Innovative uses of mobile communication technology: developing self-guided tours in museum

在科学博物馆里，手机对信息传递有效吗？在该项目的第一阶段，研究人员在国家科学博物馆的恐龙展厅测试了一款手机音频指南。60名自选参观者在听完音频导游后完成了问卷调查和面对面采访。参与者在楼层地图上跟踪他们在走廊上行走的模式，以确定他们是如何收听音频指南的。总体而言，包括一名视障人士在内的受访者对手机语音指南的满意度很高。大多数参观者都很高兴能在博物馆提供这种服务。用户担心的一个问题是音频文件下载成本的不确定性。在该项目的第二阶段，音频之旅被设计为下载到iPod上。此次iPod音频巡回演唱会在日本尚属首次。它是在2005年恐龙博览会上推出的，北九州自然历史和人类历史博物馆。音频指南有22个音频停顿，是用英语录制的。对于不会说日语的参观者来说，音频导游是获取展览信息的唯一机会，因为所有的指示牌和商业上可用的音频旅游都只有日语。来自当地一所高中的37名学生收听了这场音频之旅。调查结果显示，大多数学生喜欢了解展览，尽管他们是用非母语听的。近三分之二的学生表示，他们同意参加这项研究以练习英语。然而，在实验结束时，这个研究小组报告说，他们真的看过这些展品，他们对鸟类如何从恐龙进化而来有了新的了解。

Are mobile phones effective for information delivery in science museums? In the first phase of the project, researchers tested a mobile phone audio guide in the dinosaur gallery at the National Science Museum. Sixty self-selected visitors completed a questionnaire and a face-to-face interview after listening to the audio guide. Participants' gallery-walking patterns were traced on a floor map to ascertain how they listened to the audio guide. Overall, respondents, including one sight-impaired person, reported a high degree of satisfaction with the mobile phone audio guide. Most participants were pleased to be offered this type of service in the museum. One concern for users was the uncertainty over the cost of downloading the audio file.In the second phase of the project, an audio tour was designed for downloading to an iPod. This iPod audio tour was the first of its kind in Japan. It was introduced at the Dinosaur Expo 2005, Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History. The audio guide had 22 audio stops and was recorded in English. For non-Japanese-speaking visitors, the audio guide was the only opportunity to access information about the exhibition, since all signage and the commercially available audio tour was in Japanese only. A group of 37 students from a local high school listened to the audio tour. The survey results showed that a majority of students enjoyed learning about the exhibition, even though they were listening in a nonnative language. Almost two-thirds of the students reported that they agreed to participate in the study to practice their English. However, at the conclusion of the experiment, this group reported that they had really looked at the displays and they had learned something new about how birds evolved from dinosaurs.