Mobile Phone-Enabled Museum Guidance with Adaptive Classification

2013

In this paper, we present an ongoing project developed within DATABENC, a high technology district for Cultural Heritage management. In particular, the project aims at exploiting several location-based services and technologies to realize a smart multimedia guide system able to detect user position and make objects of a museum exhibition able to "talk" during tourists' visit and capable of automatically telling their story using multimedia facilities. Moreover, we have deployed in the museum rooms a particular Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that, using Bluetooth technology, is able to sense the surrounding area for detecting user devices' presence. Once a device has been detected, the related MAC address is retrieved and multimedia contents of the closest museum artworks are delivered to user using proper multimedia delivery techniques to facilitate and make more stimulating the visit. As case of study, we show an example of "talking" museum as a smart multimedia guide of sculptures' art exhibition within the Maschio Angioino castle, in Naples (Italy).

Sensors, 2013

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of multimedia mobile guides in museum environments. Mobile devices have the capabilities to detect the user context and to provide pieces of information suitable to help visitors discover and follow the logical and emotional connections that develop during the visit. In this scenario, location based services (LBS) currently represent an asset, and the choice of the technology to determine users' position, combined with the definition of methods that can effectively convey information, become key issues in the design process. In this work, we present Museum Assistant (MusA), a general framework for the development of multimedia interactive guides for mobile devices. Its main feature is a vision-based indoor positioning system that allows the provision of several LBS, from way-finding to the contextualized communication of cultural contents, aimed at providing a meaningful exploration of exhibits according to visitors' personal interest and curiosity. Starting from the thorough description of the system architecture, the article presents the implementation of two mobile guides, developed to respectively address adults and children, and discusses the evaluation of the user experience and the visitors' appreciation of these applications.

Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing and Multimedia - MoMM '08, 2008

In this paper, we present a novel technique for adapting local image classifiers that are applied for object recognition on mobile phones through ad-hoc network communication between the devices. By continuously accumulating and exchanging collected user feedback among devices that are located within signal range, we show that our approach improves the overall classification rate and adapts to dynamic changes quickly. This technique is applied in the context of our ANONYMOUS SYSTEM-a mobile phone based museum guidance framework that combines pervasive tracking and local object recognition for identifying a large number of objects in uncontrolled museum environments.

2008

Recent technological advances enable novel interactive software environments to support users in several contexts for different objectives. Museums are a particularly suitable context in which to experiment with new interaction techniques for guiding visitors and improving their experience. In this paper, we discuss a multi-device and location-aware museum guide. It is a mobile guide able to opportunistically exploit large screens when they are nearby the user. Various types of games are included in addition to the museum and artwork descriptions, including games involving multiple visitors. The mobile guide is equipped with an RFID reader, which provides information useful to detect the current user position. By taking into account context-dependent information including the current user position, the history of user behaviour, and the device(s) at hand, more personalised and relevant information is provided to the user, enabling a richer overall experience.

This poster describes the design and development of a comprehensive Museum Tour Guide mobile application that can be installed on user-owned devices. The purpose of the application is to provide museum visitors with a device that can improve their experience through optimised planning of their visit and an always-available stream of information regarding the museum and its exhibits. The main goals, the design, as well as the implementation of the application are described and the main functions of the application are presented. Finally, conclusions are drawn and further development ideas are discussed.

2013

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of multimedia mobile guides in museum environments. Mobile devices have the capabilities to detect the user context and to provide pieces of information suitable to help visitors discover and follow the logical and emotional connections that develop during the visit. In this scenario, location based services (LBS) currently represent an asset, and the choice of the technology to determine users' position, combined with the definition of methods that can effectively convey information, become key issues in the design process. In this work, we present Museum Assistant (MusA), a general framework for the development of multimedia interactive guides for mobile devices. Its main feature is a vision-based indoor positioning system that allows the provision of several LBS, from way-finding to the contextualized communication of cultural contents, aimed at providing a meaningful exploration of exhibits according to visitors' personal interest and curiosity. Starting from the thorough description of the system architecture, the article presents the implementation of two mobile guides, developed to respectively address adults and children, and discusses the evaluation of the user experience and the visitors' appreciation of these applications.

In this paper, the minimum requirements of object recognition (OR), to be acceptable to museum visitors are evaluated as a method to access background information on objects in mobile museum tour-guide apps by means of a field experiment. While previous work has already confirmed the technical improved usability and the prevalence of visitors using OR in museum tour-guide apps, it is still unclear what the minimal technical requirements are for mobile OR apps before they are acceptable to its intended users. A prototype museum tourguide app featuring OR was developed, to let museum visitors follow a mobile museum guide tour in a museum in the Netherlands. User acceptance was measured while varying the OR speed and accuracy. While previous research has focused on making OR techniques as fast and accurate as possible, the results highlight that this not necessarily leads to higher user satisfaction. The OR speed of ≤ 2 sec. was measured as "sufficient" for ‘high’ user acceptance (SUS of >77,30). However, results revealed that visitors are more critical towards accuracy, only maximum accuracy has lead to high user acceptance. This research not only demonstrated ‘high’ user acceptance of OR in museum tour-guide apps. More importantly, it could serve as a guideline for museums and developers to consider when creating OR apps.

2016

During past few years Indoor navigation systems have been developed in many places such as Airports, Hospitals, Shopping malls, Companies and Museums. Museum 360 is a navigation system design specially for Museums. The system is developed based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons technology instead of using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Near Field Communication (NFC) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technologies. Rather than traditional museum navigation systems, the implemented solution has a new narrating system for navigation, provide descriptions about the items verbally, providing suggestions to visitors what to visit by analyzing past history and also visitors can collect a soft copy of the tour. Museum 360 has two main components, Android application and the server. The system was developed according to the prototype life cycle methodology. When the system is completed it will benefits both of the visitors and museum staff. Visitors can be able to explore the museum a...

1999

The paper describes a nomadic information system under development by GMD in the HIPS1 project that supports nomadic activities adapted to the individual visitor of a museum. The world-wide Web, wired and wireless connectivity to networks, and small mobile devices allow for supporting nomadic activities by information and communication technology to an extensive degree.