Research and design

The project started with a group desire to develop an exhibition piece for a museum. After an interview with the Danish Museum of Science and Technology curator, it was decided to work for them. Moreover, after getting a chance to work with the Danish company RealFiction A/S and use their holographic display called DeepFrame, we started designing the product. Since the Space Exhibition at DTM was focused on Andreas Mogensen, (the Danish astronaut who travelled to the International Space Station in the Soyuz spacecraft), we decided to recreate that journey animation on the holographic display.

Making the animation and building the contraption

The animation was done in Unity 3D with Cinemachine plug-in. As it was planned early, we wanted to test and evaluate the depth effect on the DeepFrame. To do that, we actually developed 2 versions of the installation. One includes a print, a physical window through which the visitors are looking at the holographic display, adding an additional layer that could increase the depth effect. Compared to the second version, a fully digital animation where the window is digital and in the animation itself.

Since the holographic display was a prototype and not the marker version, it lacked a proper stand. Therefore a need for building one emerged. Over the course of 2-3 months, we hand-built a wooden contraption that held a TV for displaying the content onto the DeepFrame, a mirrored surface called Beam Splitter that reflects the TV’s content onto DeepFrame and the DeepFrame itself. After the installation was done, we painted it black for it to look better. We covered it in black, non-transparent fabric to keep the illusion level high.

Testing depth PERCEPTION & Results

Finally, when it comes to evaluating the installation, a scientific experiment was performed. As mentioned before, we wanted to discover if the print delivers a higher sense of depth. Hence the A/B test design was chosen. As the testing tool, we decided to use a quantitative survey consisting of 6 pairs of questions (one of them being, for example, "there were multiple layers of depth in the space scene.”). We conducted the test on our target group - museum visitors for 3 days. The results indicate that the version with a physical print slightly increases the depth effect. Overall the installation was vastly enjoyed by the museum visitors and stayed there for over 6 months. It was also noted in the press.