Visit SWTL
Admission tickets to the Lab are FREE!
Contact
General Info Line: (212) 833-8100
Relay Operator: (800) 421-1220
Exhibits
For a more detailed layout of the Lab, view our map.
Sensi-Tile
As the elevator doors open on the fourth floor and visitors prepare to begin their Sony Wonder Technology Lab experience, they encounter a “sensi-tile” wall facing them. This special material – combined with a lighting effect – creates unique reflections in response to the visitor’s touch, demonstrating that their actions have an impact on the Lab and one another.
Log In
Visitors Log In to their SWTL experience by typing their first name; choosing their favorite color and music genre; taking their picture; and recording their voice to create a Digital Profile used to personalize the exhibit experiences that follow. Once they are done, they watch as their digital information is transmitted into the Lab through a dynamic lighting effect.
SWTL Community Diagram
Visitors follow their digital data stream from Log In down the ramp and see it enter a large, real-time projected 3D diagram of SWTL. Here, they can identify themselves and see where they are in the museum relative to other visitors, represented by their chosen Log In colors.
Internet Map
Adjacent to the SWTL Community Diagram is a large world map that simulates Internet traffic and connections, tracing the many pathways taken by an e-mail, photos, music downloads and other data as it travels digitally from one location to another. This gives visitors a sense of how the Internet connects them to the broader global community.
How Devices Work
This display exposes the inner workings of three electronic devices that appear to be floating in the air: a Sony Ericsson cell phone; a PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and a Cyber-shot® digital camera. When a visitor moves to touch a device, it dissolves into a 3D x-ray image that peels open through an animation to show the internal layers. Short labels identify some of the key internal components and briefly explain what they do.
Signal Stations
Visitors to this interactive exhibit can explore how real-world information is digitized, processed, transmitted and received. At each station, they can “capture” a pattern, using a brush equipped with a scanner inside; learn about Red, Green and Blue (RGB); and see how tiny blocks of color called pixels make up every digital picture. They can also enhance their Log In photo using a set of digital tools and a variety of accessories. Visitors then can send their updated portrait as a message to another signal station or to one of two large displays suspended in the Lab for all to see.
Anytime / Anywhere Timeline
This evolutionary timeline features key developments in the history of media and communications technology, focusing on how devices have gotten smaller, faster, multi-functional and more portable than ever before. Interactive elements incorporated into the timeline highlight differences in sound quality and picture resolution. The timeline ends with a section devoted to the Future, highlighting how new technologies are being used to help solve global challenges and create a healthy and sustainable future for the next generation.
Nanotechnology
Forced perspective at the end of the Anytime/Anywhere ramp leads to a large screen that dominates this interactive and introduces visitors to the nano-scale. Using an earth to green pea analogy, an engaging introductory video presents visitors with an idea of just how small small is, before enabling them to explore current and future applications of nanotechnology in categories like fashion, medicine, transportation and the environment.
Virtual Surgery
Using haptic technology, visitors can actually “feel” what it is like to perform open heart surgery. Through a haptic controller, visitors experience the physical sensations associated with various surgical instruments and procedures while operating on a virtual patient. Visitors can also watch a media presentation on advancements in medical imaging that are helping doctors to see inside the human body and diagnose patients more quickly and accurately than ever before.
Robot Zone
This dynamic interactive introduces visitors to how robots sense, think and act. Visitors can program one of six colored robots equipped with light and touch sensors to determine how they act when they encounter other robots or conditions in the Robot Zone. They can also team up with other robots to accomplish a group goal. Please note this exhibit is undergoing testing and may not be available during your visit.
Animation Ramp
Illuminated display cases allow visitors to explore the five key elements that go into creating an animated film or video game: Story, Character, Environment, Visual Effects and Final Composite.
Animation Studio
In the Animation Studio, visitors can choose one of three tracks to explore: Tricks of the Trade, Create a Character, or Design a Computer Generated (CG) World. In Tricks of the Trade, visitors learn about basic animation principles and techniques. Create a Character enables them to control a character’s look, movement and facial expressions in response to a storyline. And Design a CG World allows them to model and place various objects in a scene while experimenting with color, light and atmospherics (fog, rain, snow, etc.) to see how those elements create mood and enhance storytelling.
Interactive Floor by Snibbe Interactive Inc.
This colorful and fun interactive allows visitors to explore the concept of community by merging pools of colored light that follow them and evolve as they interact with the floor’s surface and with other visitors.
Dance Motion Capture
Visitors can see their very own dance moves performed by their favorite Sony-animated characters in this dynamic markerless motion capture experience. A video presentation adjacent to the interactive experience takes visitors behind-the-scenes to explore how traditional motion capture is used to bring realism and personality to film and video game characters.
WSWL™ Production Studio
This robust high definition (HD) television production studio allows visitors to explore the various roles associated with television production. Working as a team, visitors become Directors, Cameramen, Reporters, Hosts, Technical Directors and Field Producers to create an HD broadcast with an environmental theme.
High Definition Theater
Visitors enjoy a short screening of top quality High Definition technology, a high-resolution video format. High Definition technology provides far greater picture resolution than standard television, so the images are sharper and remarkably clear. The theater is also equipped with surround sound. Screenings are repeated throughout the month.
History Of Interactive Games
This exhibit consists of four ceiling monitors, which provide an overview of the history of interactive computer and video games from the 1960’s to the present. To illustrate the evolution of these games, the graphics and performance change dramatically as 16-bit systems are superseded by 64-bit and 128-bit systems
GameBuilder
GameBuilder allows visitors to create their own computer racing game by selecting and altering different components, thereby learning about design, spatial relations, audio and video. Visitors can select a track shape and manipulate the terrain to create mountains and valleys for their course. After making these selections, visitors choose the style and color of their vehicle and are able to play the game they have just created.
Wonder Of Music
Visitors can explore the process of making music by choosing from among four different musical instruments representing keyboard, string, woodwind/brass and percussion. After choosing their instrument, visitors are welcomed by a Sony Music Entertainment artist on video. The artist explains the different instruments and their function in creating music. He then invites the visitors to join his band and perform with him in front of a ‘virtual’ audience. This experience exposes visitors to a variety of musical styles and enables them to discover how many instruments playing in unison can create a musical composition.
Moviemaker
Moviemaker teaches visitors about some of the key concepts of motion picture production and digital editing. Through experimenting with sounds and images to create a movie trailer, visitors come to understand the interpretive and emotional impact of sound and music in a movie. They are challenged to create their own movie trailer by choosing from a series of short video clips from a selection of popular Sony Pictures films, and putting them into a sequence. They can then add background sounds and sound effects to hear how each selection changes the tone and feeling of the scene. Finally, the visitors score and title their piece, and then watch their completed trailer “premiere” on screen.
Shadow Garden and Sand Interactive
This multi-sensory interactive experience, created by artists Zachary Booth Simpson and Ken Demarest, showcases how art and technology come together in a digital world. Projected onto the translucent wall opposite the Wonder of Imagination plasmas, this interactive video installation features cascading colored “sand.” This interactive wall reacts to shadows cast by visitors as they move in front of the projection. As visitors begin to move, the sand accumulates on their shadows, and as they move away, the sand falls in different patterns.
Log Out
As visitors emerge from the Wonder of Imagination, a series of eight interactive, log out stations allow the visitors to tap their cards one last time and receive a printed color certificate listing all of the activities they experienced during their visit.
