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.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Islamic World's Scientific Contributions

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. These installations showcase the Islamic World's advancements in various fields from 700 BC to 1700 AD. The flagship exhibit is a 5-meter long multi-touch table that allows users to interact with a timeline of Islamic contributions to science and technology. The table features more than 300 historical events and uses intuitive gestures for navigation. It also incorporates camera tracking technology and is synchronized across three sections using Adobe Flash. Other exhibits include a geometric art table, a pattern recognition table, and an interactive Islamic world map. The project faced challenges such as a tight deadline and the need to display content in both English and Arabic, which required a custom text display function.

05:00

🌟 Interactive Displays on Islamic Science and Culture

The script describes various interactive exhibits designed to educate visitors about the Islamic World's contributions to science, technology, and culture. These include a touchscreen application on Islamic inventions, a golden ratio touchscreen, a human anatomy touch wall, and a Muslim polymath touchscreen. Each exhibit uses innovative technology to engage users, such as magnetic sensors, pulley systems, and 3D recreations. The exhibits cover a wide range of topics, from the history of Islamic settlements to the role of Muslim scholars in various scientific fields. The project also includes a custom-designed touchscreen application on the history of encryption and a timeline application showcasing Islamic contributions to science and technology.

10:02

🏙️ Islamic Architecture and Pharmaceutical Science

This paragraph focuses on exhibits related to Islamic architecture, pharmaceutical science, and the history of encryption. Three large touchscreens display architectural elements, renowned sights, and Arabesque patterns. The first pharmacist's touchscreen introduces scholars who were experts in pharmaceutical science, using a skillfully illustrated interface with a 3D illusion. The virtual books touchscreen presents the original illustrations and texts of Al Jazer's seminal book on knowledge of ingenious devices. A touchscreen application on cryptography teaches users about the origins of encryption and allows them to experiment with basic principles. The roots of technology timeline application displays entries on Islamic contributions to science and technology, revealing how many inventions were falsely attributed to Western scholars.

15:13

🏆 Challenges and Achievements in Exhibit Development

The final paragraph highlights the challenges faced by the Cape Town companies during the project, which included a tight six-month deadline for the design and production of all 21 exhibits. Key technologies used in the project had to be rapidly acquired and perfected, such as the multi-touch table hardware. Additionally, the display of content in both English and Arabic presented a unique design challenge due to the right-to-left reading direction of Arabic. The development team created a custom Arabic text display function in Adobe Flash to address this issue. The paragraph also mentions an Iban Batuta game touchscreen and a quiz touchscreen that tests visitors' knowledge on the most important facts from the exhibition.

Keywords

💡Interactive Media Installations

These are digital exhibits that allow visitors to engage with the content through touch or other interactive means. In the video, 21 unique interactive media installations were developed to display various aspects of technical and scientific advances in the Islamic World. These installations enhance visitor engagement and learning by making the content dynamic and participatory.

💡Islamic World

Refers to the historical and cultural region where Islam has been a dominant influence. The video highlights scientific and technological contributions from the Islamic World from 700 BC to 1700 BC. This includes advancements in fields such as mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and architecture.

💡Multi-touch Table

A large interactive display that can recognize multiple points of touch simultaneously. The flagship exhibit described in the video is a 5-meter-long multi-touch table that allows users to interact with a timeline of Islamic contributions to science and technology. This table uses sophisticated technology to provide a seamless interactive experience for multiple users.

💡Adobe Flash

A software platform used for creating animations, multimedia content, and interactive applications. The multi-touch table and other interactive exhibits in the video were developed using Adobe Flash, which was crucial for synchronizing content across multiple sections of the table and for rendering complex interactive graphics.

💡Camera Tracking Technology

Technology that uses cameras to detect and track the movement of objects, such as fingers and hands. In the video, this technology was used to enable multi-user functionality on the multi-touch table, allowing it to recognize and respond to multiple users interacting with the surface simultaneously.

💡Geometric Art Multi-touch Table

An interactive table that lets users design Arabesque patterns using predefined elements. This exhibit, mentioned in the video, showcases the intricate and mathematical nature of Islamic geometric art and allows visitors to engage creatively with the content by designing their own patterns.

