Making Walls into Windows

We began with the premise that the wall must deliver on two key axes of use: The discovery of compelling stories, and utility of information gathering.  Because the Science Building was the first building of a campus-wide transformation, we also wanted to design a platform that was scalable not only across multiple sizes and locations, but also as a bedrock for additional experiences and applications.  

Leveraging touch, motion tracking, proximity, dwell time, weather, date and time, and event databases, the media wall serves as a “smart” installation that feels different every moment of the year, while responding to activity in the space, and telling the stories of its community.

A DNA-styled background layer dynamically animates and changes its palette based on weather and time of day. When it’s raining in the fall, it looks and behaves totally different than a sunny day in spring. After hours it looks and behaves differently than in during the workday. Meanwhile, to induce engagement, a content layer in the the foreground dynamically responds to people in the space. While walking by might draw attention through a variety of motion responsive animations, an individual or group dwelling close by might be served up story content based on their position in space which they can then interact with by touch for a deeper dive.  

Finally, a foreground layer of utility information available for the more purpose driven user  informs on events in the community and major announcements.  The whole system is updatable by the hospital communications team while still serving more than a dozen concurrent users.  Collectively, all these features serve to in both style and substance show the hospital community and its visitors a sustained commitment to innovation and excellence.  As a consequence, subsequent deployments of the platform are already underway.