Seamless Personalized TV-like Presentations on Mobile and Stationary Devices in a Museum

Museums are noncompetitive environments where visitors are free to move around and learn concepts in connection to the objects exhibited. Presentations have to be engaging and rich. In this paper, we describe work aimed at a kind of contextualized tv-like presentation with the goal of making the museum visits more appealing in particular for young visitors. On the mobile device, personal video-clips are dynamically generated from personalized verbal presentations; on larger stationary screens distributed throughout the museum (so-called Virtual Windows), further background material and additional information is provided. A virtual presenter follows the visitors in their experience and provides advice on both types of devices and on the museum itself. Recent works have presented a multimedia mobile guides based on a cinematic metaphor. The language of cinematography, including shot segmentation, camera movements and transition effects, is employed in order to plan the animation and to synchronize the visual and the verbal parts of the presentation. In building the animations, a set of strategies similar to those used in documentaries were employed. Different methods to improve the usability of PDA, featuring small displays, by using them in combination with large displays have been presented. In this work, we have focused on automatically produced video-clips to be played on the small screen of the mobile device and using a life-like character either as an anchorman or a presenter. The life-like character plays the role of an accompanying agent, ready to move on the mobile device or to jump on the Virtual Windows, in order to provide continuous assistance and continuity to the presentation. The character helps in solving problems like how to reach a certain exhibit, and yielding explanations. User evaluations have shown that the introduction of a life-like character makes presentations more enjoyable and attractive (something that we regard as very important to keep younger visitors engaged). This work has been conducted in the context of PEACH project that has the objective of studying and experimenting with various advanced technologies that can enhance cultural heritage appreciation. Experimentations are carried on in Torre Aquila, a medieval tower in Trento, and in the premises of Völklingen Old Ironworks, a cultural heritage site dedicated to iron and steel industry in Saarbrücken