Our Dynamic Planet

Client:

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

New Haven, CT


See current weather patterns sweeping across the globe, earthquakes that happened this week, or watch the continents coming together to show the Earth from 300 million years ago. Located in the Hall of Minerals, Earth, and Space, this touchscreen interface has eleven sections of global weather and plate tectonic information, as displayed through the 24″ acrylic “Magic Planet” globe.

Project Included:

  • Interactive programming
  • Graphic design
  • Video editing
  • Custom sound effects
  • Hardware design and installation

Exhibit interaction

More info

In this very popular exhibit, an interactive program running on an LCD touchscreen controls the 24″ acrylic “Magic Planet” globe. There are eleven sections of weather and plate tectonic information, which all display vivid animations on the globe (which contains a DLP projector shining up from within the pedestal). Current weather patterns taken from satellites and seismic activity from around the globe are downloaded from the Internet every three hours. The “Active Volcanoes” section includes a video showing eruptions and lava flows. Two recessed speakers and a subwoofer provide the audio, which includes custom sound effects to go with the interface animations.