Museums With Pocket PCs? Field Trip!

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.flicksoftware.com/mig.html' target='_blank'>http://www.flicksoftware.com/mig.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Why not “loan” a PDA to your museum visitors as a way to attract new revenues and appeal to new and existing museum-goers alike! Let a handheld device enhance the museum experience by guiding, informing, educating and entertaining the whole time through. The MIG (Mobile Interactive Guide), developed by Flick Software and its partners, embodies a rugged hardware device coupled with the software required to make this a powerful new force in the museum vertical. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/flicksoftwaredevicemobilemuseum.gif" /><br /><br />Imagine the MIG leading folks to items of interest; expanding on various exhibits by running related multi-media audio and video clips; having pop-ups at appropriate times indicating show start-times or even cafeteria specials; absorbing people of all ages in entertaining contests and games. Let Flick Software pull together the necessary resources to add an exciting new dimension to the museum experience."

[Kati Compton]

I think the Seattle "Experience Music" museum uses ipaqs...

http://www.emplive.com/index.asp

[ctmagnus]

I hope the Glenbow (http://www.glenbow.org/) impliments this before the beginning of next month.

[Wiggster]

having pop-ups at appropriate times indicating show start-times or even cafeteria specials;

Soon, not even our museums will be free from computer popups... :twisted:

[Zack Mahdavi]

I think the Seattle "Experience Music" museum uses ipaqs...

http://www.emplive.com/index.asp

Been there... the setup is very cool. The Pocket PCs are built into this purse style device that you can carry around with you. Everytime you visit an exhibit, the Pocket PC plays audio for you. Very interactive and very cool.

[bjornkeizers]

I saw an article in a dutch newspaper yesterday - a local museum will be using wifi enabled Ipaqs as well! 8O

Pretty cool if you ask me. You walk through the museum with your ipaq and when you see a painting you like, pull up the info on the Ipaq and maybe even order a print or an object by the same artist... Way cool.

[quidproquo]

This is a lot more high tech than the "Acousti-Guide" that I listened to when I went to see the Ramses Exhibit at a museum a few years back.

That was just a tape recorder with pause, play and rewind. It was Charlton Heston narrating though! :)

This would be really cool...as long as the technical hang ups were eliminated. Can you see a visitor trying to get through a soft reset and start a program over again!?

[Ryan Joseph]

This is a lot more high tech than the "Acousti-Guide" that I listened to...

I remember the Acousti-Guide! I used one at a dinosour exhibit once...many years ago. It was cool back then.

Then there are the museums that have the cell-phone-like things where an exhibit will be numbered and you dial that number to hear an explanation of the exhibit.

But this sounds WAY cooler! I want to go to some of these museums just to try it out. :D

Can you see a visitor trying to get through a soft reset and start a program over again!?

Now there's an entertaining throught. :mrgreen:

[dazz]

Wow! This is cool stuff. I can see this taking off in a number of areas.

Hey, how about a rugged PPC that you rent at Disney Land (or Wonderland here in Ontario, Canada :D ) that has a map (with GPS of course) and info on all the different attractions and shows.

Cool! 8)

Darren

[Jon Westfall]

Great, now in addition to being dragged to the art museum by the mother/girlfriend (I like art just as much as the next guy, but it takes me about 1 min. of looking at a painting to appreciate it - no more, so an art museum is a quick experience for me, as are zoos), I get to have an IPAQ that spams me telling me about the cafeteria specials...

Of course, I could probably reset it and use it to get internet if its wifi and the museum is a bit lax on security...

[dazz]

:rofl:

[Jason Dunn]

I think the Seattle "Experience Music" museum uses ipaqs...

Unless they've changed their hardware, they use CE-based units that are vertical market devices, more like a ruggedized Symbol. Still cool though! You point them at IR sensors and punch in a button, then it queues up the audio about the exhibit you're looking at.

[bkerrins]

I remember reading a while back that the Disney IT department would only support Ipaq's and was hoping back then that Disney would do something like this. Maps of the park with directions to bathrooms and food courts. At the Zoo you could have it give maps, stories about the animals and habitats. Schedules for the various exhibits. Wifi with a link to the zoo and disney.com for those people that already own a PPC. The giants baseball stadium (SBC Park) is now wifi enabled and should give directions to food, bathrooms, player stats, schedules...

[Stephen Beesley]

Back in the mid to late 90's a company by the name of Visual interactive did pretty much the same thing with a modified Apple Newton they called the iGo promoted as the “world’s first interactive audio tour” their idea was to provide museum visitors with an enhanced personal experience through the accessibility of multimedia, text, and audio while walking through an exhibit space. iGo users did not have to follow a linear path. Visitors could select as much text, graphics, and audio content about an exhibit as they wanted and in any order they chose. They even created special content just for kids.

The device was used in a number of museams and in the travelling exibition to celebrate the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary. You can see some info about this device here (http://www.worldmind.com/media/text/clients/visible/visible.html).

[AndrewShuttleworth]

Interesting use of Pocket PCs in a similar context in Japan:

http://www.pocketpcjapan.com/2004_03_01_archive.php#107838395746461288