When museums think about remote immersive experiences, Virtual Reality (VR) is usually the first technology that comes to mind. While we have created VR experiences in the past – such as an entire exhibition for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History – VR did not seem to be the best fit in this instance. The education team’s brief included the following stipulations:

• Immersive life-size experience
• No application to download
• Usable instantly by anyone on any mobile device
• Compatible with computers and tablets
• Photorealistic rendering

Three years ago we would have replied: “Sorry, this is not possible.” But Mobile AR has changed the game and is now able to tick all these boxes.

When iOS and Android adopted .USDZ and .GLB formats in 2018, it became possible for more than one billion devices to display an AR experience directly inside a mobile browser.

• .GLB is a 3D file format that describes an object according to its surface, with meshes, materials and textures. .GLB is the bundled version of the .GLTF format which was established by the Khronos Group, and is supported by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Adobe.
• .USDZ is another 3D file format developed by Pixar and Apple. It’s the only AR file format compatible with Apple devices.

Let’s put it this way, .USDZ and .GLB files are to AR what .PDF files are to documents. They display 3D objects, in AR in your mobile browser (Chrome or Safari), in 3D in your computer browser (similar to Sketchfab).

If you would like to see for yourself what mobile AR looks like, try the following:

• On your mobile device, google one of these words: Tiger, Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Chauvet cave, or Tyrannosaurus.
• Tap the “view in 3D” icon, next to the relevant thumbnail.

More AR search examples are available here.

10 exhibits in 3 weeks to be AR ready

The NHMU Education Department requested this AR functionality for the beginning of the school year. Museum staff had already scanned their exhibits in photogrammetry, including a selection of paleontological items, bird skulls, and artifacts of Native American culture.

The GuidiGO AR team used GuidiGO Studio and AR Composer platform to quickly optimize the mesh and textures for Android and iOS devices and make sure the quality of the 3D models was consistent especially in low light environments.

We are thrilled with the result. Check it out for yourself by displaying the baby mammoth skeleton in your room! We are even more excited to hear about the impact of our work after receiving this kind note from Tracey Collins, Interim Director of Education at NHMU:

NHMU was thrilled to partner with GuidiGO to deliver such innovative science education and immersive learning experiences to 25,000 students in Utah this school year. We have received great feedback so far and are looking for new ways, Museum-wide, to incorporate AR functionality into all of our virtual opportunities.

To learn more about GuidiGO AR, visit www.guidigo.com/AR

Other example by GuidiGO – Tap on the image below on your mobile to discover this famous masterpiece in AR, in real size:

This AR experience is part of “Launchpad: Apollo 11 Promises Kept“, a new 10,000 sq. ft. exhibition paying tribute to the past, present and future of space exploration. The exhibition combines the Museum’s significant collection of Apollo-era artifacts with cutting-edge interactive experiences to create an immersive and exciting cosmic journey.

Photo by Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

What is unique about AR Composer is that digital objects keep their original positions, creating persistent AR experiences shareable across several devices.

To position digital artefacts accurately, AR Composer comes with an easy-to-use 6-DOF (Degrees Of Freedom) Editor. 3D objects can be moved from left to right, up and down, forwards and backwards, including three rotation options. With this unique feature, objects can be placed accurately in any space, in no time.

Discover how to try AR Composer at the end of this post.

AR Composer also comes with 2 modes: Creator and Visitor mode. In Creator mode, the museum team can create as many persistent scenes as they want, placing and anchoring their objects wherever they like in the physical space. When this process is finished, the museum simply has to lock the scenes in Visitor mode to make them available on any device running AR Composer. Visitors can then use the devices provided by the venue or their personal device to enjoy the content.

Another perk of AR Composer is that there is no limit to the number of 3D assets that can be uploaded, which gives digital and education teams at museums the opportunity to design scenes with the creativity of a theatrical production. Objects can be animated, interactive and can display data to showcase digital storytelling or contextual information.

