[this message is a public elaboration on a private email to Mr. Kobus]
>Hi everyone,
>
>I'm posting this message to try and get a sense of which museums are
>installing and using the following computer and communications technologies
>separately or in combinations:
Hello, Mr. Kobus. Let me tell you about one of our new facilities here at
the Illinois State Museum, then address your specific inquiries in turn.
We are currently assembling a facility called the Technology Learning Center
that uses some of the technologies you are interested in. Ours is a
semi-public area that is not on the exhibit floor, but back at our Research
and Collections Center. Our target audience initially will be supervised
groups of teachers and students from around Illinois, though this may be
expanded as we continue to develop the Center.
We have equipped the Center with a diverse range of tools, but we will be
focusing on digitization (2D, 3D and video), modeling (object and site
simulation, data reconstruction), visualization (QTVR, VRML), communication
(videoconference presentation) and output (CD-ROM, video and large-format
printing)
> Higher bandwidth than T-1 speeds to the outside world
We're at T1 right now, until bandwidth requirements force us higher. For
our applications, high bandwidth is more important to our internal network
than for communication with the outside.
> Higher bandwidth than fast ethernet-based internal networks
The Center's internal network is 100Mb switched fast Ethernet.
> Exhibits using large numbers of and/or large-sized video displays (LCD
> projectors, Plasma screens, video walls etc.)
We have two large displays in the Center. One is called a VisionDome, an
immersive environment where 180-degree fields of view are projected onto the
interior surface of a 4-meter hemispherical screen. It's from a company
called Alternate Realities Corporation (www.visiondome.com). The second is
a polarized rear-projection screen that displays 3D stereoscopic images from
a VRex LCD projector (www.vrex.com). You still have to wear the glasses for
this technology, but they're colorless so you don't have to worry about
red/blue distortions.
The Illinois State Museum (though not I, personally) is also a partner in a
developing project called RiverWeb, which involves the digital recreation of
the Illinois river basin at several different places from St. Paul to St.
Louis. At last weekend's opening of the new building for the Science Museum
of Minnesota in St. Paul, one RiverWeb station was unveiled which uses the
large new plasma screen from Pioneer as a display. The exhibit covers the
physics of river travel by letting you pilot a barge upstream into port,
past bridges and locks. The simulation is based on real data in real time.
It runs on an SGI Octane, with programming by partners at the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (probably done in Performer).
> Virtual Reality-based exhibits, VRML or QTVR-based exhibits
We did some QTVR in our Museum in the Classroom project, with encouraging
results. The new Technology Learning Center is equipped with cameras,
turntables and software for constructing QTVR panoramas. Generally, we use
another technology (3D scanning) for object models. Real world tips: use a
turntable with a level, get software with a distortion-compensation filter
for your camera's lens, keep your unstitched photos on file (you may be able
to get better results at a later date).
We have not done much work with VRML yet. My boss, Dr. Erich Schroeder,
created a VRML representation of Illinois' Cahokia Mounds site from data we
had on hand. However, after seeing how well it displays in the VisionDome,
we are eager to expand our use of VRML.
> Wireless networking
We evaluated wireless networking for indoor applications, but decided to
wait. Pros: very convenient, very cool. Cons: slow (11Mb max. with current
products), expensive (roughly 2X cost per node as wired), immature (draft
standards, narrow range of platform support). We'll have another look at it
in a year or so.
> Lived or canned video over the network
Haven't delved into that yet. Most literature I've read suggests using
something more intelligent than Ethernet for this application (i.e., ATM).
> We (The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago) are contemplating
> gallery space with elements of the above and would be very interested in
> discussing how they are being used and what has and hasn't worked in
> real-world examples. We're familiar with and have talked to some museums
> with some aspects of the above but I know there are more out there.
>
> Feel free to contact me directly or via this group. Thanks in advance for
> your time!
>
> Ken Kobus
Good luck with your fact-finding, Mr. Kobus. If you would like to come down
to Springfield to have a look at some of our things, please contact me.
Brian Bisbee
Brian D. Bisbee, Coordinator
Technology Learning Center - Illinois State Museum
1011 East Ash Street, Springfield, IL 62703 USA
Phone: (217)557-6093 - FAX: (217)785-2857
www.museum.state.il.us
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