Working as part of the exhibit design team at FifeX Ltd, I have had a pivotal role in the functionality and user experience on this interactive.
The client is one of the largest energy suppliers in the UK and wanted an interactive to demonstrate the need to correctly manage the certain transformers between a hydro dam and a house. This simplistic model was to represent the journey that the electrical energy travels for it to reach the house.
For this we used custom built PCB’s to daisy-chain multiple RFID readers together over I2C to manage the “correct”, “wrong” and “not detected” states. This allows us to easily highlight if the user has got the correct sequence by illuminating the house green. If the positioning of the transformers are wrong, the house will glow red to indicate that it has been blown up due to a surge. I also used reed switches to detect if the pylons are in their positions – As their order doesn’t matter, using magnets worked best for this. After the installation of the first interactive, we received requests for several of their other sites to have similar interactives installed.
The first of these installations used flexible LED noodles embedded into the 3d printed pylons to represent the power travelling along them. The other installations had different options to represent the choice of where to receive the power from, whether that be from wind or hydro.
This project was part of my full time Employment with FIFEX LTD (SCOTLAND). This Interactive was produced by our team of Exhibit Designers, whilst others focused on the drawings, panneling and graphics. I used my experiance of electronics to create the control system.
This Interactive is currently installed at the SSE Visitor Centre in Pitlochry.
