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Information Technology/Computer Systems Students Visit National Comedy Center

Juniors and seniors enrolled in the Information Technology/Computer Systems program at the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES Hewes Educational Center recently visited the National Comedy Center.

Featuring one of the most technologically-advanced museum environments in the country, the Comedy Center presents the story of comedy through immersive technology and exhibits. Brandon Caruso, the guest experience researcher and developer at the Comedy Center, has a great deal of insight on how all this technology works. He led Hewes students through the center and presented on the variety of technical elements used throughout the museum, giving students a peak behind the scenes, while going beyond what the average visitor would see.

Students started their visit by learning how the National Comedy Center personalizes the guest experience with customized content. Mr. Caruso discussed the history and details of the “LaughBands,” RFID-enabled wristbands, which guests wear during their visit, after creating their Sense of Humor profile. The group looked at how the Sense of Humor profile is represented and structured in the system and how this profile is linked to the Content Management System that feeds all the videos, images and audio content to the exhibits.

Guests use touch, gesture-based and tangible interfaces to interact with exhibits. At the Writer’s Desk exhibit, students saw how an Intel Real Sense Depth Sense Camera is used for gesture tracking and compared that to how the radarTouch infrared laser system is used at the Comedy Continuum, a 60-foot-long touch display wall. Many students enjoyed learning that some familiar technology that they have in the classroom is used at the Center, like the 3-D printed props used at the Ideum Touch Tables and the Unity Game Engine software used to run many of the exhibits throughout the Center.

The tour included conversations on the contemporary use of technology and how machine learning is used at a popular museum exhibit, Laugh Battle – an interactive experience where guests go head to head to make their opponent laugh. The students explored how Laugh Battle employs Microsoft Cognitive Services’ Face API (application programming interface) facial recognition technology to recognize guests’ emotion. Students discussed the challenges we face with these new kinds of technologies.

Students had the opportunity to see the server room that runs the over 50 different exhibits throughout the museum. They were wowed with the over 30 server racks, 100 computers and 115 miles of Ethernet cable. To complete their visit, students were treated to a Holographic stand-up performance and got a behind-the-scenes look at how that technology works, before they were able to play and explore the various exhibits on their own.

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