search site  |  contact us  HOME PRODUCTS DOWNLOADS SALES SUPPORT NEWS CrystalMaker Multimedia Star London's New Touchscreen Exhibit CrystalMaker has a starring role in a new, multimillion pound gallery at London's Natural History Museum! The new "Earth's Treasury" exhibition features a state-of-the-art multimedia exhibit on minerals and their internal, crystal structures. CrystalMaker was used to generate fully-interactive QuickTime VR object movies for a selection of stunning minerals. The program was also used for authoring QuickTime linear video, and for producing static images. Educational Aspects The Exploring Minerals multimedia is designed for a touchscreen computer and provides single-press access to any one of seven carefully-chosen minerals, with detailed information on the structural architecture. Each mineral has four tabbed panes, giving a general overview of the mineral (with a rotatable QuickTime VR movie of a gem-quality specimen), a summary of the physical and chemical properties, structural information, and an example of the type of rock in which the mineral can be found. The Structure section includes a series of QuickTime VR objects, representing successively more complex features. In the example shown, the quartz structure is discussed taking a single SiO4 group as the starting point, and representing this as a tetrahedron. The way in which tetrahedra are connected can then be shown using part of a single six-fold helix. The final QTVR object shows part of the extended structure, in which multiple helices can be seen. The rotatable QTVR objects are complemented by a linear "narrative" Summary movie, which takes the user through the individual steps, using animated sequences, transitions and text annotation. The Exploring Minerals multimedia provides quick access to any one of seven gem-quality crystals specimens, with rotatable QuickTime VR models, including key features of their internal, crystal structures. Multimedia Production The complete multimedia package was produced at the Open University, under commission from the Natural History Museum. The multimedia, including QTVR movies, graphics and regular video, was assembled using Macromedia Director running on Power Macintosh computers. The final production was transferred to a Windows computer - running the specialised touchscreen software. CrystalMaker's support for the leading QuickTime/QTVR cross-platform technologies makes it invaluable to educators, researchers, and multimedia designers worldwide © 2008 CrystalMaker Software Limited. All rights reserved worldwide.