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

移动电话对科学博物馆的信息传递有效吗？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个手机语音指南。60名自行选择的参观者在听完语音导览后完成了问卷调查和面对面访谈。研究人员在一张地形图上记录了参与者的画廊行走模式，以确定他们是如何听音频导览的。总体而言，包括一名视障人士在内的受访者对手机语音导游表示高度满意。大多数参与者都很高兴在博物馆提供这种服务。用户担心的一个问题是下载音频文件的费用的不确定性。在项目的第二阶段，设计了一个音频导览，可以下载到iPod上。这次iPod音频之旅在日本尚属首次。这是在2005年的恐龙博览会和北九州自然历史和人类历史博物馆推出的。语音导游有22个音频点，用英语录制。对于不讲日语的参观者来说，音频导览是获取有关展览信息的唯一机会，因为所有的标志和商业上可获得的音频导览都是日语的。来自当地一所高中的37名学生听了音频导览。调查结果显示，大多数学生喜欢了解展览，即使他们是用非母语听的。几乎三分之二的学生报告说他们同意参加这项研究来练习他们的英语。然而，在实验结束时，这组人报告说，他们真的看到了这些展示，他们对鸟类是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.