclude by proposing an outline solution to this problem, detailing early work on a real-time adaptive haptic keyboard interface that changes its action in response to sampled resistance curves, measured on a key-by-key basis from the original instruments

The "MIND" Scalable PIM Architecture

MIND (Memory, Intelligence, and Network Device) is an advanced parallel computer architecture for high performance computing and scalable embedded processing. It is a Processor-in-Memory (PIM) architecture integrating both DRAM bit cells and CMOS logic devices on the same silicon die. MIND is multicore with multiple memory/processor nodes on each chip and supports global shared memory across systems of MIND components. MIND is distinguished from other PIM architectures in that it incorporates mechanisms for efficient support of a global parallel execution model based on the semantics of message-driven multithreaded split-transaction processing. MIND is designed to operate either in conjunction with other conventional microprocessors or in standalone arrays of like devices. It also incorporates mechanisms for fault tolerance, real time execution, and active power management. This paper describes the major elements and operational methods of the MIND architecture

Multi-Sensory Museum Experiences: Balancing Objects’ Preservation and Visitors’ Learning

In the late twentieth century, museums moved from a near exclusive focus on researching, collecting and preserving objects to an increased interest in visitors’ experiences and learning. Consequently, today’s museums are re-focused on facilitating engaging connections between visitors and collections. Nonetheless, many current-day museum visitors are dissatisfied with their primarily visual experiences. In order to enhance visitors’ intellectual, emotional and physical connections with objects, this paper argues museums should introduce new ways of visitor interaction with objects through narrative and multi-sensory experiences. By combining discursive and immersive exhibition models, museums can create narratives that emotionally and intellectually involve visitors. While museums should aim to make visitors’ museum experiences more immersive by incorporating senses in addition to sight, such as touch, hearing, smell and taste, museums must also protect the integrity of their collections. Through a tiered or stratified approach to collections, museums may remain responsible for their collections yet allow visitors to increase their physical, emotional and intellectual access to more diverse types of objects. This paper demonstrates how museums may implement discursive and immersive narratives as well as tiered or stratified, multi-sensory collection experiences in permanent installations, temporary exhibitions and educational programming

Multi-Sensory Museum Experiences: Balancing Objects’ Preservation and Visitors’ Learning

In the late twentieth century, museums moved from a near exclusive focus on researching, collecting and preserving objects to an increased interest in visitors’ experiences and learning. Consequently, today’s museums are re-focused on facilitating engaging connections between visitors and collections. Nonetheless, many current-day museum visitors are dissatisfied with their primarily visual experiences. In order to enhance visitors’ intellectual, emotional and physical connections with objects, this paper argues museums should introduce new ways of visitor interaction with objects through narrative and multi-sensory experiences. By combining discursive and immersive exhibition models, museums can create narratives that emotionally and intellectually involve visitors. While museums should aim to make visitors’ museum experiences more immersive by incorporating senses in addition to sight, such as touch, hearing, smell and taste, museums must also protect the integrity of their collections. Through a tiered or stratified approach to collections, museums may remain responsible for their collections yet allow visitors to increase their physical, emotional and intellectual access to more diverse types of objects. This paper demonstrates how museums may implement discursive and immersive narratives as well as tiered or stratified, multi-sensory collection experiences in permanent installations, temporary exhibitions and educational programming

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Ground Robotic Hand Applications for the Space Program study (GRASP)

This document reports on a NASA-STDP effort to address research interests of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) through a study entitled, Ground Robotic-Hand Applications for the Space Program (GRASP). The primary objective of the GRASP study was to identify beneficial applications of specialized end-effectors and robotic hand devices for automating any ground operations which are performed at the Kennedy Space Center. Thus, operations for expendable vehicles, the Space Shuttle and its components, and all payloads were included in the study. Typical benefits of automating operations, or augmenting human operators performing physical tasks, include: reduced costs; enhanced safety and reliability; and reduced processing turnaround time

The Hyperwall: A Geospatial Education Exhibit for the Science Museum of Virginia

Modern museums rely on technologically advanced platforms to attract visitors and convey information. The Science Museum of Virginia (SMV) proposed a new interactive geospatial education exhibit called the EarthLab Data Hyperwall to support their mission statement of “inspiring Virginians to enhance their lives through science.” A hyperwall/video wall is a visualization tool composed of a large screen array used for education and collaborative work. The SMV’s Hyperwall Exhibit consists of a high resolution video wall controlled by a connected, visitor-accessible touchscreen. The exhibit educates visitors on several environmental and climatic topics using interactive maps to increase comprehension. This project produced a .NET Framework application that accesses the datasets and maps for each topic by implementing Esri’s ArcGIS Runtime SDK for .NET. The Museum needed the Hyperwall platform to display the underlying data through an interactive and accessible User Interface. The system’s design considered Museum visitor’s varied demographics and recent educational theory relating to cognition and spatial literacy. The educational goals of the exhibit are: teach visitors about the Museum’s research into heat illness risks related to urban heat islands, improve visitor’s wayfinding and overall spatial literacy, and educate visitors on environmental conditions and the changing climate locally and the world over