RFID takes Chicago museum visitors inside the Internet

May 1, 2001 12:00 PM

By using RFID technology, the exhibit can keep track of individuals, thus allowing it to interact with them through a digitized version of themselves.

In 1911, Chicago businessman Julius Rosenwald was inspired by a visit to the Deutches Museum in Munich. He returned to Chicago determined to create America's first center for “industrial enlightenment,” a vehicle for public-science education where visitors could physically interact with exhibits.

Shortly thereafter, Rosenwald began restoration efforts at Chicago's Palace of Fine Arts, the last remaining structure from the 1893 World's Fair. He reopened the building in 1933 as the Museum of Science and Industry. Today it still operates with the same spirit and appreciation for curiosity that Rosenwald had envisioned nearly a century ago.

In 2001, the museum opened a new permanent exhibit about the Internet called NetWorld. The 5,000 square-foot exhibit features more than 33 computers, 25 LCD projectors, several servers and a 30-foot-long touch screen, all exposed for guests to watch in action. Enhanced by dramatic lighting and a bold color palette, NetWorld is an interactive, and vibrant environment that invites visitors to actually jump into the bitstream and explore the digital universe from the inside out.

NEARLIFE DELIVERS A MORE INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE

The Museum of Science and Industry found a cost-effective way to personalize each visitor's experience by combining Nearlife's proprietary Java-based technology, Directable Characters, with Motorola's form of radio frequency identification (RFID), called BiStatix.

Motorola's BiStatix replaces the radio antenna coils of traditional RFID cards with an antenna composed of carbon ink electrodes. The antenna can be printed on paper and other non-conductive materials to create “smart paper” and smart labels, tags, forms, packages, and, as in the case of the Museum of Science and Industry, disposable identification credentials.

To create the NetPass, the museum uses BiStatix technology with 3D-lenticular film and card stock from a film provider, and then contracts a printer to finish the cards.

Motorola provided each of the 20 BiStatix BXR-610 readers mounted at various points throughout the NetWorld exhibit.

The BXR-610 is a weather- and vandal-resistant modular unit designed for installation on industry-standard single or double-gang boxes. It features a preprogrammed ID reader format, where unique IDs are assigned and locked at the factory. The BXR-610 can read tags created from a variety of materials ranging from durable plastic to disposable laminated paper, depending on the application requirement.

Directable Characters puts NetWorld's guests “inside” the Internet using a virtual animated sidekick called an “avatar.” Visitors can digitize themselves and personalize their avatar with their own likeness. Guests can then purchase a NetPass card that includes a small, embedded RFID chip that enables them to summon their personal avatar and have it join them in their exploration of NetWorld. The unique ID number stored on the chip is tied to each personal avatar moving around in the exhibit. With the NetPass, guests can let the system know their whereabouts, call their avatar to that precise location, and direct its next action within the exhibit.

The exhibit visitor presents these contactless cards to Motorola card readers located at interactive stations throughout the exhibit. The reader sends energy to the BiStatix chip for power and the chip sends unique identifying information back to the reader, using radio frequency. The reader decodes the identity information from the chip and transmits it into the system controlling the networking exhibit, which in turn displays the NetPass cardholder's avatar at that station.

PERSONALIZING THE INTERNET EXPERIENCE PRESENTS CHALLENGES

After successfully designing an exhibit that was both efficient and aesthetically appealing, the museum's next task was to make the NetWorld experience more personal, and more interactive.

“People are always interacting on the edge of the Internet,” said David Mosena, president and CEO of the Museum of Science and Industry. “We wanted NetWorld to put people inside the network and allow them to interact with the sophisticated technology behind the scenes of the Internet.”

“In a full-immersion atmosphere, like NetWorld, we felt that it was important to provide visitors with an exhibit that knows them and personalizes itself as they interact,” said Tinsley Galyean, co-founder and CEO of Nearlife, the entertainment company contracted to design NetWorld, and integrate all of its components. “By using Motorola's BiStatix technology, the exhibit can keep track of individuals. This allows the exhibit to interact with them through the avatar, which is a digitized version of themselves.”

NETPASS PROVIDES EXHIBIT SUMMARY

At the end of their NetWorld tour, visitors can use their NetPass to recall a screen that summarizes all the parts of the exhibit where they have used the card. This type of summary information has broad implications for museums and amusement parks. Information derived from tracking where visitors have been and how long they stayed there can help to improve guest services and better personalize an experience.

The museum estimates that two million people per year will visit NetWorld, one million of whom will purchase the NetPass cards with BiStatix technology.

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