💡Human Anatomy Touch Wall

An interactive display that allows users to explore early Islamic knowledge of human anatomy. In the video, this is depicted as a portrait-mounted 56-inch touchscreen where users can drag a magnifying glass over an illustrated human body to reveal detailed anatomical information.

💡Muslim Polymath Touchscreen

An interactive exhibit that honors Muslim scholars who have made significant contributions to science. The video describes how this touchscreen application features a 3D recreation of the House of Wisdom, allowing visitors to meet and learn about 40 different scholars through voiceover introductions.

💡Parallax Principle

A design technique that creates the illusion of depth by making foreground elements move faster than background elements. The video mentions its use in the first pharmacist's touchscreen, where it helps create a 3D space illusion, enhancing the interactive experience for users navigating through the content.

💡Cryptography

The practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties. The video explains that one of the touchscreen applications teaches visitors about the origins of encryption in the Islamic world and allows them to experiment with basic cryptographic principles, showcasing the historical importance of this field.

Highlights

Two South African digital media companies collaborated with Mt. Studios to create 21 digital interactive installations for a Science and Technology Museum in Saudi Arabia.

The installations showcase the scientific and technological advancements of the Islamic World from 700 BC to 1700 BC in various fields.

The companies worked closely with Mt. Studios on research, conceptualization, and design to ensure cultural appropriateness and market suitability.

The flagship exhibit is a 5-meter long rear-projected multi-touch table featuring a timeline of Islamic contributions to science and technology.

The timeline table allows multiple users to interact simultaneously, displaying over 300 historic events.

Visitors can open and close 20-year time windows on the timeline table by selecting periods from the Arabic or Gregorian calendar.

The interface of the timeline table lets users revolve event icons around the central timeline and access detailed information on selected events.

Major events trigger Uber animations, such as the travels of Ibn Battuta or the first use of gold coins in the Arabic world.

The multi-touch table was designed with a glass surface divided into three sections, synchronized by Adobe Flash and live socket connections.

Innovative camera tracking technology was used to identify fingers and hands for multi-user functionality on the table.

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

The Islamic world map installation uses pattern recognition technology to navigate content by placing physical cards on the table.

The interactive Islamic world map allows visitors to page through a large physical book, with animated maps displayed on a plasma screen.

The 'Why Did Islamic Science Flourish?' display uses a pulley system to scroll through content chapters on the history of Islamic science.

The Islamic inventions touchscreen provides access to a repository of inventions and discoveries by Islamic scholars.

The golden ratio touchscreen explores the connection between Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio, with examples in nature, art, and architecture.

The human anatomy touch wall allows users to explore early Islamic knowledge of human anatomy using an onscreen magnifying glass.

The Muslim polymath touchscreen honors Muslim scholars with a 3D recreation of the House of Wisdom and interactive scholar profiles.

Islamic architecture is showcased through three large touchscreens focusing on architectural elements, renowned sights, and arabesque patterns.

The first pharmacist's touchscreen presents scholars expert in pharmaceutical science with an interface using the parallax principle.

The virtual books touchscreen presents original illustrations and texts from Al Jazari's seminal book of knowledge of ingenious devices.

The cryptography touchscreen teaches users about the origins of encryption and lets them experiment with basic principles of cryptography.

The roots of technology timeline application displays hundreds of entries on Islamic contributions to science and technology.

The numeral systems touchscreen lets users experiment and calculate with Arabic, Roman, and Babylonian number systems.

The Ibn Battuta game touchscreen challenges users to travel through the world of the 14th century, answering questions to collect treasures.

The quiz touchscreen allows visitors to test their knowledge of the most important facts from the exhibition, comparing their scores to averages.

The project faced a tight deadline of 6 months for design and production of all 21 exhibits, requiring rapid acquisition and perfection of key technologies.

The development team created a custom Arabic text display function in Adobe Flash to correctly render Arabic script.

