Visitors interact with actual deep-space observations of anomalous star orbits around invisible, high-intensity gravity sources to determine exactly where that source is located. Visitors also participate in new deep-space research by requesting personalized observations from an actual remote research telescope. The visitor's requested observational images are captured overnight and automatically uploaded to their own personalized website the next day.

A sample visitor website can be accessed at http://web-bh.cfa.harvard.edu/. Please use the following number as your Sign In Explorer's ID: 004425991286. After you Sign In, click "I prefer to keep using my 12-digit Explorer's Card ID" on the next page.

This exhibition was installed at the Boston Museum of Science during the summer of 2009 and at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in New Hampshire in fall 2009.

The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) is a university consortium sponsored by the National Science Foundation dedicated to operating seismological science facilities and making seismic data freely available for research and educational use.

Currently Image Works/XhibitNet staff is working with IRIS to design and develop an ongoing stream of new content for the Active Earth Display, a networked, interactive computer-based museum display for science centers, visitor centers, schools and libraries.

The display consists of a customizable set of multimedia interactives about plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis that engage museum audiences with live data feeds from research projects around the world.

Invasive species such as Eurasian water milfoil can seriously threaten the health of water bodies and are virtually impossible to eliminate once they are well established. But with thousands of lakes and ponds spread across Maine how is it possible to keep track of new infestations as they appear? GMRI's response is to get students and others across the state involved as trained data collectors, armed with the latest GPS, digital camera and online software technology.

Image Works/XhibitNet spent 18 months researching, prototyping, testing, designing and programming this extensive suite of web browser-based tools. Using open source Drupal content management modules, Google Maps and Yahoo UI APIs, Adobe AIR and Flex tools, our user research/interaction design team and software engineers created a database-driven system which started to go viral to its intended user base within weeks of its introduction.

Hundreds of observations, photos and GPS locations were contributed within the first few weeks of the roll-out in fall 2009. Students use their MacBook laptops, provided by the state to all Maine 7th and 8th graders, along with the GPS units and cameras provided by GMRI as part of the program with a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The project includes extensive use of social media to connect students, teachers and scientists in an ongoing educational effort with significant environmental and scientific impact.

Through summer 2009, more than 38,000 students have visited GMRI and participated in researching and solving the Mystery of the X-fish. Building upon that success, GMRI, with the help of Image Works/XhibitNet, launched an entirely new marine research educational experience on the existing Cohen Center for Interactive Learning technology platform called Lobster: Untold Tales.

A major component of the new experience is a lobster-fishing resource economics simulation where students act as lobstermen in a realistic example of the common pool resource mechanism at work. Up to fifteen students participate simultaneously by choosing how many lobster traps to fish within the legal maximum in a certain region. With each subsequent lobstering trip they privately adjust their number of traps to see what impact their collective behavior has on the individual and overall catch and profit.

Supporting interpretive information and the ability to create a video report of their experience is producing fascinating results for the students, GMRI and the resource economists who have helped design and collect data from the project for their own ongoing research.

5th and 6th graders participate in a two-hour field trip to conduct their own in-depth, simulated marine research investigations, experiments and virtual commercial fishing expeditions with a realistic economic simulation.

Teams work on 12 networked, high-definition interactive computer stations saving personal artifacts via digital video dissecting microscopes, video report cameras and underwater schooling tank cameras, then present their findings in summary "peer review" sessions.

All digital artifacts are saved to personal science notebook websites where the students can annotate, update and export their data to create extended research reports integrated with other class projects and materials.

Visitors to GMRI pass by a high-definition plasma display and a touchscreen kiosk which are integrated into a wall of etched glass tiles.

Donors, employees, scientists and fishermen share their thoughts on video regarding the importance of the facility, such as the environmental impact, the economic benefits and the research opportunities.

By interacting with a touchscreen, visitors choose to watch the entire presentation or navigate to specific themes: history, science, education and community.

The exhibit is designed for a team-based approach with a combination of hands-on objects, animation, film clips, and printouts to prompt investigation into how magnets work.

As visitors interact with the kiosk, they create various artifacts such as team photos, report videos, and drawings. These artifacts are passed off to the Artifact Processor which performs all preparation work required before a session can be transferred into a web friendly format and uploaded to the personalized website.

For quantitative evaluation, various tracking and log files gather metrics, such as the number of visitors, hold time, and number of digital artifacts.

Visitor videos provide qualitative data through insight into what they learned or experienced while interacting with the exhibit.

An arcade style game encourages visitors to listen to clues to collect historic artifacts via ship and battle a huge nor'easter storm across Portland Harbor to deliver them to the dock for its time period.

Try it out for yourself using the web version of the game Heroes and Shipwrecks.

Visitors to the Maine Coastal Ecology Center interact with a marshland diorama exhibit.

The diorama features an audio narration of a grandfather’s exploration of the marsh one morning with his granddaughter.

High quality and realistic sound effects of marsh life are integrated with the exhibit and focus attention on the appropriate areas of the diorama.

Maine Mall visitors are drawn to an interactive kiosk by an attract loop playing on 4 large plasma screens each showing 12 real estate properties.

Using a touchscreen, prospective buyers can view the details for a property and print out a specification sheet.

Real estate brokers can log in to Interactive Ad's website to create an account, add property specifications, upload photos and purchase ad space.

Submitted listings are stored in a backend database which dynamically drives content to the kiosk and tracks requests for spec sheets.

Through high speed internet, staff can quickly, remotely and continually update the kiosk with new listings.

An interactive booth screen attracts people and projects images to promote new Polaroid products resulting in increases in sales and awareness of Polaroid cameras and products.