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Magic Table

Interactive Exhibition for the Castle Museum of Eutin

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Andreas Schrader Participants: Abdul Ahad, Darren Carlson, Brian Egan Subjects: Tangible Media, Museum Technology, Kiosk Systems

The Magic Table is an interactive information system developed for the Castle Museum of Eutin. The medieval castle of the bishops of Lübeck was residence of the dukes of Oldenburg. After twenty years of renovation it is now a public museum. The baroque castle church with the precious organ of Arp Schnittger is a highlight of north german architecture.

The artistic concept of the system presentation supports the visitor with unusual perspectives on architectures, history and inhabitants of the castle. The system architecture was developed by a student team of the ISNM in summer 2005 and installed in the museum in 2006. By using RFID reader below the table, a tangible interface is realized without the need for mouse and keyboard. Two projectors are used to beam the interactive surface onto the table and the information surface to the wall. A transparent puck containing an RFID label is used for selecting certain aspects of the information by moving on the table surface.

The presentation and interaction surface is based on Flash and supports any type of media. Professional soundtrack has been composed and videos of aspects of the museum exhibitions have been provided by the cooperation partner. An XML-based content management system allows for updating the system with new content.

This project was sponsored by the Eutin Castle Foundation and produced in cooperation with Art.Too in Malente, Germany.

More information can be found at:

• Andreas Schrader, Abdul Ahad, Darren Carlson, Brian Egan, Jörg Kaminski and Juliane Moser
  Das begreifbare Museum - Ein interaktives Informationssystem
  Demonstration at the Mensch & Computer 2005 Conference of the GI and the German Chapter of the ACM Linz, Austria, September 4-7, 2005. In: C. Stary (Ed.): Mensch & Computer 2005: Kunst und Wissenschaft – Grenzüberschreitungen der interaktiven ART. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich, Germany, 2005, pp. 261-265.
  
• Wundertüte im Schloss
  Report about the Magic Table project at Eutin Castle Museum.
  Ostholsteiner Anzeiger, 05.09.2006, (Download)
• Virtuelles Tischlein-deck-dich
  Report about the Magic Table project at Eutin Castle Museum.
  Lübecker Nachrichten, 05.09.2006, (Download)
• Im Schloss hält Magie Einzug
  Report about the Magic Table project at Eutin Castle Museum.
  Kieler Nachrichten, 19.08.2006, (Download)