Nicola Sullivan gets chatting with the new generation of museum androids that talk back at you.
Talking to robots is often not as exciting as it looks in science fiction films. In everyday life, interaction with chatbots normally involves frustrating encounters with online troubleshooting functions, shouting at Siri or responding to a simplistic “Can I help you?” facility on a website.
But technological advancements are starting to make communication with chatbots – engines that conduct conversations via auditory or textual messages – more engaging. In parallel, their increased use has been driven by the popularity of platforms such as Facebook Messenger.
Museums, galleries and heritage sites are starting to exploit chatbots for a range
of applications – for example, to administer trails and games for younger visitors, provide tailored information about paintings or artefacts, offer customer service information and conduct visitor surveys.
In April a new function called parametric coding was added to Facebook Messenger. Much like QR codes, scannable images are used to fire up chatbots via a mobile device that has the Messenger app on it. In public spaces like museums, this means visitors will be able to decide whether or not they want to interact with a chatbot. They can also look up a museum’s chatbot by searching on the Messenger app on their phone.
“It is user modulated rather than someone’s phone suddenly buzzing with a new message because they just walked into a museum,” says Ronald Ashri, the technical director (strategy), at digital agency Deeson.
Case Museo Di Milano (House Museums of Milan) – a group of historical homes – used Facebook Messenger to implement a chatbot game that encourages children to explore its sites. Competing against a renaissance magician, players search for clues in the collection, which lead them to a big reveal. They interact with a virtual character throughout. The key advantages of such a game are that no extra software needs to be downloaded and many people are already familiar with the Messenger format.
The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus has used Facebook Messenger to create a chatbot that provides information on the artworks that visitors look at as they wander around the museum. And the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam uses its Facebook Messenger chatbot to provide details about its site in the city as well as information on Anne Frank and the second world war. The aim is to help the museum extend its reach beyond its physical location.
Chatbots can also be used to help audiences search online collections. The Royal Collections Trust, London, has been experimenting with Amazon’s Alexa, an artificial intelligence system that is capable of voice interaction. The goal is for audiences to
be shown objects based on the questions they ask about the collection. Similar systems geared towards museum staff, however, are still a long way off.
“I don’t think we are there yet with natural language processing,” says Ashri. “It can’t handle knowledgeable people asking questions. There would be a lot of expertise the chatbots would need to pick up.”
There are also museums that create bespoke conversational interfaces using multiple technologies. The National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Newark, Nottinghamshire, filmed 10 Holocaust survivors, each of whom were asked up to 1,400 questions about their experience. The footage is being used to project 3D videos of them in the gallery, allowing audiences to listen to them and ask questions via a special microphone linked to a computer that selects the appropriate response.
A Q&A with Steven Frank, who was in Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands and Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic, is now available to visitors and the remaining nine accounts will be launched over the next 12 months. The £1.2m project was done in conjunction with interpretative digital design specialist Brightwhite and Huddersfield University.
“We have Holocaust survivors speaking daily to children at the centre,” says Sarah Coward, the development director at the National Holocaust Centre and Museum. “This is valuable as it gives them an opportunity to ask about things they care about. We wanted young people to ask their own questions.”
Chatbots will be one of the issues discussed at the Museums Association’s Museum Tech 2017 event at the Museum of London on 29 June.
Facing up to the future
“This technology is getting advanced. Microsoft is developing conversational interfaces that scan the face of a person looking at a painting to work out their age. Relevant information is then provided about the painting based on the age of that person.”
Ronald Ashri is the technical director (strategy) at digital agency Deeson
Talking to robots is often not as exciting as it looks in science fiction films. In everyday life, interaction with chatbots normally involves frustrating encounters with online troubleshooting functions, shouting at Siri or responding to a simplistic “Can I help you?” facility on a website.
But technological advancements are starting to make communication with chatbots – engines that conduct conversations via auditory or textual messages – more engaging. In parallel, their increased use has been driven by the popularity of platforms such as Facebook Messenger.
Museums, galleries and heritage sites are starting to exploit chatbots for a range
of applications – for example, to administer trails and games for younger visitors, provide tailored information about paintings or artefacts, offer customer service information and conduct visitor surveys.
In April a new function called parametric coding was added to Facebook Messenger. Much like QR codes, scannable images are used to fire up chatbots via a mobile device that has the Messenger app on it. In public spaces like museums, this means visitors will be able to decide whether or not they want to interact with a chatbot. They can also look up a museum’s chatbot by searching on the Messenger app on their phone.
“It is user modulated rather than someone’s phone suddenly buzzing with a new message because they just walked into a museum,” says Ronald Ashri, the technical director (strategy), at digital agency Deeson.
Case Museo Di Milano (House Museums of Milan) – a group of historical homes – used Facebook Messenger to implement a chatbot game that encourages children to explore its sites. Competing against a renaissance magician, players search for clues in the collection, which lead them to a big reveal. They interact with a virtual character throughout. The key advantages of such a game are that no extra software needs to be downloaded and many people are already familiar with the Messenger format.
The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus has used Facebook Messenger to create a chatbot that provides information on the artworks that visitors look at as they wander around the museum. And the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam uses its Facebook Messenger chatbot to provide details about its site in the city as well as information on Anne Frank and the second world war. The aim is to help the museum extend its reach beyond its physical location.
Chatbots can also be used to help audiences search online collections. The Royal Collections Trust, London, has been experimenting with Amazon’s Alexa, an artificial intelligence system that is capable of voice interaction. The goal is for audiences to
be shown objects based on the questions they ask about the collection. Similar systems geared towards museum staff, however, are still a long way off.
“I don’t think we are there yet with natural language processing,” says Ashri. “It can’t handle knowledgeable people asking questions. There would be a lot of expertise the chatbots would need to pick up.”
There are also museums that create bespoke conversational interfaces using multiple technologies. The National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Newark, Nottinghamshire, filmed 10 Holocaust survivors, each of whom were asked up to 1,400 questions about their experience. The footage is being used to project 3D videos of them in the gallery, allowing audiences to listen to them and ask questions via a special microphone linked to a computer that selects the appropriate response.
A Q&A with Steven Frank, who was in Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands and Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic, is now available to visitors and the remaining nine accounts will be launched over the next 12 months. The £1.2m project was done in conjunction with interpretative digital design specialist Brightwhite and Huddersfield University.
“We have Holocaust survivors speaking daily to children at the centre,” says Sarah Coward, the development director at the National Holocaust Centre and Museum. “This is valuable as it gives them an opportunity to ask about things they care about. We wanted young people to ask their own questions.”
Chatbots will be one of the issues discussed at the Museums Association’s Museum Tech 2017 event at the Museum of London on 29 June.
Facing up to the future
“This technology is getting advanced. Microsoft is developing conversational interfaces that scan the face of a person looking at a painting to work out their age. Relevant information is then provided about the painting based on the age of that person.”
Ronald Ashri is the technical director (strategy) at digital agency Deeson