The Art of Automatic Identification: Enabling The Museum of The Future
Published by David C. Wyld Southeastern Louisiana University December 15, 2009, Category: Technology
Is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) art or science? If you ask this question around RFID industry professionals, you will certainly start an interesting debate. However, there is excitement and curiosity over RFID in the art world today, and the passion of artists and the practicality of managing – and selling – art is leading to some of the most exciting and innovative applications of the technology to be found in any field. Now, auto-ID is even becoming a part of the artist’s palette for creating works of art.
Introduction: Enhancing Visitor Experiences and Museum Management
Museums around the world are taking giant steps toward discovering how RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) can enhance the visitor experiences viewing art and exhibits. In doing so, they are finding new ways to provide a “value-add” to the museum experience – continuing it over time, while also simultaneously collecting valuable information for their own operations.
Image via Wikipedia
The Tech Museum of Innovation (The Tech) in San Jose, California is quite appropriately a leader in the use of RFID to enhance the guest experience, both during and after their visit to the center. When a visitor enters The Tech, they are given a “TechTag,” a pre-printed, human readable wristband that contains a pre-encoded Hitachi µ-chip. During their visit to The Tech, guests wave their wristbands in front of RFID readers at select exhibits to trigger various interactive experiences.
Image via Wikipedia
Other American science museums have also begun implementing RFID-enabled exhibits to enhance the visitor experience. In 2001, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry opened a permanent exhibition, “NetWorld,” dedicated to the Internet. Within the exhibit, visitors use NetPasses, until recently small cards with embedded Bistatix RFID chips, which in late 2006 will become LED glow-in-the-dark necklaces with Rafsec RFID chips embedded on them. TagSense sensors in the exhibition detect the presence of RFID NetPasses and call over a digital buddy to interact with visitors to foster learning about bits, bandwidth, and packet switching. Visitors can have pictures of their faces pasted onto their personal avatars so that they “live” forever in the exhibition. These dynamic animations personalize the experience and are always associated with their unique NetPass. Avatars “pump up” in body shape as visitors use their NetPass and are created without the visitor having to disclose any personal information. A similar card-based RFID system has recently been installed at San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
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