Automated Display Case System
Posted on Friday, April 5th, 2024
Project Summary:
The automated display case lighting system is built into a museum display case. The system will allow for enhanced control when displaying historical artifacts. This will provide an increase in lifespan for the artifacts being displayed.
| Client | Ingenium (Erin Secord) | |
| Professor(s) | Carolyn Lorimer, Jim Catton | |
| Program | Electrical Engineering Technology | |
| Student Team Members | Zachary Franks; Kristopher Kshonze; Jacob Malcolmson; Tyler Ross |
Project Description:
We are students from the Electrical engineering technology program with passions in automation and distributive systems. We have come together with our client Erin Secord from Ingenium to design and create an automated display case lighting system to provide the best possible lighting experience to display an artifact without overexposing it to the harmful damage that light can cause on an object.
Long term light and UV cast upon an object cause long term irreversible damage to whatever they fall upon. This damage is caused by a photochemical reaction. In a museums case, this can cause the loss of display ability for an artifact as it has reached its limit for being exposed the elements. However, museums face the challenge of wanting to limit light for preservation, but still need it to appeal to the public. With a case that has the ability to automatically adapt to light, artifacts will be able to be displayed and enjoyed longer.
Our client from Ingenium wanted a solution to extend the lifespan of object and provide the ability to display artifacts with less of an impact caused by regular display systems. The Automated display case lighting system solves this issue by providing adaptable display lighting. The display case will monitor ambient lighting external and internal to the display case. The system will then calculate and adapt its built in LED lighting system to provide the best possible lighting without overexposing the artifact to photochemical reactions. The lighting system will have additional built in manual control and data storage. The data storage will further allow Ingenium to limit the harm to artifacts. With the extra information, they can see the number of hours the artifact spends at certain light levels, allowing them to move if off display as needed. Finally, the system will be accessible remotely for monitoring and further manual controllability.