Interactive WALL projection at Shedd Aquarium Wild Reef Exhibit in chicago

To instill a sense of optimism about the future of coral reefs through the scientific community’s work to breed and disseminate heat-tolerant corals, we integrated a touch-responsive experience on a 25’ projection wall, to foster a sense of connection and ownership to restored corals. Guest experience how to grow new coral and are guided through the process.

Our team installed an Epson 13K lumen projector with an ultra short throw lens to get full coverage on the large surface. We installed the projector above the drop ceiling with only the lens protruding to hide the light source.

We programmed the interactive wall using TouchDesigner for playback control and image warping, combined with five Bare Conductive capacitive touch sensors installed in the wall. TouchDesigner is also used for image output warping to compensate for light overspill. To protect the installation from major future maintenance issues, we designed a hand tracking system, using Google Mediapipe with TouchDesigner to track hand positions over the sensors for additional redundancy.