Let’s begin with the ones we expect to make the biggest impact this year:

1. Immersive Technologies

As demand for a more and more realistic visitor experience increases, we’ve seen immersive technologies explode: virtual reality (read our article on VR here), augmented reality, mixed reality, 3D sound, and the list goes on…

Google Cardboard, Project Tango and others, like Microsoft Hololens, promise to make 2016 one of the most innovative years yet. Far from simply being gadgets, these technologies foster an ever more impressive user experience, taking storytelling to a whole new level.

2. Indoor Positioning Systems

In 2015, we saw an influx of iBeacon and Bluetooth Low Energy devices of all kinds. Initially, these technologies promised to revolutionize indoor positioning, with contextualized content, long battery life, limited maintenance, and ease of use… all at a relatively low cost.

As many sites today can now tell you, in practice, the experience is more complicated than anticipated. Installing beacons isn’t just a matter of taking them out of the box and distributing them around the site. They have to be set up with specific software and services if you really want to get the most out of their features, which has left many people feeling rather disappointed. To date, the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of a beacon is typically higher than originally expected.

Even so, beacon technology continues to expand; which is how the Eddystone standard recently came to be. With the market as competitive as it is, we can expect to see a lot more innovation in this area, which will lead to more complete offerings and better performance.

Aside from beacons, other indoor positioning technologies requiring less infrastructure are likely to develop. Experimentation is currently underway. We’ll be sure to tell you more soon ;-)

3. Collaborative Storytelling

A trend toward collaborative activities at heritage sites has already started to appear and we expect the trend to grow even more in the future. Collaborative storytelling invites passionate individuals involved with museums and heritage sites to come together and create a story together, whether they are teachers, students, experts, tour guides, docents or visitors. This approach allows access to multiple points of view, making it possible to reach all types of visitors.

Here at GuidiGO, we piloted a similar project ourselves last year (entitled “Viewing Angles”) bringing together no less than 17 cultural sites and over 400 students and educators.

4. Digital Content

There’s nothing new about content digitalization. What is new, however, is that digital content is becoming more and more open access, which is another contributing factor to the increase in storytelling and collaboration. The possibility of sharing makes it more appealing to digitize content, so we expect to see a virtuous cycle develop where users are producing and sharing more of their own content.

As more content becomes accessible, new uses for it are likely to emerge, whether you’re preparing for your visit in advance, or wanting to relive the highlights of your visit after the fact. Take Coopers Hewitt and MOMA, for example. Those who are unable to visit sites in person will be able to take part in immersive experiences remotely; virtual reality will allow students to visit museums on the other side of the world, and Twitterbots will make the museum experience ubiquitous.

The quantity of information available to us will continue to increase at an exponential rate, thanks to the democratization and diversification of the tools we now have at our fingertips: 3D scanners, 360° cameras and videos, aerial images taken from drones, and more.

5. From Wearables Technology to Connected Devices

Born in 2014, the wearable market took a break in 2015 – at least in our field. Today, Google and its subsidiary, Nest, seem to be exploring new uses for Google Glass, though they have not yet announced an official release date.

GuidiGO has been a “Glass at work” partner from the beginning. We were impressed by the impact this technology could have on cultural interpretation. During our experiments – at the Keith Haring exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, then at Velazquez and Picasso.mania at the Grand Palais in Paris – thousands of users shared our enthusiasm and told us they’d love to relive the experience at future exhibits.

Nevertheless, the break Google has taken with Glass shows their desire to improve on the technology before making it accessible to the wider public.

Today, smart watches are all the rage – they sprouted up like mushrooms under our Christmas trees this year. Smart watches are certainly great for very specific uses like real time notifications, performance tracking, and collecting health data. But in our field, these tools have not yet found their utility, as they aren’t yet capable of providing a compelling visitor experience in and of themselves.

However, wearable technology isn’t limited to watches and glasses. As confirmed at the latest CES, wearable technology will soon be everywhere, and sensors could soon make different levels of interactivity possible for visitors.

★ What’s next?…

Let’s leave 2016 behind for a moment and look even further… we can already count on two more trends:

Smart Personalization

When Big Data and Artificial Intelligence come together, museums and heritage sites will be able to offer uniquely personalized guided visits. The visit will be tailor-made based on the individual’s profile (his or her tastes, visit history, activity on social media, etc.) and on data sent from sensors placed throughout the site to capture position, popular areas, temperature, sound levels, and more.

It will then be possible to orient an art lover toward works most likely to interest him or her, right at the moment when conditions would be most pleasant; or to invite parents to explore a city as a family, using a treasure hunt that’s been adapted to the age of their children.

