Live Labels: e-Ink displays in a museum environment

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May 18, 2016

Nils PokelDigital Innovation Strategist Auckland Museum

Live Labels: e-Ink displays in a museum environment

Version 0.1

May 18, 2016

Nils PokelDigital Innovation Strategist Auckland Museum

Learnings from a technology pilot at Auckland Museum

@nilscreates @aucklandmuseum #MA16NZ

BACKGROUND: FUTURE MUSEUM

“Invest in the deployment of technical systems and digital technologies to transform the museum experience for visitors, and reach more people in new and innovative ways.”

BACKGROUND: DIGITAL CHANNEL STRATEGY

Digital Museum will be available in any place, on any device, at any time – enabling audiences to access content that has relevance and meaning to their lives

Universal Access

Digital Museum will be prepared for a dramatic increase in digital endpoints, within an environment of constrained resources. Content will be optimised for efficient delivery across multiple digital channels with as much reuse as possible

Sustainable Delivery

Digital Museum will progressively enrich and future-proof collections data against constant technological change and innovation

Digital Guardianship

Digital Museum will be ‘one’, and not ‘many’, collections and will adopt an ‘Open Data First’ approach

Open Collection

What Are E-Ink Displays?

WHAT ARE E-INK DISPLAYS?

Image source: www.amazon.com/kindle

WHAT ARE E-INK DISPLAYS?

Image source: www.eink.com

• Paper-like appearance • Wireless & 3G / 4G connectivity • Always on: even without power supply • Relatively inert: no heat or light emission • Vandal proof • Suitable for interior and exterior

application • Flexible, screens can be bent

WHAT ARE E-INK DISPLAYS?

Features

E-INK IN RETAIL ENVIRONMENTS

Image source: adventuretime gifs via GIPHY

WOW! (can we use this in the museum?)

Piloting The Technology

THE PILOT

How might we display digital information in a gallery without competing with the objects?

How might we support a COPE production workflow in a gallery space?

WHAT IS COPE?

➡ Separate content (creation) from the medium ➡ Create well structured, highly modular, and endpoint-

agnostic content ➡ Resulting in sustainable, future-proof content

Create Once, Publish Everywhere

Image source: Daniel Jacobson @ www.npr.org

THE PILOT

Image source: www.visionect.com

Visionect Panda DS Dev Kits

THE PILOT

MuseumWIFI

Gather Content

A4 screens

A5 screens

HTML templatesx4

Visionect Server

dynamic data

internal networkopen web

API

config &monitor

render

e-ink network diagram

THE PILOT

LabelEnglish

QuoteEngl

LabelTongan

QuoteTongan

Objects

insete-ink labels

plinthlighting

display case & labels

THE PILOT

THE PILOT

Conclusion

CONCLUSION

So…

Image source: Henry the Worst via GIPHY

is it any good?

CONCLUSION

The system works. Beautifully.

CONCLUSION

Visitors do not realise they are looking at a screen.

CONCLUSION

The technology itself still has a few drawbacks:

1. low contrast 2. hi-res only in monochrome 3. ghosting issues 4. limited aspect ratios 5. cost

CONCLUSION

But we can already see these benefits:

1. Flexibility to update 2. Integrates with the digital

publishing workflow 3. Potential to streamline process 4. Scalability 5. Potential for more smarts

CONCLUSION

What’s next?

1. Connect to Collections Online 2. Multi-language labels 3. Social curation 4. High-rotation display cases 5. Emergency systems

CONCLUSION

Level 1

e-Ink displays

Thank You

@nilscreates @aucklandmuseum #MA16NZ

May 18, 2016

Nils PokelDigital Innovation Strategist Auckland Museum

Video source: Brad Carter via YouTube

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