Multitouch, Multiuser Animal Comparison Tool

The challenge here was to create an exhibit that allows visitors to learn more about these diverse animals in a cooperative and interactive way. Rather than develop separate kiosk exhibits for each group of animals, Ideum worked with the Imaginarium and Ansel Associates to create a collaborative comparison tool that lets visitors explore the similarities and differences between animals. Visitors can compare a variety of traits, everything from diet and lifespan to size and weight to exhibited behaviors and more.

Visitors can drop images of various animals into an interactive “comparison wheel” to see how any two animals compare. The comparison wheel, along with the images, can be rotated 360 degrees, making the exhibit completely omni-directional. Up to four people can interact on the multitouch table simultaneously. The application uses an XML structure which allows all the content details to remain external to the application and thus easily changed.