There are a number of creative ways to use the app. Examples include:

• Sharing works that are missing from a collection, whether they are in another museum, being restored, or on loan.
• Rebuilding archeological monuments – for example, making an entire temple appear where only an ancient column remains.
• Comparing works to previous versions, or to the artist’s preliminary sketches.
• Taking complex mechanisms apart and then putting them back together to see how they work. Examples include machines, the human body, the solar system, etc.
• Making digital characters move around in front of the visitor.
• Recreating the decor and atmosphere of an entire room in real size, by superimposing its former or future state on top of its current reality.
• Adding flesh and skin to the skeletons of extinct species, e.g. dinosaurs.
• Creating digital collaborative artwork.
• Creating a portal to access a virtual world.
• Creating a digital character guide to provide specialized tours for children, teens or other visitor groups.

AR Composer saves museums from having to build their own customized application and CMS (Content Management System) from scratch. That way, the majority of the budget can be allocated to creating content and designing compelling visitor experiences.

Try AR Composer now! We are offering AR Composer to museums and heritage sites in private Beta, with several demo assets included. If you are interested, please contact us.

With the addition of the full AR app, MUSE is offering visitors an experience that harmonizes perfectly with their innovative spirit – in total fluidity and transparency.

A Fascinating Content

The app has what it takes to please even the most directionally-challenged of us. The days of losing your way in exhibitions are over: with Go!Muse visitors can see their precise location on each of the six floors of the museum, and are guided in Augmented Reality toward the object of their interest.

As for the educational content, the app includes over one hundred AR hotspots that can be activated by the visitor to unlock multimedia content (text, videos and more) that provides additional context for the various attractions.

Last but not least, the app makes it possible to view realistic virtual portrayals of ten dinosaurs and a whale by adding life-size animated bodies to their skeletons in Augmented Reality, right in the middle of the museum.

An Emotional Experience

On the day of the launch, over one thousand visitors came with their families to check out the new app. It was the ideal opportunity to confirm that the app would be as magical as we had hoped. It was touching to see children, parents and grandparents equally surprised and enthralled by the illusion of a partially-digital reality. No matter their age, every visitor had the happy face of a child thrilled by an amusement park or magic show.

A Synergy of Multiple Talents

The obvious joy of the visitors made me proud of the work our team had accomplished. This project took no less than six months to complete and incorporated the work of at least a dozen individuals: an illustrator, a designer, a 3D animator, a game developer, front and back-end developers, a project lead and a program manager. The synergy of all these talents makes it clear that our field has changed. Cultural mediation is no longer about making a connection between historical and scientific facts, or simply coming up with a captivating narrative. It is also about creating an unforgettable emotional experience for every type of visitor.

To meet this objective, we collaborated with MUSE’s digital department. Fabio Manucci, the paleontologist of the museum, worked closely with Davide Bonadona, an illustrator celebrated for his work on dinosaurs, to create a scientifically accurate portrayal of each specimen.

From a scientific point of view, there is always a risk when you attempt to bring to life creatures that have been extinct for millions of years. But museums also have a responsibility to provide accurate representations of dinosaurs, in contrast to the fantastical portrayals in cinema and video games.

We then made it possible for these virtual animals to come to life inside the museum. Each 3D model was superimposed on its actual skeleton to within a centimeter of precision using GuidiGO AR Composer.

Seeing these dinosaurs in the flesh – and not just as bones – is impressive enough. But watching them move before your eyes makes the experience even more stunning. Since the skeletons themselves obviously remain static, we had to find a way to suspend disbelief when the animals are in motion. To do so, we added a Virtual Reality mode that hides the skeleton when the dinosaur begins to move.

A Large-Scale Experience

With the launch of Go!Muse, MUSE has become the first museum of Science in the world to offer an Augmented Reality experience at this scale, with ten animated dinosaurs and a whale as part of their permanent collection, and 80 AR-compatible tablets available to visitors.

MUSE official video trailer

While the app is designed for a wide range of users of all ages, it is sure to capture the imagination of young visitors most of all, due to their interest in novelties and interactivity.