Pervasive and Invisible Apps

Today we talk about apps that are compatible with iOS and Android. Tomorrow, we’ll probably talk about apps being compatible with Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, Google Maps, and the list goes on. In the near future, mono usage and daily usage apps seem destined to fuse into one. Many interfaces are likely to move toward a card system which aggregates content from multiple sources in one place. A few attempts at this have already made an appearance, such as the Discover feature on Snapchat, or Uber on Messenger.

So there you have it. It’s time for our little journey into the future to come to an end. We’ll meet you back here in a few months to see how well our predictions hold up!

This exhibition will be the first of its kind, not only because Velázquez has never been featured in an exhibition in France before but also because visitors can experience it in a completely new way, through Google Glass.

With 2 million visitors a year, the Grand Palais is one of the leading exhibition venues in Europe. The Grand Palais selected GuidiGO’s innovative storytelling platform to offer a groundbreaking experience to its visitors. The first beta testers have already described their experience as “mind-blowing”. The content was created by Acoustiguide who leveraged all the unique features available on GuidiGO for Glass.

Through GuidiGO’s image recognition feature, when approaching a painting, contextual audio and visual content appears on Glass, guiding the visitor’s eye to the relevant parts of the artwork. Content is dynamic and enriches the visitor’s discovery of the painting without being intrusive.

Augmented reality effects help deepen the visitor’s understanding of the artwork by zooming in on hidden details not easily visible or noticeable to the eye. Other painting images may appear in the viewing field so that the visitor can benefit from context, compare or learn more about the actual exhibit. In addition, several video footages from the curator bring insight and perspective to help the visitor further understand the artist’s work.

Glass dims off automatically, allowing visitors to appreciate and connect with the artwork naturally. This specific feature is key, comments from Corine Barbazanges, Head of Marketing at GuidiGO.

“Our Glassware is designed to enrich the visitor experience instead of substituting it.”

GuidiGO is the first and only Glass certified partner for museums and over the last 9 months has led several pilot projects with Glass around the world. The most recent one was for the Keith Haring exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, earlier this year. The RMN Grand Palais decided the technology was ready to be made available to its visitors, after carrying out a pilot with the Niki de Saint-Phalle exhibition.

For visitors wishing to try this compelling experience during the Velázquez exhibition, Glass is available to rent for only 8 euros per visit. You don’t need to be tech savvy; if you know how to use a smartphone, you will be walking through the exhibit after a couple of minutes, hands free, and forget you are even wearing Glass.

David Lerman, CEO of GuidiGO, concludes:

“We believe this new visitor experience will become mainstream and we are thrilled to play a key part in this evolution. Every museum and cultural institution in the world can provide this innovative user experience to its visitors by using the GuidiGO platform. Museums no longer need to worry about the technology and can focus on what matters most: sharing the best stories with their visitors.”

Velázquez Exhibition – Grand Palais, Paris – 25 March to 13 July 2015

To make this stunning experience possible, the team at the Fine Arts Museums selected the new version of GuidiGO Studio that now integrates beacons/ Bluetooth LE technology and Augmented Reality effects. The Fine Arts Museums also partnered with Antenna International^TM who produced the content using the GuidiGO platform.

Visitors can now walk around the gallery and immerse themselves into Keith Haring’s universe through fascinating historical content about his life and work. When approaching a particular artwork, contextual audio and visual content appears automatically on Glass. Augmented reality effects help to deepen the visitor’s understanding of the artwork by zoning in on hidden details not easily visible or noticeable to the eye.

David Lerman, CEO of GuidiGO, explained: “Wearing Glass as you visit the gallery is like embarking on a journey through time, with visual archives, contextual music and testimonials. Within minutes, visitors completely forget they are even wearing Glass, as the screen subtly turns on only when needed, revealing stories within artwork.”

Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, said: “As an institution located in a cradle of technological innovation, the Fine Arts Museums are pleased to participate in an initiative that provides models for a deeper engagement with the collections and exhibitions under our care. We’re excited to incorporate this pilot multimedia tour into our broader educational mission.”

David Falter, President and CEO of Antenna International said: “GuidiGO’s platform was easy and flexible to work with and in combination with our content, created this amazing Glass experience. We see great potential for producing stunning immersive tours in museums”.

To try it out, visitors need to have access to Glass and to activate the GuidiGO Glassware. They can then get the tour “Keith Haring: The Political Line” by registering here.

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Exhibition Keith Haring: The Political Line, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, December 2nd – February 16th.

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Download the Press Kit

Glass Explorers, you can experience the new exhibition Keith Haring: The Political Line through Glass at the de Young Museum December 2nd through February 16th. GuidiGO has created a phenomenal tour featuring 19 pieces from the exhibition, all with additional content by Antenna International^TM delivered through Glass.

Head to Golden Gate Park!

See full details below

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDIGO HARING TOUR
Sign up now to access instructions and to download the tour. The latest OS is required for the app to run smoothly. We also recommend bringing a mono earbud to enjoy the audio content.

