The Tech Test Zone Gallery
Located in the Upper Level
Now Open
The Tech Test Zone Gallery houses a range of mind-blowing prototypes - all developed in collaboration with emerging designers, technology researchers, and innovative companies - in a 1,000-square-foot space. You can catch glimpses of the future -hands-on - with innovative prototypes, some never before displayed in public. Through tablet computer feedback stations, become part of the design process by commenting on the models.
In this futuristic new gallery concept, visitors experience emerging technologies first-hand and are inspired to imagine things to come. By staging their prototypes in the museum, our partners (corporations, academic labs, professional designers, and enthusiastic amateurs) gather valuable user-testing data.
Among the new exhibits in The Tech Test Zone:
Pixel: Eye Tracking Technology
Developed by graduate students Pixel lets other people see the world through your eyes. Eye-tracking cameras inside the viewers broadcast what you are watching to monitors that everyone else can see.
Digital Foam: A Pressure Sensitive Surface
Like clay, Digital Foam lets you sculpt 3D models with your hands. Its sensors detect pressure, which a computer program translates into a digital drawing.
Sketch-A-Race: A User-Generated Augmented Reality Game
Draw and then drive on your own racetrack in this augmented reality game.
Thermal Camera: An Extreme High-Resolution
Normal cameras take pictures of visible light, which people see as color. But thermal cameras capture the long wavelengths of infrared light, which people feel as heat. In pictures of infrared light, warm areas appear white, yellow, orange or red, while cool areas appear blue, purple, or black.
Body Zoom Technology: Gestural Interface
Use your whole body to move and zoom into a richly detailed photograph. Open Exhibits' free open-source software and a Microsoft Kinect help you explore this gigapixel (1 billion pixel) image.
An interactive conference, "Interfaces for the New Decade," opened the new gallery. During this one-day gathering, a host of renowned international scientists, developers, researchers, and designers from around the world explored how museums and other public-space designers can use technology to enhance visitor learning and experience. The conference featured the U.S. debut of "Heist", an experimental Open Exhibits project that enables digital museum objects to be easily shared with a visitor's smart phones or tablet without requiring an app download.
Speakers included: Dr. Ross Smith, Deputy Director, Wearable Computer Laboratory, University of South Australia; Jim Spadaccini, Director, Ideum, and Principal Investigator, Open Exhibits, Rick Ernst, Lead Designer, Ogmento, Tamara Schwarz, senior manager of experience design, Chabot Space & Science Center, and Sasha Harris-Cronin, Lead Creative Programmer, BBI Engineering.