Since they’ve been immersed in the digital world from birth, the younger generations are already used to learning and discovering outside of the traditional learning environments of libraries and museums. Touchscreens are already part of their daily lives. Virtual Reality headsets are soon to follow, and any museum planning for the future should be aware of that fact. It is essential for cultural institutions to pursue immersive, innovative technologies if they want to form lasting ties with the adults of tomorrow.

Experiences like this one will help young ones to discover the magic of museums and the joy of interacting with works of art and science along with other visitors.

What is occlusion?

Occlusion problems occur because virtual objects will always appear in front of the real world on the screen. For example, imagine that a virtual statue is placed in a gallery. If a person is standing behind the statue, the experience works because the virtual object appears in front of the person.

However, if the person is standing between the device and the virtual statue, the immersion is broken because the statue will cover the person on the screen.

Similarly, adding a virtual element inside a real object (such as adding a virtual apple inside a real bowl) can cause occlusion issues. The images below illustrate how the AR illusion works only for some angles. Again, the virtual object will always go in front of the real one.

So how can we solve occlusion problems?

Many occlusion problems for AR experiences in museums can be anticipated and avoided early on through design and forethought. Possible solutions to prevent occlusion issues include:

Create a designated space. A helpful way to control occlusion issues can be to contain where an AR experience will take place. For example, in the “Sites Eternels“ (Eternal Sites) application at the Grand Palais in Paris, the devices were physically tethered to a large table on which the AR experience appeared. This limited what could physically get between the device’s cameras and the table.

Another solution could be to physically mark the area where the AR experience will take place, so that other visitors know not to get in the way. Whether or not a museum employs this solution depends on the available space and whether the exhibition is temporary or permanent.

Utilize strategic positioning. The placement of virtual objects can help prevent occlusion problems, as some positions are more viable than others. For example, in the application we developed for the National Museum of Singapore, a 42-foot-long whale skeleton was positioned just under a high ceiling, well above visitors. In this case, because visitors point their devices up at the ceiling, the positioning of the whale ensures that there is nothing to cause occlusion issues.

Position your visitors in a specific place. In a recent project, we placed a virtual mark on the floor to encourage users to stand in a specific position before starting the experience. This way, we made sure nothing would get between the user and the AR scene.

Add masking effects. Environmental effects, such as clouds or mist, can help mask the real world elements that could cause occlusion problems.
For example, in another recent project, we animated a virtual spacecraft that lands on the surface of an asteroid. This experience took place in a small, crowded gallery, which caused occlusion issues. We added environmental effects to the virtual scene, and it helped to foster the sense of immersion in the experience.

Integrate real-world elements in the virtual world. In many cases, we can identify something called “planned occlusion”. For example, GuidiGO’s wayfinding capabilities display virtual blue dots on the floor that lead visitors to points of interest. In the case in the photo below, when the blue dots indicate to turn left, the rest of the path is not displayed until the visitor is in the doorway. This is possible because we integrate the pre-identified obstacles (walls, cases, etc) in our algorithm. The rendering happens in real-time and takes into account the physical world before displaying a digital object.

Position “occlusion masks”. Similarly, for a recent project, we wanted to display a virtual object along the length of a gallery wall. However, the room was filled with furniture that got between the visitor’s device and the wall, making the virtual object appear fake.
To work around this constraint, our programming team created “occlusion masks”. These were virtual 3D objects that were the exact same size and shape as the real-world objects, placed over the furniture using our AR Composer tool. In this way, we made it possible for the furniture to appear in front of the main virtual object.

Delineate museums into different sections. We can also separate museum spaces into unique galleries, so that when visitors are in a specific gallery, they only see the virtual objects on display in that gallery. This avoids the artworks of the galleries nearby being visible “through the walls” due to occlusion, as virtual objects will always appear in front of real objects on the screen. To read more about a project where we used this technique, check out our article about our work with the Clyfford Still Museum here.

Employ real-time programming solutions. Sometimes, occlusion problems cannot be avoided or planned for, such as visitors walking around inside the museum. There are programming solutions to these occlusion issues, in which the physical environment is reconstructed in real-time using device’s sensors and cameras to integrate the real world inside the virtual world.
The main downside of this option is that it requires a lot of processing power, however, this will certainly become a non-issue in the future.

