To describe the content of my internship conducted in the fall 2006, I have decided to publish on this website some fragments of my final report: “Interactive Spaces” is a project conducted in order to create a solution for museums to face requirements of 21st Century. Museums' ambition is to broaden the range of visitors, by paying attention to the development of ICT and new possibilities that it offers. Cultural institutions operate on a business market, sponsors expect higher ratio of visitors per invested Euro. “[...] Authenticity and a space for contemplation may not be enough to lure the broader audiences that museums seek—or more importantly for them to fully understand what they are looking at. Too often, however, the issue of creating an entertaining experience is confused with being “just entertainment.” Especially if museums are looking beyond “museum-goers” as a potential audience, the quality of engagement and level of interaction is important.” [1] One of possible solution is to attract customers by the use of New Media systems, that offer interaction different from the classically known in museums' realms. Society in 21st century is surrounded and used to technological gadgets/devices, operating with text, images, movies, web services interactive applications etc. Implementation of those elements in museums would enable new possibilities of exhibiting, transferring knowledge and attracting visitors by a promise of “experience”. What is understood by term “experience” is a stream of stimuli, sensations. User senses should be attracted, the content exposed in an interesting way, using rich media solutions that allow to influence emotions. Such “experience” can be delivered by an ambient furniture, displaying museums' content, giving the possibility to navigate through it, and discover relationships between exhibits, allowing to interact with other visitors (multi-user experience), also serving as a tool for museum guided tours, supporting the real guide or by incorporating a virtual guide / assistant. Although we live in the century of Internet and computers, there are certain risks that have to be considered when delivering content to visitors in a digital way. First of all, people occasionally visiting museums might be hesitant to use system they don't know, especially elderly people without developed technical skills. Because the “Bubble” interface is different to the well-known WIMP standard, it is necessary to introduce visitors to the new system. Otherwise, the postulate of broadening the audience cannot be fulfilled. Increasing the “experience” factor might lead to a dangerous state, when a system itself is more interesting than the contend presented. The role of the interactive furniture is to support the content, not to push it to the background. Some risks occur not only from the side of visitors but from the side of museum staff as well. Museum management might be hesitant to install such system because of lack of technical skills to maintain, expand and manage the system. In fact, museum's staff will have the most contact with the Interactive Unit and all the layers of the system physical and software architecture must have a feasible design. Finally, the question is “how the system would fit into architecture, ambiance of museum spaces, without aesthetic distraction”. Description of physical setup: Aiming at multi user presentation unit, I have shaped the solution in a way of supporting up to ten users interacting in the same time, by touching horizontal surface with their hands. Visitors can gather around rectangular “table” (dimensions: approximately 130cm x 200cm = 238cm diagonal). The height of the unit is around 1 meter, so that a standing person can interact with it easily, with possibility to rest hands/elbows on its edge (there should be 10-15cm of inactive area surrounding the touchscreen). To deliver audio content to visitors there are three sets of headphones attached at each longer edge, and two sets attached to each of the shorter ones (these are one-eared headphones, enabling users to maintain verbal contact with other participants). 'Bubble Table' is able to recognize multi touch input and supports dragging function. Conducted research proved that the most convenient technical setup should be similar to the HoloWall (by Sony) [18], i.e. Infrared camera (situated behind the screen) registering contact points on a surface lit by a number of LED's. This solution enables a back-projected area, where, projector and infrared camera are situated inside the furniture, beyond the screen. Due to lack of space inside the furniture, I have chosen a projector with a very short throw distance, i.e NEC WT-610, which can project 230cm diagonal image from a distance of 56cm. Since the rear-projection panel is semi-opaque and diffusive, the user’s shape or any other objects in front of the screen are invisible to the camera . However, when a user moves a finger close enough to the screen (between 0 cm to 30 cm, depending on the threshold value of the recognition software), it reflects IR light and thus becomes visible to the camera. With a simple image processing technique such as frame subtraction, the finger shape can easily be separated from the background. By controlling the threshold value, it is also possible to detect a human body when he/she approaches the screen. Compared to other touch technologies, recommended above setup is easy to