The Tech Museum of Innovation Wins National Honor for Body Metrics Exhibit

SAN JOSE, CA --(Marketwired - May 27, 2016) - The Tech Museum of Innovation has earned one of the nation's top honors for museum experiences. Body Metrics, an exhibit that opened at The Tech in 2014, won the Gold MUSE Award for Media and Technology, presented by The American Alliance of Museums last night in Washington, D.C.

"This national recognition for our hard work is extremely gratifying. We set out to achieve something no other museum has done before," said Romie Littrell, Biotech and Health Experiences Director at The Tech, who curated the Body Metrics exhibit. "We worked with leaders in the wearable technology world to create an experience that allows visitors to feel empowered to track and manipulate their own health data."

Body Metrics, presented by Kaiser Permanente, allows visitors to wear a headset that monitors their brainwaves and heart rate, a shoulder sensor that measures muscle tension, and a smart phone with a custom app that gives real-time interpretation of how visitors are feeling. For example, they can see when they are their most social, most nervous or most excited, and they can learn strategies to improve their health and control.

"Body Metrics is the first ever experience that allows visitors own responses to a museum to become the exhibition itself. By measuring responses around factors like social, quiet or stress we can understand where visitors engage or learn the most. They become the best example of what data is today: personal, insightful and meaningful." said Jake Barton, principal of Local Projects, a New York firm that helped design the exhibit.

Now in its 27th year, the MUSE Awards competition recognizes outstanding achievement in GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) media and technology efforts. The MUSE Awards competition received nearly 200 applications from a wide variety of GLAMs in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. This year's entries included videos and films, interactive kiosks and installations, open culture resources, applications and APIs, podcasts, digital communities, websites, audio tours and more.

Over 90 GLAM professionals from across the world participated as jurors in the process of reviewing and selecting the winners. Winning entries were expected to demonstrate outstanding achievement in their content, interface, design, technical merit, innovation, utility and appeal.

For more information on Body Metrics, visit thetech.org/bodymetrics.
For pictures of Body Metrics, click here.
For video of Body Metrics, click here.

About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum -- located in the capital of Silicon Valley -- is a non-profit experiential learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing applied technologies affecting their lives. The Tech Challenge and Tech Awards are signature programs of The Tech. The Tech's mission is to inspire the innovator in everyone.

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