Tech talk

BREAKING DOWN SOME OF THE COUNTRY’S MOST HIGH-TECH EXHIBITS

MIT MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE, MA
Kismet

This robot engages with visitors through human-like facial expressions, gestures and voice intonations. The perception, speech-recognition, motivation, behavior, motor-skill and face-motor systems require four Motorola 68332 microprocessors, nine networked 400 MHz PCs and a 500 MHz PC running Linux. 265 Massachusetts Ave, Building N51; 617-253-5927

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, CHICAGO
“Giant Heart”

Controlled by the latest image-blending software, seven high-resolution projectors fill a 13-foot-high, 8-foot-wide 3-D sculpture with two moving pictures of the heart’s pulsing exterior and interior. A perforated front screen creates a “floating” image from the two images, which beats when triggered by touch sensors. 57th St and Lake Shore Dr; 773-684-1414; www.msichicago.org

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SAN FRANCISCO
Altered State: Climate Change in California

Visitors’ shadows interact with the digital projection at this exhibition, which demonstrates how disappearing Arctic ice causes the remaining ice on Earth to melt even faster. As viewers move around, an infrared camera picks up their shadows and a computer uses them to “block” the virtual sunlight from melting ice floes. As a result, the floes connect and allow a mother polar bear to reunite with her cub. Golden Gate Park; 415-379-8000; www.calacademy.org