Social Augmentation using iBeacons – Augmenting Masterpieces in the Rijksmuseum: Hide Your Story

Mobile Crit
Johanna Barnbeck, Rijksmuseum & University of Amsterdam , The Netherlands

The app bypasses the gap between scientific opinion makers and non-professional museum visitors: The app users become on-site active participants instead of being silent consumers.

Instead of following a route, visitors encounter stories coincidentally during their visit and can instantly record and add an observation themselves wherever they like.
By that, each artwork receives a socially augmented layer, which offers alternative approaches to the museum exhibits, along with the art historic information provided by the museum. Research project ‘Augmenting Masterpieces’ presents new digital features for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Through an app and beacon technology, visitors can share their own stories and hide them in artworks at the museum. Visitors of the Rijksmuseum will be able to discover hidden stories by other visitors throughout the museum, using one of the new app features on their smartphones.

The developed and tested features:
Hide A Story - http://vimeo.com/116339687
Trivia Questions – http://vimeo.com/116339188
Improve The Museum – http://vimeo.com/116340116

Prototype testing in the museum: http://vimeo.com/112958657