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The eDocent™ system presents information to the visitor
automatically, based on the visitor's proximity to an object. The visitor's
location is determined by the device's infrared contact with "tags"
placed near selected objects, or demarcating the various sections of the
Museum. Once eDocent™ downloads information relevant to the visitor's
position, the visitor can explore a of variety of topics related to the
artifact, or section, at their own pace and according to their own interests.
During their explorations, visitors may also bookmark information that
interests them for further Museum-guided study via the Web at home.
eDocent™ can deliver multimedia information to a variety of off-the-shelf
devices. The device used in the first prototype, a Casio Cassiopeia Fiva,
is much larger and heavier than the device planned for the future. A smaller
device, the Compaq iPaq Pocket PC, was also part of this month-long demonstration.
In the future, visitors will be able to use their own Palm Pilots, telephones,
or other personal digital assistants to access information about artifacts
in the Museum.
In the demonstrations section below, we have provided a QuickTime movie
of the first prototype in use in our galleries. This movie shows the visitor
signing in with the system, touring the galleries, bookmarking information
that interests him, and accessing his bookmarks at home to further explore
the items he found interesting at the Museum. The bookmarks are e-mailed
to the visitor, and link via the Web to Museum provided information on
the bookmarked items.
eDocent™ Seminars
Moving Image has held two seminars on eDocent™ in 2001.
The first was on March 19 at the Moving Image, to introduce to the
cultural community, and elicit feedback about eDocent™'s potential impact on the Museum-going
experience. The second seminar took place on April 19th, and addressed an
audience interested in eDocent™'s technical innovations. More information
about the April event is available here.
eDocent™ has the potential to transform the museum-going experience not
just at Moving Image, but at museums around the world. The design of eDocent™
anticipates a world in which a museum visitor's own portable computing devices,
including mobile phones, PDAs, and eBooks, are the primary platform for
browsing and sharing information in public spaces. Furthermore, the promise
of mobile computing extends beyond the portability of information. Mobile
computing offers its greatest promise in the ability both to bring information
into, and to aquire information from physical environments and the objects
within them. Mobile and wireless applications being created today for public,
industrial, and research environments use this "context awareness"
to bring online and physical realms closer together. |
