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Introduction to MoPA's Multi-touch Project

For the past few months my colleague Wes and I have been working on a new and exciting multi-touch exhibit for the Museum of Photographic Arts based in San Diego, California. The project is a collaboration between the University of California San Diego (UCSD), The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and The Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA). My involvement in the project is made possible through Pacific Rim Undergraduate Experiences (PRIME), an internship program offered by UCSD.

I have been sent to Seika, Japan which is part of the Kyoto Prefecture. It is also where one of NICT’s offices is located. I am working at NICT to finish the multi-touch exhibit, which is written using Open Exhibits. NICT plans to use the finished product at their technology exhibition in August. It will give us a chance to test out the interface and improve on it before MoPA’s debut at Tokyo Photo 2011.

Currently we are working on the keyboard interface which will be used by a Japanese audience. Since we are not originally from Japan, it is pretty tough to design a friendly soft-keyboard. Any and all ideas are appreciated.