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by Marion Hixon
Being on the cusp of a trend is an exciting but risky thing. If you jump on the bandwagon early, what if no one follows? Will the movement be embraced? The Health Museum in Houston, Texas, the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C., and the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, are all facilities that recognized the trend of interactivity in exhibits and took the format to the next level by adding technology to the mix. They utilize video, cell phones, blogs, simulators, infrared technologies, and more to stay a step ahead of guests.
Unafraid to become the early adopter, each museum is getting guests involved and reenergized to visit and experience the information in a new way.
Health Museum Is Smart Phone Central
 See that scrambled, patchwork-like, two-dimensional image on the sign next to the exhibit at The Health Museum in Houston, Texas? That’s actually a web link. It’s called a quick response (QR) code, and it can be scanned by smart phones (iPhones, Blackberries, or any other Internet-friendly PDA), which take a photo of the image, scan it, and redirect the user to a unique URL.
The Health Museum (www.mhms.org) is using QRs throughout it’s “Touch: The Science of Skin” exhibit, which premiered at the facility this fall and will travel starting next summer for the next seven years. Users who scan the image will be redirected to YouTube videos on the exhibit’s subject matter.
The benefit to museum and other facilities with more information to share about specific topics is that this service can be an added luxury to their smart phone-using visitors, and it’s virtually free. Most QR code generators are free online (the museum uses the services at www.scanlife.com, among others).
“You can build QR codes into any kind of activity you want,” says Phil Lindsey, vice president of exhibits and business development at The Health Museum. “It can even provide entertainment if you’re in a queue for hours on end. Every aspect of it—apart from creating the videos themselves— is all free.”
Lindsey says The Health Museum is an early adopter of the QR code, but that he anticipates smart phones will grow ubiquitous and become the majority of cell phones owned in years to come. “Initially mom, dad, and the kids may not get it yet, but those who know how it works will be very jazzed by it,” he says.
There is a lot of power in cell phones that double as mobile computing devices, he says. And in the future, the museum plans to continue to develop mobile applications, like interactive game content.
Static Exhibits a ‘Thing of the Past’ at Crime and Punishment Museum
A shooting gallery with infrared technology, a digital kiosk where you try to defuse a bomb, a safe where you can crack the code, and an interactive crime where visitors are at the scene of the crime and must help solve the case and digitally examine a body for wounds—each activity can be found within the National Museum of Crime and Punishment (NMCP, www.crimemuseum.org) in Washington, D.C.
Owner John Morgan, a former Disney employee and attractions entrepreneur, got the idea for creating such lively exhibits when he visited Alcatraz in 1998. While visitors travel to the famous United States prison to see it for themselves and learn more about it, Morgan recognized that the site served as both a historical landmark and experiential learning. He then took that concept to the topic of crime and punishment and, teaming up with friend John Walsh, creator and host of “America’s Most Wanted” television show, established the museum in 2008.
“America is fascinated with crime and punishment,” Morgan says. “Whether you watch TV, movies, news, or read the paper, it dominates our lives. However, static attractions are a thing of the past. People want action. To do and touch and play.”
Almost every exhibit in the museum’s five galleries has an interactive—and often technology-based—quality to it. Janine Vaccarello, chief operating officer at NMCP, says the interactivity helps guests process the information, encourages involvement from kids, and brings the information to life. She stresses the benefits of the museum’s simulated activities being “real,” meaning the outcome of an interactive challenge is entirely based on the performance of the participant. For example, you can fail at being a reliable witness in a crime scene; you can accidentally run off the road in your simulated police chase; and you can fail at defusing a bomb in time at one of the computer challenges.
“D.C. is filled with great museums— it’s the gold standard—so we knew it was important to be on that level, while also being distinguished,” Vaccarello says. “Our museum is experience— touch, snap pictures, interact. For the ‘CSI’ lovers in everyone, your police academy begins here.”
