Today’s museum interpretation is either based on audio guide systems or touch device apps. The new system is able to cover both paradigms but also opens up a totally new solution for museum experts & museum visitors.

The Museum Audio Tour demonstrator is a new type of Audio Guide for museums, where the headset used for audio information is equipped with the EoT board and a small Camera. The EoT Board runs an image analysis software that has been trained for a specific exhibit and is able to recognize artworks such as paintings while the user is simply passing by. The painting recognition module is running constantly, but does not consume much power thanks to the dedicated hardware module and the efficient implementation. Thus, the camera-equipped headset can be used for an entire day without the need to change the batteries.

The Museum Audio Tour demonstrator has two use cases.

In the use case 1, named EoT Hands Free Museum Guide, the headset equipped with an EoT device and a camera works in standalone mode. During the visit, the EoT device prermanently tracks the view of the visitor. Always on camera and image recognition algorithms permanently try to detect exhibits for which content is available. And even if an exhibit is positively detected visitor is notified about available audio interpretation by the EoT device.

When the user presses the user button on the EoT headphone the audio playback starts. By pressing the button again, playback is paused.

In the second use case, named EoT Multimedia Museum Guide, the headset communicates with a hand-held companion device (smartphone or tablet). Thus, the user can obtain more multimedia information about the exhibition.

In this scenario, after an image recognition match, the visitor is notified via audio signal on the phones and in the app by the EoT headphone. At this moment, the visitor’s device is provided with rich content, for example, the biography of the artist, other related artworks, etc.

The leading partner of this demonstrator is Fluxguide.

Museum Guide – Development http://eyesofthings.eu/?page_id=1880
Museum Guide – Results http://eyesofthings.eu/?page_id=1881