1-Electronic museum guide
A trend in museum guiding is the electronic guide. Some researches treated this issue
and specialists tried to develop an electronic museum guide ( For example Ghiani et
al. 2009; van Hage et al. 2010; Wakkary et al. 2008). These electronic guides were
intended to be used instead of, or in conjunction with traditional guiding in museums.
Electronic guides have some features encourage their use; they are available on
demand, easy to manage, line with technological development, and they are audiencedirected technology to deliver a personalized tour experience (Best 2012, 37).
A study developed a multi-device, location-aware guide could enhance museum
guiding. This system makes use of multiple devices as well as additional services,
such as the presentation on the large screen of the locations of other visitors.
Information was feed to this system by museum curators. This electronic guide was
used in two museums (Marble Museum of Carrara and Natural History Museum of
Calci (Ghiani et al. 2009, 302). Other studies investigated several approaches for
adaptive museum guides to develop a framework that provides a theoretical base for
research in this type of museum guide for families and social based museum guide
(Wakkary et al. 2008, 367).
Another system used a mobile museum tour guide set for
personalized access the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam collection. In this system the visitor
could use his own device (iPodt or iPhone) connected to Wi-Fi in the museum to
follow the Mobile Guide (van Hage et al. 2010, 58).
Mobile guides in general are neither sufficient nor efficient in presenting cultural
heritage. The main shortage in these guides is the ability of communication and
account for differences in audience attention. The matter is the effective
communication of the guide to engage group members in a good way and to lead the
group audiences around spaces and between artifacts which is particularly complex
for electronic guides to do (Best 2012, 49). Technological innovations can only be
back-up equipment which help and enrich the guiding of a professional tour guide,
but not in any way a substitute for the human guide.
2-Virtual museum
The virtual museum is not a new expression, the term and the concept were launched
in the early 1990s, but the terminology and its meaning are still under construction. A
variety of terms and definitions exists for the virtual museum (Schweibenz W. 2019)
One of the definitions of the virtual museum is “a collection of electronic artifacts
and information resources - virtually anything which can be digitalized. The
collection may include paintings, drawings, photographs, diagrams, recordings,
video segments, newspaper articles, transcripts of interviews, numerical databases
and a host of other items which may be saved on the virtual museum’s file server. It
may also offer pointers to great resources around the world relevant to the museum’s
main focus” (Negri M. 2012, 12)
The virtual museums have the potential to both preserve and present the cultural
knowledge in an effective way using new tools and ingenious methods. The “real
sites” can be promoted through virtual reality technology in museums; they can
provide a good knowledge and information about exhibitions and enhancing the
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display of museum artifacts through new technology. Those who are in direct contact
with museums as tourists, students and specialists, and tour guides can use these
technologies to achieve a good learning and entertainment needs. Visiting the virtual
museums is an enjoyable and useful experience which involves the visitor into the
cultural atmosphere and helps the promotion of real museums (Styliani et al 2009,
526)
The virtual reality gained a good popularity, a new trend which is parallel with the
release of new devices as headsets. Those products turned a smartphone into a virtual
device. Museums have been using virtual reality to give a new experience for visitors.
The British Museum is one of the first museums around the world to incorporate
virtual reality technology into a learning program. The cooperation between the
British museum and the SDDC (Samsung Digital Discovery Centre) provides a digital
learning program at the museum; this program offers museum visitors with drop-in
and bookable activities on weekdays and every weekend. In summer 2015, the British
Museum’s and (SDDC) held a Virtual Reality Weekend in the museum’s great court,
offering the visiting public a virtual reality using Samsung gear virtual reality
headsets, Samsung Galaxy tablets, and an immersive dome. The SDDC incorporated
virtual reality technology into this program for the first time with a weekend of
activities on August 8–9, 2015.
In this model, the visitors can see a Bronze Age site,
where there are three-dimensional scans of objects placed in their original setting.
Participants were able to explore multiple interpretations of how the objects might
have been used in the past across three digital platforms. Sessions use a variety of
digital devices and software as tools to support participants in their learning, with a
focus on encouraging visitors to explore, contact with, and respond to the collection
(Rae and Edwards 2016)
The virtual reality technology can be good support to guiding in museums. The
technology can be involved with the tour, so the guide could incorporate the virtual
reality model in his interpretation. This could enable the guide to support his
explanation with such information about the museum pieces which are not available
through the ordinary guiding. Such information about the original place of the piece,
the discovery, and other aspects could be obtained through virtual reality technology
