Germany's largest Science Centre, experimenta, is located in Heilbronn, Germany: since April 2019, it offers around 275 exciting exhibits in three exhibition worlds on an area of around 25,000 square meters. A wide range of stations has been developed, from simple to more sophisticated ones, where visitors can use all their senses to experience science and technology. IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH is a partner of experimenta: cameras from nearby Obersulm, Germany are integrated in seven stations and contribute to exciting and sometimes amazing insights.
"The visitors are to be stimulated by unusual exhibits and an emotionally appealing design to deal interactively with topics from science and technology. We would like to encourage them to think about everyday questions just as much as they do about questions of ultra-modern research," is how Managing Director Dr. Wolfgang Hansch explains the approach of experimenta. The Science Centre wants to stand for experimentation, knowledge and innovation in a special way. This is made possible by the unusual concept with the three different areas Discoverer Worlds, Experience Worlds and Researcher Worlds. In the Discoverer Worlds, the small and everyday things that often contain great discoveries are examined – with various IDS cameras contributing in diverse ways.
The "KopfSachen" (find out how the world gets into your head), for example, show how people perceive their environment, illustrated for instance by an IDS camera on the "pushing machine". Cameras from Obersulm can also be found in the "ForscherLand“ (Immerse yourself in adventure): Children up to the age of 10 in particular can experiment and tinker in slow motion and on a small car racetrack. Whether in the "hurricane experiment" or in the nature laboratory, on the “WeltBlick“ (understand how science is changing us) floor, the focus is on natural phenomena with the aid of state-of-the-art camera technology. On the camera side, the topic of "research and writing" is presented in a particularly innovative way. In the "Greenbox" and at the three layout terminals of the "Newspaper Editorial Office", visitors can intuitively become editors themselves, made possible by the latest development from IDS. The IDS NXT vegas with App-based image processing is installed for a flexible, individual range of functions. Thanks to the app concept, the IDS NXT product platform is as versatile as a smartphone. A single camera can be used to perform a wide variety of image processing tasks.
The applications become even more diverse through the installation of artificial neural networks – with the IDS NXT rio & rome models, completely new applications can also be discovered in industry 4.0. In this way, small and large researchers at experimenta can gain a concrete insight into current scientific and research discoveries with the help of IDS camera technology. In every respect this is a benefit for the region and far beyond.
