Virtual Assistants for the Cultural Heritage Domain

Abstract

Virtual assistants and similar software tools are gaining importance among phone and computer users. The most well-known assistants (Siri, Cortana, Google, etc.) provide general information to users and cannot be adapted to specific needs. Custom implementations usually cover specific domains and are specialized to provide a comprehensive set of information or functionalities from that area. Currently, there is a lack of general applications for cultural heritage, since most implementations are specialized virtual guides for museums or exhibitions. We present an overview of virtual assistants that we developed and are applied to the area of cultural and natural heritage, where we try to improve the current shortage of tools. The presented prototypes provide various functionalities to users and can help them to discover, learn and plan visits to cultural sights.