It all started with a creative idea to change the way we use technology to learn and engage with culture. A student with disabilities participating in Microsoft's program for young talents: "Get your hands on professional experience" Lena Khanova asked the question: what if we created an application that would allow people to actively participate in their museum experience, either in person or remotely, through augmented reality? Could we create an immersive experience for children and adults to spark a conversation with the content of the museum through a quest or challenge that would make museums fun for all visitors? The answer was "yes"! The project quickly took shape and was successfully presented at the closing of the program by Lena and her mentor Tim Cranton to the Microsoft philanthropy team and the Microsoft Russia team. This kicked off an effort to make the dream a reality and to transform this great idea further into life.
01 | Microsoft partner company LLC Next.Space was selected as the most experienced in working with museums and cultural sites, including UNESCO projects.
02 | The Darwin museum of evolution was selected for project as one of the most interactive, inclusive and youth-friendly museums in Russia.
03 | The application is under development with collaboration across the MS team, the Darwin museum and the student-author of the idea, Lena.
04 | The completed project is designed with all related aspects of usage by people with disabilities according to Microsoft standards with the application expected to be available for free access afterwards, to be used by any museum or other tourist attraction.
05 | The central idea of the quest story is the DNA research in the year 2057 and demonstration of future tech including AI for Good. That is why the name of this quest/project was set as "Life Code".
06 | The last stage of the vendor's work on this project is going to be presented preliminarily at the end of October with the ready-to-go platform and operating model for Darwin museum with at least 10 to 15 scenarios.
07 | The game is the first "escape room" quest in Russia (and may be around the world) located on the territory of a very large museum (20.000 sq.m.). About 1.000 meters of total quest path. Also, it will be one of the largest indoor quests in the world and one of the first AR quests.
08 | At the same time this quest combines entertainment and education. Players interact with real exhibits in augmented reality.
02 | The Darwin museum of evolution was selected for project as one of the most interactive, inclusive and youth-friendly museums in Russia.
03 | The application is under development with collaboration across the MS team, the Darwin museum and the student-author of the idea, Lena.
04 | The completed project is designed with all related aspects of usage by people with disabilities according to Microsoft standards with the application expected to be available for free access afterwards, to be used by any museum or other tourist attraction.
05 | The central idea of the quest story is the DNA research in the year 2057 and demonstration of future tech including AI for Good. That is why the name of this quest/project was set as "Life Code".
06 | The last stage of the vendor's work on this project is going to be presented preliminarily at the end of October with the ready-to-go platform and operating model for Darwin museum with at least 10 to 15 scenarios.
07 | The game is the first "escape room" quest in Russia (and may be around the world) located on the territory of a very large museum (20.000 sq.m.). About 1.000 meters of total quest path. Also, it will be one of the largest indoor quests in the world and one of the first AR quests.
08 | At the same time this quest combines entertainment and education. Players interact with real exhibits in augmented reality.
[ PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS ]
[ PROJECT ORIGINS ]
We decided to place this section in the end, because usually just professionals want to see our complex schemes. :)
Whole visitor journey map was prototyped in detail, every meter of museum was planned from the visitor`s point of view.
01 | Museum scouting
Because of Pandemic and restricted access to museum all planned work has done in 3D using virtual model of museum and 3D panoramas.
02 | Quest planning
[ PRE-PRODUCTION ]
Comix is a native language for youngsters and we used it in the project with great success. We changed the style five times and rewrote the story three times. Finally, we were satisfied with the result. The Comix was drawn by one of the best illustrators Paul Nikitaev.
01 | Cool story in the Comix style
[ PRODUCTION ]
02 | Drawing the story
You can see below how the building was born. If you liked the building time-lapse let's see the turtle time-lapse. Every animal was drowned by hand in detail.
03 | Breathe life into the main character MAX-2057 AI
Vsevolod Kuznetsov is the famous voice over actor, known as official Russian voice of Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise and Antonio Banderas. He made the AI character unique and lively.
The English voice was created using Microsoft text to speech and translation services.
The English voice was created using Microsoft text to speech and translation services.
04 | MAX-2057 evolution
It was one of the most challenging tasks to find the best look of AI. We tried many different variants from the retrofuturism look to super powerful robot.
05 | UI is about the future
GUI = FUI (future user interface) inspired by Marvel movies which is so popular nowadays. AI interacts with the player via this FUI.
06 | Gaming experience
Dozens of mini games were developed in connection with the museum exposition. So every visitor can find something amazing.
For attracting audience interest 26 different animals were created in 3D digital style. As a result, every visitor now can find in AR his/her favorite animal at museum exhibition.
We decided not to replace real exhibits by photorealistic animals, but rather use an approach with a future user interface.
We decided not to replace real exhibits by photorealistic animals, but rather use an approach with a future user interface.
MAX-2057
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Vsevolod Kuznetcov
Actor
Actor
07 | Exciting 3d animals in AR
© LIFECODE 2020