Name That Dinosaur

screen shot of Name That Dinosaur
Project Type:
Exhibit Interactive Kiosk
Date & Client:
1993, The Academy of Natural Sciences
animation, audio editing, design, development, graphics, production, script, user interface

This interactive kiosk was developed in 1993 for the Academy's exhibit on Jurassic Park. “Arnold the Dinosaur” (shown in the upper right panel) enlisted museum visitors the task of creating a descriptive name for a fictional dinnosaur by combining word roots. Arnold would guide them through the process and, if desired, he would provide definitions and examples for the word roots. For instance, the image in the lower left explains that the word root “rhino” means “nose”, and that Pachyrhinosaurus (the dinosaur shown in profile) received its name because of its unusual nose while a rhinovirus can give you a nose cold.

Once the name is created, it's evaluated for descriptiveness and appropriateness, and as to whether the name has already been given to another animal.