05Heritage
Newport Beach
Conversational AI avatars · Museum hologram exhibit
Every place has its origin stories — the people who looked at a stretch of coastline and saw a town worth building. For the Balboa Island Museum, we brought three of Newport Beach's defining figures back into the room: James McFadden, who developed the original port in the late 1800s; Joe Beek, who launched the Balboa Island Ferry in the early 1900s; and Shirley Temple, the child actress who grew up near these shores and returned to them often.
Visitors meet all three through a single touchscreen — choose a figure, and they answer in their own voice, telling the story of the life they led and the town they helped shape. The whole experience was built end to end: the synthesized voices, the lipsynced performances, and the touchscreen application running on the Proto display itself. The brief was approachability — history you can talk to, not just read about — and since the exhibit opened in May 2026, what's stayed with people is the fidelity: the quiet sense that they aren't watching the past so much as speaking with it.
DeployedBalboa Island Museum, May 2026 — Proto hologram display
SubjectsJames McFadden · Joe Beek · Shirley Temple
BuildAI voices, lipsync video, and the visitor touchscreen app — built end to end
ResponseOverwhelmingly positive — visitors struck by the fidelity of each avatar
CreditTim Coleman, working for HyperReal