Touching the invisible: how to we design tactile models for outreach?

Microscopy is a visual discipline and key to many of the most important discoveries and scientific concepts of the 20th Century. Increasingly, much of what we observe and want to describe and understand is invisible to the naked eye. The use of "high tech." instrumentation reveals details to the observer that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. The use of magnified imagery and videos is commonplace in exhibitions, but how do we convey the wonder and excitement we experience in new discoveries to those who cannot see?

Over 2 million people in the UK live with sight loss. Frequently those with sight loss are excluded from enjoying cultural exhibitions, as they are unable to see the items on display. Developing content for those with visual impairments is one of the most challenging tasks for curators (Bryon et al. 2016). Museums trying to make their exhibits more accessible have adapted a range of responses from tactile paintings (e.g. the Prado in Madrid) to the holistic approach of the V&A in London which incorporates Braille descriptions, staff training and tangible objects (Barry, 2013). These recent initiatives have shown there is an appetite in the curating world to attempt to adapt content to make it fully accessible; and those with sight loss have engaged positively with the artefacts. However, detailed research into how to optimise content for those with sight loss, and indeed anyone, has not been conducted. How one explores a tactile object will be intrinsically different to how one views an item and questions of scale, and methods of discovery need to be explored and standards arrived at.

We believe 3D printing provides a rapid and flexible tool to address the problem of developing content for those with sight loss.
NHM has an extensive toolkit of microscopes and micro-CT scanners, combined with its methodologies and techniques and can scan objects and create 3D models at almost any scale. These can then be used to create print-on-demand outreach materials which can be easily modified or adapted to address particular audiences and questions. Additionally, through the Global Disability Innovation Hub we have developed methods to co-design technologies with persons with disabilities and have access to a range of people with sight loss.
In this proposal, we want to build 3D models from the NHM's extensive collections and datasets, print them and use them for outreach, in the Museum, on gallery, in schools and in public outreach programmes. With this project we will use the specimens to tell stories about the NHM collections and what they inform us about the natural world - its past, present and future - in a way that is accessible to everyone. Our data, methodologies and findings will be shared online and be available to everyone for free.

Research questions: Using NHM datasets (both existing and new) we propose testing:
1. How closely should a 3D model mimic the exact structure it represents, and is this different for different sight loss conditions? (For example, would a simplified 3D model of a butterfly serve as a representation of a butterfly, or would it be better to attempt to model it faithfully?)
2. How large should raised features on models be? (With an accurately scaled model, some features might be too small to feel, should these be exaggerated? How large do features need to be in order for them to be detected?)
3. How far apart (what resolution) do features need to be? What role does texture and material properties (i.e. stiffness or flexibility) play in representing a structure?
4. What roles do colour and contrast play for those with partial sight?

1. Academic beneficiaries: The CDT will develop scientific and engineering excellence in the domain of cultural heritage scientific and engineering research and more fundamentally in the enabling domains of imaging and sensing, visualisation, modelling, computational analysis and digital technology. While the CDT focusses on the complex materials and environments of the arts, heritage and archaeology, it will be broadly influential due to the range of novel methods and approaches to be developed in collaboration with the Diamond Light Source and the National Physical Laboratory. The establishment of a student and alumni-managed 'Heritage Science Research Network', will enable CDT's cross-disciplinarity to bridge EPSRC subject boundaries impacting scholarly research in the arts and humanities and social sciences.
2. Heritage beneficiaries: The CDT will have a transformational effect on public heritage institutions by dovetailing 'Data creation', 'Data to knowledge' and 'Knowledge to enterprise' research strands. The resulting advances in understanding, interpretation, conservation, presentation, management, communication, visualisation of heritage, and improved visitor participation and engagement will lead to significantly improved public service and value creation in this sector. This will sustainably boost the cultural heritage tourism sector which requires significant heritage science capacity to maintain the UK's cultural assets, i.e. museum, library, archive and gallery collections and historic buildings. 15 globally leading heritage Partner institutions (both national and international) will contribute to dissemination through established and new heritage networks e.g. the EU Heritage Portal (http://www.heritageportal.eu/).
3. Industry, particularly three crucial sectors: (i) sensors and instrumentation, which underpin a wide range of industrial activity despite the small size (UK Sales £3Bn), and are a key enabling technology for successful economic growth: 70% of the revenues of FTSE 100 companies (sales of £120Bn) are in sectors that are highly dependent on instrumentation; (ii) creative industries, increasingly vital to the UK with 2M employees in creative jobs and the sector contributing £60Bn a year (7.3%) to the UK economy. Over the past decade, the creative sector has grown at twice the rate of the economy as a whole; (iii) heritage tourism sector contributing £7.4Bn p.a. to the UK economy and supporting 466,000 equivalent jobs. Without the CDT, this crucially important economy sector will experience an unsustainable loss of capacity. The impact will be achieved in collaboration with our Partners: Electronics, Sensors, Photonics KTN, TIGA and Qi3, a technology commercialisation, business development and knowledge transfer company.
4. Public: The intensive public engagement activities are built into CDT including dissemination and engagement events at heritage institutions, popular science conferences and fora, e.g. Cheltenham Science Festival, European Science Open Forum and British Science Festival, as well as events organised by the HEIs' Beacon projects (e.g. UCL Bright Club). Cross-cohort encouragement to engage in these events will realise the substantial potential for the CDT to popularise science and engineering. More widely, visitors and users of heritage will benefit from the development of new and more engaging presentation tools, and pervasive and mobile computing.
5. Policy: SEAHA will engage with policy makers, by contributing evidence to policies and research agendas (the PI is actively involved in the EU JPI Cultural Heritage and Global Change, in which she advised on the development of the EU Cultural Heritage Research Agenda endorsed on 22/03/2013) and develop policy briefings for governmental and parliamentary bodies. The CDT is also a strategically important development of the AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme ensuring continued global UK leadership in the SEAHA domain.