Technology has become a common aspect of the museum visitor experience. Kiosks, mobile apps, ticket sales, signage, etc. combine to create the integrated experience our visitors expect. In order to provide this experience, these systems can no longer be developed and maintained as separate parts. It is necessary for interactive systems to share data and media, point of sale systems to share visitor data, and signage systems to link to event scheduling. Supporting these systems has a significant impact on the museum’s technology infrastructure and systems. Networks have to support ubiquitous Wi-Fi for visitors, deliver streaming content to kiosks and apps, and support location based technologies. Collection Information and digital asset management systems have to be adapted to provide content to support interpretive projects in galleries and online. Multiple visitor information systems have to be integrated to provide the personal experience the visitor expects. All of this technology has to be kept running and updated. Panelists will discuss specific projects at their institutions and how they are addressing these challenges followed by a QA session. Jane Alexander; Chief Information Officer, The Cleveland Museum of Art will present “Beyond Beta - CMA’s iBeacon Technology is Live” which describes how iPad, iPhone and Android smart devices engage 270 Bluetooth iBeacons that triangulate visitor location within one meter offering a seamless and rich experience of each work assimilating art history and education with intuitive essential video, audio, text and still-image content. Jane will also discuss how CMA’s analysis of visitor engagement and changing tastes and trends in visitor experience, guide exhibit layout and support materials as well as shape next iterations of CMA’s app ware. Brian Dawson; Chief Digital Officer, Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation will present ‘Digital Reboot: Building and Invisible Architecture from the ground up.” The Canada Science and Technology Museum is closed for major renovations until 2017, in which the museum experience is being completely rebuilt. The museum is undergoing a digital transformation, including a complete "reboot" of the digital experience. Brian will outline the approach taken by CSTM in rebooting the museum experience, highlighting lessons that should be broadly applicable to other institutions. Bill Weinstein; The John H. McFadden and Lisa D. Kabnick Director of Information and Interpretive Technologies, Philadelphia Museum of Art will present “0 to 60 in no time” which describes how the IT department has had to adapt and grow the infrastructure and back end systems to accommodate to the increased usage of technology in the galleries. Bill will discuss the development of hardware standards for interactives, installation of supporting infrastructure, development of databases to track usage and how these projects affect budging and fundraising.

1. Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public Facing Technologies
PRESENTER NAME, TITLE
DATE

2. “0-60 in No Time”
Bill Weinstein
The John H. McFadden and Lisa D. Kabnick Director of
Information and Interpretive Technologies
Philadelphia Museum of Art
“Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions”
Brian Dawson
Chief Digital Officer
Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation
ARTLENS “NEAR YOU NOW”
Jane Alexander
Chief Information Officer
The Cleveland Museum of Art
MCN 201502

3. When is the backend done?
• Three Case Studies
‒ Beginning
‒ Implementation
‒ Do-Over (2.0 – the nicer way of saying it)
3
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

4. 0-60 in No Time
Bill Weinstein
The John H. McFadden and Lisa D. Kabnick Director of
Information and Interpretive Technologies
Philadelphia Museum of Art
MCN 201504

5. Prior To Strategic Plan
MCN 201505
• Looping video in galleries.
• Rented audio players.
• Cell phone tours hosted on PBX.
• One-off special exhibit interactives.

6. MCN 201506

7. MCN 201507

8. MCN 201508

9. After Strategic Plan
MCN 201509
• In-gallery interactives.
• Location aware mobile
guide.
• Transparent touch
displays.
• Immersive
environments.

10. But….
MCN 2015010
infrastructure to build, or support these
projects.
process for application and content
development and management.
dedicated staff build or support them.
budget.
NO

11. What do we need – Infrastructure
MCN 2015011
• Additional Wifi bandwidth.
• Equipment standards.
• Media storage.
• Application servers.
• Management system.

12. What do we need – Content Development and
Management
MCN 2015012
• CMS.
• Media production.
• Collection data production.
• Application development environment.

13. What do we need – Staff
MCN 2015013
• Developers.
• Support Staff.
• Media producers.
• Curators.
• Interpreters.

14. What do we need – Budget
MCN 2015014
• Increased operating budget.
• Increased special project budget.
• Endowment.

15. MCN 2015015

16. Developing an “Invisible
Architecture” for
Exhibitions
Brian Dawson
Chief Digital Officer
Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation

17. Who we are…
17
CANADA SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY MUSEUMS
CORPORATION
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

18. 18

19. 19

20. 20
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

21. Renewing the Canada Science and Technology
Museum
21
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

22. Digital “reboot” of the museum
22
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

23. Developing six major galleries in parallel
23
Artefact Alley
Technology In Our Lives
Transforming Resources
Creating and Using Knowledge
Children’s Innovation Space
Moving and Connecting
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

24. 24

25. This is not a content management system
25
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

26. Exhibit Digital Platform
26
Content
Management
Exhibit Standard
System
Management
Code
Management
Analytics
Git
Repository
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

27. Exhibit Management System Architecture
27
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

28. Exhbit Management System and
Exhibit Content Management
28
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

29. Integration Toolkit (ITK)
29
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

30. Anticipated Benefits
• Standardized hardware and software
• Ownership of / access to source code
• Maintain code into the future
• Transparent development approach
• Floor continuously compiled on latest version of code
• Rapid rebuild/replacement of exhibit computers
• Means of (selected) content management for non-technical staff
• Integrated analytics platform
30
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

