MOSTI - Interactive digital museum exhibit design

Summary

Two South African digital media companies collaborated with Mt. Studios to create 21 interactive installations for a Saudi Arabian Science and Technology Museum. These installations showcase Islamic contributions to various fields from 700 BC to 1700 AD. Highlights include a 5m long multi-touch table, geometric art tables, and a touchscreen exploring Islamic architecture, all designed to engage visitors through intuitive gestures and bilingual content.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Two South African digital media companies collaborated with Mt. Studios to create 21 interactive media installations for a Science and Technology Museum in Saudi Arabia.
• 📚 The installations showcase the Islamic World's scientific and technological advancements from 700 BC to 1700 AD in various fields such as mathematics, medicine, astronomy, art, architecture, and more.
• 🌟 The flagship exhibit is a 5-meter long rear-projected multi-touch table that allows multiple users to interact with a timeline of Islamic contributions to science and technology.
• 🔍 The timeline table includes over 300 historic events and can display content from both the Arabic and Gregorian calendars, with language toggle between English and Arabic.
• 📊 The interface of the timeline table uses intuitive gestures like dragging and swiping, and employs camera tracking technology for multi-user functionality.
• 🏛️ Other exhibits include a geometric art multi-touch table, an interactive Islamic world map, and a touchscreen that explores the golden ratio and its significance in nature, art, and architecture.
• 📚 The 'Islamic Inventions' touchscreen provides access to a repository of inventions and discoveries by Islamic scholars, highlighting their contributions to various scientific fields.
• 🌳 The 'Herbal Medicine' touchscreen emphasizes the role of Muslim scholars in the field of herbal medicine, featuring a lexicon of medicinal plants and their uses.
• 🏙️ The 'Islamic Architecture' touchscreens focus on architectural elements, renowned sights, and Arabesque patterns, creating a seamless presentation of Islamic architectural achievements.
• 💊 The 'First Pharmacist's' touchscreen presents scholars who were experts in pharmaceutical science, using a skillfully illustrated interface that employs the parallax principle for a 3D effect.
• 🔐 The 'Cryptography' touchscreen teaches users about the origins of encryption and allows them to experiment with basic principles of cryptography.

Q & A

Which two South African digital media companies were commissioned by Mt. Studios to develop digital installations for a museum in Saudi Arabia?

The script does not mention the specific names of the two South African digital media companies commissioned by Mt. Studios.

What is the primary purpose of the digital installations developed for the Science and Technology Museum in Saudi Arabia?

The installations are designed to display various aspects of the technical and scientific advances of the Islamic World from 700 BC to 1700 BC in fields such as maths, medicine, astronomy, art, architecture, chemistry, botany, and more.

How long is the flagship exhibit's multi-touch table in the museum?

The flagship exhibit is a 5-meter long rear projected multi-touch table.

What is the main feature of the timeline multi-touch table that allows multiple users to interact simultaneously?

The timeline multi-touch table includes more than 300 historic events and allows users to open and close 20-year time windows by selecting periods from either the Arabic or Gregorian calendar.

How does the language toggle function work on the timeline multi-touch table?

The language can be easily toggled between English and Arabic by swiping your hand or finger across the content left to right, or vice versa.

What technology was used to create the multi-touch table of this scale?

The development team used innovative camera tracking technology to identify fingers and hands of visitors, and Adobe Flash for the application development.

What is the purpose of the geometric art multi-touch table?

The geometric art multi-touch table invites users to design their own Arabesque patterns using predefined elements.

How does the interactive Islamic world map display content?

The interactive Islamic world map shows the extent of the Muslim World during its heyday in the 12th century, with animated maps displayed on a 56-inch plasma screen above a large physical book.

What is the main challenge faced by the Cape Town companies during the project?

The main challenge was a very tight deadline of 6 months for the design and production of all 21 exhibits.

How did the development team address the design challenge of displaying content in both English and Arabic?

The development team created a genuine custom Arabic text display function in Adobe Flash to ensure the Arabic text was rendered correctly.

What is the significance of the 'Why did Islamic science flourish?' display?

This display engages a pulley system allowing the user to drag a large plasma screen from left to right, scrolling through content chapters that present 12 reasons why science flourished in the Islamic World between the 9th and 12th centuries.