A museum can talk to its audience through a variety of channels, such as Web sites, help desks, human guides, brochures. A considerable effort is being made by museums to integrate these different means. The Web site can be designed to be reachable or even updateable from visitors inside the museum via touchscreen and wireless devices. But these…

This paper began as an attempt to clarify and classify the development of Web3D environments from 1995 to the present. In that process, important facts came to light. A large proportion of these sites were virtual galleries and museums. Second, these same environments covered a wide array of architectural interpretations and represented some of…

With regard to the acceptance of human-computer interfaces, immersion represents one of the most important methods for attracting young visitors into museum exhibitions. Exciting and diversely presented content as well as intuitive, natural and human-like interfaces are indispensable to bind users to an interactive system with real and digital…

A framework for the design of multi-channel (MC) applications in the cultural tourism domain is presented. Several heterogeneous interface devices are supported including location-sensitive mobile units, on-site stationary devices, and personalized CDs that extend the on-site experience beyond the visit time thanks to personal memories gathered…

The SAGRES system is an educational environment built on the Web that facilitates the organization of visits to museums, presenting museum information bases in a way adapted to the user's characteristics (capacities and preferences). The system determines the group of links appropriate to the user(s) and shows them in a resultant HTML page. In…

Examines the Museum Educational Site Licensing (MESL) Project--a cooperative project between seven cultural heritage repositories and seven universities--as well as other developments of cultural heritage image databases for academic use. Reviews recent literature on image indexing and retrieval, interface design, and tool development, urging a…

This article investigates three types of content presentation (video documentary, computerized dictionary, and games) within interactive computer use at the Quebec Museum of Civilization. The visitors' viewpoint is particularly relevant for interface designing outcomes, since they argued that terminals require specific content display for…

Educators recognize that group work and physical involvement with learning materials can greatly enhance the understanding and retention of difficult concepts. As a result, math manipulatives--such as pattern blocks and number lines--have increasingly been making their way into classrooms and children's museums. Yet without the constant guidance…