Article

RFID enhances visitors' museum experience at the Exploratorium

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Abstract

The eXspot, a custom-designed RFID application that enhances museum exhibits and let visitors continue their scientific exploration beyond the museum's walls, is evaluated. The system consists of a small RFID reader package for monitoring on museum exhibits, an RF tag carried by visitors on a card or necklace, a wireless network, a registration kiosks, and dynamically generated Web pages. The plastic-molded RFID reader package contains a Crossbow Mica2Dot mote for control and radio connectivity, a low-power RFID reader with a range of a few inches, and LEDs that show visitors the system's state. To allow flexible installation and easy relocation in exhibition spaces, the eXspot includes a rechargeable 1600mAh battery, making the unit portable.

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... By adding RFID tags and RFID readers to the exhibits, new possibilities with regard to interactive presentation and augmented experience for the visitors arise. Up till now, over a hundred museums worldwide are experimenting with ubiquitous technologies (RFID, Wi-Fi, etc) in their exhibitions [91]. ...
... Furthermore, he enrols himself by storing a user profile into the museums RFID infrastructure. This profile can contain personal information, such as personal interests or the user's age ( [92], [91]). When passing an exhibit, the user can use the RFID tag to acquire personalised information about the individual exhibit or trigger the interactive part of an exhibit, when in its proximity. ...
... Additionally, the system can track the visitor by taking photos and delivering additional resources. After the museum visit, these can be accessed on a personalised webpage on the Internet [91]. ...
... These more recent methods include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Global positioning satellite (GPS), Bluetooth and WiFi, and crowdsourced social media data, among others. However, these supplemental methods have the potential to be more intrusive concerning visitors' personally identification information (PII) and privacy (Fisher et al., 2018;Hsi & Fait, 2005;Taczanowska et al., 2008). Privacy concerns related to these emerging technologies may be closely related to the environment within which each is used. ...
... Technologies that incorporate the use of RFID, for example, require a radio frequency (RF) tag and a device to read the tag (e.g., a key fob used to access a building). Based on the literature, RFID devices have been used primarily in indoor settings, particularly at museums which have seen success in employing this technology (Hsi & Fait, 2005). Additionally used in a variety of educational settings (Khanam et al., 2014), RF tags can be provided to museum visitors for the purpose of activating exhibit features, which retain a memory of the RF tag (Hsi & Fait, 2005). ...
... Based on the literature, RFID devices have been used primarily in indoor settings, particularly at museums which have seen success in employing this technology (Hsi & Fait, 2005). Additionally used in a variety of educational settings (Khanam et al., 2014), RF tags can be provided to museum visitors for the purpose of activating exhibit features, which retain a memory of the RF tag (Hsi & Fait, 2005). However, RFID does come with inherent limitations (e.g., visitors must be provisioned with the RFID equipped technology) which can create a burden for many sites due to the cost required to acquire these devices and the staffing requirements for dissemination and collection. ...
Article
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Historically, documenting visitor counts in park, recreation, and tourism spaces has been fraught with challenges that often result in data with questionable reliability and validity. However, these counts are necessary for managers in that they inform budgets, staffing, and policy. The purpose of this methodological study is to detail the processes involved in implementing technology-based counting systems within parks with the goal of assisting managers who wish to modernize visitor counting procedures. The first step involves a detailed site analysis, with considerations specific to park boundaries, access to power sources, the availability of WiFi, and whether lighting is needed for the technology to function. Once the site analysis is completed, the technology options can be considered, with the understanding that the accuracy of the counts will be impacted by visitor flow, focal area of interest, the number of counters utilized, whether visitors must be carrying WiFi-enabled devices to be counted, data transmission options, and access to dynamic features such as those that eliminate double counts. A case study approach was used to demonstrate implementation procedures, focusing on site and technology selection, then moving on to installation considerations, data collection, validation, data analysis, and management implications. The Korean War Veterans Memorial (KOWA), a National Park Service holding located within the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, DC, was selected as an optimal site based on semi-porous boundaries, consistent visitor flows, and ready access to power sources. After consideration of price, privacy, ease of installation, and ready access to data, 3D people counters were the chosen technology. The counters were installed in weatherproofed housings and mounted on lampposts that were situated at the two main entrance sites to the memorial. Analysis of twelve weeks of data indicated that the counting accuracy of the 3D counters was high, minimal modifications were needed, and visitor privacy was retained. A similar methodological approach can be applied by park managers within a wide variety of settings.
... They concluded that museum interior design and interactive factors are vital in emphasizing interaction museum design installation for MUX. Apart from these studies, other notable studies that have contributed to MUX include [25], [26], and [27]. For example [25] used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to positively enhance MUX beyond the museum walls. ...
