A year ago I looked into the "Eye-Q" system developed by Visible Design
Corporation
in San Francisco, 415-433-7781, FAX 415-433-7783.  They produce a "hand-held,
touch-screen interactive computer (with optional headphones)."   This device is
intended to be rented by individual museum visitors and "plays hours of audio"
and
"displays thousands of pages of text and graphics."  They can be programed to
lead visitors on individualized tours of a museum.  However, when I spoke with
their
representative, he indicated that the units weren't really cost effective
unless a
museum had more than a million visitors a year.  He was helpful and, without a
hard-sell, suggested various ways his company could adapt their system to a
smaller
museum.  Check with them for current pricing.

I think the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto uses a "POETS" system: "Point of
Exhibit
Talker System" developed by Heritage Information Technologies of Lewisburg,
West
Virginia, 1-800-795-6509, FAX 304,647-3232.  These look like television remote
control units that the museum issues free-of-charge to visitors (who leave a
small
security deposit.)  When the unit is pointed at a post within an exhibit and
the
appropriate button is pushed, an audio program will play back through
headphones.
The visitor can choose between French and English versions and can get
additional
audio information if they are interested in a particular subject.  I tried it
and
had a good time listening to "actual" curators discuss the research they had
done in
preparation for the exhibit.



David Mandel
Director of Exhibits
State Historical Museum
30 North Carroll St.
Madison, WI  53703
[log in to unmask]
608-264-6550