Interface multitoque para exploração de colecção de arte

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Currently, museum visitors are looking for a rich experience in interaction, which makes them more involved with museum collections. Due to the rapid progress of technology, as well as the popularization of the Internet and the recent trends to innovate the way we interact with information, museum visitors’ expectations are even higher. The need to keep up with technological advances, coupled with the increasing expectations of visitors, museums and galleries lead to the development of systems with creative interfaces that encourage visitors to interact with display devices. The use of tabletop displays has been a common practice, since it provides a more pleasant and collaborative atmosphere, which benefits the users. This becomes even more important if it allows the active participation of the visitors, in order to create an exhibition more accessible to all. In order to engage museum visitors with art collections, we propose the development of a multi-touch tabletop system for exploration of art collections. The proposed system will allow visitors a playful interaction, alone or in groups, in order to generate discussion around the displayed information. This allows for public participation by contributing with their knowledge and opinions. By assigning tags to the collection objects, the system will build a network of meanings constituted by the common knowledge of the visitors. With the implementation of the proposed system, we expect to collect information from visitors’ interactions, in order to produce a sociological study. This study intends to make analysis of cultural public who undertakes public communication of art at physical and virtual museums.