Since the weather was fairly nice today, we walked out and stumbled upon the Sony Wonder Technology Lab. I was at Starbucks getting a cuppa coffee and this lady told me I should take Shane to the Sony Lab which was just around the corner. So this Lab is on Madison Avenue, between 55th and 56th Street.
So wa la! Here we are!
We first had to take a ticket (which was free, but yes still have to get a ticket) which stated what time you could enter. I guess it's designed this way so the center doesn't get over crowded since it's the school holidays season and there are loads of summer camp kids. We had to wait about 45 minutes before we could enter as there were 2 groups of school camp kids before us. Anyhow, I had my starbucks coffee, while I fed Shane has lunch dessert.
Alas... 3:30pm! We entered the Sony Tech Lab and I must say it's pretty scientific and cool!! Spent a whole long 1.5 hour there. So many cool stuff... and very educational. Of course I learnt a lot more than Shane did, but I guess there's no harm exposing him to early learning. Hopefully he's absorbing something...
As we walked in... we first had to go to the log in station. Using an access card that was given to us, we could enter our name and create our digital profile so that whenever we scanned at another location, we were 'remembered'. Our first stop was the Internet Map where they showed all the internet traffic and connection paths to the rest of the world. Then we saw how electronic devices like phones and cameras work. There was also a section on how information can be scanned, captured and transmitted from point A to B.
Walking down the ramp (yes they are super baby friendly), there was a display on communication technology.
Nanotechnology was also part of the stations where the computer demonstrates an equivalence of a tiny matter.
There was this display on Virtual Surgery which was super interesting. It has this control stick that lets you try to practice "open heart surgery" using the haptic technology. Super cool. (ya I'm like a kid too).
The stick where we could try our hand at haptic technology
Next was this Robotic display that showed how robots work and you could also program the robot to interact with other robots based on different types of sensors.
Check out those robots!!
The Animation section had quite a few displays, as well as animations and how they are created...The studio station allows you to create your own animation and runs you through your new creation.
There were a few dance motion video capture (like those in the dance dance revolution arcade game) sections that I quickly skipped through because I just can't do them with a baby strapped to me. We also skipped the production studio (where you could read the "news" and it shows how they are produced on TV) as well as the High Definition Theatre, We also had to give the music mixer a miss because we just missed the timing, and Shane was getting a little edgy by then. We will however be back again to check that out! Next time, we'll take the Papa along with us so we can do more stuff.
Our final stop was a movie maker... This was the movie trailer we put together.... Shane selected some of those (but I'm sure he randomly picked them).
The last stop before we left... there were a few consoles of the new PS4. Well, it's not my thing, and I guess the baby hasn't figured out what PS4 is... so we just skipped that whole section!
And we stopped for a free blue moon on the way out...
We will most certainly head back one of these days to complete our tour of the missing sections. This place is brilliant.
