IQP-48-JLS-0066 The Virtual Armory Survey and Portal Interactive Qualifying Project Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of the WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation by X Robert Bass X Daniel Cotnoir X Jeffrey Elloian April 13, 2011 X Professor Jeffrey L. Forgeng, Major Advisor Abstract This project created an interactive, online survey to generate a personalized museum map for visitors to the Higgins Armory Museum; it also created a web portal to display past and future online interactives generated for the museum by WPI student teams. Research was done in the fields of arms and armor, museum tours and demographics, and profiling in order to create an educational product that would appeal to younger generations. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 7 Arms and Armor Research ............................................................................................................ 14 Evolution of European arms and armor from the Middle Ages to c. 1700 (3rd floor West) .... 14 Knights (4th floor West) ............................................................................................................. 16 Tournaments; Manufacture of armor (3rd floor East) ............................................................... 25 Tournaments ......................................................................................................................... 25 Manufacture of Armor .............................................................................................................. 29 Mail ........................................................................................................................................ 29 Plate Armor ............................................................................................................................ 30 Decoration ............................................................................................................................. 32 Non-European Arms and Armor ............................................................................................... 32 The Near East ......................................................................................................................... 32 The Far East ........................................................................................................................... 34 References ................................................................................................................................. 36 Research on Profiling, Demographics, and Culture ...................................................................... 38 Profiling: State of the Art, Basics ............................................................................................... 38 Profiling: State of the Art, Advanced ........................................................................................ 42 Museum Demographics ............................................................................................................ 46 Connections to American Culture and Interest Groups ............................................................ 50 References: ................................................................................................................................ 54 Research on Virtual Museums and Their Relationship with Visitors............................................ 58 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 58 Examples of Modern Virtual Museums ..................................................................................... 59 Physical Layout of Museum and Tours ..................................................................................... 69 Docents ...................................................................................................................................... 73 3 The Museum-Visitor Relationship ............................................................................................. 79 Personalization .......................................................................................................................... 80 Categorizing Visitors and Potential Visitors .......................................................................... 82 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 86 References ................................................................................................................................. 87 Web Portal and Personalized Tour Maintenance Manual............................................................ 88 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................. 88 Web Portal................................................................................................................................. 88 Adding a New Project ............................................................................................................ 89 A Couple Suggested Improvements ...................................................................................... 94 Personalized Tour ...................................................................................................................... 95 How it Works: An Overview................................................................................................... 96 How it Works: A Detailed Look .............................................................................................. 97 Updating the Tour ............................................................................................................... 102 Suggested Improvements .................................................................................................... 111 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 112 A-Term (PQP) ........................................................................................................................... 112 B-Term ..................................................................................................................................... 114 C-Term ..................................................................................................................................... 115 D-Term ..................................................................................................................................... 117 Future Extensions .................................................................................................................... 117 Biographical Information ............................................................................................................ 123 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 124 Appendix A- Project Idea Brainstorm List ............................................................................... 124 Timelines .............................................................................................................................. 124 Online/Computer ................................................................................................................. 125 Miscellaneous ...................................................................................................................... 127 Appendix B- Three Selected Project Plans .............................................................................. 130 Interactive World Map and Timeline .................................................................................. 130 4 Online Strategy Game .......................................................................................................... 131 Street-View Virtual Armory Tour ......................................................................................... 132 5 Table of Figures Figure 1-A screenshot of the Portal main page ..................................................................................... 9 Figure 2-A screenshot of the survey questions ................................................................................... 11 Figure 3-A screenshot of a sample of the results page of the survey ................................................. 12 Figure 4-A screenshot taken from the QuickTime Tour of the Japanese Art website of the Asia Society. ................................................................................................................................................. 61 Figure 5-A screenshot of the Higgins Armory Museum main page, displaying the navigational bar features. ............................................................................................................................................... 61 Figure 6-A close-up of the QuickTime Tour from the Japanese Art webpage. ...................................