... Apart from these studies, other notable studies that have contributed to MUX include [25], [26], and [27]. For example [25] used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to positively enhance MUX beyond the museum walls. Their study was carried out at the Exploratorium museum (which is a hands-on science museum) in San Francisco. ...
Conference Paper
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Nowadays, designers are more concern with the issue of engagement and informal learning at museum and gallery sites. This has made studies to focus more on the use of Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) at museum and gallery sites. However, most of the MAR applications for museum visitors are largely tailored to normal hearing visitors while the hearing-impaired (HI) visitors are not supported. The hearing impaired (HI) community account for over 5% of the world’s populace which is about 360 million people. Thus, this paper explores the design elements of mobile augmented reality for engaging hearing impaired visitors at the museum site. The findings of this paper argues that there are eleven major elements of engagement of MAR needed for the design of an efficient museum MAR app for hearing impaired visitors. These eleven elements include Aesthetics, Curiosity, Usability, Interaction, Motivation, Satisfaction, Self-Efficacy, Perceived Control, Enjoyment, Focused Attention and Interest. This study pointed out that for an efficient and engaged MAR app for the HI community especially HI visitors to museum sites, these eleven elements are critical. This finding will help MAR designers and developers on how to design an efficient and engaged MAR app for the HI community at large and museum HI visitors specifically.
... However, high fatigue using the cards was reported, which might be connected to the low perceived ease of use. Indeed, we observed that children had some challenges using the cards [47], attempting to rapidly swipe cards in front of readers, wave cards above readers out of antenna range, and place cards against readers, then swiftly remove them before the ID was read. Also, as each card has an answer assigned, children had to constantly move and pick new cards before going to the reader, which could have contributed to their high level of fatigue and their low usability perception [55]. ...
... Our work with the Dr. Discovery mobile app herein described (i.e., a front-end Q&A interface and a back-end analytics portal that visualizes recorded visitor interactions) aligns with such ongoing technology supported efforts to attain direct and data-based insight into museum visitor behaviors through approaches that use mobile technologies in museums (e.g., Chivarov et al., 2013;Damala et al., 2008;Tesoriero et al., 2014). Among other purposes, a popular goal of incorporating such mobile technologies is to conduct museum evaluation that is based on the objective information on visitor interactions with exhibits (Lanir et al., 2017) that indoor positioning technologies such as barcodes, RFID, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and infrared technologies may provide (Handojo et al., 2020;Handojo, et al., 2018;Hsi & Fait, 2005;Kuflik et al., 2011;Naismith & Paul Smith, 2009;Rubino et al., 2013;Spachos & Platniotis, 2020). Unfortunately, high-quality museum evaluation that can sustainably use such location-based technologies can be prohibitively expensive and present their own set of limitations and security risks such as GPS not functioning properly in indoor locations, or RFID and NFC covering only short ranges (Ng, 2015), and security or privacy concerns with using public Wi-Fi connections. ...
Article
This study explores the feasibility of forming detailed inferences about museum visitor behavior based on analysis of data collected via Dr. Discovery—a mobile question-and-answer app. We analyzed 5656 questions asked by 795 visitor groups recorded by Dr. Discovery across two museums in the American Southwest. Analysis of this data supported the act of intuiting visitor movement through museum exhibit halls without the use of costly tracking or location technology by leveraging question keyword content, knowledge of exhibit hall layout, and question timestamp information. Additionally, data on question topic frequency enabled us to infer visitor engagement levels with specific exhibit hall content. We conclude that analysis of seemingly limited app-based data carries implications for the practice of museum evaluation since evaluators can gain evidence-based insight into visitor behaviors as well as illustrate helpful and promising technology-supported alternatives for conducting affordable, dependable, and scalable evaluations.
... While the use of mobile devices to enhance and enrich museum visits has a long history [3,11,40,44,49,51,52,65], the idea that entertainment and gaming can play an equal role alongside the learning mission of a museum is a more recent approach. Museums are recognized as a fertile arena for the gamification challenge [62]. ...
Article
While museums are designed to engage and interest various audiences, teenagers are often a neglected segment. Without digital interactivity, it is challenging for a museum to remain exciting and relevant to a young, tech-savvy audience. Games can benefit museums by fostering positive attitudes towards museum spaces and creating more joyful destinations to promote meaningful informal learning combined with entertainment. We developed a dual gamified mobile experience targeted at teenagers, for the Natural History Museum of Funchal, Portugal: a story-based strategy ( Memories of Carvalhal's Palace – Turning Point) and a game-based strategy ( Memories of Carvalhal's Palace – Haunted Encounters ). These strategies were studied in depth with 159 teenagers (15-19 years old) to understand how gamified strategies might enhance their user experience in a museum. On the one hand, game-based strategies, in which game mechanics predominate, can catch a visitor's attention by displaying challenging questions that promote competition. On the other hand, story-based strategies, in which storytelling is prominent, can promote an emotional connection with the museum and exhibits and facilitate awareness of historical facts by including an engaging plot with high-quality media and tightly edited stories. This article reports on lessons learned that museum experience designers and curators can use in designing enjoyable, interactive experiences for teenage visitors.
