California Academy of Sciences (Project O.R.C.A.S.)
Project O.R.C.A.S. (Organized Research for the California Academy of Sciences) was a project from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. The project's team sought to investigate on behalf of the California Academy of Sciences enhancements to their exhibits.
As the software engineer in the team, I was responsible for any software design for all pitches that we submitted to the Academy directors. I also developed any prototypes used in any of the pitches.
Features
This project focused on a number of exhibit enhancements, some ideas included:
- Mobile platforms (Iphone, Android, Java ME, Others)
- Linked exhibits (interactions in one exhibit affect the other, creating stories)
- Avatar and Achievement systems for the visitors at the Academy.
- Videogame based exhibits.
- Web games for the Academy website.
Here is a 30 second video explaining our approach:
Challenges
The project was challenging due to the following issues
The directors at the Academy wanted a solution that would not distract visitors from the content. If the solution allowed visitors to generate more interest in the content provided, better
Any pitch geared towards games had the chance of being seen as not mature enough. The concept of edutainment had to be introduced and explained that it required an often difficult to achieve balance between education and entertainment.
The Academy directors were not interested in any implementation details or systems used. They wanted to hear more about how the system would impact the visitors at the Academy.
Results
The Academy directors received a roadmap of a museum and website project to provide users with a tracking system that would allow every visitor to maximize their experience with the Academy. The system burrowed from the gaming concepts of Avatars and Achievement tracking in order to do this. The directors were extremely pleased with the deliverable, and a new Carnegie Mellon team of students developed a project based on our findings and recommendations. Visit their website