Every AR experience requires custom solutions to specific occlusion problems. And the development of new sensors and more powerful devices will help facilitate new ways to work around these obstacles in the near future. Through creativity in design and programming, it is possible to find innovative solutions to make augmented reality even more real.

The use of augmented reality paintings in this exhibition is a creative solution to the fact that most of the selected virtual artworks would have been difficult, if not impossible, to borrow. Works by da Vinci and de Kooning are thus accessible in the galleries, as digital facsimiles.

Unlike traditional digital tours, this augmented reality experience doesn’t provide interpretation material about the artworks on display. Rather, the digital content is an integral part of the exhibition itself. The augmented reality assets become museum objects in their own right.

The Visitor Experience

The digital aspect of the exhibition experience is integrated simply and effectively into the visit. Prior to entering the galleries, visitors are equipped with Lenovo Phab 2 Pro devices. As they walk through the exhibition, which is spread out over the nine galleries of the Museum, they are notified about the presence of virtual artworks by a message on their devices.

Visitors are free to explore the galleries, finding the virtual artworks and comparing them to the physical ones. What is so unique about this experience is that the physical setting was designed with the digital components in mind right from the get go: there are blank spaces on the gallery walls with a text that lets visitors know that virtual works will appear when they look through their tablets. These walls are only populated when the virtual artworks are displayed in AR in real size. No markers, iBeacons, or WIFI are needed as the devices recognize the space using Google’s VPS (Visual Positioning Service) announced at Google I/O in May.

The high resolution digital reproductions allow visitors to explore the virtual paintings, discovering the vibrant details of texture and color, as if the paintings were physically in the gallery. Visitors can get extremely close to these virtual works (closer than would be allowed with real paintings), examining Van Gogh’s bold brushstrokes or Rauschenberg’s monochromatic topographies.

How the AR Experience Was Created

The creation of the digital component of the experience involved a collaboration between the Museum and GuidiGO to create high resolution 3D models of different paintings to be virtually hung on the gallery walls.

Google’s augmented reality team came to set up the VPS (Visual Positioning Service) by mapping the galleries. This allows the devices to recognize where they are in the museum space, which makes possible the placement and display of virtual objects. The Clyfford Still Museum is among the first 10 museums in the world to have embraced VPS technology to enable accurately prepositioned, life-size AR experiences.

After this step, GuidiGO’s team came on-site to place the virtual paintings on the walls using GuidiGO’s AR Composer, an application we developed to manipulate 3D objects and place them in mapped spaces. In the Clyfford Still Museum, this meant hanging the virtual paintings so they fit perfectly with the real artworks on the walls.

GuidiGO’s AR Composer was also used to delineate the museum space into unique sections. This step made it so that when visitors are in a gallery, they only see the artworks on display in that gallery. This avoids the artworks of the galleries nearby being visible “through the walls” due to the occlusion effect, as virtual objects will always appear in front of real objects on the screen.

The result is a seamless experience where visitors are engaged in a new kind of visit in which real and virtual complement each other. AR becomes social when groups of visitors see the same thing at the same time, sparking interesting dialogues and shared ‘wow’ moments.

The exhibition “Still & Art” is generously supported in part by Daniel Benel and Lena Fishman. Additional support is provided by U.S. Bank and the citizens who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). The augmented reality experience is made possible at the Clyfford Still Museum through a partnership with Google and media company RYOT.

© Featured Image courtesy Clyfford Still Museum

GuidiGO AR Composer opens up incredible new opportunities for museums and cultural sites, as they can now design their own AR experiences in just a few simple steps, and make them available on site or for remote use by schools and other educational institutions.

Unlike virtual reality, Augmented Reality is not designed to immerse you in an entirely different environment” says GuidiGO CEO David Lerman, “AR integrates virtual elements into the real environment, and allows you to interact with them as you move around. You can physically feel the presence of AR objects, particularly when they appear in real size. The applications for Augmented Reality are actually quite different from virtual reality, but no less fascinating and engaging for users. Just look at the excitement around Pokémon GO!