... hubs where children can experience various kinds of entertainment while they enrich their knowledge and solve challenges by themselves [14]. While the use of mobile devices to enhance and enrich museum visits has a long history [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64], the idea that entertainment and gaming can play an equal role alongside the learning mission of most museums is a more recent approach. Museums are recognized as a fertile arena for the gamification challenge [51]. ...
Article
Full-text available
While museums are often designed to engage and interest a wide variety of audiences, teenagers are a neglected segment. This article describes a set of findings that aids in designing enjoyable interactive experiences inside natural history museums for teenagers (15–19 years old). For this research, 223 teenagers have been involved through co-design sessions and testing of Augmented Reality prototypes (130 of these teenagers took part in a focus group as well). This work also involved 3 museums from Portugal, 12 cultural heritage professionals, and 17 master's students as sources of information who took part in different research studies. Through qualitative analysis, the findings from the studies provide a strong foundation to inform and inspire work within the emerging research field concerning museum offerings and the current teenage generation.
... Technology has become a huge part of the lifestyle of teenagers, and places ranging from museums to historic sites have reacted to these times by incorporating more digital and interactive elements into their exhibitions. While the use of mobile devices to enhance museum visits has a long history (Barton & Kindberg, 2001;Cahill et al., 2011;Fleck et al., 2002;Hsi & Fait, 2005;Koushik, Lee, Pieroni, Sun, & Yeh, 2010;Martin & Trummer, 2005;Marty, Mendenhall, Douglas, et al., 2013;Sánchez, Cortés, Riekki, & Oja, 2011), the idea that entertainment and gaming can support the learning and educational missions of museums is often debated (Damala, van der Vaart, Clarke, et al., 2016;Katifori, Karvounis, Kourtis, et al., 2014;Xhembulla, Rubino, Barberis, & Malnati, 2014). Recent research trends support the idea that entertainment can play an equal role alongside the learning mission of most museums. ...
Article
Teenagers are an understudied group within the Interaction Design and Children community. Museums and cultural heritage spaces offer solutions for young children but none that are specifically targeted to teenagers. The active involvement of teenagers in the design of interactive technologies for museums is lacking further development. This paper centres on the presentation and discussion of several design sessions deployed with 155 teenage participants aged 15-19. They were asked to ideate a mobile museum experience that they would enjoy. Through qualitative analysis, the disparities in suggestions about story-based apps vs. game-based apps show that teenagers might value gamification over narratives. This work generates design recommendations for mobile museum tour guides for teenagers, to be used by both curators and museum designers in engaging teenagers in museum exhibitions. We also contrast the game and narrative mechanics produced by teenagers with what is already known. Finally, we answer the questions of how these findings align with existing museum guides for teenagers and how other designers can design with teenagers for this domain.
... Traditionally, shadowing [49,43,6,58]can be used to gather rich information while a researcher follows a surveyee, implying that this method requires skilled labor. On the other hand, radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that can be used to pinpoint the location of a visitor [62,29,33,17]. Similarly, Bluetooth utilizes wireless signals and tracks visitors based on the proximity principle method [47,42]. ...
Article
Recent museum exhibitions are becoming a means by which to satisfy visitor demands. In order to provide visitor-centric exhibitions, artwork must be analyzed based on the behavior of visitors, and not merely according to museum professionals' points of view. This study aims to analyze the relationship between museum visitors and artwork via a network analysis based on visitor behavior using object detection techniques. Cameras installed in a museum recorded visitors, and an object detector with a content-based image-retrieval technique tracked visitors from the videos. The durations spent with different artworks were measured, and the data was converted into a bipartite graph. The relationships between different artwork types were analyzed with a visitor-centered artwork network. Based on the visitors’ behavior, significant artworks were identified and the artwork network was compared to the arrangement of the museum. The tendency of edges in the artwork network was also examined considering visitors' preferences for artworks. The method used here makes it possible to collect quantitative data, with the results possibly used as a basis and for reference when analyzing artwork in a visitor-centered approach.
... In the field of museum studies, visitor studies focusing on information have been mainly divided in two areas: research on delivery methods and research on content delivery. Research on information delivery methods mainly looks at conveying messages effectively to exhibition audiences through media such as audio (Zimmermann & Lorenz, 2008), kiosks (Hsi & Fait, 2005;Shigesada et al., 2003) and mobile devices (Kang et al., 2018;Sung et al., 2010). Such research leads naturally toward studies that utilized advanced, contemporary technology. ...
