Heist! Museum Visitors Take Digital Objects
Heist is an experimental project that uses Open Exhibits and GestureWorks software and is powered by Sensus server technology to enable effortless networking. Digital museum objects can be easily shared with visitor’s smart phones or tablets. All this happens without visitors having to download a mobile app.
Heist uses a WiFi captive portal; as museum visitors connect to the network they are pushed an HTML 5 application. They simply add their name, pick a color and their personal avatar appears on the table.
Once connected visitors can drag digital museum objects along with their metadata to their own device. Visitors can explore these objects on their personal devices and save them for view after their visit.
The multitouch table application—a modified Collection Viewer—was built with Open Exhibits software and the new GestureWorks 3 multitouch framework for Adobe Flash. The table used in the demo is an MT55 Platform multitouch table. The images and metadata are shared through the cloud powered by Sensus server technology.
Open Exhibits and Sensus will be offering a limited trial this winter. A test-bed involving ten museums will begin in early 2012. (Sorry, it has been delayed. 2/2/2012.) If your museum is interested in participating please contact Jim Spadaccini or Charles Veasey.
High resolution images and video can be found on Flickr, Vimeo Pro and YouTube
The Heist project is a partnership between:
by Jim Spadaccini 
on October 11, 2011