This is a great opportunity to reach an even wider audience, including the digital generation, who are looking for new experiences. AR Composer is also an extraordinary educational tool capable of engaging different types of visitors as they explore permanent collections or temporary exhibitions.

GuidiGO AR Composer: How does it work?

GuidiGO AR Composer makes it possible to create experiences in augmented reality using virtual components. The Tango tablet works as a viewfinder to position virtual objects on the ground or anywhere else, with no need for markers or signals of any kind. The settings and location of the virtual objects are saved as soon as they are placed. They are then visible to visitors just like any real object.

A virtual 3D object can be static, animated, or interactive. It can be a character, an entire scene, a sound, or a visual hotspot, depending on the experience created by the museum.

GuidiGO AR Composer makes full use of Tango capabilities, including motion tracking, which enables virtual objects to behave as if they were real. For example, virtual objects increase in size as you approach them, and you can walk around them to get a closer look from any angle. It is also possible to interact with them, as you can see in this video where a dinosaur roars when the visitor approaches.

Ready-to-Go AR Plugins

Just like GuidiGO Studio, AR Composer is extremely user-friendly and doesn’t require special skills or training. Using presets or custom plugins, museums and cultural sites can quickly create a variety of experiences in which their visitors will see the real and virtual blend together seamlessly. For example, museums will be able to:

• Geolocate and guide visitors using a virtual path that appears at their feet:
  
• Leave comments about a place, or work of art, using AR hotspots:
  
• Create a Pokémon GO-style treasure hunt, inviting visitors to explore and collect virtual objects they find in the galleries:
  
• Share works that are missing from the collection, whether they are on reserve, being restored, or on loan… or simply too fragile or too large to be displayed in public,
• Place a work in its original context – for example, making an entire temple appear where only an ancient column remains,
• Compare a work to its previous version, or to the artist’s preliminary sketches,
• Take complex mechanisms apart and put them back together again to see how things work, whether it’s a machine, a process, the human body, the solar system, etc.
• Make virtual characters move around in front of the visitor,
• Recreate the décor and atmosphere of an entire room by superimposing its former or future state on top of its current reality:
  

And any other applications imaginable…

First Tango Smartphones Available

The Phab2 Pro, the first smartphone to feature Tango technology, is available at the Lenovo shop.

This new type of smartphone is the first step in a major technological breakthrough. Tango makes it finally possible to create AR experiences without using markers or any kind of infrastructure. In other words, there’s finally a mobile device that sees like we do.

An instant mobile experience

The new GuidiGO web interface is entirely responsive and gives you immediate access to tours on any mobile device, no matter what the screen size. All the users have to do is open their web browser when they arrive on site to access the tour. There’s no longer any need to install an app. Twice as fast as the former version, tours now load almost instantaneously. The new version is just as user-friendly as the native GuidiGO app, and the visitor experience is still optimized, no matter what mobile device or web browser is used.

The new web app makes accessing tours much faster and easier. Each stop of the tour can even be triggered with a QR code or BLE beacon. However, unlike the native GuidiGO app which makes it possible to access tours offline, the user does need an active internet connection for it to work. (The native app also includes in-app games and purchase options soon to be available in the web app.)

Street View Tours

Tours are now accessible directly via a web browser. This is a game-changer because it makes tours accessible remotely for those who are unable to visit sites in person, whether for financial, geographic, or physical reasons. It also makes it possible to preview a location before visiting it, or go on a virtual field trip in which an entire class can explore cultural and heritage sites from the other side of the world – like here, in Rome:

or at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California:

If the tour takes place outside, or inside a building already mapped by Google, the GuidiGO interface automatically synchronizes with Google Street View data. For other tours, the author simply needs to associate a 2:1 image with each stop, using GuidiGO Studio when building the tour.

The angle and zoom can also be adjusted so the user can look in the right direction as they proceed.

A Look at the Updates

Here is a preview of the main features of our new web interface:

• The tour map is now at the heart of the experience, and is always permanently running in the background.
• The list of stops is optimized: the user can now view more stops at a time without having to scroll.



