Going forward: displaying an interface: While visitors could learn more about the Leapfrog by interacting with it, given its status as a rare prototype we cannot allow such intensive use and the risk of damage. What have we learned?: In the course of our examination, we also compared the Cooper Hewitt example to MoMA’s, finding that the same evidence of its prototype nature (tape and handwriting) were visible in both machines. Unfortunately, we were unable to disk image the SCSI drive, despite repeated attempts. The radiograph helped us locate a screw hidden under the battery compartment, and allowed us to examine the internals (image). Leapfrog x-ray image (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Objects Conservation) Our colleagues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Objects Conservation generously helped us radiograph the tablet component to see inside. We reached out to colleagues who could help us investigate using X-Radiography. At first, we were unable to successfully disassemble the Leapfrog– it seemed clear that there was at least one hidden screw that we could not locate. The Leapfrog is now stored in silicone release Mylar which prevents it sticking to anything, but it requires particularly careful handling as its surface is inherently very fragile.Ĭomplete condition assessments for electronic objects include disassembly to facilitate visual inspection of the electronic (interior) componentry, and looking for signs of age or failure indicated by bulging, leaking, or corrosion. Decades after its production, it suffers from a malady common to aged plastics: stickiness. The subtly matte texture of the plastic exterior is the result of a special “Soft Touch” coating. As with any consumer electronic, the Leapfrog presents an external housing and internal machinery– and each has unique condition concerns. To recover some of this missing information, Sam Lucente, the lead designer for the ThinkPad project, was contacted and interviewed. This has now become standard practice at most museums, including Cooper Hewitt, for complex digital objects we acquire today. In an ideal world, when this object was collected, an interview would have been conducted with a designer and engineer in order to capture these aspects for future collections care professionals. For an object as unique as the Leapfrog, decades later we are left wondering about various aspects of its design and electronics.
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However, no documentation was collected that would describe the components or how they worked together, like a user manual or production drawings. MoMA too featured the Leapfrog in its 1995 exhibition “ Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design ”, and acquired one for their collection.Ĭondition Assessment: Cooper Hewitt acquired the Leapfrog tablet, its corresponding base station, and several accessories: among them a stylus, an extra trackpoint (the iconic red dot in the middle of the keyboard used to point the cursor, in place of a mouse or trackpad), and an infrared peripheral device. It was featured in Cooper Hewitt’s 1994 exhibition “Good Offices and Beyond: The Evolution of the Workplace,” and later acquired. The Leapfrog was a perfect marriage of Richard Sapper’s edgy industrial design with the Vision 95 team’s incredible engineering ability. These prototypes were intended to reinvent IBM’s image, and to generate interest from investors for actual commercial products that would be more competitive in the market. More of a “concept computer,” it was commissioned through IBM’s Strategic Design Department under the auspices of a somewhat speculative design program entitled “Vision 95.” This program, which began in the late 1980s, was intended as an opportunity for a small team of fifteen designers and engineers to produce theoretical objects that looked to the future, particularly the needs of society in 1995.
This case study provides a guide for the acquisition, preservation, and display of rare functional prototypes.Īccording to former IBM employees, the Leapfrog was never intended to be released as a consumer product.
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Today, the Leapfrog stands out as an example of human-computer interaction incredibly ahead of its time: a full-color, fully-portable Windows 3.1 tablet computer. The two-year project was coordinated by an in-house team of conservators, curators, and registrar, and was conducted by digital conservation specialist Ben Fino-Radin and his team at Small Data Industries.ĭating from the early 1990s, the Leapfrog is a functional personal computer prototype which consists of a trapezoidal touch screen tablet which mounts into a base station. This week’s posts feature case studies from Cooper Hewitt’s Digital Collections Management Project, a conservation survey of born-digital and hybrid objects in the permanent collection.
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