Transcripts

two South African digital media

companies were commissioned by Mt

Studios an exhibition maker based in

Cape Town in Dubai to develop 21 digital

unique interactive media installations

for a newly built Science and Technology

Museum in Saudi Arabia their interactive

AV Productions display various aspects

of the technical and scientific advances

of the Islamic World from 700 BC to 1700

BC in the fields of maths medicine

astronomy art and architecture chemistry

botony besides others during the

six-month design and production time the

companies worked closely with mte

Studios who were responsible for

research and copyrighting to

conceptualize each application and

together making sure the overall design

of each exhibit was appropriate for the

target market market and subject matter

as well as taking into account cultural

differences when displaying certain

imagery such as the human

body the flagship exhibit of the museum

is a 5 m long rear projected multi-touch

table allowing multiple users to

interact simultaneously with the

timeline of Islamic contributions to

science and technology spanning a period

of 1,000 years the timeline multi-touch

table includes more than 300 historic

events relating to important discoveries

and achievements of the time when first

approaching the installation visitors of

the museum get an immediate overview of

key events which are represented as

markers and title text on the sequential

timeline in order to accommodate the

massive amount of content in a seamless

presentation across the table the

interface lets users open and close

20-year time windows by selecting the

periods from either the Arabic or

Gregorian calendar displayed on both

side of the table by touching the

table's glass surface at the point of

Interest a 20-year time window opens up

showing the events that occur during

that time next visitors swipe their hand

or finger up and down to revolve event

icons around the central timeline

bringing desired content to the FL when

a particular event is selected a window

opens up showing images animation and

text related to that event language can

be easily toggled between English and

Arabic simply by swiping your hand or

finger across the content left to right

or vice versa

events of major importance trigger Uber

animations that span the entire table

this may Mark the extraordinary travels

of iban batuta from tangas to China or

coins rainning onto the table

representing the first use of gold coins

in the Arabic world to create a

multi-touch table of this scale the

glass surface had to be divided into

three sections although the graphical

interface design creates the impression

of a seamless surface across the entire

table visitors explore explore the

content of the timeline by walking

around the table interacting with both

sides which effectively means the

timeline is 10 m long the interface

works with intuitive gestures such as

dragging and swiping the application

itself was developed in Adobe Flash and

uses a live socket connection to

synchronize the three sections of the

table Each of which is driven by a

separate quad core

PC

[Music]

to achieve multi-user functionality the

development team made use of innovative

camera tracking technology which

identifies fingers and hands of visitors

touching the surface in addition to

developing the software we also designed

and built the hardware from the bottom

up and ship the entire table to Saudi

Arabia in massive wooden crates or all

in all the timeline touch table uses

three quad core PCS Six tracking cameras

and six data projectors mounted under

the table surface along with power surge

regulators and an effective cooling

[Music]

system the geometric art multi-touch

table invites users to design their own

Arabesque patterns using predefined

elements the application offers the

option to recreate patterns which are

displayed in the background of the table

alternative L users can create their own

patterns using a repository of

predefined elements the table measures 1

M square and uses two data

projectors another 1 M Square projection

table uses sophisticated pattern

recognition technology allowing users to

navigate content information by placing

physical cards onto the table's glass

surface the circular cards divided into

English and Arabic are held in four

containers one in each corner of the

table each card represents a specific

Topic in the field of mathematics once a

card has been placed on the table a

circular menu is projected around the

card next visitors rotate the cards to

select the desired subcategory which is

presented with text and

images

the interactive Islamic world map shows

the extent of the Muslim World during

its Heyday in the 12th century visitors

page through the wooden pages of a large

physical book taking them through the

expansion periods of the Muslim World

simultaneously animated Maps

illustrating the events are being

displayed on a 56in plasma screen above

the book the interface was realized

using using magnetic sensors in the book

connected to a serial connection on the

[Music]