Article
This study examined which accompanying information elements were noticed by visitors while they were looking at artworks, using eye-tracking experiments. First, we conducted an online survey to grasp the types of information that visitors wanted to know, and five elements were obtained. Second, we collected information on these five elements through interviews with one artist. Third, eye-tracking experiments were performed with semi-structured interviews. We set the information delivery media as follows: wall and mobile texts as commonly used in art museums. The results showed that patterns of eye movement of visitors were different according to the information delivery media. Also, we found that there was a correlation between the results of the eye-tracking experiment and visitor interest. This study has limitations in that it is an experiment limited to small sample size and artwork genre; however, it is meaningful in that it was able to grasp the information needs of visitors through eye-tracking.
... The museums provide mediation devices such as audio guides, kiosks, smartphones, and tablets that motivate visitors to induce exploratory behavior [16] with additional exhibit information [8]. Mobile devices with RFID [7,9], AR features [4,22] are now widely utilized to increase the interactivity of exhibits, enriching the exhibition experience [2,6] by stimulating interest and encouraging learning [3,21]. ...
... Several cultural and scientific institutions have adopted technologies to connect beyond the labels displayed next to the artworks. These include: chatbots [5], robots [24], QR codes [22], RFID tags [13], and augmented reality [4,28]. This paper focuses on the use of conversational chatbots and, more specifically, on how to design their content. ...
Conference Paper
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If an artwork could talk, what would visitors ask? This paper explores what types of content voice-based AI conversational systems should have to attend visitors' expectations in a museum. The study analyses 142,463 conversation logs from 5,242 unique sessions of a nine-month long deployment of a voice-based interactive guide in a modern art museum in Brazil. In this experiment, visitors freely asked questions about seven different artworks of different styles. By grouping the visitor utterances into eight types of content, we determined that more than half of the visitors asked about the meanings and intentions behind the artwork, followed by facts about the artwork and author-related questions. We also determined that the types of questions were not affected by each artwork, the artwork style, or its physical location. We also saw some relationships between the visitor's overall evaluation of the experience with the types of questions she asked. Based on those results, we identified implications for designing content for voice-based conversational systems in museums.
... Locative media and the use of mobile devices to enhance and enrich museum visits have been extensively studied [5,12,26,30,36,38,39,52]. On the other hand, museums are promising settings for gamification [47]: mystery and treasure-hunting [11,21] as well as problem solving tasks [4,18,44,47,56] have the potential to engage and entertain. ...
... Initially, the increasing presence of digital content available has seen the design of cultural guides to interactively support the visitor provided with straightforward location awareness capabilities (Ciavarella and Paternò, 2002;Woodruff et al., 2001;Yatani et al., 2004). Immediately after, exploiting RFID tags or IrDA beacons placed near points of interest in the cultural path within the exhibition, the proposed guides have been able to suggest contextualized contents to the visitor position (Schilit et al., 1994;Hsi and Fait, 2005;Fleck et al., 2002). Currently, the latest improvements to the cultural guides went in the direction of visitor's support, designed to not only convey cultural information and improve visitor's experience but mainly to offer more active and personalized access to the information (Costabile et al., 2008;Stock and Zancanaro, 2007). ...
Article
Cutting-edge visualization and interaction technologies are increasingly used in museum exhibitions, providing novel ways to engage visitors and enhance their cultural experience. Existing applications are commonly built upon a single technology, focusing on visualization, motion or verbal interaction (e.g., high-resolution projections, gesture interfaces, chatbots). This aspect limits their potential, since museums are highly heterogeneous in terms of visitors profiles and interests, requiring multi-channel, customizable interaction modalities. To this aim, this work describes and evaluates an artificial intelligence powered, interactive holographic stand aimed at describing Leonardo Da Vinci’s art. This system provides the users with accurate 3D representations of Leonardo’s machines, which can be interactively manipulated through a touchless user interface. It is also able to dialog with the users in natural language about Leonardo’s art, while keeping the context of conversation and interactions. Furthermore, the results of a large user study, carried out during art and tech exhibitions, are presented and discussed. The goal was to assess how users of different ages and interests perceive, understand and explore cultural objects when holograms and artificial intelligence are used as instruments of knowledge and analysis.
... Noch vanuit musea, noch door andere instanties wordt echter grondig in kaart gebracht wat bezoekers met digitale middelen doen wanneer zij een museum bezoeken. Deze data komen we wel tegen in studies van onder andere Tallon & Walker (2008), Hornecker, & Stifter (2006), Roussou (2004), Pujol et al (2013) en Hsi & Fait (2015). Deze studies bevatten allen één of enkele casestudies gericht op verscheidene digitale media, vooral op het gebied van multimediale tours en virtual reality. ...