Just as important are the strategic locations of inter - active exhibits throughout the museum. These are often the most popular stops and can easily get overcrowded by visitors. Vaccarello says pairing interactive exhibits gives guests a chance to choose an activity and helps thin queue congestion.
“Often visitors will be on a tight schedule, but they still want to get the full experience,” she says. “If you pair interactive exhibits together, guests can choose to just do one, so their queue time is cut in half and they get the enjoyment of watching others go through the experience.”
Contact Departments Editor Marion Hixon at mhixon@IAAPA.org.
Technology-driven Exhibits at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment Patrol Car Simulation and Firearm Training Situation (FATS) Stations:
 Easily the most popular stops in the museum, each exhibit meets law enforcement standards and puts guests behind the driving wheel and trigger, respectively.
“America’s Most Wanted”: The museum hosts the Fox TV show with a crime-solving focus, and visitors are allowed to walk through the studio. Every Saturday night guests can witness the show’s call center—and sometimes the show’s host, John Walsh—in action.
CSI Lab: After watching a crime occur via video and witnessing the evidence, guests are presented with the body of a dummy victim and are able to scan over different wounds and bruises to better understand weapon identification.
Shooting Gallery: Janine Vaccarello, COO at the museum, says adult visitors love this experience as much as the kids. Because the gallery employs infrared technology instead of lasers, shooting is more challenging.
Fingerprint and Facial Scan Technology: The recognition software compares facial and fingerprint scans with known criminals. Elsewhere in the museum, punishments following criminal activities are reinforced and guests can print personalized faux criminal rap sheets.
Computer Kiosks: Digital interactive stands are placed strategically throughout the museum. Some test knowledge; others test skill. Want to get out of jail? These kiosks allow visitors to attempt an escape, defuse a bomb, test crime-witness observation skills, and identify bullet holes and matching fingerprints. Another kiosk honors the fallen heroes of law enforcement and lists them by state. |
Science Museum of Minnesota Allows Visitors Remote Access
The experts behind the exhibits at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) are pretty brainy, but the largest brain at the facility may be Science Buzz (www.sciencebuzz.org), the online database originally funded by the National Science Foundation to build content on a wide range of current science topics at the museum. Originally the development team didn’t intend for this to be a web tool, but that’s where the database drew popularity.
Registered website users must be at least 13 years old with a working e-mail address, and can reach Science Buzz from any home computer and at multiple locations inside the museum. Once logged in, they create the content; they can write a post, comment on the posts of other members, add relevant topic “tags” to discussions, and submit questions for scientists. Liza Pryor, exhibit project leader for Science Buzz at SMM, and her counterparts are the wizards behind the curtain, cultivating discussions, picking questions to answer, and keeping the site structure consistent. Expert moderators have been brought on to maintain spiking comment boards.
“Science Buzz has an interface that’s familiar to blog users, but on the exhibit floor, we can change that look,” she says. “It may take the form of a quiz-show component, where three visitors compete against each other to answer questions, or we have a newscast where you sit in front of a camera and Teleprompter with the St. Paul skyline behind you and read from the database feed.”
Developers encourage a diversity of perspectives on the site, including visitors from all over the world, established scientists with research to share, and younger teens expressing a love for science. “We really use it as a research and development vehicle to figure out what people are interested in, and then we put our own perspective on it,” Pryor says. “Instead of playing with materials and phenomena inside a museum, we’re playing around with ideas.”
Those ideas range from the minutely specific—fireflies and eggs laid by chickens are extremely popular topics— to the extremely current: When the tsunami hit Indonesia, Science Buzz writers were able to post thoughts and responses overnight.
“There are not a whole lot of places doing this in the museum world,” Pryor says, adding often museum administration or public relations/marketing departments worry it’s too risky to give guests the capability to post live content. “They’re concerned about image, authority, and that participants are going to do or say something inappropriate. But almost universally, the experience has been really positive. Most of the time people just want to participate in what you’re doing. |
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