22,217 research outputs found
Engaging with books you cannot touch: interactive multimedia to explore library treasures
Interactivity has proved a successful way to engage visitors of science museums. However it is not a common
practice when the objects to exhibit are artefacts or, as in the case of this paper, books. A study was set up to
investigate the driving criteria for the âThe Life and Work of William Butler Yeatsâ exhibition at the National
Library of Ireland and compare those with the visitorsâ opinion. Books, notebooks and personal belongings of
the poet have been digitized and used to create a rich and varied exhibition that used both interactivity and
multimedia. The result of visitorsâ survey showed that the variety was a key factor for the success of the
exhibition: different people engaged with different contents and different medium to different degrees. The
design of the ambience is critical: dim lights and the use of audio as a medium have to be carefully planned to
avoid annoying instead of engaging
Usability evaluation of a virtual museum interface
The Augmented Representation of Cultural Objects (ARCO) system provides software and interface tools to museum curators to develop virtual museum exhibitions, as well as a virtual environment for museum visitors over the World Wide Web or in informative kiosks. The main purpose of the system is to offer an enhanced educative and entertaining experience to virtual museum visitors. In order to assess the usability of the system, two approaches have been employed: a questionnaire based survey and a Cognitive Walkthrough session. Both approaches employed expert evaluators, such as domain experts and usability experts. The result of this study shows a fair performance of the followed approach, as regards the consumed time, financial and other resources, as a great deal of usability problems has been uncovered and many aspects of the system have been investigated. The knowledge gathered aims at creating a conceptual framework for diagnose usability problems in systems in the area of Virtual Cultural Heritage
A short history off-line
Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring the history of ICT in education and the lessons we can learn from the pas
Science and Technology in Media
Tato prĂĄce se zabĂœvĂĄ vlivem mĂ©diĂ, pĆedevĆĄĂm novĂœch mĂ©diĂ, na oblast vÄdy a techniky. Definuje zĂĄkladnĂ mediĂĄlnĂ pojmy a upozorĆuje na to, ĆŸe mĂ©dia mohou bĂœt vĂœbornĂœm prostĆedkem k propagaci vÄdy a techniky, ale majĂ takĂ© obrovskou moc a mohou zkreslovat realitu a manipulovat s lidmi. V prĂĄci je takĂ© rozebrĂĄno nÄkolik konkrĂ©tnĂch pĆĂkladĆŻ. V zĂĄvÄru prĂĄce je nastĂnÄn moĆŸnĂœ pohled do budoucna propojenĂ vÄdy, techniky a mĂ©diĂ.This thesis deals with the influence of Media, especially New Media, on the field of Science and Technology. It defines basic media terms and warns that Media may represent an excellent mean of Science and Technology promotion. On the other hand, they are very powerful and can distort reality and manipulate with humans. There are explored several examples in the thesis, too. The conclusion outlines a possible view on the interconnection of Science, Technology and Media in the future.
Making Exhibitions, Brokering Meaning: Designing new connections across communities of practice
New media museum exhibits often see designers representing the research of expert content providers. Despite perceptions that such exhibits provide museum visitors with a greater depth and range of experience, differences in knowledge and practice between designers and content providers can see content development become an unruly, competitive process in which audience experience, digital mediation, visualisation techniques and meaning become contested territory.
Drawing on Etienne Wengerâs theory of âcommunities of practiceâ, this paper argues that designersâ advocacy for audiences and distance from exhibition content well positions them to broker interdisciplinary goal setting so that exhibitions observe the representational objectives of content providers and meet the needs and preferences of museum visitors. A wide range of design literature already discusses the pragmatic benefits and ethical importance of user-centered design, while the literature on co-design suggests that designed outcomes are more successful if the design process considers the interests of all stakeholders.
These discussions can be compelling, but the inherent challenges in engaging othersâ perspectives and knowledge in the design process are less acknowledged, Wengerâs ideas on the social dynamics of group enterprise offering designers valuable insights into the actuality of negotiating designed outcomes with non-designer stakeholders.