Book
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In dit boek worden de inzichten en resultaten van twee onderzoeksprojecten gepresenteerd, te weten Designing Experiencescapes (2014-2016) en De Tentoonstellingsmaker van de 21ste Eeuw (2017-2019). Het is onmiskenbaar dat beleving een onderdeel is geworden van museale opstellingen anno 2019. Tegelijkertijd is er, als het gaat om beleving, weinig onderbouwing van wat werkt en waarom. In de jaren sinds het verschijnen van de Nationale Kennisagenda voor het Museale Veld (2014), met daarin een prominente rol voor de belevingswaarde van museale opstellingen, hebben we samen met professionals in het werkveld antwoord gezocht op de vraag hoe men kan sturen op beleving in tentoonstellingen. Gesprekken met professionals en bezoekers, data over hoe professionals hun eigen museum zien en hoe bezoekers het museum ervaren, observaties van hoe bezoekers zich feitelijke gedragen en vele ontwerpsessies later kunnen we de balans opmaken over wat dit heeft opgeleverd.
... Digital media and technologies are used as content, hook, or outreach platforms to enrich youth learning in the next generation classrooms, libraries, museums and afterschool spaces (Herr-Stephenson, Rhoten, Perkel & Sims, 2011). Customized visitor tags (such as RFID tags) with partner web portals allow museum visitors to bookmark and archive learning content that is related to exhibitions for later reference online (Hsi & Fait, 2005). Interactive technologies and media further enable participatory exploring and learning experiences, and create environments and atmospheres that immerse learners into the world of various exhibitions (Ziegler, 2015). ...
... Engagement with public exhibits is often very brief (typical "dwell time" at many science museums is around 30 seconds [35]), but time-on-task is an important factor in learning environments [23]. Designers of public exhibits focused on facilitating learning often advocate designs that encourage "extended and repeated engagement" [34] and "active prolonged engagement" [36]. ...
Conference Paper
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives. There are consequently many common misconceptions about what AI is, what it is capable of, and how it works. Compounding the issue, opportunities to learn about AI are often limited to audiences who already have access to and knowledge about technology. Increasing access to AI in public spaces has the potential to broaden public AI literacy, and experiences involving co-creative (i.e. collaboratively creative) AI are particularly well-suited for engaging a broad range of participants. This paper explores how to design co-creative AI for public interaction spaces, drawing both on existing literature and our own experiences designing co-creative AI for public venues. It presents a set of design principles that can aid others in the development of co-creative AI for public spaces as well as guide future research agendas.
... Facial and gestural recognition has advanced to the point where individuals can be individually sexed, tracked, and timed, all without leaving any identifiable information (Rowe, 2012). Radio-frequency identification tags and their descendants have made it possible to track visitors while also recording critical aspects of their exhibit interactions, such as their choices and actions, in ways that are intrinsically motivating to them and also provide valuable evaluation data (Hsi & Fait, 2005;Kanda et al., 2007). ...
Article
We define “informal STEM education” and explain some of the reasons its outcomes are so inherently challenging to evaluate, including the critical need for ecological validity and the fact that many informal learning experiences are low‐visibility and opportunistic. We go on to highlight significant advances in the field, starting with the fundamental embracing of learning outcomes that go well beyond narrow measures of knowledge and skills, to include interest, engagement, and identity‐building. Within that framework, we note the development of shared constructs and shared instruments emerging in multiple sectors of informal STEM education. We also highlight advances in unobtrusive instrumentation and powerful analytic techniques that make it possible to evaluate learners’ unfolding experiences more directly than ever before. Finally, we point to underlying factors that support a growing and maturing professional community of informal STEM learning evaluators, and some of the “learning ecosystem” metaphors that frame their thinking.
... Echter vanuit musea dan wel het Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau wordt niet tot nauwelijks in kaart gebracht wat bezoekers met digitale middelen doen als zij het museum bezoeken. Deze data komen we wel tegen in studies van onder andere Tallon & Walker (2008), Hornecker & Stifter (2006), Roussou (2004), Pujol et al. (2013) en Hsi & Fait (2015). Het nadeel van deze studies is echter dat zij zich veelal baseren op één of enkele casestudies en slechts beperkt de doorvertaling maken naar concrete handvatten voor de tentoonstellingsmaker. ...
