From Personalization to Adaptivity: Creating Immersive Visits through Interactive Digital Storytelling at the Acropolis Museum

Storytelling has recently become a popular way to guide museum visitors, replacing traditional exhibit-centric descriptions by story-centric cohesive narrations with references to the exhibits and multimedia content. This work presents the fundamental elements of the CHESS project approach, the goal of which is to provide adaptive, personalized, interactive storytelling for museum visits. We shortly present the CHESS project and its background, we detail the proposed storytelling and user models, we describe the provided functionality and we outline the main tools and mechanisms employed. Finally, we present the preliminary results of a recent evaluation study that are informing several directions for future work

A close look into the storytelling process: the procedural nature of interactive digital narratives as learning opportunity

Differently from traditional narratives, which focus on the output, i.e. the oral or written text, interactive digital narratives provide a more holistic view of the storytelling process, considering as integral part of it the system, the user, the process and the output. In this framework, the procedural nature of IDN as a reactive and generative system becomes prominent. Such an approach is particularly interesting when considering educational appli- cations of IDN and how they can support early literacy practices in pre-and primary school children. Here, we take a close look into the procedural nature of IDN, presenting observations and results from two pilot studies carried out with six to seven-years old children, arguing that interactive digital narratives can provide a window into (i) how the children plan their story, (ii) how, along the storytelling process, the children learn the rules and constraints provided by the IDN system, which they appropriate and incorporate in their storytelling to achieve a certain output, (iii) how the children empathize with the story characters, diving into the story world and (iv) how the system provides opportunities for mediating new knowledge in a meaningful way, which was visible e.g. in the way the children immediately appropriated and used the new conveyed vocabulary.This work has been financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program under the reference POCI/01/0145/FEDER/032580

Teenage Visitor Experience: Classification of Behavioral Dynamics in Museums

Teenagers' engagement in museums is much talked about but little research has been done to understand their behavior and inform design. Findings from co-design sessions with teenagers suggested they value games and stories when thinking about enjoyable museum tours. Informed by these findings and working with a natural history museum, we designed: a story-based tour (Turning Point) and a game-based tour (Haunted Encounters), informed by similar content. The two strategies were evaluated with 78 teenagers (15-19 years old) visiting the museum as part of an educational school trip. We assessed teenagers' personality in class; qualitative and quantitative data on their engagement, experience, and usability of the apps were collected at the museum. The triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data show personality traits mapping into different behaviors. We offer implications for the design of museum apps targeted to teenagers, a group known as difficult to reach

Analysis of the use of the technology in the museums: intelligent museums. Case studies in the city of Madrid

La cultura es un campo de oportunidades para las nuevas tecnologías, el reto está en conseguir una simbiosis positiva de ello y no acabar perturbando la experiencia cultural. En el estudio de esta relación cabe destacar como las tecnologías pueden afectar a la visita de un museo. El presente artículo analiza el papel actual de las nuevas tecnologías en los museos y el uso y aceptación de sus usuarios. A través de una revisión de la literatura sobre el empleo de las tecnologías en la actividad de los museos y la realización de una encuesta a los visitantes y algunos trabajadores del sector de los museos de la Comunidad de Madrid, nos permite afirmar un apoyo y atracción de los usuarios hacia las tecnologías y un amplio conocimiento de los avances tecnológicos. De esta atracción puede derivarse el incremento del uso de la tecnología en los museos y su rápida introducción.Culture is a field of opportunity for new technologies, the challenge is to achieve a positive symbiosis of this and not to end up disrupting the cultural experience. In the study of this relationship, it is worth noting how technologies can affect a museum visit. This article analyses the current role of new technologies in museums and the use and acceptance of their users. Through a review of the literature on the use of technologies in museum activities and a survey of visitors and some workers in the museum sector in the Community of Madrid, we are able to confirm that users support and are attracted to technologies and have a broad knowledge of technological advances. This attraction may lead to an increase in the use of technology in museums and its rapid introduction

