Touchsceeen technology is now commonplace in our daily lives with applications ranging from a taxi ride, to a restaurant visit or a boardroom meeting.
Interactive displays continue to transform the landscape all around us, this is especially apparent in environments which are customer focused. In this blog we take a look at the uses of touch screen digital signage in Museums and similar visitor attractions.
Uses of Digital Signage
Wayfinding
Navigating round some of the big cities’ large public attractions can be quite intimidating given the scale of certain venues. Providing a wayfinding solution that is easy to use and reliable allows visitors to navigate and experience everything that is on offer. This can reduce the reliance on staff members and also provide multilingual information for a larger number of languages that traditional signs would be unable to easily facilitate.
An
nouncements
Information display areas for museums or galleries are ever changing as new installations, exhibitions, talks and demonstrations are introduced throughout the year. With digital signage, the latest information can be conveyed without the need to redesign or rebuild traditional signage.
Safety announcements and other relative information that needs to be communicated to visitors and staff can also be kept up to date and accurately displayed, ensuring visitors are well informed about the venue.
Interactivity
Attracting younger visitors and a new generation of potential donors or volunteers is an increasing challenege for museums and galleries alike. In recent years, the decline of visitor levels of cultural attractions for younger demographics is evident, and creating a more interactive experience through technology is a measure proving very effective.
Case Study: The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum // New York City
Cooper Hewitt recently reopened after a comprehensive $81 million, three-year renovation, which has transformed their 64-room mansion into an innovative, technologically advanced museum and gallery.
Cooper Hewitt Director Caroline Baumann said of the revamp that in an age of social media, video games, and selfies, visitors are no longer content to be passive recipients of information. (Via npr.org)
The refurbishment was a determined attempt to make the visiting experience actively more engaging, and the driving force behind the 14 interactive exhibits and features for their reopening in December 2014.
Zytronic provided the touch solution for Ideum who designed and developed a custom 4K UHD 84” and 55” multitouch tables for the design museum. Working together to design the 84” 4K interactive screen, the goal was to enable high fidelity multi-user multi-touch and stylus interaction.
The touch tables feature multi-touch projected capacitance based touch sensors, which are made from thermally toughened glass, which provides a strong resilience to severe impacts, scratches and liquid spillages. The high performance multi touch technology also eradicates the risk of ‘false’ touches from coat sleeves and bottles for example, as the embedded touch controller can detect and ignore touches from non-conductive items.
The touch tables also have built in NFC stations which allow visitors to check in with a specialised stylus pen. Featuring in a gallery on the history of wallpaper, the touch table is used by visitors to browse hundreds of designs, as well as designing their own wallpaper.
Find out more about the Cooper Hewitt Museum
In an attempt to attract declining museum visits from those aged 35 to 45, other museums are watching the success of the Cooper Hewitt revamp closely. Distributing interactive devices or offering touch display areas as part of an exhibition is a growing trend that any Museum director will be keen to adopt.
If you would like to find out more about our work with Ideum for the Cooper Hewitt installations, please send us an enquiry.
