ONE_Before and during the visit.

Use of touchscreen in the Museolaboratorio, identification using proximity devices, authentication, interaction, memorizing activities
Student

While others in my class are still listening to the guide explaining what you can do with that big machine, I leave the group and go to a screen that is on display next door next to the lathe and on it I see some moving images. As soon as I approach a sentence appears: "Hello Francesca". At first I am surprised, but then I realize that it was the "card" that they gave us at the entrance that revealed who I am to the computer. Shortly after the screen flashes "Francesca's workspace", at least this is what the title says. The space is empty for now, but there are some selections with "activities" that I can do. Some are active and others are switched off, I understand this because if I touch those that are switched off (which are also different in the form of presentation) I get a message saying: "this activity can take place only on the after-visit website: return to your workspace from home by browsing the website that is printed on your card".

Looking closer I see that there are only a couple of proposed activities and that they are in a "slice" of the index called "Monarch lathe". The entire index would also let you do activities related to all the "experiences" in the museum, for example, there is one called "How many things are in it?". However, only the part related to the lathe opens in this screen.

When I touch each of the selections, a small thumbnail appears, a kind of animation close to my finger which recalls a step or an element of the activity and makes me remember or guess how it is performed. The selections, all, both active and "off", I can drag them with my finger in my workspace and leave them there. I begin to expect that I will find them as I left them, both here and, why not, when when I'll try to get back to the website from home.

But now a couple of my friends arrive and they tell me they want to play too, so I must hurry and so I choose one thing that is called "the network of stories". The screen is now divided in two parts. One of them shows a video. A guy who looks a bit like my grandfather Cesare begins to tell a story about the lathe and when he saw it, when it had been left in a warehouse half bombed.

On the other side of the screen there are small symbols that are interconnected with lines. At the center there is one that is "lit up" with a small picture of the "grandfather" who is talking, then from this symbol some lines begin that connect it to other symbols, all with pictures or icons. For example, there is a picture of a soldier's helmet, then a facade of a school and even a vintage car. I can touch any symbol and, when I do that, the symbol follows my finger and it is as if I stretched the lines with all the other objects hung to them, like rubber bands, and the whole network moves accordingly, as if suspended. When I let go, the symbol that I have touched bounces back to the center and lights up. Also when I touch a symbol other parts of the network appear. In fact, the symbols furthest from the center become more transparent depending on the distance.

The symbol in the center however does not immediately launch the film on the other part of the screen, between the two sides there is a button (or at least something with an arrow that I understand can be pushed). It is enough to press that one to start the film. Or better, whatever is "inside" the symbol starts, in fact if I choose the vintage car I can launch a slide show of photos of cars and racing pictures and captions that speak of Ferrari and Maserati cars over time.

Or, going forwards following the links that leave from the school I found a very serious guy. He was the principal of some school, I don?t remember which one, who showed that now, instead of that lathe back there, they use a machine from "Star Wars" like a robot.

A few symbols away, then I found other pictures of the robots that made me curious but unfortunately the screen stopped and told me: "Ok, Francesca, here at the museum each person can only play for 5 minutes, But come back to your workspace from home, you will be able to continue and you will see other activities. See you soon".