[Robotgroup] "Gary Hoover"'s museum idea (From Sharon)

[Denise Scioli]

Vern,

What about adapting the robospinart machine to make car sounds, use car 
parts as the joystick etc?

Denise


>From: Vern Graner <vern at txis.com>
>Reply-To: vern at txis.com,        Austin Robotgroup Mailing List 
><robotgroup at puremagic.com>
>To: robotgroup at puremagic.com
>Subject: [Robotgroup] "Gary Hoover"'s museum idea (From Sharon)
>Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 14:40:46 -0500
>
>I forwarded this to the list for Sharon as it had an attachment on it
>that caused it to be rejected by the mailing list server.
>
>(NOTE: Just in case people aren't aware, there are folks who read the
>robot group list via dial up, or other low-speed technology like palm or
>cell phone PDAs and some read via text-only mechanisms (i.e. ELM/PINE).
>Subsequently so the list does not accept attachments.)
>
>------------------------ CLIP ------------------------
>I think it would be good to have a Robot presents at this meeting on the
>Oct 21st.  At a 3D user group meeting Gary gave a presentation about his
>new museum park.  The theme of the museum  is going to be old cars.
>Gary is looking  and open to just about anything.  One of the things
>they may have, is to give everyone a drivers license.   Then when you
>scan the ID a Earth Goggle image of your house is displayed on a large
>screen.   He is looking for anything that is creative and remotely has
>to do with old cars.
>
>   Gary said the admission would be about $9 and wanted to keep changing
>up things about every 30 days to keep people coming back.  His audience
>is going to be focused on all the Baby Boomers becoming Grandparents and
>having a place to take to taking grand kids that doesn't cost a fortune,
>no long lines and doesn't rearrange you body parts.
>
>Below is attached a fake newspaper article explaining the concept.
>
>I wanted to see who might be interested.  Also, has anyone contacted
>Gary, if not I could do that.
>
>Sharon
>------------------------ /CLIP ------------------------
>
>Text from the "fake newspaper article" Sharon had attached is here:
>
>------------------------ CLIP ------------------------
>NOTE: THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS ENTIRELY FICTIONAL, AND HAS NO RELATION
>TO A REAL NEWSPAPER OR NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.  IT IS ENTIRELY CONJECTURAL
>AND MAY HAVE LITTLE RELATION TO ROADSTORYUSA AS DEVELOPED IN THE FINAL
>EVENT.  IT HAS BEEN PREPARED SOLELY TO GIVE THE READER A “FEEL” FOR WHAT
>THE EXPERIENCE MAY BE LIKE.
>
>Dallas Morning News
>Travel Section               August 8, 2007
>
>San Marcos’ RoadStoryUSA Proves Unexpected Treat
>
>My husband Daniel, daughter Felicity and son Marcus decided it was
>finally time to go see the Alamo and San Antonio’s Riverwalk, sights
>every Texan is supposed to see.  Perhaps it is the Texan’s version of
>the Hajj, the trip to Mecca that every good Muslim is supposed to make
>at least once in their lifetime.  Dan and I had made the four-hour trek
>some years ago, but now that the kids were 5 and 9, it seemed time for
>another try.
>
>As we started south on I-35 early on a bright Friday morning, we noted
>the first of a series of bold, three-dimensional billboards just south
>of Hillsboro.  This first one said “RoadStoryUSA: PLAY!” in giant
>letters.  An eighteen-wheeler truck was crashing through the billboard,
>and on the side of the truck it said, “Ride Me!”  Dan the Man – that’s
>what I call him when he’s behaving – said he had heard something
>somewhere about this RoadStoryUSA, and that is sounded like it might be
>interesting.  Further down the road, three more dramatic, unique
>billboards promised that we could, in addition to PLAY, also LEARN, EAT,
>and SHOP.  Each sign gave additional details, and as we got closer to
>San Marcos – 20 miles south of Austin – we discovered the exit number
>(210) and the hours (9AM to 9PM in July).
>
>Although we were eager to get to San Antonio, we started talking about
>stopping at RoadStory.  Each billboard added to the intrigue, until the
>debate became “do we stop on the way down or on the way home?”  Then it
>turned out we were ready to eat lunch when we reached the exit, and
>decided it wouldn’t hurt anything if we at least stopped to take a look.
>
>RoadStory is hard to miss.  A Peterbilt cab tops a giant pylon sign
>watching over the interstate, and the building itself is colorful and
>dramatic.  It directly faces the freeway.  As you pull in the lot, the
>signs make clear that you can park anywhere, but there are separate
>entrances for the diner, the store, and the exhibits and rides area.  We
>parked in the center of things, and as soon as we pulled up, a fellow in
>a Shell jumpsuit – like gas station attendants used to wear – was
>washing our windshield.  He smiled at us, and asked if we wanted our oil
>checked.  He was one of a team of people working the parking lot
>mid-day, and he was ready to answer any questions we had.
>
>Once inside, we realized that the diner (“Rite Bite Roadhouse”), the
>gift shop (“The Garage Shop”), and the RoadStory Experience all shared
>the same lobby area.  In the center was a fully uniformed bus driver
>sitting in the driver’s seat of a Greyhound Bus (a real, restored
>Greyhound bus), and he was the center of attention.  We received a spray
>of information and attention, as he said to Felicity, “Young lady, you
>better plan on a couple or three hours if you go through the exhibits.
