Imagine Children’s Museum reached out to us again when they wanted to add an x-ray machine to their new veterinarary clinic play space. We contacted DesignForce and asked them to construct the physical “x-ray machine”, while we developed the software that brings it to life.
Children can pick up stuffed animals from nearby cages and carry them to the x-ray machine. Inside each animal is embedded a small RFID chip that identifies the animal. When the child places it on the x-ray table, a sensor reads the chip and pulls up information about the animal. Pressing the big blue button shows an x-ray of the animal. Pressing again shows a different x-ray. The small screen on the x-ray arm lights up and tells what animal is being scanned. All of this is accompanied by sound effects to give great feedback to the child and to stimulate imaginative play.
Our software has a simple docent screen that allows staff to add or remove animals from the list, and to program new RFID tags. The software does not care if the images are x-rays or not. Staff can add any images they want and associate them with a given animal. This makes the exhibit very flexible — let’s say for instance if you wanted a holiday theme, you could add images of a flying reindeer and associate those with a stuffed deer.