meSch - Tools for Interactive Exhibitions

Digital media offers great possibilities to present cultural heritage: visitors can interactively explore content and the content can be dynamically presented according to the situation in the exhibition. For instance, little content may be presented in larger letters if the visitor is standing far away from the exhibit, but if the visitor is coming closer, a larger body of content can be presented using smaller font sizes. One major goal of the meSch project is the development and integration of interactive technology into museum installations that senses visitors’ actions in an exhibition and presents digital content according to the visitors’ actions, such as position, visit trajectory, language preference, age or interest. We aim not only to empower curators and cultural heritage professionals but also interaction designers to design digital museum experiences and to build interactive exhibitions. Thus, we present here the meSch platform that enables to easily setup interactions in exhibitions. We present the general meSch concept, highlight the Plinth, a prototype that allows measuring the distance of visitors to an exhibit, and describe how the Plinth can enrich exhibitions as interactive component. Finally, we elaborate the iterative design process of the Plinth including an evaluation in an interactive exhibition as well as a re-design based on the results of this evaluation.