Armed With RFID, Star Trek Exhibit Boldly Goes into Museums

Armed With RFID, Star Trek Exhibit Boldly Goes into Museums

Fifty years after the first episode of the Star Trek television show aired, two North American museums have opened an exhibition that re-creates the Star Trek experience, with the help of passive high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz radio frequency identification technology. In early 2015, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, in Ottawa, and Austria-based producer EMS Entertainment co-developed the exhibit, known as Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience.

The exhibition is running at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum through September, and at New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum through October. EMS then plans to install similar versions of the exhibit at a series of other North American sites, extending into 2017. EMS Entertainment provides the entire experience, including display items and content for the exhibit, as well as technology that includes RFID readers and wristbands.