Mobile wireless multimedia for visitors and conservation in museums

In this paper, we describe a system for wireless portable multimedia devices allowing visitors to access large quantities of interactive location-aware educational and scientific multimedia content from within a museum environment. The system allows users to move freely around the museum spaces and consult detailed multimedia content, such as video, audio, text and high resolution scientific imagery, on various works of art. The system is based on WiFi networking and the project has sought to address various technical issues such as network scalability, signal robustness, video stream compression and multicasting. A prototype of the system has been installed at the Musee Châtillonais in Châtillon-sur-Seine in France giving access to images, video and audio content relating to the famous Vase de Vix and a range of other objects in the collection. It is hoped the successful deployment of the prototype will lead to the system being adopted in other museums, including the Louvre Museum.