Excursion Assignment

Our assignment was to mainly experiment with different displays in NEMO museum and figure it out how the interactions works. We have to choose one of the installations that is interesting for us in a technical sense. We also have to take a selfie with this installation to show our appreciation for the awesome interaction. As last task we have to explain the intented goal of the chosen installation, what it does and how it works. This means what sensor and actuators were used to achieve the interaction. I chose for the battle against water.

Next page more over the installation of battle against water.

Battle against water

This installation is a part of the Water Power exhibition of the museum. Water power exhibitions explain the power of water and how you can harness it and convert it to green energy. It also showcases the difficulties of creating dams and bad things that can happen when one is broken.

The main goal of the this installation is to show the audience what can happen when a dike or dam is broken and water start flowing through. They also explain what dams, dikes and polders are. They are using gamifaction to make it more engaging and memorable.

What is it and what does it do

This installation is a game where the players have to stop the water from flooding the nearby villages. On table which the map you can see the water flow which is blue and villages in different part of map. The main sources of water is coming from somewhere and you as a player have to stop it by putting sandbags to stop water flowing through to village or redirect the flow to the ocean or river. In the video on the left you can see the wave animation that the indicate the incoming flow of water, it makes it easier for the player to understand.

This game is can be both single player and multiplayer depending how many people is visiting the installation. The players are sharing the sandbags to try to cover or to redirect the water flow which makes the game a cooperative effort.

How does it work

A little disclaimer, this is purely what I think how the game was setup. So by no means this is how it was setup ny NEMO. When I was visiting I looked for the main component which was on top of the game. There was a x-box kinect sensor and a projector and pc.

The pc is probably there to run to programs and function as a controller for the input and output devices. I think the sensor is looking for dark color objects like the sandbags and foam thingy that you have to put in the holes. When a dark object is detected the water flow is blocked on that postition.

The holes has a fixed position which makes easier for detecting the foam, it also works with our phones. The table it self is white which make it easier to be projected on. the dikes are build on the table and mapped with the projector. The rest is probably coding, for example to detect the x and y of the sandbag on the table and remove the water from that location and reproject the water flow.

Selfie

As an evidence that we were at our chosen installation we had to take a selfie. So here :)

Reflection

The excursion at was really fun and informative even though it was meant for childrens. I learned a lot about energy, especially energy produced by water. I also learned different way to make a subject fun and interactive to learn, it makes it less boring and keeps the children concentrated to the subject.

What spoke to me was that way NEMO uses playful interaction to teach children science and physics. It makes it easy to learn and enjoyable at the same time. They do this with by using new technology such as screens, project mapping but also physically like with spinning handles, building a dam or joining a science class. The only thing that I didn't like was that it was very busy and a lot people are running around, it makes it harder to concentrate sometimes but the trip itself was fun and informative.

The value of this excursion in my opinion is a inspiration for me the upcoming labweeks. I saw a lot of interactions and their installations and those can be used in our own project later. Seeing how people interact with a interaction can bring a lot of insight on what interactions to use and what not to use.