Building Communities is an augmented reality activity developed for the exhibit “Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination.” In “Building Communities” visitors create and manipulate a virtual, 3-D environment (visible in the virtual mirror of the screen) by moving objects (“glyph” cards) in the real world. The challenge is to create sustainable, livable communities in the harsh environments of the Star Wars universe. Visitors are encouraged to think about the community as a system, to evaluate the costs and benefits of resource use and growth–what are the potential technological and environmental limiting factors on a population?

This exhibit was developed  at the Museum of Science, Boston in collaboration with programmers from the  Human Interface Technology Lab at the University of Washington. I did all content research and worked with Ed Rodley on the concept design of the project. Case Design: Mike Horvath.

Human or Machine is a a multi-user role-playing and decision-making activity developed for the traveling Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibition. In the activity, visitors learn about potential technologies that might someday be used to augment the human body and increase or alter natural abilities. Within the narrative of the activity, users can choose to alter their character with these technologies, and see how the results play out in various scenarios. The activity allows for simultaneous interaction and includes prompts for discussion among users who are working together at the console. The activity was designed to encourage dialog on ethics and decision-making among a multigenerational audience. Human or Machine was developed developed in collaboration with contractor Paula Sincero of Inquiry Learn.

I worked on the concept design and research, collaborated with Paula on the content development, and was primary liaison to Inquiry Learn during the project management process. “Human or Machine” received a 2005 Muse Awards Honorable Mention.

This activity was under development for the refurbishment of the permanent Seeing the Unseen exhibit at the Museum of Science Boston. The exhibit encourages visitors to use all their senses in making observations about the world, and to explore the limits of those senses. This activity, shown here in stage 1 prototyping, models single beam echo sounding, or sonar.

Visitors are challenged to map the model seafloor (hidden in the box). When visitors place the boat in a square on the ocean grid, they trigger an audible sonar “ping” and, seconds later, an echo. By counting the seconds between the ping and its echo and choosing the corresponding block for that grid, visitors create a map of the seafloor. It was important that visitors make the connection between a shorter time between echos and a shorter distance to the seafloor, but also higher undersea terrain. By selecting blocks and arranging them in the work area next to the activity, users create a map of seafloor contours. They then can compare their work to the contours of model.

I completed content research, concept design, and evaluation with visitors for this activity; technical design and build by was by Kevin McEleney.