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Museum software dev here. Museum folks are pretty primitive in a way. Unlike websites, in a museum it's really hard to know which exhibits or parts of exhibits

by Tharkun 11y ago

Museum software dev here. Museum folks are pretty primitive in a way. Unlike websites, in a museum it's really hard to know which exhibits or parts of exhibits are popular, and which are not. Maybe you have 100 paintings, but people ignore 90 of them? Or maybe you'd like to automatically play some audio commentary as a visitor approaches a display? Or something a little fancier? Or maybe you've got a REALLY BUSY museum (think Louvre). It would be really nice to have a heat map of where everyone is. Too many people in that area? Let's direct new visitors elsewhere. There's a lot of demand for things like this. iBeacons are reasonably horrible, but they're less horrible than trying to use GPS indoors or relying on wifi for location detection.

stanmancan 11y ago
Why not computer vision? That way you don't rely on anyone having a phone at all
- Tharkun 11y ago
  Yeah. Why not fully sentient androids while we're at it! Do you know how much money museums have? Let me quote you a nice, round number: 0.
  - mcphage 11y ago
    While I believe you, it seems weird, since they're in the business of purchasing multi-million dollar objects. So there's money coming through, although maybe they can't use it for that? It's too bad, though... Selling off one or two pieces, in order to make the user experience a whole lot better for all of the visitors, would probably be a net gain for the museum's goals.
  - stanmancan 11y ago
    People Counting[1] is a pretty big market and has plenty of solutions already. If small retail stores can afford it, I don't see why it would blow the budget for a museum. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_counter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_counter
  - jonknee 11y ago
    This is a standard feature for a number of CCTV platforms. Retailers are big users of it, but I'm sure many museums are also on board. It would be much more accurate than the small number of people who happen to have your app.
Someone 11y ago
You may be able to get that heat map of "where everyone is" from your air conditioning system. More humans in a room = more heat = more power usage for your air conditioning system.

by Tharkun 11y ago

stanmancan 11y ago

Why not computer vision? That way you don't rely on anyone having a phone at all

Tharkun 11y ago
Yeah. Why not fully sentient androids while we're at it! Do you know how much money museums have? Let me quote you a nice, round number: 0.
- mcphage 11y ago
  While I believe you, it seems weird, since they're in the business of purchasing multi-million dollar objects. So there's money coming through, although maybe they can't use it for that? It's too bad, though... Selling off one or two pieces, in order to make the user experience a whole lot better for all of the visitors, would probably be a net gain for the museum's goals.
- stanmancan 11y ago
  People Counting[1] is a pretty big market and has plenty of solutions already. If small retail stores can afford it, I don't see why it would blow the budget for a museum. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_counter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_counter
- jonknee 11y ago
  This is a standard feature for a number of CCTV platforms. Retailers are big users of it, but I'm sure many museums are also on board. It would be much more accurate than the small number of people who happen to have your app.

Someone 11y ago

You may be able to get that heat map of "where everyone is" from your air conditioning system. More humans in a room = more heat = more power usage for your air conditioning system.