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IBM has created a new THINK exhibit app for iPad and Android tablets that traces the roots of modern innovation.
The new app is IBMs way of celebrating centuries of science and technology innovations. In creating the app, IBM reinvented its 2011 THINK exhibit at New York City’s Lincoln Center as a free interactive app geared to technology fans and educators. Big Blue calls the new IBM THINK exhibit app an “innovation time machine” that shows how early tools have evolved into modern advances that create healthier populations, greener energy and safer, less congested cities.
Through interactive content and thousands of images and historical anecdotes, the IBM THINK exhibit app is filled with stories of progress, from space exploration to weather prediction and medical advances. It documents the roots of big data, from early charts, clocks and scales to microscopes and telescopes, from radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips and biomedical sensors in clothing to breath-sensor diabetes detectors.
For instance, there is an interactive timeline that chronicles how the simple act of measurement has evolved since prehistoric times: measuring length in 2000 BC, time in 1657, the Earths rotation in 1851 and atoms in 1981. It traces the roots of modern technologies, from the abacus to the scanning tunneling microscope. The app also features an explanation of how maps have been used to track data, from early geographical charts to data visualizations.
In addition, the app includes a section that chronicles how “models” have been used to understand many of the complex behaviors of the worldfrom the Wright Brothers’ plane prototype in 1903, to today’s airline mechanical parts simulations. There also is a 10-minute high-definition film edited from footage shot on location in China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Turkey and the United States with a new camera rig that captures imagery simultaneously on three video cameras. And there are subtitles in 10 languagesChinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.
Making the world smarter is core to IBM’s overall mission and technological innovation, and is key to the companys Smarter Planet strategy. As demand grows for big data analytics gathered from roads, power grids and other sources, IBM is working to make the world smarterfrom the “Jeopardy”-winning computer Watson thats improving cancer diagnoses, to systems for forecasting weather and easing power consumption in cities around the world.
IBM gained inspiration for the new app from its predecessor, the IBM 2011 THINK pop-up exhibit at New York’s Lincoln Center, a 7,500-square foot interactive experience developed for the company’s centennial celebration. Visitors were immersed in a film and interactive experience across 40 oversized digital screens. Cited for its design, the THINK exhibit has been placed in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection and received awards from the Industrial Designers Society of America, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers and the Art Directors Club. Later this year, the exhibit will be installed at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.
Additionally, IBM will be working with the New York Hall of Science to create lesson plans for middle school teachers that integrate the IBM THINK exhibit app. As part of IBM’s commitment to education, the company will help students better understand some of the scientific concepts behind THINK and inspire them to take innovative action that can improve their local communities. The lessons will be featured on Teachers TryScience a free Website that provides educators with high quality lessons linked with pedagogical and practical supports.
“The IBM THINK exhibit app is designed for the ‘forward thinker’ in all of us and compels people to think about what it takes to make the world work better,” said Lee Green, IBM’s vice president of brand experience and strategic design.
Earlier this year, IBM released another tablet app for tech fans, Minds of Modern Mathematics, which reinvents the massive timeline of the history of math from 1000 AD to 1960 that was part of “Mathematica: A World of Numbers … and Beyond,” IBMs 1964 Worlds Fair exhibit designed by legendary duo Charles and Ray Eames. It offers biographies, milestones and images of artifacts culled from the Mathematica exhibit as well as a high-resolution image of the original timeline poster. The app was developed by IBM together with the Eames Office.
To download the IBM THINK exhibit app, go here for iPad, and here for Android.