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Build “An Interactive Exhibit for About $30” With Arduino, Online NYT Word

Davide Gomba — March 17th, 2011

[Nick Bilton] published an article about Arduino and how it influenced Interaction Design, with a close look about Exhibition Design.

“The Arduino has changed the way we can create and build exhibits,” said Hélène Alonso, director of interactive exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “In the past, we would have used 50 percent of our budget on computers that have now been replaced with the simplicity of the Arduino.”

A current exhibit at the museum called “Brain: The Inside Story,” uses an Arduino to calculate a person’s accuracy and brain power while tracing the shape of a star. Another exhibit at the museum lets people see the relationship of the weights of some dinosaurs in relation to those of humans.

For artists and designers, one of the biggest draws of the Arduino is the cost. A single Arduino, which can be used to control a number of aspects of a museum installation, costs just $30. Once an artist has a chip, inexpensive sensors can be added to make the device sentient.

via [NYT Online]

 

Categories:Ar(t)duinoArduinoBusinessCommunityEnglishExhibitionInspirationPress

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5 Responses to “Build “An Interactive Exhibit for About $30” With Arduino, Online NYT Word”

  1. Jeff Says:
    March 22nd, 2011 at 20:56:05

    Ha, far from the truth. While I use Arduino now for many projects, I was using microcontrollers for art and design long before Arduino came around. I’m sure several exhibition design firms and independent artists were using similar tools in the past. You used to be able to get a PIC micro for free, just sample them from Microchip, add $3-4 in components and you have a simple computer. Arduino (as a platform and community) just made interactive electronics more popular and user friendly. I wouldn’t say however that this has revolutionized the output of electronically mediated interactions, it has just made it more accessible.

  2. d.gomba@arduino.cc Says:
    March 23rd, 2011 at 09:16:43

    Hi Jeff.
    I agree with you.
    But user-friendliness has no price. I must say is one of the most important things to look after if you happen to build (and be able to quickly fine-tune, remove, adapt, update) your exhibition.

    Anyway yes, the article statement doesn’t cover Arduino precessors.

    Thanks for commenting,
    Davide

  3. punstress Says:
    March 30th, 2011 at 18:27:50

    I’m new to Arduino. Where can I learn (step by step) how to do these types of projects?

  4. d.gomba@arduino.cc Says:
    March 31st, 2011 at 07:53:49

    Hi.
    There are a lot of different resources, depending on your previous programming and/or electronics skills.
    I advice you to look in the “tutorials” section on this blog.

    The best place to look for this kind of material is the playground, though.
    http://www.arduino.cc/playground/

    thanks for commenting,
    Davide

  5. build own pc Says:
    September 9th, 2011 at 15:07:50

    pc building guide…

    […]Arduino Blog » Blog Archive » Build “An Interactive Exhibit for About $30″ With Arduino, Online NYT Word[…]…

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