The Virtual Museum Docent Has ARrived
Format: Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence c.2024
Envision a revolutionary new museum guide that can take any form, speak any language, and answer the most in-depth questions in real time.
Museums have a problem. They have visitors eager to explore the exhibits, but they’re increasingly short on staff. Budgets have become tighter and tighter by the year, and so having docents on staff to guide people and tell stories is usually not an option. But even if there is a guide on staff, they can’t meet the needs of an increasingly diverse audience. How do they speak the variety of different languages that will be spoken? How do they answer questions in those languages? How do they cater to the deaf or people with other disabilities? And how does this person become an expert in the many different exhibits on display? Exhibits that change throughout the year? It’s a problem we’ve been considering a lot, and we knew the solution was rooted in technology. Can we utilize cutting-edge artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and the latest phones and headsets? Yes. Yes, we can. And it’s why we created the Virtual Museum Docent. An AR guide that could answer any questions, speak all languages, and take any form most representative of the exhibit?
Picture it. You slip on a pair of smart AR glasses, and everything in the museum changes. Your virtual docent appears, lifelike, engaging, and ready to guide you through history. One second, it’s a Tuskegee Airman sharing his experience of breaking barriers in aviation. The next, Aristotle invites you to tour ancient Greece. And then… a T. rex stomps into view, making paleontology as thrilling as a Spielberg flick. It sounds like a sci-fi dream, but it’s something the NeoPangea boffins dreamed up and could make a reality right now using smartphones or AR glasses like Meta Ray-Bans. With cutting-edge AR, AI, or volumetric video, museums can now offer interactive docents that don’t just recite facts but hold real conversations, answer questions in real time, and even speak in multiple languages, including sign language. They aren’t limited to one exhibit. They can shapeshift from floor to floor. And they turn static displays into living, breathing “OMG this is unreal” moments. Welcome… to the future of museums everywhere.
Project Services
A Few Words on AR Considerations…
- Easy Access, Maximum Engagement. Hands up who wants to download yet another app. Exactly. A web-based AR experience lets visitors jump right in. No installs. No hassle. Just instant magic.
- Smart Glasses? Cool & Immersive, But… managing headsets (and the budget for them) can be really tricky. Most (let’s face it, all) visitors already have smartphones in their pockets. So we say, why not use what they’ve already got?
- App or No App? If boosting app downloads is the goal, we can build the docents right in. But if we’re talking pure engagement, web-based AR wins every single time.
- Who’s Your Star?
- Got a beloved zookeeper? We can turn them into an interactive guide.
- Historical figure? Let’s 3D model a host straight from the past.
- Kid-friendly? We’ll conjure up an animated character that looks like they just stepped out of a Pixar movie (in some cases, literally).
- Budget: The Big “It Depends.” When it comes to budgeting for AI-driven characters, high-quality animation, or a live-action shoot, there are a range of ways to bring this to life. We can scale the experience to fit a single exhibit or an entire zoo. Basically, tell us your budget, we’ll tell you just what’s possible.
- Talk the Talk: Visitors should always feel at home, no matter what language they speak. We can make the experience multilingual with just a tap.
- More Than Just a Talking Head: Let’s add layers to the experience. For example:
- A floating globe showing an animal’s habitat.
- AR pop-ups explaining animal diets and behaviors.
- Interactive visuals that bring conservation efforts to life.
Bottom line? We’ve got plenty of ways to make any AR experience unforgettable. So let’s build something awesome together.