• One key element of the new web app is the card grouping together all content related to each stop of the tour: the address, texts, images, audio, videos, and panoramic views. All accessible in one click:



• The display has been optimized to allow more space for the images.



• Navigating between stops is now more user-friendly and permanently accessible.



• Users can find their geolocation using any device.
• In Street View mode, the location of each stop is indicated with a pointer (as in the mobile versions of GuidiGO).



• It is now possible to share published tours in Private mode with people of your choosing.

Explore your own tours right away in Street View mode or in the Web App

Can’t wait to see your own tours using the new GuidiGO web interface? It couldn’t be more simple:

• On guidigo.com: With the Start button on your tour page – if the tour is public.



• In GuidiGO Studio: By clicking on the URL for your tour in the Publish tab. The URL appears as soon as you publish the tour, whether it is in Public or Private mode.

I caught myself wondering what the magic was about parks that made children never want to leave…and why they don’t tend to feel the same way when we take them to the museum.

The answer might seem obvious: at the park, children can play. But what is the psychology behind why they often prefer a fun excursion to the park over a visit to the museum? In my opinion, it all comes down to four key components:

Interaction, Emotion, Accomplishment, Emulation

These are the components that come into play when a child seeks the thrill of going down a slide, or pushes to come in first, or tries to climb higher than they have before. These also come into play when a child encounters a new environment, builds something with friends, or challenges them. All of these activities present the opportunity for children to feel joy and pride, and receive praise from their parents.

Is it possible to activate these motivators at the museum?

What can we do to make a visit to the museum just as exciting for our children as an afternoon at the park? A museum isn’t a playground; it doesn’t provide quite the same freedoms that a park or garden does. However, some museums do offer engaging and thrilling experiences for children – experiences that address the psychological motivators mentioned above.

But things can get messy when you decide to visit a museum with your family on a whim. As a parent, I’ve often been disappointed by the lack of “on demand” solutions for capturing a child’s attention and helping them to have fun in cultural environments. While science museums tend to be very imaginative when it comes to engaging young visitors, the same can’t be said for all museums. In most cases, it’s best to plan your visit in advance to make sure appropriate activities are available for children. Otherwise, you may be left to your own devices on subjects you may not necessarily be familiar with.

Digital devices to the rescue?

This is where digital tools on tablets and mobile phones come in handy. They provide an “on demand” solution with great possibilities, they offer content that can be adapted to many audiences depending on age level, skills and interests.

Digital tools provide quick solutions that are likely to activate all four motivators we’ve discussed above — turning museum visits into an experience your child will want to do again and again, and giving parents tools they’ll be excited to talk about with their friends. Here are a few examples:

INTERACTIONS

This is, of course, where the digital tablet comes in. A tablet should never be the focal point of the experience, but rather, a starting point. It should foster conversation between you and your child and facilitate interaction with the works of art and other artifacts on display. This is why digital games that combine storytelling and puzzles are the perfect tool for facilitating that interaction — they engage children and make them active participants in the cultural experience.

EMOTIONS

Digital tools can intensify the emotions children feel when they see a work of art or visit a heritage site. First of all, when they listen to a story, they are transported into the world of the imagination. In order for this to happen, you need a passionate narrator who not only tells the story, but brings the characters to life.

Digital tools offer infinite possibilities that are both fun and exciting for your child. For example, with augmented reality, your child could meet a historical character, dress a friend in a medieval costume, or pet a dinosaur… and of course, take photos to capture all the fun! Your child could also have a memorable cultural experience in virtual reality, which has been shown to have a particular emotional impact (see our article on VR here).

In short, digital tools bring you the best of new immersive technologies that can transport your child straight into another time and place.

ACCOMPLISHMENT

A digital visit can also foster a sense of accomplishment in several different ways. First, they provide rewards when the children earn points, collect objects, or look for virtual clues. Games also encourage them to keep progressing, for example, when they make it to the next step in a game because they were able to complete a challenge.

Gaining knowledge also contributes to that sense of accomplishment. When children learn something from a story, a quiz, or funny anecdote, they feel like they’re the only one who knows this special information, and they feel proud of what they know.

