The ancient city of Cusco was the heart of the Inkan civilization which ruled over much of the South American Andes in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Ideum are collaborating on the development of a multiuser interactive exhibit which contains a 3D reconstruction of this capital city as it was before the Spanish conquest. This exhibit is at the heart of the exhibition, The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire. By presenting this interactive exhibit on an Ideum 84" multitouch table, we expect to create a social experience that allows groups of visitors to explore videos, image galleries, interactive panoramas and an innovative 3D model tour element side by side. The exhibit will open at the museum in Washington DC on June 26, 2015.
In this presentation, we will share the unique development process that involved researchers and consultants in Spain, Peru, and the United States as well as the potential of building the interactive experience using the Unity3D gaming platform. We will also present a preliminary evaluation of how successfully this large interactive table provides a deeper, social experience by allowing users to learn from one another and better understand the exhibit’s main messages.