Research Proposal
In 'De tentoonstellingsmaker van de 21ste eeuw' richten we ons op een aspect dat de laatste jaren steeds dominanter is geworden in het werk van tentoonstellingsmakers in musea: het bieden van een bezoekersbeleving oftewel het inspireren en raken van bezoekers. Dit als aanvulling op de taakstelling van musea om een inhoudelijke boodschap over te brengen (informeel leren). Tentoonstellingsmakers geven aan meer gevalideerde kennis nodig te hebben om goede afwegingen te kunnen maken in het creëren van de bezoekersbeleving en om de feitelijke bezoekersbeleving te kunnen evalueren. Vragen die ook bij betrokken bureaus voor ontwerp en realisatie leven, omdat reflectie op ontwerpkeuzes en hoe deze uitpakken er vaak bij inschiet tijdens de realisatie van museale projecten. Uit gesprekken met al deze partijen is een overkoepelende vraag geformuleerd: Hoe kan ik als tentoonstellingsmaker meer onderbouwde afwegingen maken in het bieden van een bezoekersbeleving zodat bezoekers meer leren over de inhoud van de tentoonstelling én geïnspireerd en geraakt worden? De vraag is natuurlijk hoe een beoogde bezoekersbeleving te realiseren is in een tentoonstelling. In De tentoonstellingsmaker van de 21ste eeuw bouwen we voort op drie eerdere projecten die we met musea en tentoonstellingsmakers hebben gedaan: het RAAK-project Museumkompas, het project Designing ExperienceScapes en een studie naar de regeling Digitale Innovatie in Musea. Met de opgedane inzichten en ervaring in die projecten worden experimenten gedaan bij vier deelnemende musea naar aspecten die tentoonstellingsmakers, vanuit zowel musea als ontwerp- en designbureaus, aangeven als belangrijke sturingsmogelijkheden van de bezoekersbeleving: publieksparticipatie, verhalen vertellen, inzet van digitale media, en sfeer. Een kring van andere deelnemende musea zal de opgedane kennis verder toepassen en valideren. De tentoonstellingsmaker van de 21ste eeuw levert zo reproduceerbare kennis waarmee tentoonstellingsmakers van de 21ste eeuw onderbouwde keuzes kunnen maken in het sturen op het inspireren en raken van bezoekers oftewel de bezoekersbeleving.
... Within the design studies related to interactive public displays (IPDs), most efforts have been made on elaborating design principles, interface exploration and evaluation methods (M€ uller et al. 2010;Alt et al. 2012;Elhart et al. 2015). There have also been many case studies for specific contexts such as working environments, classrooms, urban space and museums (Beyer, Binder and Butz 2014; Kharrufa et al. 2013;Hsi and Fait 2005). These applications were designed with various purposes such as efficiency improvement, entertainment, advertising and exhibition. ...
Article
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Positive peer relationship in nursing homes is an important component of residents’ life quality. However, social interaction between residents is found to be limited, and their relationships are difficult to establish. In past decades, conventional social interventions have changed very little and had limitations. Although many studies have proved that interactive public displays (IPD) can socially connect people in one community, designing for nursing homes is challenging due to the lack of supported knowledge. This report outlines the ongoing research that investigates how to design appropriate IPD to enhance residents’ social interaction and wellbeing. Research-through-Design is adopted to generate knowledge through an iterative process of developing experimental systems in a real-life setting. The preliminary findings confirmed our hypothesis that IPD could positively influence residents’ social behaviour and feelings. The key is not to push the complexity of technology, but to comply with their current habits, preferences and reduce related barriers.
... Concernant la détection des blocs constituant le totem, 2 https://www.phidgets.com/ nous envisageons l'utilisation d'un système RFID (Radio Frequency Identification, voir p.ex. [12]), en utilisant un système comme RFIBricks [13], Sifteo [20] ou Luminos [3] pour gérer l'empilement. ...
Conference Paper
Museums today are competing with the entertainment industry to attract visitors. Personalizing museum visits, depending on visitors' preferences, is one possible solution for making museums more attractive. Based on an analysis of the needs of museums professionals, we have designed five storyboards of interactions which allow a group of visitors to select a personalized tour based on their characteristics and desires. Based on this analysis and the related work, we have identified twelve requirements to evaluate these solutions. We then designed a low-fidelity prototype which we call "personalization totem", which allows members of the group to specify their individual characteristics and then collaboratively choose the characteristics common to the group.
... The "environment" is mostly outdoors Randell, Phelps & Rogers, 2003;Rogers et al., 2004) but it may also be indoor, such as in museums ( Vavoula et al., 2009), or a combination of both ( Rogers et al., 2005). "Mobile learning" is usually used to refer to the inclusion of mobile phones in the classroom ( Cabrera et al., 2005;Grasso & Roselli 2005;Hsi & Fait, 2005), while "location-based learning" started being used around and after the widespread adoption of smartphones for learning (Chou & Chanlin, 2014;Heimonen et al., 2013). ...
