The Detroit Institute of Arts
"Art in America - Influences of the 20's and 30's"
Gyro Creative Group

This kiosk allows visitors to select from 3 videos to watch. Behind the scenes, the kiosk records usage statistics in an Excel-ready format. I did all of the programming on this project.

Many of the kiosk projects I develop include features such as these:

• Easily accessible control panel to let museum staff make adjustments.
• Control of the amount of time since the last activity until the kiosk resets itself.
• Setting of a time that the computer will shut down for the night.
• Selecting of a location that usage statistics will be recorded to.
• Easy enabling and disabling of the cursor for jumping between touchscreen and mouse usage.

The Detroit Institute of Arts
"An Eye for Color"
Butler Graphics, Inc.

The Project:
This hands-on activity was built to be part of the DIA's CHIP project, and was later made into its own isolated kiosk. The program lets users examine some of the concepts behind Joseph Alber's writings and paintings. This program was a remake of a similar program built by the DIA in the early 80's for use on Apple II computers.

My Role:
I did all of the Director programming and construction. I also created the sound effects and built most of the graphical components.

The Detroit Institute of Arts
"The Scribe"

The Project:
This hands-on activity was built for use as part of the DIA's "Treasures of Ancient Egypt" exhibit, and also for use with the CHIP project. The Scribe had been originally built as a HTML/Java/JavaScript based application. Unfortunately, this format was not standing up to high-traffic kiosk use very well. AKA Detroit Company was contracted to remaster the program as a much more stable Macromedia Director application. This program was designed for children and other visitors to experience Egyptian culture by translating their names into ancient hieroglyphics.

My Role:
I did a majority of the Director programming, including means of recording precise statistical information about usage patterns.

Harman Kardon

The Project: This was a kiosk built for use at trade shows and in the lobby of Harman Kardon's US headquarters. The kiosk presentation let users explore information about Harman International's various product lines. This project was produced by Mars Advertising, and the multimedia program was built by AKA Detroit Interactive Group.

My Role: I was responsible for all Director construction and programming.

The Detroit Zoo
Cranbrook Science Museum
CD-ROM to kiosk conversions
Gyro Creative Group

These were a couple of CD-ROM projects that were converted for kiosk usage. Adjustments included eliminating exit navigation and adding inactivity reset features. Some of the activities were modified to be more appropriate to the kiosk setting. The Detroit Zoo kiosk included the addition of a screen saver to prevent screen burn(which still occurs when a monitor is used for the same thing for more than a couple of years). For more information about these two projects, see the Educational Software section of my portfolio.

The Detroit Institute of Arts
"CHIP"
Butler Graphics, Inc.

The Project: CHIP is short for Computer Hypermedia Interactive Program. Developed by the Detroit Institute of Arts, this educational CD-ROM and kiosk system presents a number of hands-on activities, as well as an encyclopedic quantity of information that users can "surf". Behind the scenes, this project includes a customized authoring environment. This allows the DIA staff to assemble their research (including hypertext, images, video, and sounds) into a self-compiling CD-ROM or kiosk without a lot of technical or programming hassle. This project has gone through extensive evaluations and revisions, and will continue to do so in the years to come. So far, this project has undergone several phases involving many different companies. The first phase involved building a working kiosk prototype. In the second phase, the program was refined and built as both a kiosk program and cross platform CD-ROM.

My Role: I've done a little bit of everything on this project. I composed original music and gathered sound effects. I built numerous graphical components. I was involved in much consulting on interface design and database design. However, the biggest role I played was in the programming of about 50% of the project during both phases.

Of Technical Interest: When needed, the entire program can recompile itself based on the data contained in an extensive database. All of the necessary media components are automatically gathered to form a new version of the program ready to go to CD or be installed on the kiosks. If necessary, different volumes or themes can be extracted from the database to make a customized version of the program. Also, when used as a kiosk, the program records extensive and precise data on usage patterns.

The Detroit Institute of Arts
"Kirchner's Colors"
Butler Graphics, Inc.

The Project:
This hands-on activity was built to be part of the DIA's CHIP project, and was later made into its own isolated kiosk. The program lets users explore the uses of color in Ernst Kirchner's paintings. Participants can experiment by "painting" the various elements of a Kirchner painting with the colors of their choice. This program was a remake of a similar program built by the DIA in the early '80s for use on Apple II computers.

My Role:
I did all of the Director programming and construction. I also created the sound effects and built most of the graphical components.

Hospice of Michigan
The Mask Project 2
Gyro Creative Group

The Project: This kiosk program was built for a traveling exhibit and auction run by Hospice of Michigan. This fund-raising auction featured several hundred masks that were painted by local and national celebrities. The masks were auctioned off to raise money for Michigan Hospice facilities.

My Role: In addition to some of the general construction of this project, I was responsible for programming the following features:

• Users of the kiosk could vote for their favorite mask. Votes were collected, sorted and tallied in external files.
• Interested parties could enter their e-mail addresses to receive additional information. These e-mail addresses were collected in external files.
• This kiosk used a standard keyboard and mouse (instead of a secure kiosk station). Actions were taken to completely prevent users from "hacking" out of the kiosk program via CTRL-ALT-DELETE, ALT-TAB, and other common tricks.
• An interface allowed those maintaining the kiosk to change the "timeout" duration, and the location that e-mail and voting statistics were recorded to.

Lear Corporation SAE convention kiosk

The Project:
This was a kiosk built by Butler Graphics Inc. for the Lear Corporation. It allowed users to explore information on Lear's many products and services. It was used at the 1996 SAE convention.

My Role:
I did a majority of the Director construction and programming.

Boston Trader
Butler Graphics Inc.

The Project: This was a system of multimedia kiosks built for use in an East Coast chain of mall clothing stores. Via modem connection, the kiosk content was regularly updated and user data was collected. This project was produced by Mort Crimm Communications, and the multimedia program for the kiosks was constructed by Butler Graphics Inc..

My Role: I handled all of the advanced Director programming. This mainly consisted of tracking user activity, collecting survey data, and then converting it into meaningful statistical information. I also implemented mechanisms to display proper store-specific content.