The American Museum of Natural History, in New York, offers a great example of how museums and other cultural institutions can use the iPhone and other smart-phone devices to help patrons navigate collections and learn about exhibits.
Its new iPhone application, AMNH Explorer, gives visitors access to customized tours of the museum and provides turn-by-turn directions to specific points of interest and to restrooms. For visitors who don’t have iPhones, the museum lends them for free.
You can learn more about the application by watching the preview video above.
The social-media Web site Mashable notes that other museums—notably the Brooklyn Museum, in New York, and the Graphic Design Museum, in the Netherlands—have iPhone apps. But it praises the American Museum of Natural History’s for the depth of its application.
“This is by far the most robust we’ve seen,” writes Lauren Indvik, a Mashable assistant editor. “We’re especially impressed that the museum is ensuring that the technology is available to everyone.”
What are some other ways that museums and other cultural institutions can use smartphones? Please comment below to share your thoughts.
0 Responses to Using Mobile Phones to Guide Museum Visitors
creativedella - August 2, 2010 at 9:59 am
The Muhammad Ali Center is using SCVNGR-www.scvngr.com. SCVNGR, a Google-ventures backed company, has partnered with over 600 institutions across the United States to better engage museum visitors by creating a highly interactive game through the museums. Recent partnerships include The Smithsonian and The High Museum of Art. The Muhammad Ali Center is very excited to partner with SCVNGR to bring this new tool to our visitor experience. To get a taste of SCVNGR in museums, click on the link to check out how much fun SCVNGR and The Smithsonian had: http://www.gosmithsonian.com/scvngr/
honorcraft - August 24, 2010 at 1:50 pm
How wonderful! I can’t wait to visit the museum and test out the new techonology. Another great application would be a donor recognition locator. I conduct donor recognition audits and catalog the physical location (condition, material, etc.) of each and every plaque in an institution. How great would it be to have a donor search app so that philanthropists can bring themselves to their plaque with ease? Please contact me for more info! rjamison@honorcraft.com or http://www.honorcraft.com