This system aims to guide the visitor through a museum via an interactive map.
The Museum Guide aims to take advantage of the near-ubiquity of mobile devices to create a rich museum touring guide that escorts the user during their visit to a museum.
Visitors improve their experience through:
QR Code Identification
Each accessible building area as well as each individual exhibit within the museum, have been assigned to a unique QR Code. Through the use of their device’s built-in camera, users can inform the application of their current location or identify an exhibit they may be interested in and extract further related information.
A fully interactive map that supports touch-enabled zooming and panning functions is provided. Users may select any Point of Interest on the map and gain access to more details.
If they wish to ask for a route to a different location within the museum, they can simply state the starting and the ending point, and the application will calculate the most convenient path and display it on the map, including instructions where the floor level may need to change.
Guided Tours
The application’s touring feature currently allows visitors to select from a set of predefined tours, from short to extensive, depending on how much time they wish to spend.
A tour is passively location aware; by asking the user to confirm their location in a room, it paces itself and displays the correct information for every step.
When a user states his location, the map centers to the respective room and virtual pin that correspond to the exhibits that belong to the selected tour are displayed to facilitate their detection in the physical room.
If the user decides to deviate from the predefined route either physically or just on the device, the application will comply, supplying any requested content along the way; in addition, it offers the options to either return the user and pick up from the last visited point, or simply continue from the nearest not yet visited one that belongs to the tour.
