The Tech Interactive in San Jose debuts the AI-powered, interactive Dream Garden.
Family engagement takes on a new meaning at Dream Garden, an exhibit at The Tech Interactive.
Digital art reaches museum patrons in ways that forever change the gallery experience. Innovative spaces like Artechouse (@artechouse) in New York City, Washington, DC and Miami have given visitors glimpses of the future with interactive showstoppers sometimes tied to themes or seasons.
After all, in an attention economy fueled by Instagrammable moments, showtime needs to tap into a collective need for thrills.
Vibrant walls adapt to visitor interactions.
The Tech Interactive, a science, tech and education center in downtown San Jose, takes this notion to another level with the debut of Dream Garden. The AI-powered, human-centered immersive experience, created by the acclaimed creative studio Design I/O (design-io.com), the exhibit merges advanced technology with artistic expression, redefining immersive installations.
As a featured exhibit in The Tech Interactive’s new AI Sandbox gallery, Dream Garden offers a hands-on exploration of artificial intelligence. Through interactive experiences, visitors can observe how AI processes information, learns and adapts. AI Sandbox reflects the museum’s commitment to fostering AI literacy and encouraging communities to engage with the possibilities of this evolving technology.
“Dream Garden represents a significant milestone in making AI accessible and engaging for everyone,” said Katrina Stevens, president and CEO of The Tech Interactive. “Visitors can explore the intersection of art, play and innovation, discovering how their creativity interacts with and shapes this transformative technology.”
AI-driven creatures evolve in real-time on four walls using AI.
Vivid projections illuminate all four walls of the 1,285-square-foot space, surrounding visitors in an immersive environment. Whether splashing through glowing waterfalls or guiding whimsical creatures into flight, every movement shapes and transforms the ever-evolving landscape.
What’s the secret sauce, technically speaking? Design I/O harnessed Google’s MediaPipe and Microsoft’s Phi-3.5 Small Language Models to bring Dream Garden to life. Four in-wall cameras, 10 depth sensors, seven projectors and five high-performance computers power the exhibit. Vibrant walls adapt to visitor interactions, allowing AI-driven creatures to evolve in real-time while transforming analytical data into multilingual poetry.
“The integration of AI redefines what an interactive exhibit can be,” says Theo Watson, co-founder of Design I/O. “By utilizing Google’s MediaPipe for dynamic gesture recognition, we’ve created an experience unlike any other,” noting that it’s more than an immersive room. It’s an adventure where visitors can transform the environment around them.
In other words, for kids and adults alike, museum experiences will never be the same again. Ongoing, 201 S. Market St., San Jose, 408.290.2316, thetech.org
Photography by: COURTESY OF THE TECH INTERACTIVE
