Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 26, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
NOUS, a provider of multimedia guides for museums and exhibitions, wants to offer museum tours on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. In cooperation with Apple’s European headquarters in London and the headquarters in the USA, the Austrian company has ported its multimedia information system to the new hardware. With the new technology, the main aim is to make progress in terms of user-friendliness.
“We reached the limit of video quality on pocket PCs,” Alexander Stickelberger, Managing Director of NOUS Wissensmanagement GmbH, explains the switch to the Apple devices in a conversation with the pressetext news service. “The quality of multimedia elements, the sensitivity of the display and the functionality are outstanding on the iPhone and iPod touch,” says Stickelberger. Until now, the guide systems developed entirely in-house by NOUS could only be offered on a PDA basis. The requirement to make the user-interface design as simple as possible had also made the use of Apple devices virtually inevitable. “Navigation is simple, the screen is large and can be rotated if necessary, and the touchscreen reacts immediately to the touch of a finger. This makes operation even more pleasant for museum visitors,” explains the NOUS Managing Dirctor.
However, the WLAN-based system also offers visitors the possibility of sending various forms of feedback back to the respective institution. “Our concern was not to make the system one-dimensional,” explains Stickelberger. The inclusion of content from the museums themselves is also possible.
The NOUS Guide is a mobile multimedia guide for museums, exhibitions and showrooms. The project was started back in 2004 with support from the City of Vienna, also at the suggestion of museums. “The audio guides used there were regarded at the time as no longer up to date and were to be replaced by the development of a new system,” Stickelberger says. From January 2008, the first projects based on Apple hardware will start in several Austrian museums. According to the company, the long-term plan is to establish it in the upper museum segment in the German-speaking region. For the time being, visitors can only borrow preconfigured devices, but for the future the possibility of making private iPhones and iPods usable for the guide service is also planned.
Further links:
- The iPhone as a museum g
