Operand created numerous interactive exhibits for The Franklin Institute, most notably Power Hungry, a four-person touchtable experience where each player rules a different fictional country and competes to manage their natural resources to create enough electricity for their populous. This activity is designed to educate players about the tradeoffs between various power sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear and coal. A large-format multitouch table allowed four players to interact with the screen simultaneously using a drag-and-drop interface.
Several visitors to the Franklin Institute play the Power Hungry interactive touchtable game
A screen capture of the Power Hungry 4-player table. Each player can drag power generation icons onto the map to compete with the other players by managing their resources most effectively.
Operand also created several other touchscreen interactive experiences for The Franklin Institute, including Carbon Balancing and Blackout.
A screen capture from the Carbon Balancing activity - this touchscreen interactive allows users to choose various methods of reducing carbon footprints in each of four different categories (Transport, Electricity, Heating, and Biostorage) and learn about the relative tradeoffs of each in terms of dollar costs and environmental and land use impacts.
A screen capture of the welcome screen from the Blackout activity - this touchscreen interactive is customized for either children or adults and poses a series of choices regarding electrical devices in order to get people thinking about the things they may have to give up in a future where electricity might be limited and rationed.
