Dear Harry,
the use of cellular phones as an adioguide looks interesting. If you have
not had a request from someone at the Museum of Vicotia for more
information or the evaluation you spoke of would you please send me a
copy. If some one from our institution has contacted you can you let me
know so that I can follow it up please.
Thanks Harry
Hope to catch up with you when you are in Australia later this year.
Ingrid Tadich
=S*:S*On
Wed, 4 Oct 1995, HNEEDHAM wrote:

> At the Canadian Museum of Civilization, we have basically given up on our
> cassette-based audioguides, which are clumsy, expensive to update and force
> visitors to follow sequential paths.
>
> We have recently completed a pilot test of a guide based on cellular
> telephones, operating from our in-house telephone system (no use of commercial
> networks). Small cellular phones in a shoulder case were used to access
> mulkti-layered data in random sequence in any of multiple languages. The units
> were extremely well received by visitors, considering the limitations of the
> test. Indeed, I was rather floored by how positively the system was viewed. Th
e
> changes suggested were simple and do-able.
>
> We are now studying the cost implications of complete installation in the Gran
d
> Hall, Canada (history) Hall and Mezzanine and the First People's Hall (under
> development). The system will feature layered information (up to 3 layers) in
> (initially) 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and German) and all
> information can be accessed randomly. The system is useful from an evaluation
> perspective, as our telephone/computer network will track in detail visitor us
e
> of the new system, which should provide a good deal of useful data. Depending
> upon the use and demand, we would add information in Japanese and Mandarin).
>
> Copies of the evaluation are available. (Patricia, there's one in the mail to
> you!)
>
> harry.needham(at)cmcc.muse.digital.ca
>