31. Risks
• Potentially limited pool of exhibit development firms willing to provide
source code and develop transparently
• Developing platform in parallel with exhibitions
• Management of custom platform into the future
31
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies

32. Thank you
32
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies
Brian Dawson
Chief Digital Officer
Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
bdawson@techno-science.ca
@briandawson

33. ARTLENS“NEAR YOU NOW”
2.0+
Jane Alexander, CIO, The Cleveland Museum of Art

34. ARTLENS IS…

38. Why we are using iBeacons
for Near You Now function
of ArtLens
IS
Near You Now
WORKING?

39. The “Blue Dot” Problem
◻ How can we provide a good wayfinding experience for visitors?
◻ GPS – The golden standard?
⬜ Accurate to ~35ft, less accurate when indoors
⬜ Not Nearly Accurate enough
◻ What other options are there?
⬜ Wifi Triangulation?
⬜ iBeacon?

40. Initial Approach
◻ Wi-Fi Triangulation!
⬜ Had to use Trigger Finger API to force constant Wi-Fi
communication
⬜ Mesh network of Wi-Fi hotspots
◻ But…
⬜ Trigger Finger API was a HUGE drain on battery life
■ Visitors do not like drained batteries
⬜ Overactive 2.4ghz Wi-Fi network caused congestion across the
museum’s business related Wi-Fi.
■ Museum people do not like bad Wi-Fi
◻ Need something else…

43. OCTOBER 2014…….Introducing iBeacon
◻ iBeacon uses Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) wireless technology
⬜Minimal battery drain
◻ Army of beacons sending out constant signal
◻ Position calculated by signal strength from beacons

44. What does an iBeacon look like?

45. CMA’s implementation of iBeacon
◻ 250 iBeacon transmitters
◻ Navizon on the backend for traingulation
◻ Navizon is a multitool location awareness toolbox (beacons, wifi,
compass, gyroscope, etc.)

46. How are iBeacons installed in the Museum?
iBeacons are easy to discreetly install

47. Where are they?

48. Where are they?

49. Fingerprints
◻ Once the beacons were installed a training process called
“fingerprinting” was conducted throughout the Museum.
◻ Fingerprints contain the signal strength of the iBeacons in
various locations throughout the museum
◻ Fingerprint data is then uploaded to the Navizon ITS server for
triangulation

50. How are fingerprints collected?
When Navizon arrived onsite they had mapped out routes in
advance throughout the Museum to ensure optimal accuracy.

51. What do the fingerprints look like?
The more fingerprints collected the better the
results for the location tracking.

52. What is involved to integrated Navizon into an App?
◻ Navizon provides a Software Developer Kit (SDK) for both iOS and
Android based mobile devices.
◻ Using this SDK an App can query the Navizon server for the mobile
device’s current location.
◻ ArtLens matches the Navizon location to the Museum’s floorplan…
mostly

53. SO…..
Problem Solved?

54. Well…..Environmental Issues…
◻ Building infrastructure impact on accuracy
⬜ Magnetic fields
■ CMA’s Atrium has TONS of steel… so much steel that the magnetic field in
the museum shifts by up to 180 degrees!
■ Unhappy Boy Scouts
⬜ Open Spaces (such as Atriums and Balconies)
■ Location information will tend to “bounce” between levels in these areas.
■ Problematic when transitioning between levels using escalators.

55. Magnetic Fields Man…
We’re off by almost 180 degrees!

56. Lessons Learned… Open Spaces
Challenges of providing reliable and accurate location information in spaces with no real
physical boundaries.

57. Lessons Learned…
◻ Mobile Device Hardware
⬜ Orientation of how the device is held
■ Accuracy can be effected by how the device is held.
■ Especially apparent on tablets
⬜ Bluetooth Chipsets
■ Must have LTE. This has required us to drop support for
several older of model mobile devices (iPad I and iPhone 4).
⬜ Gyroscope/Accelerometer
■ Used for path smoothing… not always uniform across devices

58. Lessons Learned…
◻ Mobile Operating Systems
⬜ Always changing
■ Major moble OS upgrades/changes have unanticipated impact on ArtLens.
⬜ Security Permissions
■ Need permissions for device location information without which the
experience is degraded
⬜ iOS more restrictive vs. Android more flexible

59. Lessons Learned…
◻ End User Experience
⬜ Visual cues as to location
■ If location awareness can’t always be perfect what other
approaches can we use?
■ Radius of Confidence
■ Start large
■ You are in the Museum
■ And Narrow
■You are in the armor court...
▪...Looking at a crossbow

60. Lessons Learned… Radius of Confidence
Example of how the “Radius of Confidence” as shown at the initial location inquiry on the left
and how the radius drastically shrinks after the user takes a few steps.

61. What’s Next?
⬜ Visual based location tracking?
■ Augmented reality… maybe someday
⬜ Magnetic Field Anomaly location tracking
■ Use the Museum’s (pesky) magnetic fingerprint
⬜ Google Indoor
⬜Targeted Content

62. Questions
• How do you approach digital sustainability in your galleries?
• What are your main drivers?
• How do you manage specialized software for interactives?
• What mix of proprietary, open source, and custom?
62
Developing an Invisible Architecture for Exhibitions
Brian Dawson, CSTMC
Invisible Architectures: Supporting Public-Facing Technologies