Today’s museums are cultural gathering places that enhance the visitor experience by experimenting with technology, especially at venues catering to kids.

The Children’s Museum Houston is an example of striking the balance that varies by exhibit.

“We don’t do technology for technology’s sake; we only do technology in a way that will benefit the visitor experience,” said Keith Ostfeld, Children’s Museum Houston’s director of educational technology and exhibit development.

That means combining low- and high-tech, from golf balls rolling down ramps all the way to artificial intelligence systems. When it comes to family-based museums, the goal is for kids and adults to work, learn and play together. With that in mind, the Houston museum steers away from entertainment such as virtual reality, which mostly relies on goggles or other ways of isolating the person from others and their environment.

“We don’t do technology for technology’s sake; we only do technology in a way that will benefit the visitor experience.” 
­—Keith Ostfeld, Children’s Museum Houston

Instead, the museum encourages physical activity. One example is an exhibit called Power Pop that uses motion-sensing (Kinect) camera technology to map a person’s movements and then transfers them onto a skeleton avatar inside the game. The avatar then accomplishes tasks like popping bubbles and avoiding bees—the more bubbles you pop the more your power level rises. Touch a bee and your power level drops.

“We chose to use this technology versus, say, a control pad or something, to get the body active,” Ostfeld said.

The museum offers a “secret” experience in which kids transform into undercover agents and go on missions around the premises. It blends digital storytelling with physical searches. For instance, kids might insert a USB drive into a display that activates a certain code or launches a full-blown interactive computer game.

Learning electrical skills

The focus is intended to entertain and educate. A recent exhibit is also helping to bring some basic electrical knowledge to kids. The Shocks and Jolts exhibit focuses on electricity and electromagnetism to teach kids how to wire simple circuits, understand batteries and transformers and wire motors and lights.

“The whole goal is to encourage them to explore electricity, because a lot of students don’t get to learn circuits at least until fourth or fifth grade, and sometimes well beyond that, which I feel is just a horrible disservice,” Ostfeld said. “So young museum patrons can explore the link between electricity and magnetism and use electricity to create motion using magnets, ultimately having some fun but taking new knowledge home.”

At facilities such as the Children’s Museum Houston, exhibits change frequently. New projects are in planning stages and technology demands change for each new installation. That means the electrical backbone and the versatility of the low-voltage installation is imperative. Local contractors and integrators often provide exhibit installations or the technology provider offers that support.

Capturing data

Museums require connectivity and technology to serve the exhibit experiences, and they also need to track what’s happening on-site, often in real time. That means providing the best security available and traffic information about visitor movements to ensure an optimal and healthy visit.

“At the end of the day, data is really what they’re looking for,” said Josh Mahan, managing principal for C&C Technology Group, a technology advisory agency serving commercial buildings, including museums. Public buildings that collect such data can better understand how their space is being used.

“Where the people are, how the space is effectively being used and, in turn, using that data to make changes,” he said.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, museums, like most public buildings, are striving to ensure that a space is as healthy as possible. Museums today track air, light and water quality, and architecture firms and builders of such facilities strive to meet these challenges. 

For electric and voice/data/video installations, that means powering the data collection and response, Mahan said. Air quality measurements can be paired with traffic flow through motion sensing, radio-frequency identification (RFID) or Bluetooth­-based people-tracking technology. That requires a combination of wired and wireless installations and servers to manage and interpret the data, then alter conditions by triggering fan levels, lighting adjustments and other well-building systems.

Another trend is a movement toward power over ethernet lighting, which reduces the need for standard wiring and offers potentially more flexibility in deployment of museum lighting that may change among exhibits. Mahan also pointed to Bluetooth tracking of assets for security.

Taiwanese company EPC Solutions built an RFID and Bluetooth solution to ensure the artwork at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art never leaves its site, whether in storage or the exhibit hall. The technology company works with the museum to offer near real-time data about the location of artwork and employees, said Sky Chang, EPC Solutions’ engineering manager. 

EPC Solutions built RFID portals in doorways and egresses, RFID reading carts that move through the facility and then applied battery-powered sensor tags to the art, with employees wearing badges that use the same technology. In that way, the museum knows who moves what piece of art at any time. 

The company also wired cable antennas behind the most valuable art, Chang added, to track even the smallest movement.

Who installs and maintains these systems varies among sites. Contractors already on-site to wire a space can be well-positioned to help museums grappling with the new technologies and how to deploy and use them.

“Technology always marches forward and it always wins. Whether we try to resist it or not, it always wins,” Mahan said. “Even if you are a technology integrator, you can’t afford to get stagnant.”

At Children’s Museum Houston, Ostfeld said, “I definitely see us wanting to use more extended reality sorts of experiences where we use projections and interactions as a way to engage kids.”

 So instead of having traditional signage to direct visitors and instruct them within exhibits, Ostfeld would like to see a child approach a piece and receive customized information specific to their needs. 

“Let’s say that they are working on building the circuit, and a projection will appear and help guide them along as they build it,” he said.

At the same time, the museum is focused on the leading edge. That means adopting technology that has been tested and won’t need much maintenance. In most cases, the museum hires local electrical contractors, while they may bring in a separate integrator with coding skills. That helps the museum keep up with the demands of a technically skillful audience.

The exhibits are temporary, often with cutting-edge technology—so having the backbone in place to accomplish the frequent changes requires planning.

“I’m always thinking a couple years ahead all the time. I live in multiple different time realities—a year out, two years and five years out,” Ostfeld said, with an eye on a combination of low-tech and high-tech “that’s still of value to our future generations.”

cmhouston.org