>Or would you rather get on the bus and go to Timbuktu with me?”  Sounds
>of a real bus starting and stopping and opening doors came from multiple
>speakers.  Coupled with the smell of diesel fuel.  This sure seemed like
>fun, but we better eat first if the kids weren’t going to be moaning all
>afternoon.
>
>The Rite Bite is a beautiful, classic roadside diner, not unlike what
>you might find in an old Greyhound Station.  We sat at the giant
>serpentine counter on red vinyl spintop stools, a real treat for the
>kids.  Ice cream sodas, burgers, and hot dogs were the specialties of
>the day.  Everything we had was great, made from fresh ingredients.  But
>the best part was the reality of the place – the napkins in little metal
>dispensers, the ketchup flowing from red squeeze bottles, the jukebox
>controls with trucker music every few feet.
>
>After lunch, we bought our tickets – which seemed quite reasonable at
>$10 for adults and $7 for kids.  As eager as I was to check out the
>store, we figured we’d save it for last.  Before we entered the
>RoadStory, we noticed there was also RoadExpo, kind of a permanent auto
>show or state fair section.  We glanced into the Expo – which did not
>require a ticket – and saw a full show of the latest vehicles from
>General Motors, Toyota, and several other companies.  There were also
>exhibits by Progressive Auto Insurance, Auto Zone, and Enterprise Car
>Rental, among others.  We figured this would be a stop for Dan the Man
>after we had explored the RoadStory.
>
>Our first step after buying the tickets was the “Department of Humans
>and Motor Vehicles” where we got our “driver’s licenses.”  Each of us
>had to enter some information on kiosk touch screens, such as our home
>address, and select a “handle” (trucker’s name) that we would be known
>by.  The kiosk also took our picture.  We also put in our charge card
>and allocated so many dollars to each of us for rides.  In an instant,
>out popped a neat little driver’s license, with our picture, and our
>information stored on the card.  Here we also learned that we could earn
>points (“road miles”) by playing games, which could be used at the
>website, in the store, or in the restaurant.
>
>Then we were on our way – by entering the orientation theater.  This was
>a very well made introduction movie, about 3 minutes long, which told us
>what we would see and gave us some idea of what to expect.  It also
>talked about why the RoadStory is so cool – how the road relates to all
>of us, the romance and adventure of the road, as well as some pretty
>intense automotive footage, from Jeeps to race cars.  At the end of the
>little movie, the exit doors opened and off we went into the exhibit area.
>
>The first room we entered was called “Finding your way” and it was all
>about maps and highway systems.  In the center were a number of giant
>plasma screens – above us, under us, around us.  If you flashed your
>driver’s license past one of the little terminals, an aerial view of
>your home would appear (courtesy Google Earth) on one or more of the
>screens, with your handle printed over it.  It used our address
>information.  You could also choose from a number of famous sites to
>look at, from the Grand Canyon to the Empire State Building.  If you
>wanted to spend more time, there were a handful of kiosks where you
>could type in any address and look at it.
>
>  From “Finding Your Way” we moved through an area called “Destinations”
>which celebrated some of the most important places people go to.  One of
>the coolest things here was the postcard machine, a rig of multiple
>terminals tied to a big database of several thousand postcard images,
>dating from 1900 to the present.  You could pick a city or state, or a
>year, and up would come relevant images.  You could pick whether they
>flew by at high speed or whether they were stopped for further study.
>They were incredibly beautiful images.  And you could pick any image,
>have it printed out, write on the back, and post it right there, or you
>could email it with your notes on the “back,” or you could have a poster
>printed and waiting for you in the Garage Shop, just by swiping your
>driver’s license.  This was one of the high points of RoadStory for me.
>
>But 9 year-old Marcus loved the Freeway tube, which was a long thin
>hallway where the walls were giant high definition video screens and the
>floor was full of (Dan tells me they are called) sub-woofers.  The video
>was of all types of vehicles, from military convoys to Ferraris, coming
>by at full speed and shaking the whole space.  It was just like standing
>in the middle of the freeway, I guess – I have never tried that.
>
>One of the several small theaters was showing “The Trip,” a film by
>experimental filmmaker Ken Adams.  It was an unusual and engaging
>collage of images and sounds about the road and everything about it.
>The sound and high definition video quality were outstanding.  I cannot
>explain why, but it seemed that Felicity was most absorbed in this film.
>
>Another theater showed loops of the greatest car chase scenes from the
>movies, and yet another showed the best car cartoons of all time.  But
>much of the footage throughout was original, really interesting and
>different.
>
>And there were exhibits on about everything related to the road.  Dan
>enjoyed an exhibit about Spindletop, the first Texas gusher, which was
>shown in giant backlit comic book form, right out of Japanese Manga – or
