HMS Caroline is a light cruiser built during WW1 and the last surviving ship from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the largest naval battle in history. In 2016 she opened as a floating museum in Belfast, giving the public a rare opportunity to explore 100 years of her history.

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I developed a range of touch screen interactives for HMS Caroline, and one that really stands out is 'Virtual HMS Caroline', a four user multi-touch installation. You can find out about all the other interactives here.

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The installation is presented across three large monitors, each with a very small bezel, giving an almost seamless view of the ship and interface. A custom-made glass touch overlay was built to fit over the screens, and allows up to four users to simultaneously explore the ship.

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The software interface is arranged into four distinct user areas. The installation shows a screensaver of the ship travelling across the water, and when any user area is accessed, the interface appears, giving a quick animation of all the decks available to that user.

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Users can navigate up and down through each deck in their area, and touch a local POI (point of interest) to read about it and view images and captions where available. Imagery includes both historical and modern day photography. Across the entire ship there are six decks to explore, and approximately 200 local POIs.

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Additionally there are 27 'global' POIs, and these span across large areas of the ship, rather than just being located in one user area. These are accessed through a menu in each user area, and are arranged into three top level themes (Communications, Weaponry, Controlling the Ship), containing eight subcategories in total.

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Across all local and global POIs there are 600+ images with captions.

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In addition to developing the software, I was a key player in the concept development and layout of the interface. I also managed the text and image content that was provided from the client team, and I oversaw the on-site installation and setup of the software onboard HMS Caroline.

Credits

Simon Kendrew: Software development, concept & interface development, content management, on-site installation, installation photos.

AY-PE: Concept & interface development, installation photos.

Jef Maytom: Installation photos

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Developed for AY-PE while self-employed as Interactive Software Developer.