Article
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Este trabajo explora la combinación del aprendizaje formal e informal junto con los principios de los medios locativos; hemos observado el potencial de este tipo específico de medios para reforzar y expandir los objetivos de aprendizaje fuera del tiempo de clase, dotando a los estudiantes de actitudes de aprendizaje permanente. Presentamos los hallazgos y las observaciones sobre cómo una clase de estudiantes de licenciatura utilizó medios locativos por primera vez para aprender acerca de los efectos de la segregación espacial en un área específica desatendida de Austin, Texas (ee. uu.). Pedimos a los estudiantes que visitasen varios lugares y que produjesen historias multimedia centradas en la historia local. Los resultados del estudio muestran que el uso de medios locativos es altamente eficiente para fines de aprendizaje. Los estudiantes pueden experimentar el contenido aprendido en la clase en un entorno físico, lo que fomenta el ‘aprendizaje situado’, una teoría que utilizamos como marco teórico. Nuestros hallazgos también sugieren que, en lugar de la historia local o la historia en general, los problemas actuales de la sociedad, con un fuerte componente espacial, son más eficaces para involucrar a los estudiantes en la tarea fuera del aula. Por lo tanto, la segregación y la gentrificación se revelaron en este estudio como temas útiles para ser explorados y enseñados a través de los principios de los medios locativos.
... This technology is used in the collection and analysis of users' behavior and adoption of appropriate solutions to improve the efficiency of the organization of the exhibition space. RFID is used at the Cleveland Museum of Art [24], Science Museum The Exploratorium (San Francisco) [25], and in Russia the technology in this role was implemented at the exhibition of high technologies SMIT [26] in Moscow. ...
Chapter
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The article presents an analysis of the possibilities and limitations of the use of information and communication technologies, in particular the Internet of things as an effective tool for artistic and sociocultural practices in the context of transformations of cultural industries. It is revealed that such radical transformations lead to a change in the formats of cultural objects, their content and form. The prospects of technological development are analyzed and the framework of interdisciplinary research is set.
... Mobile technology has been largely employed to support visits to CH sites since its early stage [Ardito et al. * https://www.arduino.cc/ 2012c; Hsi and Fait 2005], as well as large screens of different types [Ardito et al. 2015a]. In many cases, visitors are provided with multimedia companions that try to improve the overall visitors' experience using audio, video and textual information [Barbieri et al. 2009;Kuflik et al. 2015]. ...
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The growing availability of smart objects is stimulating researchers to investigate the Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon from different perspectives. The potential of this technology is evident in different domains. In Cultural Heritage (CH), it may enhance access to CH collections, in order to ensure a more engaging visit experience and to increase the appropriation of CH content by visitors. So far, research on IoT has primarily focused on technical features of smart objects (e.g., how to program sensors and actuators), while there are very few approaches trying to facilitate the adoption of such a technology by end users. This lack limits the social and practical benefits of IoT; it creates barriers in all those usage scenarios where people would like to define the behavior of smart objects but they might not have the required programming skills. This is becoming evident in CH sites, where different stakeholders would benefit from managing ecosystems of interoperable smart objects to create enhanced visit experiences. This article presents a visual composition paradigm that allows non-programmers to synchronize the behavior of smart objects, thus determining more engaging user experiences. It discusses how the paradigm suites the need of curators and guides of CH sites to define smart visit experiences through which visitors can acquire CH content by interacting with the surrounding environment and the smart objects included in it. A serious game designed with professional guides of CH sites is used as a case study to show the potential of the presented approach.
... Common reasons for exclusion of records included studies not being based on cases presenting original data; for example, many were system development or presentation papers that did not present any results on visitor movement. See, for example, Hsi and Fait (2005) for a presentation of a system based on radio frequency identification (RFID), and Finkel, Harwood, Gaunt, and Antig (2014) for a system developed for tracking visitor movement based on wireless fingerprinting. Other studies were excluded upon closer investigation as they were not set in physical museum settings, being located in virtual museums (e.g., Sookhanaphibarn & Thawonmas, 2009) or experimental settings (e.g., Šolić, Rožić, & Radić, 2010). ...
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... Mystery and treasure-hunting [8,15] as well as problem solving tasks have the potential to engage, entertain and scaffold visitors' learning through museum contexts [3,10,34,37,44]. While on one hand, the use of mobile devices to enhance and enrich museum visits has a long history [4,9,18,21,27,30,31,40], the idea that interactive playful mobile experiences can play an equal role alongside the learning mission of most museums is a more recent approach. Stories and games can boost the learning goals of the museum, while enhancing the playful aspects of the visit. ...