Potencijalne primjene virtualne i proširene stvarnosti u arheologiji

Digitalna dokumentacija i virtualna 3D rekonstrukcija postaju standardni dio svakog arheološkog istraživanja. Digitalizacija arheološke dokumentacije, osim što ubrzava rad na terenu, otvara i nove mogućnosti prezentacije i vizualizacijenalaza i lokaliteta. Uz pomoć novih tehnologija kao što su virtualna i proširena stvarnost, moguće je na interaktivan i edukativan način rekonstruirati izgled nekog lokaliteta kroz različite periode u povijesti, pa i onaj njegov ''neopipljivi'', ali sastavni dio: njegovo stanovništvo, njihova zanimanja, svakodnevni život, društvene odnose ili religijske običaje. Vrijednost i korist virtualne i proširene stvarnosti za arheologiju mogu biti velike, kako u prezentaciji arheološke baštine široj javnosti i privlačenju veće publike u muzeje, tako i u lakšojvizualizaciji i testiranju hipoteza i teorija o formacijama i promjenama lokaliteta kroz vrijeme

Parallel exhibitions : empowering users to virtually and physically design customized museum exhibits

Digital content is ubiquitous in all parts of life today. In particular Web 2.0 technology changed the way of communication. It allows everybody to contribute to digital content and to reach a large audience. The possibility to contribute also has an effect on the desire to contribute to real world'' matters. At the same time an incredible amount of information is online accessible without any effort. In many cases this enables us to find specific information fast and without leaving our current location. This forces public knowledge places, like libraries or museums, to re-think their role as knowledge providers. These institutions have to become places of social interaction which provide meaningful collections of objects and information as well as space for creativity. Visiting a museum is a great experience. Seeing objects, which have texture and physical characteristics combined with the history and the story of the exhibit, is an adventure and beneficial for engagement with a certain topic. Museums store much more objects, than they can present. These exhibits are not accessible for the public and sometimes not even for research purposes. It is a challenging task for curators and museum professionals to select objects for a meaningful and appealing arrangement. Re-creating and re-arranging exhibits in museums is mostly prohibited for visitors, because shown exhibits are often one of a kind, expensive, or damageable. During the last decade museums build large databases to index their objects. In Parallel Exhibitions we make use of these databases to invite visitors to become co-curators in museums. We design and implemented an application, which allows museum visitors to contribute to the exhibition design. Curators can additionally include physical exhibition in the virtual interaction space to create a close relationship to other exhibits in the museum. To evaluate our concept and our application we conducted a field test in a museum as well as an online study. In addition we interviewed possible users and museums professionals. We observed a rich social interaction around our application in the field study and the studies confirm that visitors have an interest to contribute to exhibitions they are visiting, both locally and on social media

Virtual Guidance using Mixed Reality in Historical Places and Museums

Mixed Reality (MR) is one of the most disruptive technologies that shows potential in many application domains, particularly in the tourism and cultural heritage sector. MR using the latest headsets with the highest capabilities introduces a new visual platform that can change people’s visual experience. This thesis introduces a HoloLens-based mixed reality guidance system for museums and historical places. This new guidance form considers the inclusiveness of the necessary and optimised functionalities, visual and audio guiding abilities, essential roles of a guide, and the related social interactions in the real-time. A mixed reality guide, dubbed ‘MuseumEye’ was designed and developed for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, to overcome challenges currently facing the museum, e.g. lack of guiding methods, limited information signposted on the exhibits, lack of visitor engagement resulting in less time spent in the museum compared to other museums with similar capacity and significance. These problems motivated the researcher to conduct an exploratory study to investigate the museum environment and guiding methods by interviewing 10 participants and observing 20 visitors. ‘MuseumEye’ was built based on a literature review of immersive systems in museums and the findings of an exploratory study that reveals visitor behaviours and the nature of guidance in the museum. This project increased levels of engagement and the length of time visitors spend in museums, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in particular, using the mixed reality technology that provides visitors with additional visual, audio information and computer-generated images at various levels of details and via different media. This research introduces the guidelines of designing immersive reality guide applications using the techniques of spatial mapping, designing the multimedia and UI, and designing interactions for exploratory purposes. The main contributions of this study include various theoretical contributions: 1) creating a new form of guidance that enhances the museum experience through developing a mixed reality system; 2) a theoretical framework that assesses mixed reality guidance systems in terms of perceived usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, interactivity, the roles of a guide and the likelihood of future use; 3) the Ambient Information Visualisation Concept for increasing visitor engagement through better presenting information and enhancing communication and interaction between visitors and exhibits; and a practical contribution in creating a mixed reality guidance system that reshapes the museum space, enhances visitors’ experience and significantly increases the length of time they spend in the museum. The evaluation comprised of quantitative surveys (171 participants and 9 experts) and qualitative observation (51 participants) using MuseumEye in their tours. The results showed positive responses for all measured aspects and compares these to similar studies. The observation results showed that visitors who use MuseumEye spent four times the duration visitors spent without guides or with human guides in front of exhibited items. The quantitative results showed significant correlations between the measured constructs (perceived usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, multimedia and UI, interactivity) and the likelihood of future use when the roles of guide mediate the relations. Moreover, the ‘perceived guidance’ is the most influential construct on the likelihood of future use of MuseumEye. The results also revealed a high likelihood of future use, which ensures the sustainability of adopting mixed reality technology in museums. This thesis shows the potential of mixed reality guides in the museum sector that reshape the museum space and offers endless possibilities for museums and heritage sites