The paper has two main aspects. The first outlines the theory of communities of practice, focusing on the brokering of knowledge and practice between disciplines. This discussion frames an analysis of the design process for two museum exhibitions. Representing an original application of Wengerâs ideas, the discussion recognises the unique role of the designed artifact in brokering information visualization processes, transcending the actions and intentions of individual stakeholders. While accepting there are successful examples of interdisciplinary exchange in various areas of design, the interpretation of examples via Wenger contributes useful principles to the theorisation of co-design with non-designer stakeholders.
Keywords:
Information visualization; New media museum exhibits; Multidisciplinary projects; Communities of Practice; Brokering; User-centered design; Co-Design; Etienne Wenger</p
Promising Beginning? Evaluating Museum Mobile Phone Apps
Since 2009 museums have started introducing mobile apps in their range of interpretative media and visitor services.
As mobile technology continues to develop and permeate all aspects of our life, and the capabilities of smart phones
increase while they become more accessible and popular, new possibilities arise for cultural institutions to exploit these
tools for communicating in new ways and promoting their exhibitions and programmes. The use of mobile apps opens
up new channels of communication between the cultural institution and the user, which extent to his or her personal
space and go beyond the boundaries of the museumâs walls. The paper presents a survey carried out of mobile apps
designed by art or cultural historical museums and analyses the wider issues which are raised by the findings. It
discusses, among others, the kind of use these apps were designed to fulfil (e.g. the majority are guided tours to the
permanent collections or to temporary exhibitions), the layering of content,and the type of user interaction and
involvement they support
An investigation to examine the most appropriate methodology to capture historical and modern preserved anatomical specimens for use in the digital age to improve access: a pilot study
Anatomico-pathological specimens constitute a valuable component of many medical museums or
institutional collections but can be limited in their impact on account of both physical and intellectual
inaccessibility. Further concerns relate to conservation as anatomical specimens may be subject to
tissue deterioration, constraints imposed by spatial or financial limitations of the host institution, or
accident-based destruction. In awareness of these issues, a simple and easily implementable
methodology to increase accessibility, impact and conservation of anatomical specimens is proposed
which combines photogrammetry, object virtual reality (object VR), and interactive portable document
format (PDF) with supplementary historical and anatomical commentary. The methodology was
developed using wet, dry, and plastinated specimens from the historical and modern collections in the
Museum of Anatomy at the University of Glasgow. It was found that photogrammetry yielded excellent
results for plastinated specimens and showed potential for dry specimens, while object VR produced
excellent photorealistic virtual specimens for all materials visualised. Use of PDF as output format was
found to allow for the addition of textual, visual, and interactive content, and as such supplemented the
virtual specimen with multidisciplinary information adaptable to the needs of various audiences. The
results of this small-scale pilot study indicate the beneficial nature of combining these established
techniques into a methodology for the digitisation and utilisation of historical anatomical collections in
particular, but also collections of material culture more broadly
Sensing and mapping for interactive performance
This paper describes a trans-domain mapping (TDM) framework for translating meaningful activities from one creative domain onto another. The multi-disciplinary framework is designed to facilitate an intuitive and non-intrusive interactive multimedia performance interface that offers the users or performers real-time control of multimedia events using their physical movements. It is intended to be a highly dynamic real-time performance tool, sensing and tracking activities and changes, in order to provide interactive multimedia performances.
From a straightforward definition of the TDM framework, this paper reports several implementations and multi-disciplinary collaborative projects using the proposed framework, including a motion and colour-sensitive system, a sensor-based system for triggering musical events, and a distributed multimedia server for audio mapping of a real-time face tracker, and discusses different aspects of mapping strategies in their context.
Plausible future directions, developments and exploration with the proposed framework, including stage augmenta tion, virtual and augmented reality, which involve sensing and mapping of physical and non-physical changes onto multimedia control events, are discussed
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