The role of technology in museums and how it's enhancing visitor experiences

16th September 2024

Heritage institutions and museums all over the world are finding new and innovative ways to engage an increasingly tech-savvy general public.

These institutions have always been archives of historical works and artefacts, but the role of technology in museums is increasingly important for enhancing the visitor experience.

Trends in museum technology

There are some key museum technology trends that we’ve seen emerge in the last few years, specifically:

• Interactive exhibits and digital displays
• Virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) experiences
• Mobile apps and guided tours
• AI and machine learning in museums

Interactive exhibits and digital displays

Interactive exhibits are not particularly new to museums. Buttons that either trigger an audio or video clip have been used in exhibits for many years, but the execution has come a long way in the last few years.

One of the most notable examples of this is interactive display cases, allowing visitors to interact with objects even when they’re safely secured behind a screen. This might include being able to rotate objects or manipulate the lighting within a case—a much more engaging experience than passively looking at static artefacts in glass cabinets.

Virtual and augmented reality experiences

Virtual and augmented reality are still relatively immature technologies, but the impact they can have on the museum experience is massive.

There are some really exciting examples of museums already using VR and AR to enhance visitor engagement, including at The National Gallery, de Young Museum and The National Museum of Singapore, but the influence of this tech is only going to increase over time.

AR is particularly powerful when used to deliver more in-depth exploration of an exhibit. For example, a museum visitor could point an AR-enabled device (for example a smartphone) at a medieval suit of armour and watch as it comes to life.

VR takes this one step further, putting the visitor into a fully digital and interactive environment. Equipped with a VR headset, people could traverse the surface of the moon, explore the wreck of the Titanic or walk alongside long-extinct animal species.

The cost of this technology will still be prohibitive for some institutions, but we’d expect to see them become more accessible in the future—and museums will need to leverage this technology to keep up with the sector.

Mobile apps and guided tours

Mobile devices are capable of powering a number of museum innovation trends. This includes AR as mentioned above, as well as guided tours through a combination of digital maps, further details about exhibits, audio guides, and even interactive games and quizzes.

What’s more, the vast majority of people carry smartphones with them already, which means this use of museum technology doesn’t have to be expensive.

AI and machine learning in museums

ArtificiaI intelligence is a hot topic in tech and software right now, but AI and machine learning also offer interesting opportunities to the museum sector.

AI-powered assistants are already being used by some museums to enhance the museum experience, with one of the best examples being at the Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore, India.

The museums used a three-dimensional avatar of painter M. F. Husain that leveraged facial recognition, speech synthesis and language processing to respond to questions about his life and works in real time.

The future of museum technology

Expect to see museum technology become more commonplace in the next few years, as costs come down and the need to find new and innovative ways to engage visitors increases.

AR, VR and AI technology will likely be at the forefront of this, and we’re really only in the early stages of how these tools will develop.

In the future, museums will no longer be simply places that store and provide information about ancient works of art or artefacts—they’ll be fully immersive, interactive and personalised experiences that allow visitors to explore history in increasingly engaging ways.

How Digital Asset Management supports this future

To take advantage of these latest technologies in museums you’ll need more than the tech—you’re going to need somewhere to store and manage all of the multimedia content that will actually be driving these experiences.

A Digital Asset Management system will provide a centralised single source of truth for all of your interactive content, and ResourceSpace is the DAM of choice for some of the most notable museums and heritage institutions in the world, including The Walters Art Museum, Historic New England and LACMA.

READ MORE: ResourceSpace + The Ashmolean Museum Case Study

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