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While gaming and storytelling are considered to be common approaches to engage audiences with a museum’s collections, a formal comparison of the two has not been found in literature. While gaming and storytelling are considered to be common approaches to engage audiences with a museum’s collections, a formal comparison of the two has not been found in literature. In this paper, we present the design and comparative study of two distinct interventions, namely a mobile game and a mobile story that were designed to engage a young audience with the exhibit of the local natural history museum. Focusing on the same scientific content derived from the museum’s collection, we compare the effects of both interactive experiences on a group of children. When comparing engagement, enjoyment and learning outcomes, we correlate results with data derived from observations and skin conductance biofeedback. The data collected so far suggest that children are 27% more excited when using the game application compared with the story driven one. Moreover, we find that children’s excitement peaks when encountering selected artefacts presented in the museum exhibit. Finally, children’s learning nearly doubled (44%) when using the game based experience versus the story. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of our findings and by proposing potential future improvements.
... Despite intense research interest in the use of mobile technologies to support museum visits [1,[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], little research in mobile learning has focused on family groups. The family is a museum visitor group with particular characteristics, including a Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. ...
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This paper presents the development and evaluation of a mobile app for families visiting a science museum in Thailand. The app was designed to help adults in family groups to support children's learning during the visit while learning about new science concepts and ideas themselves. The design of the app was based on a family learning needs analysis study. The evaluation focused on the impacts of the app on family learning outcomes and on family engagement with exhibits. Findings suggest that the app (a) significantly increased family dwell time, (b) provided an additional platform for family interactions, and (c) amplified learning outcomes.
... Museums are becoming hubs where children can experience various kinds of entertainment while they enrich their knowledge and solve challenges by themselves [12]. While the use of mobile devices to enhance and enrich museum visits has a long history [4,7,14,16,18,20,21,29], the idea that entertainment and gaming can play an equal role alongside with the learning mission of most museums is a more recent approach. Museums are recognized as a fertile arena for the gamification challenge [27]. ...
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... Early applications worked with personal digital assistants (PDAs), which were equipped with location-awareness capabilities [5][6][7]. Solutions based on RFID tags [8] or IrDA beacons [9] placed near to every point of interest along the cultural path within the exhibition were investigated to further integrate context-awareness capabilities [10]. Since the context data generated through the interaction between visitors (equipped with smartphones, tablets, etc.) and artworks (equipped with sensors) continuously evolves, a recent challenge has been the design of systems able to handle and take advantage of such a large amount of data [11]. ...
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... These applications started with the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) provided with very simple locationawareness capabilities [8]- [10]. Subsequently, scientists made a great effort to provide cultural guides with contextawereness capabilities [11], by exploiting, for instance, RFID tags [12] or IrDA beacons [13] placed near to Figure 3: Overview of the three modules involved in the proposed system architecture. At the two extremes, on the left the input modality for the visitor and on the right the hologram-like result of the process. ...
... s information and communication technology has become more important in society, many researchers have been concerned with how to use technology to support communication between people and improve interactions between people, technology and objects [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. There has, however, been no framework that has helped technology designers and developers to consider all of the possible interactions that occur at the same time and in the same place although there have been projects concerned with how to use technology to support some of these interactions. ...
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This paper focuses on the development and validation of a general interaction framework to help design technology to support communication between people and improve interactions between people, technology and objects, particularly in complex situations. A review of existing interaction frameworks shows that none of them help technology designers and developers to consider all of the possible interactions that occur at the same time and in the same place. The main and sub-components of the framework are described and explained and examples are given for each type of interaction. The framework was successfully validated by three designer experts and three accessibility experts. The designer experts focused on the main and subcomponents of the framework while accessibility experts focused on the accessibility aspects. As a result of the comments from the experts some changes to the framework components will be made. Work is now in progress to provide designers with a method to apply the framework to create technology solutions to complex communication and interaction problems and situations.
... Researchers have used a variety of measurement strategies to capture the levels of nuanced interactions that exist between family members as they engage with an informal learning environment. Some of the most popular methods include observations, timing and tracking, pre-post test measures, audio recording, video recording and most recently, tracking log files from computer interactive experiences and usage patterns through sensors embedded in the exhibit environments (Borun, 2002;Crowley & Callanan, 1998;Falk, 1991;Hsi & Fait, 2005;Serrell, 1997). Researchers have also explored the impact of exhibit design and use of signage to facilitate or hinder collaborative family learning (Allen, 2004;Borun, 2002;Borun, Chambers, Dristas, & Johnson, 1997). ...
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Some sensing networks for ubiquitous computing
  • W Brunette
  • J Lester
  • A Rea
  • G Borriello
Brunette, W., Lester, J., Rea, A., and Borriello, G. Some sensing networks for ubiquitous computing. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (Los Angeles, Apr. 25–27). ACM Press, NY, 2005, 388–392.