A New Mode of Interaction to Explore All-sky Maps in Multiple Wavelengths

As the Museums and Interactivity-oriented Science Centres of the world are reinventing themselves more as creators of culture than just conservators of culture, they are getting keener to explore how various data retrieval and HCI technologies can symbiotically fit into the methods of museology. Museums, since their advent, have used spatial and temporal scanning to present stories that evolve either over time or through space. But these have always remained static timelines that are limited in content, lack interactive exploration, and miss any metaphorical interaction that allows one to have the experience of physically scanning a space or a timeline. In this work, we report how a new HCI technology was used to retrieve all-sky map data and present the multi-wavelength view of the universe to the uninitiated visitor having no skill to navigate through sophisticated astronomy instruments. We describe an intuitive interface that takes no training and learning for the visitors to operate. They can start analyzing multi-wavelength all-sky maps of our galaxy in no time – exactly as professional astronomers do. Stressing upon the ease of usability, reliability of data, and fail-safe operation, visitors are given access to additional layers of information that can be presented in myriad options chosen by the visitor. They can compare thin slices of galactic images in various wavelengths and look for essential radiation sources that are otherwise not apparent in the naked eye or simple optical observations. The public exhibit was based on duplex data communication between a computer and a PIC microprocessor controller using IEEE 1284 parallel port in ECP mode thus making it a generic technology for interactive displays.