PriWatt Brings Interactive Smart Glass to the ROM
A display case that opens when a visitor asks it to
Museums usually choose between showing an object and protecting it. At the ROM, PriWatt switchable privacy film lets one case do both: it stands opaque until someone presses a button, then turns clear and shows what is inside.
The exhibit
The display belongs to an exhibit about the Native American Church and the ceremonial healing traditions associated with peyote. Objects of that kind are not ordinary museum stock: how and when they are seen is part of how they are treated.
Switchable film turns that into the mechanism of the exhibit instead of a restriction placed on it. The glass is private by default. A visitor who chooses to look presses the button, the case clears, and the moment of looking is theirs: a decision, not a passing glance at a lit shelf.
What the glass does here
- Opaque at rest, clear on a visitor’s press: the reveal is the exhibit
- Visual access to the objects is limited when nobody is viewing them
- One case serves both display and discretion, with no shutter or curtain
- No mechanism in front of the glass to maintain in a public gallery
- The same case can be re-used as curatorial requirements change
Installation
The work was carried out in Toronto by Smart Glass Technologies, an authorised PriWatt installation partner. A public building, an exhibit on a schedule, and glass that has to switch reliably in front of visitors every day it is open.
Specified on this project
PriWatt PDLC switchable film
Applied to existing glazing: clear when powered, private when switched off.
Public spaces
Museums, visitor centres and the rest of what this application covers.
Control options
A wall switch, a touch panel, an app or a building system, whichever suits the room.
An exhibit that reveals itself
Tell us the case, the opening or the gallery. PriWatt is made in Pompano Beach, Florida, and quoted per project.
