Abstract:

We present ARCHIE, a research project which aims to discover how handheld guides can be used as powerful instruments to enhance the visitor's learning experience. Although mobile devices are becoming a common aid to support a museum visit, they often lead to an individualized experience. However, most people do not visit a museum alone, and recent research has pointed out that social interaction is a prerequisite for an intensified and improved learning process. To accommodate the shortcomings in many of the current solutions, we are designing a platform that enables us to create a socially-aware handheld guide that stimulates interaction between group members. They can communicate with each other either directly (by voice) or indirectly (by collaborative games) by means of their mobile guides. Besides the aforementioned communication possibilities, handheld guides can also provide a way to present per- sonalized content. By using a personal profile, it is possible to adapt the interface and tailor the information to the needs and interests of every visitor. The combination of personalized content and interfaces, communication channels between visitors in the same group and support for localization might lead to an innovative mobile guide that integrates with the museum as well as with other visitors. Our platform enables social, and, in many cases, playful interactions with other visitors in the same group. At the same time the context-awareness (proximity and personalization) increases the involvement of the visitor with the content presented in the museum.