Raven Exhibit

Raven Exhibit is a sound visualization and recording system optimized for public displays and exhibits in places like science museums, zoos, aquariums, and nature centers.

GET RAVEN EXHIBIT

The new Raven Exhibit connects users worldwide with support for content in English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and French. Added video display and touch screen compatibility creates an engaging experience for audiences to enjoy the fascinating world of animal sounds. Users can not only listen to the songs and calls of a species, they can also learn about species-specific vocal behavior. This capability aids in deeper understanding and retention of bird vocalization and acoustic behavior.

Images and sounds for most of the content is from the extensive collections at the Macaulay Library.

Features

What is New in Raven Exhibit 2.0

Raven Exhibit is an interactive sound visualization and information display portal optimized for public outreach, exhibits, training, and educational applications in science museums, zoos, aquariums, and nature centers. The software platform offers the experience of animal sound and behavior to the users in a unique format that incorporates a lesson on the properties of sound, opportunities for game play and competition, natural history information, and a variety of species-specific information.

Raven Exhibit provides visitors, students, content managers, and trainers with a variety of interactive experiences ranging from immersive to informative and entertaining based on how a hosting organization chooses to configure it. The software platform offers flexibility to fit the needs of hosting organizations. A typical installation requires a computer with monitor, speakers, microphone with preamp, Raven Exhibit software, and sound contents. The user interfaces are simple and effective, with a wide range of customization options, making this exhibit one that visitors ofall ages can interact with.

Currently, there are more than 20 major installations of Raven Exhibits around the world, including an installation at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Visitor Center. The Sound Studio, featuring Raven Exhibit software is a popular visitor destination at the Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity (home of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology). One of the most recent exhibits is at Ithaca Science center where the exhibit is installed inside a fabricated tree trunk. Reviewed and praised by exhibit evaluator Beverly Serrell of Serrell & Associates, Raven Exhibit is now available for licensing to other public centers and venues.

Sounds and Species

List of sounds and species currently included in the Basic Content Package:

Amphibians

American Toad
Bullfrog
Spring Peeper
Wood Frog

Birds

American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Kestrel
American Robin
Bald Eagle
Barn Swallow
Barred Owl
Black-billed Magpie
Black-capped Chickadee
Blue Jay
Burrowing Owl
California Gull
Common Grackle
Common Raven
Common Redpoll
Eastern Whip-poor-will
European Starling
Florida Scrub-Jay
Great Blue Heron
Great Horned Owl
Herring Gull
Horned Lark
House Finch
House Wren
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Song Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-crowned Sparrow
Wood Thrush

Dolphins and Whales

Blue Whale
Humpback Whale
Killer Whale
North Atlantic Right Whale

Fish

Black Drum

Insects

Cicada
Mole Cricket

Man-made Sounds

Oil and Gas Activities
Sonar
Vessel Noise

Other Ocean Sounds

Earthquake
Iceberg Collision
Ice Calving
Quiet Ocean
Singing Ice

Seals

Bearded Seal
Leopard Seal
Ross Seal
Weddell Seal

Terrestrial Mammals

African Lion
African Savannah Elephant
Chimpanzee
Forest Elephant
Gray Wolf

Sound Visualization Panel

The waveform and the spectrogram views in the sound visualization panel displays the properties of each sound in three different dimensions. The horizontal scale represents the time duration of the sound. The values are often expressed in seconds. The vertical scale represents frequency in the spectrogram view and relative amplitude in the weveform view. The color gradient in the spectrogram and waveform view represent relative amplitude/loudness values. In the sound display panel, the brighter colors represent higher amplitude values and the darker colors represent lower amplitude values. Users have the option of zooming in and out of the sound window, both in time and frequency scale. Users have the option of playing the whole sound or a zoomed-in segment of the sound.

Information Display Panel

This area of the exhibit displays a summary of the natural history of the species of interest. A description of the species, species scientific and common name, and a brief description of species sound is displayed in this panel. Along with the main description, two drop down icons — the information icon (owl silhouette) and the map icon — presents the natural history and range of each species. The information icon provides important details such as physical dimensions, conservation status, habitat, diet, and behavior of the species.

Image and Video Display Panel

Images and videos of the target species are displayed in this panel. Users can browse through a series of pictures and video clips to learn about the visual identification, plumage type, and age-sex differences in appearances of the target species from these images and videos. Additionally, the the video clip provides important information about the vocal behavior of a species associated with visual displays.