Another way to activate this motivator is to encourage creativity by asking the child to solve a complicated puzzle or complete an artistic challenge.

EMULATION

Games should be as varied as possible. That way they present a variety of challenges based on listening and observation (for example: searching for clues in the décor or in a work of art), questions that require careful reflection, or fun tasks (like taking a selfie posing like a character in a painting).
Games should also allow the child to accumulate points and/or objects to stimulate a healthy sense of competition. Children can then share their scores with friends.

These four motivators also have a biological basis

This empirical approach also has a more scientific explanation. Each of the motivators mentioned above also release different hormones that contribute to feelings of joy and happiness: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins.

• Dopamine produces the feeling of satisfaction we get when we earn a reward, meet an objective, or experience a good surprise.
• Serotonin triggers the feeling of self-esteem and self-confidence. It is released when a child feels proud.
• Oxytocin is released during social interactions; it produces feelings of attachment, connection, and sharing with others.
• Endorphins produce feelings of well-being, related to laughter.

Besides their emotional virtues, these hormones also facilitate memorization. Dopamine, for example, strengthens episodic memory, which allows us to relive scenes from the past.

When to start?

Today’s children are immersed in an environment that is both digital and physical. They see technology as a means to foster interpersonal relations and connect with both the reality and fiction of others’ lives.

When digital tools are used intelligently, they help museums and heritage sites to create strong ties with young visitors, allowing them to discover and enjoy the many treasures these sites have to offer.

Whether digital tools should be used in museums and heritage sites is no longer a question. The question for museums to answer is “How can we adapt digital tools to the particular needs of each museum and heritage site?”

In practice, these solutions require an infrastructure that is often more cumbersome and more expensive than expected, and the results are sometimes disappointing (see our article on Tech Trends). Taking into account the limits of such technologies, GuidiGO decided to explore a different path by making our app compatible with Google Project Tango. This technology offers an incomparable advantage: it works without any infrastructure. Yes, you read that correctly: no infrastructure at all! No need for an internet connection, WiFi, sensors, or GPS. Museums have nothing to install and no equipment to maintain!

David Lerman, GuidiGO’s CEO, explains the magic behind it: “The tablet is loaded with sensors that detect motion, volume, and depth. A 3D map of the interior of the museum is created in advance by scanning the walls, partitions, installations, etc. The tablet later recognizes these elements and makes it possible for the visitor to remain continuously localized, with no need to connect to any signal.”

But that’s not all, not only do visitors know their exact position, they can also opt for a 3D view with an AR path superimposed on the floor…

… or choose a dual view with the 2D map:

Would you like to see a live demo? Take a look at our app running in this video shot at the beautiful Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, during the recent MWC 2016 (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona. The GuidiGO app was presented to the press in the presence of teams from Google Project Tango, and Lenovo – the manufacturer of the tablet.

Besides being a game changer for indoor positioning, Project Tango’s ability to recognize the user’s environment opens the door to numerous AR applications. At the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, we were excited to present the interpretation of a painting in Augmented Reality. Above a 33-foot-long canvas (“The Battle of Tetuan” by Mariano Fortuny), AR 3D markers appear in the air, indicating that additional content is available to explain a detail in the piece.

 
And this is only the beginning… Stay tuned!

Learn more:

• Lenovo: “How Project Tango Will Change the Way You Use Your Phone”
• Tom’s Guide: “How Google’s Project Tango Won Me Over with AR and Art”
• Digital Trends: “Digital Trends Top Tech of MWC 2016 award winners” (Read: Lenovo’s Project Tango)
• Digital Trends: “Touring a museum with Project Tango is an empowering glimpse into the future”
• Slash Gear: “How Lenovo and Project Tango will reinvent your smartphone”
• CNET: “Project Tango could come to a museum near you”
• BGR: “Lenovo and Google are about to blow the lid off digital indoor mapping”
• The Verge: “Google just showed me the future of indoor navigation” (watch GuidiGO app at work in the video!)
• PC Mag: “A Night at the Museum With Project Tango”