California Science Center with Google Maps

California Science Center Multitouch Map

Ideum create technology-enhanced visitor experiences for museums and other public settings. They have just created a multitouch exhibit for the California Science Center.

The exhibit consists of an interactive multitouch enabled Google Map with KML overlays allowing visitors to pan and zoom around the L.A. Basin while learning about the weather patterns, wind currents, geologic make-up, and vegetative patterns that have shaped the landscape of southern California.

Thematic overlays illustrate on the map phenomenon such as fire risk, water supply, Santa Ana wind patterns and fault lines. Geo-tagged photo and video content, managed by Flickr, is displayed across the map. Visitors can explore this content through the use of intuitive gestures, building the basin's story through discovery. Flipping the images over reveals embedded metadata to assist the exhibit narrative.

The exhibit uses Ideum's multitouch and multiuser table platform, which allows several visitors to explore content simultaneously. Using multitouch gestures, users can scale, zoom, and pass virtual objects around the table.

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