Cicerobot, Your Next Museum Guide

Roland Piquepaille writes "In a brief article, ANSA reports about a robot which will guide visitors in the Agrigento museum in Sicily. Cicerobot is 1.5-meter high and is equipped with wheels, a keyboard, a monitor, video camera and sensors. As many objects in this archaeological museum are very old and precious, a special emphasis was given to navigation. So far, Cicerobot only talks Italian, but it should be soon fluent in other languages. And as it is able to collect data from different sensor locations, it also plays the role of a security guard. Finally, it will also offer virtual tours of the museum via Internet."

Comments

This is just one such idea

[zappepcs]

There have been several similar robots in museums. Museums, always in the need to attract visitors, have been quite on the edge for using technology. There is a system for guided tours using cell phones and PDAs as well as the tape recorder things. Using Bluetooth, they will go even farther. Imagine being able to stand in front of a painting or sculpture, and on your BT enabled smartphone, press 3 for detailed information, 5 for related works in the gallery, 6 for history of the artist, and so on... all the FAQ for each display item via your BT enabled device. This would be better than the robot, but not quite the same wow factor... using the robot for virtual tours over the Internet is a great idea.