INFORMATIONAL, EDUCATIONAL AND cultural facilities often leave a lot to be desired in their scope for interactivity and feedback from patrons and visitors.
While some galleries and museums, and zoos and aquariums do offer virtual, audio and even augmented reality tours, real-time smart applications are still in their relative infancy.
Foresense Technologies is changing that.
A world leader in Artificially Intelligent presence detection technology, Foresense has already established wide ranging applications across government, commerce and industry making real-world spaces smarter and safer.
The innovative Foresense platform simplifies the collection of presence data and the analysis of action – and interaction – on-site in real world settings to provide real-time analytics of traffic inside and around any physical location.
In a similar way to how behavioural data is utilised online through careful analysis of aspects such as dwell time, session duration, and unique and return visitations the Foresense platform collects data through on-site sensors integrating with smartphones.
This allows for alerts and accessibility in real time so highly-informed, proactive decisions can be made by management, and for a more engaging visitor experience through the use of digital technology.
Visitors to galleries, museums, zoos and aquariums are often left to their own devices to wander from exhibit to exhibit without any real interaction, simply glossing over information blurbs on display or supplied booklets.
While organised tours and guides can offer a more informative visitor experience, they are often fast paced and impersonal; they simply cannot cater to the distinctive interests and levels of understanding of each and every visitor.
The Foresense platform can actually detect when someone stops at any given display for an extended period of time. Through push notification and smartphone technology, it can then offer patrons different tiers of information and the opportunity to learn more about what they are interested in, linking to further reading, video presentations and even augmented reality.
In this way, virtual tours can become a highly personalised, heightened visitor experience, encouraging longer stays, further learning and even repeat visitations by reminding visitors of missed attractions, suggesting they may need to return at another time to take everything in.
The scope for interactivity is furthered by the capacity to include real-time questionnaires quizzes and worksheets – especially relevant for schools or tour groups to make learning more fun.
The technology also presents a range of possibilities and opportunities for curators and administrators.
Breakdown the entire visitor experience from total time spent at the facility – and in individual sections.
Analyse and streamline traffic flows from entry points through to each display and on to amenities such as restrooms and restaurants and cafes.
Monitor the number of people in any given area at any given time to deploy staff and guides where and when they are needed.
Learn how people actually navigate across physical space and between attractions – discover the exact numbers and average dwell times to quantify the popularity for each and every display to base decisions for when to replace current displays or bring in similar future attractions.
Identify unique characteristics such as if a visitor is a new, unique visitor to determine the likelihood of tourists and visitors from out of town.
The platform can use visitor data for tailored messages on- screen or via close proximity digital signage for advertising or informational purposes – for example tell local visitors of upcoming special events or let tourists know of must-see attractions, and incentivise to visit on-site shopping, restaurants and cafes.
In a post-COVID world, Foresense can be used to monitor and control the number of people gathering in any given area to address crowd density regulations and even identify people who have not been recently received negative COVID testing where such laws and applications have been introduced.
The technology can even be used for security and safety concerns to identify suspicious loitering or access to a restricted area, or when a person is not moving as normal across any given space, indicating collapse or injury.
While galleries, museums, zoos and aquariums have long been institutions in cities around the world, they really have not changed much over the centuries.
The digital age presents new ways to invigorate these places, and bring them into the modernity.
Foresense Technologies presents the next step in the digital evolution, making cultural and educational facilities smarter, safer and more attractive for visitors to keep returning.