Verizon and Cooper Hewitt Call on Innovators to Create Interactive Museum Experiences

What you need to know:

• Verizon sponsors a Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum competition that commissions creative technologists to build tools that introduce exciting new digital museum interactions
• Immersive educational experiences that bring to life many Smithsonian collection objects are available today from Verizon
• Verizon Media’s Immersive enables students to use QR codes to launch these Augmented Reality (AR) exhibits at home or on the go
  

NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verizon and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s Interaction Lab, are calling on creators and technology entrepreneurs to build interactive tools that redefine the way people visit, interact with and learn from museums. Launching later this fall, Activating Smithsonian Open Access will award $10,000 commissions to up to six teams to build working prototypes. Using 2D and 3D digitized collection objects from the Smithsonian Open Access Initiative, the selected teams will develop experiences with support from Verizon, Cooper Hewitt, and industry mentors and be given the opportunity to develop and test their applications at Verizon’s 5G Labs. With COVID-19 making physical distance the new norm, Cooper Hewitt will look to continue developing successful prototypes to be integrated into the museum’s digital offerings, as remote extensions of the museum-going experience. Sign up here!

“As our first public commissioning venture for the Interaction Lab, we’re thrilled to be supporting independent creators and teams in creating new digital tools and immersive experiences with Smithsonian's incredible library of Open Access collections. Not only does this offer new approaches to engaging new audiences, but also represents a new way of working at Cooper Hewitt,” says Carolyn Royston, Cooper Hewitt’s Chief Experience Officer.

Verizon Launches AR Museum Experience

Verizon has already utilized the Smithsonian Open Access Initiative’s collection to aid parents, students and teachers looking for new and engaging educational content. Verizon is offering a first wave of content that brings to life artifacts housed across Smithsonian’s network of museums and galleries. Verizon’s 5G Labs and RYOT, Verizon Media’s next generation immersive studio, used augmented reality (AR) and narrated audio to complement 3D assets made available to the public by the Smithsonian.