The aim of the application is to provide visitors with an end-to-end experience. Far from just something through which to buy and store museum tickets, the application maximizes the experience of the visit itself. The application literally accompanies the visitors through the expositions.
Thanks to the mobile audio guide, time spent just walking between the display cases is definitely over. Now one can read about each exhibit or listen to the interesting details that are added directly to the application by the experts of the National Museum. For each of the four, newly opened expositions, a guided tour is available. Together, more than 8 hours of speaking in Czech and English are ready for launch. Other language options will be offered in the future.
Visitors can also plan ahead, in the peace of their own homes, the route that best corresponds to their interests and time possibilities; and then, while on the visit, proceed at their own paces. The application will simply adapt to their needs, a fact certainly appreciated by teachers who are going to the museum with students.
“We promised the public that after the reconstruction of the National Museum we would continue the digital reconstruction, communicate with visitors using the most modern technologies, expand the experience of visiting the expositions and improve our visitors’ movement in our buildings. The application launched today is a significant step towards fulfilling this promise,” says the Director General of the National Museum, Michal Lukeš.
Equipped with the very popular and growing function of AR, or augmented reality, our app allows the possibility to see and experience the exhibits in their original environments. For example, a mobile phone with the application is simply aimed at the 22-meter long skeleton of the minke whale hanging from the ceiling of the museum, and the application immediately wraps it in flesh and skin, giving one the impression that one is in the middle of the ocean. The augmented reality plugin we have integrated into the application was created by More.is.More studio. It is the first such implementation in the Czech Republic and a unique cooperation between two technology companies.
“Developing an application that links history with the latest technological trends has been both a joy and a challenge,” says Lukáš Strnadel, our CEO at Futured. One of the challenges mentioned was, for example, indoor navigation, which significantly facilitates orientation in the area and guides the visitors through their preferred routes. “Indoor navigation works on the so-called BLE (Bluetooth Low-Energy) Beacon, which is a technology used by low-energy Bluetooth transmitters transmitting information to mobile devices. These small transmitters placed in selected locations allow you to locate the user even without GPS. There are more than a thousand of them spread around the building, making it the largest implementation in the Czech Republic,” Lukáš adds.
One of the priorities was also to facilitate accessibility to the museum, making it easier to use, for example, for older people by enlarging text, or through other augmentations for people with impaired vision, hearing, cognition and movement.
The great added value of the application is that it is ready for expansion into other institutions run by the National Museum, such as the Czech Museum of Music or the Thimble Museum. Another important feature is an administration which allows the team at the National Museum to independently manage and update the content for visitors.
The inspiration for the application came from several sources, including the Rijskmuseum in the Netherlands, the Art Institute of Chicago, the American Museum of Natural History and MoMa in New York.
From 31. 3. 2022 visitors can download the application for free for both iOS and Android devices.
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We can create a successful application for you as well.
Write to Lukáš, founder & CEO of Futured:
[email protected] & +420 605 312 459
