It’s virtual reality time in the local museum!
A new ‘virtual presenter’ created by Casio is now in situ at the Louth County Museum in Roden Place.
In what is being hailed as a European first, the virtual presenter, or avatar, will interact with visitors to the museum via a realistic-looking character that will speak via a screen.
The virtual presenter tool has been created by Casio Signage, a division of Casio – a company probably most famous for its calculators many of use used in secondary school.
It was installed in the museum yesterday and will relay information about four museum exhibits – Vere Foster, Napper Tandy, King William of Orange and Olympian Beatrice Hill-Lowe.
The project has been jointly initiated by the museum, Casio and Quick Response Ireland. According to the trio, the installation is the first of its kind in the country and the first such virtual presenter at a European museum.
It would appear that, internationally, only one other such virtual presenter is already in use – in Japan.
The screen in the Dundalk museum is shaped like the character, which visitors can select to match the characteristics needed to bring people into a given location. The character’s appearance and voice can be changed to keep repeat customers from losing interest, according to the museum.
The installation also offers multilingual support for visitors who speak various languages, and its light source lasts for circa 20,000 hours.
The full-size virtual presenter will be installed in the museum reception area in the coming weeks. It will introduce the visitor to the museum in general and will then guide them to the desktop virtual presenter.
James Maher of Quick Response Ireland explained how the company linked up with the County Museum.
He said Quick Response is focused on bringing history and heritage to life using web-based technology tools.
“We have been working with Brian Walsh [museum curator] over the past number of months integrating new technologies such as QR codes, augmented reality and mobile seamlessly into the County Museum environment in Dundalk.”
Brian Walsh said that both the desktop and full-sized virtual presenters can be updated as exhibitions in the museum change.
“We were trying to think of a name to suit our new member of the Museum team and have settled on Cassie-O, so now we just have to work on a name for her sister who arrives in the next few weeks,” he said.