PC this why did Islamic science flourish

display engages a pulley system allowing

the user to drag a large plasma screen

from left to right when changing the

position of the screen the user Scrolls

through content chapters which present

12 reasons why science flourished in the

Islamic World between the 9th and 12th

centuries

[Music]

this top- down projection onto a 2 MX 1

M vacuum form topographical relief

surface shows an animation explaining

how early Islamic settlements were

formed and grew into large

cities Additionally the scope of work

included a series of customdesign

touchscreen applications covering a wide

range of topics in the fields of Science

and Technology the Islamic inventions

touchcreen gives access to a large

repository of inventions and discoveries

by Islamic scholars of different

[Music]

eras the golden ratio touchscreen

explores the role of Fibonacci who was

the first to introduce Arabic numerals

to the West it also highlights the

connection between the Fibonacci numbers

and the golden ratio shows examples of

the golden ratio in nature art and

architecture and let users experiment

with numbers to create their own

geometries based on the golden

[Music]

ratio

[Music]

[Music]

the human anatomy touch wall is a

portrait mounted 56in touchscreen

whereby user drags an onscreen

magnifying glass over an illustrated

human body revealing early Islamic

knowledge of human

[Music]

anatomy

[Music]

the Muslim polymath touchs screen honors

the many Muslim Scholars who have

contributed to signs which is still of

significance today the application shows

a 3D Recreation of the House of Wom

wisdom a scholarly institution founded

in Baghdad in the 9th century visitors

are invited to meander through a number

of rooms in the building and meet

representations of 40 Scholars who

introduce themselves to the user with

voice

over I'm alzar Kali an astronomer I made

many observations on the positions and

movements of celestial bodies and

invented new astronomy

instruments Muslim Scholars were

knowledgeable in the science of herbal

medicine this touchscreen application

emphasizes the role of Muslim scholars

in the field and features a lexicon of

medicinal plants and their

[Music]

uses

[Music]

[Music]

e

[Music]

[Music]

Islamic architecture is

world-renowned three large touchs

screens deal with architectural elements

well-renowned sights and arabisc

patterns in

architecture the touchscreens are

mounted next to each other with

complimenting screen design in order to

create the appearance of a seamless

[Music]

presentation the first pharmacist's

touchscreen presents a number of

Scholars who were experts in

pharmaceutical science The skillfully

Illustrated interface makes use of the

parallx principle which creates the

illusion of a 3D space users navigate

content by scrolling horizontally

Through The Parallax illustration and

touching items and people of

[Music]

[Music]

Interest

the virtual books touchcreen presents

the original illustrations and texts of

Al jazer seminal book of knowledge of

ingenious

devices cryptography was an important

application for skilled Muslim

mathematicians the touchscreen

application teaches users about the

origins of encryption and lets them EXP

experiment with the basic principles of

cryptography

roots of technology is a timeline

application displaying several hundred

entries on Islamic contributions to

science and technology it reveals how

inventions and discoveries originating

in the Islamic world were often falsely

attributed to Western Scholars centuries

later the Western World adopted Arabic

numerals as the standard but why was it

the Arabic numeral system that Pro to be

better than the Roman and Babylonian

systems the numeral systems touch screen

lets users experiment and calculate with

the three different number systems to

find out for

[Music]

themselves

[Music]

the iban batuta game touchcreen

challenges users to travel in the

footsteps of iban batuta through the

world of the 14th century the goal is to

pick up five Treasures on the way in

order to move players need to answer

several multiple choice questions

correctly but watch out the Black Death

is

looming

at the exit of the exhibition the quiz

touchcreen allows visitors to see if

they've memorized the most important

facts the quiz draws from an expandable

database of over 100 questions and

displays them randomly after 10

questions it compares the user score to

the average score of others in their age

group and

gender the two Cape Town companies faced

a number of challenges in the course of

the project the main being a very tight

deadline of 6 months for design and

production of all 21 exhibits key

Technologies used in the project had to

be acquired and brought to Perfection

rapidly such as building the multi-touch

table Hardware last but not least the

display of content in both English and

Arabic presented an interesting design

challenge considering Arabic is read

from right to left and back to front the

development team eventually created a

genuine custom Arabic text display

function in Adobe Flash as simply

ranging the text right did not render

the Arabic correctly has we discovered

some way into the

project