Soon historical details about several monuments and museums will just be the click of a smartphone away. This comes after the ministry of culture and tourism decided to roll out ‘eguides’ at historical sites across the country to make museum artefacts easily accessible to visitors.
According to a Times of India report, the e-guide, which is available free of cost to visitors once they download the museum app on their android mobile phones, will allow them to take guided tours without needing someone to chaperon them around.
The reports suggests that at present, the e-guide has already been launched for about 55 artefacts of the 1000 stored in the National Museum in Delhi. E-content is also being readied for the other historical products and artefacts at museums and in monuments across the country.
According to the report, the content creation. which contains contextual audios and videos will take some time, but is being readied keeping in mind the need to improve a visitor’s experience.
Museum areas are being made wifi zones so that the audio-video content will be made available through intranet. This will allow visitors to hook on to the intranet and scan the QR code placed beside each artefact for a detailed information about it.
“Visitors can get all the information they need by scanning the QR code on their phone,” a ministry official said.
Earlier one such Google’s Arts and Culture app was used by art and history enthusiasts. The app was developed to bring the works of popular artists and painters to smartphone users. Available as a free download on both Android and iOS, the app had also got a host of new features as well as content relevant to users in India.
The Arts and Culture app offered collections and artefacts from over 1,000 museums across 70 countries, including India. Google had partnered with several Indian museums and art galleries such as Indian Museum, Kolkata, Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, and National Museum, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.
Indian monuments and heritage sites such as Nalanda, Hampi, Purana Qila and Taj Mahal are now accessible to users
