Fusion of multimedia and mobile technology in audioguides for museums and exhibitions

Abstract

This chapter introduces software developments targeting visitors in museums. The main idea leading to these projects is to implement low cost systems that would provide visitors with informational contents about paintings, artworks, etc. The first application was achieved by means of a system that sends a multimedia content (images, audio and texts) to a visitor’s mobile phone, when the mobile phone is in communication range of a Bluetooth transmitter. The second application is an authoring tool that does not require any software development skill. Curators can set up easily and quickly contents for the visitors. Experiments took place in a Marine Park, where more than 200 contents had been developed. It is a web-based system. On smartphone side, HTML5, JavaScript, and Ajax technologies enable us to target a wide range of devices. In the last part of the chapter, these two approaches are compared, and also, taking into account the experiences, some new opportunities of developments are declared. In the last part of the chapter we compare these two approaches and we also open some new opportunities of developments taking into account our experiences.