When XPERIA: Ocean Journey opened its doors in Sevierville, Tennessee, they aimed to create more than just a traditional gallery. They envisioned a modern, immersive digital museum that could instantly captivate the millions of tourists visiting the Smoky Mountains. They needed exhibits that blended educational storytelling with high-tech, tactile engagement.
Kids Jump Tech stepped in to design, engineer, and install custom interactive zones tailored for a museum environment. Here is how we brought their vision of an immersive “edutainment” space to life.
The Location Advantage: Engaging the Modern Museum-Goer
Sevier County is an absolute powerhouse for tourism, with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park pulling in over 12 million visitors annually. XPERIA is strategically located right next to the Tanger Outlets.
To stand out in a high-traffic tourist corridor, a modern museum must offer frictionless digital interactivity that goes beyond reading plaques. XPERIA needed robust, museum-grade installations that could handle high daily throughput while delivering a meaningful, memorable experience for families.
Exhibit #1: “Drawings Come Alive” Interactive Digital Aquarium
The Goal: Create a “wow-fast” interactive art exhibit where children learn about marine life by actively participating in the creation of a digital ecosystem.
The Experience: Kids color their favorite sea creatures on physical paper, slide them under our custom scanner, and within seconds, their creations animate on a massive digital projection wall. The projected animals swim around in a shared virtual ocean, reacting dynamically to guest touches and motions.
The Engineering Behind Museum-Grade Projection
To pull this off in a brightly lit exhibition hall, standard commercial projectors wouldn’t cut it. We deployed a museum-grade 10,000-lumen BenQ LU9800 laser projector. By pairing this heavy-duty engine with a specialized Ultra-Short-Throw (UST 0.38:1) lens, we ensured the graphics remained crisp and vibrant, while keeping harsh glares and shadows completely out of the interactive zone.
Exhibit #2: The Custom Multiplayer Interactive Touch Table
The Brief: XPERIA requested a striking, letter-“X” interactive table that served as a central hub for collaborative play and learning, keeping kids engaged face-to-face rather than isolated at individual screens.
Industrial Design & Fabrication for High-Traffic Exhibits
Our engineering team designed a custom, powder-coated metal chassis built to withstand the rigorous daily use typical of science centers and children’s museums.
The Gameplay:
Our in-house development team created a bespoke, fast-paced runner game themed specifically to the venue’s oceanic focus. Children control a sea lion, navigating ocean currents and dodging obstacles. The collaborative nature of the table encourages teamwork and friendly competition, driving intense replayability.
Expand Your Museum Experience: Other Popular Installations
While XPERIA utilized our projection walls and touch tables, Kids Jump Tech provides a full suite of interactive solutions designed specifically for science centers, aquariums, and children’s museums:
1. Interactive Projection Floor: The Immersive Walkway
Transform any empty corridor or hall into a reactive digital environment. As guests walk across the floor, the projection reacts to their footsteps. Whether it’s clearing digital pollution from a virtual ocean, revealing hidden fossils under the sand, or creating ripples in a digital koi pond, the Interactive Floor is a powerful tool for guiding crowd flow and ambient learning. Learn more about Interactive Floors →
2. Augmented Reality (AR) Sandbox: Hands-On Earth Science
A staple for modern science museums. Guests shape real, kinetic sand with their hands, and an overhead projector instantly overlays a topographic map based on the sand’s elevation. Create mountains to see virtual snow cap the peaks, or dig valleys to watch digital water flow and form lakes. It’s an incredibly intuitive way to teach geography, hydrology, and topography. Learn more about the AR Sandbox →
The Kids Jump Tech Installation Process
Deploying complex interactive systems in a busy museum requires zero guesswork.
Our turnkey process included:
Results: Boosting Engagement for Edutainment Venues
The impact on XPERIA was immediate. The interactive projection wall loops guests into a highly engaging “create-and-see” cycle, drastically increasing average dwell time in the gallery. Most importantly, these exhibits act as organic marketing engines, creating natural photo and video moments for parents. Today, the museum proudly displays a Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice 2025 badge.
Frequently Asked Questions About Interactive Museum Exhibits
Kids Jump Tech designed and engineered the interactive projection walls and custom multiplayer touch tables for XPERIA, acting as the primary technology contractor for these exhibits.
Yes. Kids Jump Tech provides turnkey delivery, including a 200+ edutainment game library, custom hardware fabrication (like our AR Sandboxes and interactive tables), and seamless installation for museums and educational centers across North America.
Our museum-grade installations are built for easy maintenance. We provide remote monitoring, over-the-air software updates, and hardware enclosures designed for quick, field-level part swaps by your on-site technicians.
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