To all the list,

First of all this is not a sales pitch - I'm trying to find out whether
our product idea would be useful and most of all affordable for the
museums industry.  All feedback is welcome - especially critical stuff.

Ansae is a new electronics/software company. We have a design for
something you might describe as a smart label. I know that this is quite a
long message but my hope is that by describing it now, and listening to
your feedback we can make something genuinely useful.

The idea addresses these four questions asked me recently by a local art
gallery.

1. How do you label a painting or museum exhibit in such a way that it can
be read by both children and adults, foreign language speakers and the
partially sighted from four metres away with a label no bigger than a
postcard?
2. How does your museum tour guide ensure your interpretation is always up
to date? How does it cope with items being moved around, new exhibits, and
route changes?
3. How do you let people explore at their own speed and access levels of
description and understanding?
4. How do you know where visitors have been, how long they stayed with
each exhibit what things they might come back to see again?

Our answer was:
Give the label to the visitor.  Make the label as readable as a postcard
yet capacious as a book. Make the label smart enough to know where it is
and what you are looking at. Make writing the content simple, Make using
it even simpler, let the label keep track of its usage.

In technical terms, the label is a small hand held PC. designed to take
the handling of hundreds of visitors. it might be the size of a post card
and worn on the fore-arm, or it might be the size of a CD case and worn on
a neck strap.  The label knows where it is, which exhibit you are in front
of. The display is primarily text although various fonts are supported and
small monochrome images can also be incorporated.

There are no external user controls; the labels appear automatically when
near the exhibit. If the page is longer than the screen you can tilt the
device forward to scroll down the text, tilting the device backwards
beyond the vertical scrolls back up to the top. or if this is too
difficult then maybe a couple of scroll buttons. Essentially this is a
read only device which allows you to carry a web site with you around the
museum.

The label supports various languages and levels of education - child,
adult, guru etc. these settings are entered by placing the device in the
appropriate position on a poster. e.g language flags and age group
pictures.

Content authoring is very simple.  You simply type the text for each
location into a file.  You can use plain text or HTML. All the files for a
programme are placed into a directory along with a contents file which
maps the location beacon codes on to the relevant pages.

When new content is available the Label simply has to be placed within
range of a base station PC.  The files are then synchronised - new content
is sent to the label and in turn the label sends back statistics on the
amount of time spent at each location.

- So I have two key questions for you all features and price:

Features - what features would you like to see in such a device, audio
output, text to speech? video, colour display, battery life etc. what
would you be prepared to compromise on, what _must_ you have.

Price - how would you make a spending decision on such an object, what
sort of visitor numbers would justify it, how many would be needed. If you
can tell me what its 'percieved' value might be, I'll see if it can be
made for that price.

Thanks for your time


Regards
Andrew Watkins          Technical Director, Ansae Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0)1926 640073,