Virtual Guidance using Mixed Reality in Historical Places and Museums

Mixed Reality (MR) is one of the most disruptive technologies that shows potential in many application domains, particularly in the tourism and cultural heritage sector. MR using the latest headsets with the highest capabilities introduces a new visual platform that can change people’s visual experience. This thesis introduces a HoloLens-based mixed reality guidance system for museums and historical places. This new guidance form considers the inclusiveness of the necessary and optimised functionalities, visual and audio guiding abilities, essential roles of a guide, and the related social interactions in the real-time. A mixed reality guide, dubbed ‘MuseumEye’ was designed and developed for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, to overcome challenges currently facing the museum, e.g. lack of guiding methods, limited information signposted on the exhibits, lack of visitor engagement resulting in less time spent in the museum compared to other museums with similar capacity and significance. These problems motivated the researcher to conduct an exploratory study to investigate the museum environment and guiding methods by interviewing 10 participants and observing 20 visitors. ‘MuseumEye’ was built based on a literature review of immersive systems in museums and the findings of an exploratory study that reveals visitor behaviours and the nature of guidance in the museum. This project increased levels of engagement and the length of time visitors spend in museums, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in particular, using the mixed reality technology that provides visitors with additional visual, audio information and computer-generated images at various levels of details and via different media. This research introduces the guidelines of designing immersive reality guide applications using the techniques of spatial mapping, designing the multimedia and UI, and designing interactions for exploratory purposes. The main contributions of this study include various theoretical contributions: 1) creating a new form of guidance that enhances the museum experience through developing a mixed reality system; 2) a theoretical framework that assesses mixed reality guidance systems in terms of perceived usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, interactivity, the roles of a guide and the likelihood of future use; 3) the Ambient Information Visualisation Concept for increasing visitor engagement through better presenting information and enhancing communication and interaction between visitors and exhibits; and a practical contribution in creating a mixed reality guidance system that reshapes the museum space, enhances visitors’ experience and significantly increases the length of time they spend in the museum. The evaluation comprised of quantitative surveys (171 participants and 9 experts) and qualitative observation (51 participants) using MuseumEye in their tours. The results showed positive responses for all measured aspects and compares these to similar studies. The observation results showed that visitors who use MuseumEye spent four times the duration visitors spent without guides or with human guides in front of exhibited items. The quantitative results showed significant correlations between the measured constructs (perceived usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, multimedia and UI, interactivity) and the likelihood of future use when the roles of guide mediate the relations. Moreover, the ‘perceived guidance’ is the most influential construct on the likelihood of future use of MuseumEye. The results also revealed a high likelihood of future use, which ensures the sustainability of adopting mixed reality technology in museums. This thesis shows the potential of mixed reality guides in the museum sector that reshape the museum space and offers endless possibilities for museums and heritage sites