Collaboration technologies are dear to my heart and something I have been intimately involved in helping to pioneer over the last 20 years with projects such as the Reality Centre and Media Fusion.

Now one of Decision Concepts' clients, Mersive, has launched the Solstice Pod, an all in one wireless streaming device for connecting devices and people in collaboration rooms so all can see and work together seamlessly. 

To see how this technology has been originally developed on large systems, compacted onto PCs and now embedded onto a miniature appliance is amazing and this development is really exciting and very significant to the future of connected working.

Take a deeper look here: https://www.mersive.com/land/solstice-pod/

The latest issue of Attractions Management features the Top 20 Predictions of 2015 and technologies and trends to watch. (page 32).

I am pleased to see that item No 4 is Reactive Environments/Haptics. "The next generation of attractions will be built with reactive environments where multiple outcomes are possible depending on the actions of the visitor." 

This is absolutely the approach that has been adopted for the Inside Explorer system, originally developed at the Interactive Institute, and now being developed by a new spin-off company Interspectral.

Inside Explorer is an interactive, touch screen based exploration environment for visitors to science centres, museums and visitor attractions. It uses virtual autopsy technology from medical imaging and visualisation research in Sweden to create a uniquely compelling experience to explore, the human body, ancient mummies and natural history subjects from collections from all over the world. (See examples here).


The approach has always been that museum visitors should be able to experience the actual science data first hand and explore for themselves, effectively having a similar experience to the scientists and curators making the original discoveries. This is so important and I am really heartened to see in this article that this is now recognised as an important trend.

Find out more here: 
http://www.attractionsmanagement.com/pdf/AM_issue1_2015.pdf

and here: 
http://www.interspectral.com/

The TEDx Experience
What an amazing experience giving a TEDx talk is. Daunting, thrilling and invigorating! And what an amazing place the London location of Brixton was too. The team was incredible with such infectious enthusiasm and an amazing sense of community. It was a huge privilege to be part of it all. And when you realise the quality of the other speakers it is makes you realise how lucky you are to be part of such an amazing event.

What it is all about
My talk: 'Using 3D Visualization to Discover the Secrets of Mummies' describes the work that I have been doing with the team in Sweden at the Interactive Institute to take Virtual Autopsy technology and apply it to a wonderful range of subjects in museums around the world. This of course includes mummies, but also so much more including fossils, meteorites and even fish captured from the deep sea.

It was a team effort
I am also indebted to our two wonderful research partners without which none of this would have been possible:

• CMIV - the Centre for Medical Imaging science and Visualization at the University Hospital of Linköping Sweden
• The Computer Science Department and the Visuaization Center C at the University of Linköping in Norköping, Sweden

Live Demonstrations on Stage
I demonstrate live on stage a number of examples from different projects using the Inside Explorer system. A highlight is a very ancient pre-dynastic mummy from the British Museum who, during the course of the project, was discovered to have been murdered - 5,500 years ago!

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed giving it.

You can watch the TEDx talk here

You can find out more about various projects here

Dr Anders Persson, Director of the Centre or Medical Imaging Science and Visualisation (CMIV) at the University Hospital Linköping, Sweden will give the Combined Royal Colleges Lecture this year. A winner of the Combined Royal Colleges Award in 2013 and also the overall winner of the recent Wellcome Image Awards, it is a rare treat to hear Dr Persson speak in London.

Dr Persson's work at CMIV has been a major influence and continues to provide input to the work that has followed with the Inside Explorer touch table, which has been used to communicate diverse subjects in museums and science centres around the world. These range from the human body to Egyptian mummies and remarkable subjects from the world of natural history. Many examples can be found here.

The event will be held at the Royal Photographic Society. Details are as follows. Admission is free, but booking required.
20 November 2014

18:30 - 21:00

The Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists
27 Sussex Place
Regent's Park
London
United Kingdom
NW1 4RG

- See more at: http://www.rps.org/events/2014/november/20/the-combined-royal-colleges-lecture-2014#sthash.rbGqbLCC.dpuf

The Annual National Conference of Visitor Attractions is the pre-eminent event for all types of Visitor Attractions in the UK. Whether your Attraction is large and small, charitable and commercial, and whether access is free or charged, we all share the same goal: to attract and satisfy visitors.

The Annual Conference is run by the industry, for the industry and is firmly established as the key place to meet and network with contemporaries and to participate in an innovative and stimulating programme.

David Hughes will be speaking at TEDx Brixton on Saturday 11 October 2014 at the amazing Evelyn Grace Academy, designed by one of worlds most talented architects Zaha Hadid.

He will speak about working with the Interactive Institute and University of Linköping in Sweden to bring virtual autopsy technology, to museums around the world to explore Egyptian mummies, natural history subjects and more, using the Inside Explorer touch table.

This talk will feature in the final Discovery session commencing at 4:30pm GMT. 

If you didn't get a ticket, you can watch it live at: http://www.tedxbrixton.com/blog/livestream

What a great project. British Museum assistant Keeper of the Middle East department, Dr Irving Finkel, made a remarkable discovery on a 4000 year old Babylonian tablet in cuneiform script which describes, in detail, the instructions to build an ark.

This has inspired a reconstruction project in India of a scaled down version, which was floated and the story is told in a UK Channel 4 TV programme, The Real Noah's Ark, on Sunday 14th September 2104.

Having worked extensively with the Egyptian team on mummy discovery at the British Museum, it is always great to see what other amazing discoveries and projects are happening in other departments at the museum. It is also a testament to some of the remarkable people at the museum and their enduring passions. Dr Finkel is no exception. He is a striking character to behold and some say his appearance might have a passing resemblance to how Noah might have been thought to look.

Discover more in this Telegraph article here.

I am really over the moon and honoured to be invited to speak in London at TEDx this year. The speaker line-up looks amazing, so I will be in good company. Now the hard work begins.

I will tell the story of some of the amazing museum visualisation projects that I have been fortunate enough to have been involved with over the last decade, exploring mummies, meteorites and more, and how they have enabled scientists to make new discoveries and also share them with the visiting public so they can explore these findings for themselves.

Read more about  #TEDxBrixton2014 here