Shigureden: the Nintendo-powered Museum

Shigureden is a newly-opened museum in Arashiyama, Kyoto, which showcases the game and the estetics of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (Ogura Anthology of 100 Poems by 100 Poets - wikipedia). This museum is heavily influenced by Nintendo, in terms of funding, technology and ideas. Nintendo's advisor Hiroshi Yamauchi personally funded the construction of the museum, visotors use Nintendo DS-based location aware devices (called ShigureNavi), and the museum's interactive digital installations are supervised by Shigeru Miyamoto, who is also known as "the father of Mario Bros."

ShigureNavi is a kind of Nintendo DS without buttons - you can only change the sound volume. Instead, it is equipped with two sensor devices that receive signals from ceiling-mounted transmitters, thereby delivering location-relevant contents to visitors. The device can also be used to control objects shown in a huge high-res screen: an array of seventy 45-inch LCD monitors embedded in the museum floor. The monitor array shows an animated areal photo of Kyoto, giving visitors a feeling of "walking in the sky" - then the ShigureNavi device can be used as a sky-walk navigation system. For example, if you specify Nintendo headquarter using the ShigureNavi device, a big bird appears under your feet and guides your sky walk there. Visitors can also play sporty card games using the device and the floor-embedded monitor array.

There's also an installation that looks like an enlarged human-size Nintendo DS, which allows visitors to play card games with ancient historical characters (from perhaps the 13th century). In front of you are a horizontal touch-screen display for your interactive control and a vertical screen showing your opponent. Based on what I read and saw on MyCom PC Web, the museum seems very nicely designed and is attracting many elderly people as well.

via MyCom PC Web