The new year in Japan brings in the year of the Dragon and a new exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum looking at the zodiac sign that lets visitors get hands on with the creature. The new digital display is a collaboration between Japanese company Toppan and Tokyo University and encourages those going to the New Years Celebration exhibition to slide their hands into a digital display and get tactile with a 3D dragon.
The technology aims at being the “next generation of digital display case” and is part of an ongoing commissioned project from the Ministry of Education titled “Digital Museum Mixed Reality”. The display users a system where air is passed over the users hand when inserted into the display, giving the feeling of running hands over the dragon, as well as being able to pick up the figurines and view from numerous angles. Combining multiple sensory information the display can also be used to show the objects from a number of different angles.
Toppan and Tokyo University have already collaborated on the digital Museum project in the past, when they rolled out a new platform that lets visitors experience exhibitions in various ways using 3D virtual reality glasses. Breaking down the barriers in the museum exhibitions and letting visitors get a sense of touch and handle pieces adds a nice new interactive dimension to the experience. The technology coud also allow access to priceless museum pieces from other locations when it becomes impossible for the actual physical piece to travel be put on display. In the future we could also see this type of technology used in our own home devices that could let us browse online shopping in a more physical way before making our purchases.
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Darrell is a native of the U.K. and has been in Japan since 2002. He consults on innovation and strategy at the 
Nice to see an application of the technology that isn’t porn-related. Cool!