Editor’s Note: Innovation knows no boundary or industry. That’s why we at Entertainment Engineering love introducing engineers to innovations from one industry and seeing them apply those innovations to their own projects. Even when the technologies appear simple, the applications can be enormous—with a little bit of creativity. For example, I can see this technology—and this particular product—being used in the reception area of any large aerospace company. Or at a trade show booth. Or what if we included something like this in our next interstellar satellite? If you end up bringing this product to your industry, we’d love to hear about it. In the meantime, I hope reading this case study sparks some creativity. — Terry Persun, EE Co-Founder

Built on the success of the Journey to Pluto exhibit at the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science, the Solar System Tour provides a fully immersive, self-guided and interactive space for curious visitors to go on a planet-by-planet journey. The Solar System Tour is a configurable off-the-shelf interactive experience for museums, science centers, planetariums, and other educational institutions.

Journey Through Space

From the touch screen interface, guests choose their destination from the major planets and dwarf planets in our solar system. Each selection launches an animated interplanetary journey—putting the visitor at the helm of a virtual spaceship. Upon arrival, a dynamic dashboard delivers the history, science, and distinctive characteristics of that world.

Guiding visitors throughout is the digitally-recreated voice of Clyde Tombaugh, who was the American astronomer who discovered Pluto. His voice is brought to life from interviews and his autobiography, Out of the Darkness: The Planet Pluto, with the full support of the Tombaugh family. The narration adds another layer to the interactive, creating a genuine sense of discovery for each user. Visitors can join the tour at any moment and immediately engage without instruction. No orientation is required. A 34-inch Reader Rail touch kiosk acts as the controller where users are able to select their celestial destination. 

Highly Adaptable

Solar System Tour was engineered for adaptability. The core interaction is anchored by the Reader Rail touch screen, a durable 5K UHD multitouch display built for prolonged use in public environments. The screen is paired with virtually any secondary display format a space demands, such as a single large-format monitor, an LED tile wall, a multi-screen curved array, or a projector system. For a more integrated aesthetic, the kiosk can also be paired with an Ideum Inline frameless touchscreen display embedded in a custom table form factor.

Solar System Tour joins other Ideum projects such as Brain Odyssey, an immersive multitouch exploration of the human brain’s anatomy developed in collaboration with Intervoke, and EM Spectrum, a touch table exhibit that allows visitors examine terrestrial and celestial objects across different wavelengths. All three are built for flexible hardware configurations, ADA accessibility, and the demands of high-traffic public spaces. 

For information: 

Ideum 

Solar System Tour

Reader Rail

Custom Tables

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