EXHIBITION INFORMATION
Location and museum hours
Please note that the exhibition contains certain artworks that are mature in nature; some artwork contains violent, sexual, and/or political content. http://deyoung.famsf.org/haring

Artwork with additional content will be marked with a Glass tag

SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE
#PoliticalHaring @deyoungmuseum #throughglass @GuidiGO_app

PROVIDE FEEDBACK ON THE TOUR
After your visit, the de Young will email a link to their survey. We kindly ask that you take a few minutes to provide feedback. Your thoughts will help us improve the GuidiGO experience on Glass. The de Young will only use your email once for this purpose.

Museums that wish to offer a Glass experience – the way they would rent an audio tour – only need to buy Glass and activate the GuidiGO Glassware. By not having to build their own Glassware, museums save time and money, and can focus on their core activity.

Designed to be non-intrusive and hands-free, GuidiGO uses image recognition to identify unique works of art and display additional relevant content (audio, video and images), while visual cues allow visitors to discover what is invisible to the naked eye.

GuidiGO already has 250 guided tours in 27 destinations ready for Glass, from the Impressionist history of Montmartre, to the magic of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, and the hidden secrets of San Francisco!

“GuidiGO is reinventing guided tours, and effectively replacing audio guides,” said David Lerman, the CEO of GuidiGO. “It’s like having a personal human guide with you all the time. A unique experience that’s only possible with GuidiGO for Glass.”

GuidiGO’s glassware required more than 500 man-days to develop, including prototyping with two major museums on the West Coast – an Art Museum and a Science Center.

“Glass Rooms”, an educational program to help museums migrate to Glass

To help Museums and cultural institutions migrate their content to Glass, GuidiGO will launch this summer the “Glass Rooms” educational program with free webinars, workshops, and personalized customer support.

“GuidiGO will also provide assistance to Museums and cultural institutions that would like to offer Glass to their visitors, on an on-going basis or just as a one-off event,” added Lerman.

If you’re a Glass Explorer, this new tab gives you access to the QR code of your tour. Just scan it, and you’ll be able to test your tour inside the GuidiGO glassware!

Google just announced that it has selected GuidiGO for its Glass at Work program. Museums and cultural institutions who wish to offer Glass to their visitors, now have access to a turnkey solution.

This cutting edge solution enhances the visitor’s connection to artwork with amazing, multidimensional storytelling, bringing the museum experience to a whole new level.

Over the last 6 months GuidiGO has conducted several successful pilot programs with two major museums on the West Coast – an Art Museum and a Science Center, working closely with curators, education and visitor departments to create the most advanced intuitive Glassware.

A revolutionary experience for museum visitors

Designed to be nonintrusive, GuidiGO for Glass offers a revolutionary learning experience for museum visitors, without interfering with the works of art. Images and videos automatically appear at the most appropriate times during the narrative audio, visual cues allow them to discover what is invisible to the naked eye, image recognition identifies the artwork and automatically launches the right content. In addition to image recognition, GuidiGO for Glass provides indoor navigation and positioning, enabling visitors to enjoy a tour without worrying about where to go next… and, of course, totally, hands free!

“GuidiGO Glassware is not just a variation of the smartphone and tablet application” points out Damjan Stankovic, Head of User Experience at GuidiGO, “We have completely redesigned our solution to take advantage of Glass features and the specific needs of visitors. Via our platform, and with no technical skills, every museum and cultural site can now easily publish their existing content, automatically optimized for Glass.”

Create immersive guided tours for Glass at the speed of light

Indeed, one of GuidiGO’s major strengths is that it offers any cultural institution the opportunity to create immersive guided tours for Glass at the speed of light. GuidiGO Studio, the online publication tool, assembles existing content – audio, images, videos, maps – and avoids lengthy and costly technological creation and development.

“The museums that participated in our pilot program were surprised, not only by the ease of use of GuidiGO Studio, but also by the autonomy that it gives them,” continues David Lerman, CEO of GuidiGO. “Being able to test out a tour which has just been created, directly, in the Galleries, and then tweak it again and retest it, in less than 15 minutes, provides a productivity edge that has impressed the museum management and their teams.”

The new voice command “Start a tour”, specifically requested by GuidiGO, will now appear alongside the already famous “Take a picture” and “Get Directions”.
GuidiGO will soon be available through MyGlass. This means museums and cultural sites will be able to access the Glass technology and make it available to their visitors without writing a single line of code.

“One of our main objectives is to make art and culture more appealing to the greatest number of people,” says David Lerman. “We believe that GuidiGO for Glass can contribute to this greatly by giving museums and cultural sites the ability to offer more emotions to their visitors.”

Museums and cultural sites who wish to make their tours available for Glass Explorers can do so, free of charge, with a standard plan. Museums wishing to offer Glass to their visitors can choose from various licensing options.

