Case Study: Museum of Science, Boston creates interactive, data-driven biology exhibits with MathWorks

Museum of Science, Boston Creates Interactive Activities That Teach Visitors About Their Own Biology

The Museum of Science in Boston needed to make the Hall of Human Life’s interactive stations—including a hand‑grip strength activity and a new eye‑tracking exhibit—more intuitive, robust, and maintainable while continuing to use existing sensor hardware. Working with MathWorks, the museum sought software that would be easy for volunteers of all ages to operate, present clear visualizations to a broad audience, and allow the museum’s technical staff to implement future enhancements; key products used included MATLAB and Data Acquisition Toolbox along with toolboxes for statistics and image processing.

MathWorks engineers re‑engineered the hand‑grip application and built the eye‑tracking activity in MATLAB, connecting to Vernier and SMI hardware, applying Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox and Image Processing Toolbox techniques, and integrating Dr. Bex’s research algorithms. The result is reliable, extensible software that is visually accessible to visitors, can be updated rapidly (MathWorks typically implements changes the next week), and has been delivered with onsite training so museum staff can continue development—supporting an exhibit that serves roughly 1.4 million annual visitors and enabling further data‑driven activities.

Museum of Science

Elizabeth Kong

Director of the Hall of Human Life