Does anyone have experience with audio tour equipment at their Museum? Something like Guidestar???

Thanks.

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Mich. has something like that. Inside the museum, if a artifact has a cell phone sign and a number next to it, you call a number and it gives you more info on the certain artifact.

The clock museum in Bristol, Connecticut has a number to call with your cell phone when you enter the museum, then you just enter the number of the exhibit as you walk around the museum and it serves up a narration about the item on display.

PC

Jim,

Over the years there have been a couple of different systems. The earliest was to get a hand-held earpiece with picked up the short range radio transmissions. CSRM used this in the CP depot replica. I've seen other museums in California use this kind; most recently the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana with a traveling exhibit on the silk road and the people along it.

The other kind is one that the visitor uses their own cell phone to call an number to get the recording.

I'm sure that you can find museums with experience with both kinds through the California Association of Museums. Regional, state and local museum associations can always be good resources and worth joining and going to their conferences.

For the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, I am looking at a little different approach which has effectively zero cost, however, it is imperfect that it only works for those carrying 'smartphones' capable of capturing and processing a QR code.

Here is an example 4"x6" caption. Using a smartphone like an iPhone, you can take an image of the QR code using an app like Red Laser, and you can redirect them to a URL of your website, YouTube site, etc. You can also encode a text string. It should even work on screen. In this case, the code links to this linked MP3 audio file on our website that talks about our ex-Lehigh Valley Railroad ALCO RS-3m #211. I have others that go to our Support page for donations and others that go to specific pages on our website or YouTube site. These are also becoming popular in big box stores like Best Buy as a way to let you view more info on their website on a specific product with QR codes now on every item tag in their store.



Again, this is imperfect in that only people with smartphones can use the QR code, but the smartphone population is growing. I added the URL for those who might be able to access the web, but not snap the code. Additionally, the experience will vary based on the smartphone platform. I know this MP3 streams on my iPhone, but seemed to want to completely download to my buddies Droid before playing.

I need to do more playing around. With free online QR code generators, the only cost to date has been my time. This does seem to have a lot of potential for at least some of the visiting public, although I certainly don't want to alienate those who don't carry smartphones.

I welcome others thoughts.

Regards,
Chris Hauf
Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum

That looks just like my paperless Delta boarding passes that show up directly on my iPhone screen. The TSA and the gate agent just scan the screen - pretty neat! BTW, what is the difference in technology between this and a barcode? I've noticed that the paper boarding passes that I get when going through Midway (they didn't have the electronic boarding pass reader when I last went through in December) have both this "QR" coding and a barcode.

There is nothing different than a barcode. They are barcodes, but what are sometimes termed as 2D barcodes vs. the more traditional linestyle 1D barcode of UPC, EAN, etc. fame. And before someone comes back and says, "All barcodes are 2D!", the difference here is not in the physical dimension, but how the directions the information is encoded, i.e. in one dimension or two. The 2D codes allow for more information to be encoded.

Microsoft also has a 2D barcoding technology called Tag. It uses triangles in a grid. Readers of Golf Digest magazine will recognize them as they use them to provide links to their websites to get further info, videos, etc. I have considered adding both on the captions. Just a little more up front work, but it covers more ground.

Again, this is really an emerging technology, but it is becoming much more widespread. From your example to the to product tags at Best Buy to magazines using them to add a multimedia aspect to their printed page to a small railroad museum trying to also add a multimedia experience to some of its displays or give people the option to donate online while still at the museum, they seem to have a lot of potential especially as more cell phones become smarter. Yet, they don't work for everyone which is why I continue to seek additional solutions.

To that end, has anyone found a low cost push button triggerable MP3 player? There is a very nice product in the market called the MP3 trigger which does exactly what I want. However, at $40.00 a pop, it is a little expensive to make widespread use of them where I just need the ability to trigger a single MP3 track vs. multiple tracks. I do, however, have some ideas on where we can use one of these like an exhibit on whistle/horn sounds on the railroad.

Please let me know. Thanks!

Regards,
Chris

How is this zero cost? Do you record and post the audio files on the net, then link the QR code so the smart phone downloads and plays it? The user gets charged for a data download, no?
I would guess there’s someone out there in cyberspace that can do this for your museum at a cost per use. If so can the museum get a cut?

By zero cost, I meant that it was no cost for at least me to test out and play with this technology. The QR code generator is free to use to create the codes. I have the capability and did record/edit the MP3 I shared. Since we have a great website host who is also a member of our museum and since I have the keys to our website's kingdom, I was also able to upload and share the MP3 and beyond at no cost to us. However, there is certainly no cost to create a QR code that links to an existing URL on either our site or our YouTube site which is free as well.

On the flip side, there certainly can be a charge for a phone user for data so that is something that we need to sensitive to. However, it is really up to the user to decide how they want to use their phone. Calls to the other services that started this thread also use a user's minutes which have a cost as well.

So we come full circle, does anyone have any more info or experience to share on these cell audio services? I would be interested to learn more too!

Thanks!

Regards,
Chris

Thank you.

All good replies so far. The cell phone is still a little "too far" out there for me. Many people don't have the state of the art and, in fact, don't have any service at Campo.