With the technological possibilities available today, there’s definitely room for improvement.

This is what inspired GuidiGO to create an audio and visual software specifically designed for Google Glass in the museum context. A hands-free device you wear like eyeglasses and that provides you with synchronized visual and audio information on artwork seen. Free from external distractions or obligations, the visitor is now free to just enjoy the museum experience.

Just a couple of days ago we tested the tailor-made GuidiGO software or, more appropriately, Glassware at de Young Museum of San Francisco with a group of happy volunteers. The GuidiGO team was most proudly participating in the audiovisual guided tour experience!

This was the first time ever in history that more than 30 Google Glass devices were gathered together at the same place, at the same time, and all of them running the same GuidiGO Glassware.

So what should you expect from a museum tour experience with GuidiGO for Glass and how exactly does it work?

Glad you asked. Above all, we wanted to create an audio and visual guided tour that neither altered your relationship with the artwork nor your museum experience as a whole.

The de Young Museum Experiment

At de Young Museum, the actual hands-on experiment was exhilarating. Half of the participants were Google explorers who owned their own Glass and half were users handling Glass for the very first time. The ones who’d been initiated elsewhere, and already appreciated the Glass experience, became “new” users once again in situ. On a real high, they were all thrilled to be a part of an exceptional and unique experience.

Since GuidiGO for Glass is a Stand Alone Device, the participants didn’t need their smartphones or a WiFi network connection for that matter. They also didn’t have to lug around a heavy phone-type device around their neck.

With the Glassware’s simple 4-step Tutorial, it took new users only about 10 seconds before they had a good grasp of device controls. After these initial few minutes of adjustment, everyone gradually became so connected to their experience that some had even forgotten all about the device posed atop their noses, leaving only the artwork in the spotlight.

Thanks to the Image Recognition System the users could simply enjoy their time at de Young Museum and weren’t bogged down with the constant number searching and keying a traditional device demands. Needless to say, this hands-free function was a huge hit among participants. And why wouldn’t it be? It offers such freedom of movement that everyone is naturally immersed all the way their museum experience, pristine and undisturbed.

The device is also Gallery Friendly because voice control has been purposely left out of the Glassware, so no worries for noise disturbance during the tour either.

For us, it was satisfying to see that none of the participants had any problems finding their way around the museum rooms, thus confirming the efficiency of the built-in Assisted Navigation System. Ordinarily the chances that a user would get lost in a given museum are unlikely considering the system’s indoor map and real navigation with indoor positioning thanks to iBeacon (bluetooth LE), now supported by Google Glass.

Finally, it was easy to see that the participants weren’t locked down by the GuidiGO Glassware during the de Young experiment and were able to stay in contact with their entourage and even converse freely during their tour.

Offering a brand spanking new approach to experiencing museums and galleries, GuidiGO for Glass is the ultimate museum buddy. Without a shadow of a doubt the developments we’re making today are paving the way to a new generation of art and cultural heritage mediation!

Main Takeaways of the Live Test

First of all, it feels and looks invisible. That’s right folks, you heard me straight. It’s exactly what Astro Teller, the Google X boss, said in the recent TechCrunch Disrupt Conference in New York. For technology to work better, we need to get it out of the way! Granted there should be an adjustment period of a few minutes where your nose gets used to the Google Glass sitting on it, but it was designed in such an unimposing way that it won’t be a pain to wear nor will it alter your museum experience. Nothing should come between you and the artwork.

Not only is the device comfortable to wear but it’s “comfortable” to use. With its no-frills and convenient design, the user will be able to navigate through the program and the museum like a pro in no time.

GuidiGO for Glass is also frictionless, meaning everything should be smooth sailing from the moment you put on the Google Glass until you take it off. We developed an “Exploring Mode” function which sets the device on a permanent ready-to-scan state which activates the image recognition option. You won’t need to have your finger swiping the Google Glass every single moment. Let the device do all the heavy lifting. Your job is to enjoy the ride.

To further ensure that interference is minimal during your experience, the synchronized audio and visual commentary is contextual and not always ON the whole time. When appropriate it’ll automatically turn itself ON, and all of this depending on the context. See it as an exhibition guardian angel of sorts. When you need help, it shall appear. Your museum experience will be as natural and unadulterated as it can be.

For authors, our app also allows for easy content update. Thanks to GuidiGO Studio, visual and audio tweaking of tour content is only an easy few clicks away. The content isn’t embedded but downloaded and processed in real-time, so changes submitted are immediately effective and visible.

For visitors on the other hand, not only should it be easy to use but the app shouldn’t feel burdensome in any which way, shape or form, to keep their experience intact and authentic.

With GuidiGO for Glass, the dark days of bothersome audioguides are over!