Return to Our Work

BodyWorks Exhibition

Education | Game | Museum

Commissioned by the Carnegie Center in Pittsburgh, Balance Studios developed two gamified, edu-taining experiences to add to the museum's already-popular BodyWorks exhibition. The exhibit's third facet, BodyTech, lets visitors interact and explore the different human systems through hands-on and virtual experiences. In addition to the permanent location at Pittsburgh's most-visited museum, the Carnegie also created a BodyWorks traveling exhibition that is featured at other institutions.

Skeleton Mirror

Volumetric Augmented Reality Application

Innovation, fun, and learning. It's the very framework at Balance, so when the Carnegie Science Center wanted an interactive way to explore the skeletal system, it was a perfect partnership. Utilizing Balance's proprietary volumetric Augmented Reality (AR) platform, the ARena™, the interactive skeleton mirrors visitors' movements and gives the effect of an actual X-ray machine.

This platform is a combination of AR and sensory technology creating environments, gaming mechanics, and experiences connecting the player and the on-screen 3D avatar. As people approach, the sensor camera decides which of three skeletons to display based on the visitor's height. When guests move, movements as large as raising your arm or as small as a twist of the wrist are mirrored. It's an experience so real that museum staff has been asked if the exhibit is an actual X-ray machine.

So well-received, the Carnegie made the interactive skeleton a multi-location experience. Find it at the popular Pittsburgh museum, in Carnegie's BodyWorks traveling exhibit, and it is at the Pittsburgh airport as well--allowing a high volume of visitors to dance, wave, and watch their skeleton move and see technology at work.

Watch Video

Blood Cell Game

Multi-Gestural Table Application

Fighting bacteria has never been so fun. The Carnegie Science Center is Pittsburgh's most visited museum and is full of hands-on, interactive learning. Commissioned for their latest BodyWorks exhibit, the Balance team was tasked to answer the question: How do my white blood cells protect me? The team developed an edu-taining, one or two player gaming experience, where players learn about blood and fight for their patients' virtual lives.

The game takes visitors on a journey inside the body, piloting among white and red blood cells with an on-screen joystick, eating up bacteria before red blood cells are compromised. As visitors pass each of the three levels, the bacteria grow larger and faster. When the game is over, guests discover who wins: the bacteria or them. Hopefully participants do their jobs well, they can't escape having to notify their patient's next-of-kin if they were unsuccessful. Fun, learning, and added whimsical motivation to succeed--that matches everyone's blood type.

So fun, they took it on the road. In addition to the in-museum experience, Carnegie duplicated the BodyWorks exhibit and game for its traveling exhibition to engage youth all over the country with this creative interactive way to explore different body systems. State-of-the-art technology that educates and entertains. Learning made fun; all for the health of it.

Watch Video

The Idea

Educate about body systems in an interesting and interactive way.

Services

Play and learning is one of our superpowers. From concept to completion, we bring the magic to make ideas (yours or ours--we can help you with that too) a reality. And a strong alignment with an amazing institution that uses tech to teach so seamlessly that you just think you're having fun? That's just where we like to be.

The Result

The interactive skeleton experience was so convincing, many guests thought it was a real X-ray; one pregnant visitor quite taken aback when she was unable to see her baby in the mirrored-sensory experience. Overall, the interactives are so wildly popular that they've been requested by other institutions to be a part of their exhibitions and they've also been added to the Carnegie's created traveling exhibition to bring the fun and learning to other institutions.

“To the Team at Balance Studios – It was great working with you! The digital interactives you produced are delighting our guests; it is great to see generations of families engaged around these exhibit elements. Your group was easy to work with, enthusiastic about the possibilities, and very good at documenting, staying in touch and on schedule. We will certainly look to Balance Studios for future collaboration!”

~ Dennis Bateman, Director of Exhibit Experience, Carnegie Science Center