>an old Superman comic book.  We have never seen anything like that in a
>museum.
>
>In several exhibits, which were full of stories and facts for adults,
>there were parallel stories running at Felicity and Marcus’ eye level.
>We would never have noticed them had we not had to drag the kids away.
>
>The Texas Restaurant Association sponsored an exhibit on the history of
>roadfood in Texas, and included video interviews with the owners of the
>10 oldest restaurants in the state.  The family which has operated
>Black’s BBQ in Lockhart since the 1930’s was fascinating.
>
>And you won’t be surprised that there was plenty for the more
>traditional motorheads – a gallery of 50s Chevies and another of the
>very first SUV’s – International Scouts and early Jeeps.  In one game,
>Dan won 500 roadmile points with his ability to guess whether a pictured
>car was a Honda, a Nissan, a Toyota, or another Japanese make.
>
>Our family was most engaged by the “Tell us your story” exhibit.  Here
>people from all over, most of whom had visited RoadStory, told their own
>roadstories – pictures, articles, postcards, matchbook covers, video,
>and audio recordings.  A panel of judges had picked the very best, and
>boy were they good!  And of course we added to the “database” our list
>of favorite places to visit.  When we get home, we are going to send in
>(to the RoadStoryUSA website) the list of all the cars we have owned,
>including notes on our faves.
>
>Throughout the exhibit area we encountered well-informed staffers,
>usually playing up a character role (like a motel desk clerk) and always
>in the right uniform for their role.  We have been to a lot of museums,
>and have rarely seen this level of personal attention and enthusiasm.
>
>After all those exhibits – at least 25 of them – we finally came out to
>the rides area.  Here you could drive NASCAR simulators, ride
>old-fashioned kiddie cars, play big interactive video games, and other
>more typical amusement park fare.  Usually the first ride was covered in
>your ticket, but you had to spend money to go again.
>
>Of course the big ride is the FedEx Kinko’s truck ride.  We opted to pay
>an extra $25 to have a truck to ourselves, and after a brief wait all
>four of us climbed up the ladders into the cab of a really beautiful
>bright red Peterbilt cab.  Marcus was so excited I thought he was going
>to lose it.
>
>Our driver “Red” (a retired driver himself) called us by our handles,
>and told us how the gears worked, as he revved the engine and the truck
>rocked back and forth.  Then it lept into motion and drove through a
>long tunnel, where Red laid on the horn to great effect.  Just as soon
>as we emerged outside the tunnel, a virtual deer jumped in our path and
>we had to slam on the brakes.  I won’t spoil the ride for you by telling
>you all the details, but suffice it to say it was quite an unexpected
>thrill for all of us, all 8 minutes of it.  And Red was a big part of
>it.  The kids are still talking about him – I had to steer even Felicity
>away from the “find out more about becoming a truck driver” exhibit
>after the ride.
>
>You can also drive a truck yourself, under the watchful eye of Red or
>one of his fellow drivers.  From the looks on the faces of people coming
>off that ride, we may have to try it next time.
>
>By the time we had done all this stuff, we were about worn out, and not
>expecting any more “thrills.”  But I have to say that, as we exited
>through the Garage Gift Shop, every one of us was taken aback.  I had
>never seen so many cool gifts for those hard-to-please motoring men in
>my life, like Dad.  The perfect Ferrari jacket.  Marcus and Dan together
>admired the incredible detail on the die cast models, which covered
>everything from the widely available NASCAR cars to the more unique
>Airstreams and Rockstar busses.  (Marcus’ favorite model seemed a little
>too expensive for us.)  You can find almost any movie or book about the
>road or cars and trucks.  Even the history of Route 66.  It was not hard
>to spend the roadmiles we had earned, and more.
>
>And they made it very clear that all this, and more, was available at
>the RoadStory website.  In fact, the back of our driver’s licenses told
>us that we automatically got lifetime memberships in RoadClubUSA.  It
>seems that RoadStory turns over its exhibits and rides regularly, so if
>you want to see one of your old favorites, you have to go to the
>website.  We also had to go there to buy and download pictures of all of
>us riding the big truck.  Much to our surprise, it turns out that our
>family was one of the top ten roadmile-scoring teams of the day, so we
>get a discount off our admission on our next visit, and a coupon for our
>neighbors.
>
>Well, we finally got away, having stayed much longer than we expected.
>Of course we enjoyed the Alamo and the Riverwalk, but we did have to
>stop at RoadStoryUSA on the way back to Dallas to pick up that model car
>that Marcus cried about for two days.  And there are rumors that the
>same Austin-based company, Story Stores, will soon open a similar place
>called “GameStoryUSA” near Dallas.
>------------------------ /CLIP ------------------------
>
>Vern
>
>--
>Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
>Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
>Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
>http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
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