install and it's capable of recognizing multiple touches, as well as gestures. Additionally, such system should be equipped wit proximity sensors (infrared for example) detecting whether there is someone standing next to a table or not. Such sensors can be combined with image from camera to obtain detailed information about table surroundings. It's an important element that would enable the system's awareness of how many people are nearby, and where exactly they are located. o support visitors with a description of the system, it is necessary to prepare an animation presenting features of 'Bubble Table' and describing ways to interact with it. Such animation can be displayed: as part of the table interface (see --> interface section of this sub chapter); using separate kiosk or screen installed nearby the 'Bubble Table'. Apart from headsets, the system would be equipped with integrated speakers, providing either ambient sounds, or being used during guided tour presentation. The loudness of the ambient sound should be automatically adjusted to the overall level of noise in the room, using sound level corrector. My priority was to design a system easy in use, including the very basic, everyday functions like turning it on and off. For that purpose I decided that the system should be executed directly after operational system is up. System modifications, CMS and system shutdown should be possible remotely from another machine wirelessly connected to the “Bubble Table”. The beamer would enter a “stand by” mode, after the mainframe is shut down. Therefore, turning the system on, in the morning, would require only pressing one button located in the table (to turn on the computer and automatically start the presentation), and turning it off would require using a simple administrative panel installed on another machine. If this machine has Internet connection, “Bubble Table” may include web-based functions, that I will describe in the “Interface” section below. Interface: To present the content in a structured, accessible way, it should be presented in a graphical form, rather then text-based, menus or links. To make CMS process easy for museum operators, the interface consists of sets of thumbnails displayed as object that can be dragged, pushed etc. Each object circle-shaped represents a peace of work displayed in the museum. So the table interface consists of a number of spheres, to which, one can refer as to bubbles floating on a liquid surface. Depending on the number of exhibits, the table represents a surface with smaller or larger bubbles. Each of the bubble can be “explored” by touching it, what brings up a draggable, pop-up “window” displaying information related to this particular work. It can contain text files, videos, sound files etc. Basing on the proximity, and availability of the nearest headphone, user will be asked to approach and put on a certain headset to hear the content of a video or a sound file. Thus, proximity sensors are required to monitor unoccupied headsets. The collection of “bubbles” visible on the surface of the table are forming a physical area, where each object affect any object by touching it. “Pushing” a bubble across the table surface is accompanied by a series of hits, bounces etc. The aim is to create a particle system enabling users to “play” with it and also explore the content of the gallery. If there are some “windows” left opened and the system recognizes that there is no one standing nearby, the system will automatically close them to preserve order on the table. The “Bubble Table” is also design to support tourist guides working for the museum. Content Management System has an option of adding either an animation or a sideshow that can be run and controlled by a guide. Such presentation can be commenced either from an external computer wirelessly connected to the table or by opening a panel on the surface of the table. There are two ways in which the panel could be opened: by a tangible object, which shape can be recognized by the system, or by doing a certain gesture on the table, but in this case such gesture could be repeated by a user who observed the gesture. Maintenance There are certain tasks that have to be performed to maintain the system. First of all, the “Bubble Table” must be turned off for the night time, due to limited lifetime of the projector's lamp. One lamp should be sufficient for one year of museum's activity. After that period the lamp must be exchanged to a new one. Another daily task is to clean the screen of the table, as it gets dirty from visitors touching it. Extremely smudgy screen produces errors as the camera located below cannot distinguish between real fingers and traces of fat and sweat. One of the most important aspects maintaining “Bubble Table” is in fact the process of “feeding” it with new content. Described above (see: “System architecture” section) Content Management System makes such process easy and feasible provided the content is in a digital form. This requires some special effort , with which this analysis is not trying to deal. In order to produce digital images from printed material, a scanner is necessary. To create a storytelling presentation, giving an overview on the content of the exhibition, a person acquainted with Flash is essential. “Bubble Table” is a platform offering combination of exciting experience, digital content presentation and easy-to-use Content Management System.