RFID-enabled Touchwall

[Gillian Savage]

This cool new interactive screen would attract a lot of participation in a museum setting.

What is it?

"The Touchwall is a large, touch-sensitive screen, measuring 12 feet wide by 5 feet tall. Multiple users can interact with the wall by selecting and dragging text and objects—using their fingers instead of a mouse. RFID plays a vital role in its use, by providing a means by which users can identify themselves and begin interacting. "

Museum visitors could be given a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag which they could encode with information at a DIY kiosk. With the tag in their pocket, the Touchwall answers their queries with relevant information.

Imagine a Touchwall in every exhibition with puzzles, Q+A and further information on the topic? Imagine museum visitors who build up a tag identity that they can carry from place to place. In time, this tag identity could include data from Facebook, Amazon etc, all encoded in the RFID tag? Imagine the personalised, interactive experiences the museum could deliver.

I can picture some people who would assiduously 'build' their tag identity. And I can imagine that there would be some days when you would deliberately leave the tag at home!

[Rohn Jay Miller]

Gillian:

The brilliant folks at Schematic in the US have pioneered the commercial use of this kind of touchwall. Some of you may have gone through the international terminal at JFK airport in NYC and seen their enormous touchwall for the consulting firm Accenture. Well, Schematic turly raised the stakes at this years Cannes interactive festival, where they added RFID to create "multi-user" experiences with a single touchwall, as well as integrating RFID authentication--so as you walk up to the wall, it "recognizes" you.

Here's a short 4 minute presentation on it, great ground-breaking design from Schematic:

http://take5interactive.com/wordpress/?p=342

Two key points about how this touchscreen is very different from similar ones:

1. RFID in visitor badges allow for automatic athentication---the screen "knows" you as you walk up without having to sign in

2. Multiple users can have sessions at the same time in different parts of the screen.

BTW, Schematic are the people who designed the screens that you saw in Tom Cruise's "Minority Report."

[Gillian Savage]

Yes, I think the RFID badge/tag capability has some very exciting possibilities.

[Erika Dicker]

estimated at $200,000 ? I think I read somewhere.

[Amelia]

Sounds pretty exciting but I think we have to think carefully about the consequences of having an RFID chip we all carry around loaded with infinite amounts of personal data. Not something you would want to lose or have stolen for starters.

[Cindy Fallsen]

I agree that we may need to consider the dangers of the RFID tags being carried around, especially if there is Internet Satellite connection. I wonder if there has been Multivariate Testing on these sorts of Touchwalls in other museums. This data could be very helpful.