Science Center Gets High-Tech Revitalization

INFORMATIVE LCDs
Onomy also contributed one of its signature interactive digital walls to the center's "Skyscraper" exhibit. Guests can push an LCD panel across a yellow timeline of the construction of the New York Times building to display additional information and photos. In building the signature piece, Onomy founders and engineers Scott Minneman and Dale MacDonald created what they call a "dog's breakfast" motherboard and embedded it in a Samsung LCD panel.

A standard rotary encoder acts as the sensor and transmits location data to the motherboard, where a Microchip PIC processor analyzes quadrature data, displaying information depending on its position. So little hands don't push the display too quickly, Onomy used a magnetic particle break from Placid Industries that reads the rate of sensor inputs and adjusts the speed accordingly.

"It causes the monitor to get too heavy if it's pushed too fast," Minneman said. Onomy has done similar installations at the Singapore Science Center and the Papalote Children's Museum in Mexico City.

The center's high-tech atmosphere requires an in-house IT and programming staff, which was involved in creating a number of the displays. Jim Austin, designer and programmer at LSC, runs that department.

Austin engineered the 40-in. touchscreen "rovers" that can be moved to accompany any exhibit. Most often, the rovers will be stationed with the "Breakthroughs" exhibit, which covers breaking developments in science and technology. Guests can use the touchscreen interfaces to scroll through fresh science and technology news stories.

"Our audience is 10 times more electronics-savvy than I was at 10 years old," Austin said. "There's a higher bar for making things interesting than there used to be."