Abstract
Tactile models in museum exhibitions are often visually basic in metallic or grey colours, supported by braille and lack interactive components. Can technology transform these simple models into a more engaging tactile experience that follow the “Design for All” idea while allowing visually impaired people a fully independent usage? To investigate this, the Berlin Museum of Natural History and industry partner werk5, a model building company, transformed the 3D scan of a dor beetle into an up-scaled responsive tactile object. Various in-house experts, such as staff from the education and entomology department, steered the project, together with industry partners and an accessibility expert. Stages of the project included material tests, the development of an audio description and of a gesture recognition software with tactile sensor technology. First a prototype, then a demonstrator was built, which were both continuously tested and improved. A focus group of visually impaired people supported the project team and provided continuous feedback. The outcome is an accessible and responsive tactile model that offers a novel form of interaction and is suitable for people with and without visual impairments. It can generally represent a new kind of accessibility offer and knowledge transfer. To increase the reach of the project, the analogue model was transferred into the digital realm in form of a web-based application, which also offers a sign language version. Furthermore, a business model was conceived to enable the distribution of the physical tactile model.
Presenters
Tina SchneiderMedia Scholar, Collection Future, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Natural History Museum, Tactile Model, Accessibility, Digitization, Digital Twin, DesignForAll
