Rethinking Ghent’s Museum Experiences Using Smart Devices & Advanced Analytics
Crunch Analytics and Pozyx have been selected to help lay the groundwork for a new Ghent-based ‘smart museum’. During the course of several months, both will assist Digipolis Gent, Stad Gent, Stad Oostende, De Krook & Design Museum Gent as they research the use of the internet of things and advanced analytics to find new ways to interact with museum visitors. The project is one of the 21 smart city projects funded by the Flemish government that will research how the internet of things is about to change our future.
Each organisation has come to understand the impact of the digital transformation on human behaviour. Customers have grown accustomed to the customer-centric approach taken by entertainment providers, retailers, banks, and many more in search of growth. More classic organisations such as museums are looking to lever the same smart devices and advanced analytics to grow the museum experience to those same levels of customer-centricity.
‘Not all customers are created equal’. Yet, today most museums offer each visitor the same experience. Some have started creating ‘tracks’, pushing a visitor to follow a certain path that is a combination of content tailored to the interest profile of a specific group of visitors. Up until today, little or no technology has been deployed to better understand the actual interests of visitors, the shortcuts they might be taking, the content they might be missing out on or any insight that could help a curator in setting up the experience.
The internet of things, the use of sensors and smart devices providing data that can be analysed, enable museums to create better insights in visitor behaviour. Insights in movement and visitor interests will have a significant impact on how a museum is able to guide people, following a storyline based on their preferences and as such creating a more intense cultural experience. It could eventually lead to the application of artificial intelligence where appropriate.
The strategy creates the ability to provide so-called ‘cross-selling opportunities’. Based on profiles and preferences displayed duringa visit, a visitor can receive recommendations for other pieces of content. If a Saturday-morning visit instilled a renewed interest in surrealist art, a visitor could be informed that the city library has four books currently available to provide a more thorough insight in the early surrealist movement. One additional click on a button could lead to a “You can pick them up until 4 pm at the checkout desk” message, thus creating a more profound cultural experience.
The first phase “Museum Of Things for People” runs from February to April 2019 and will result in the setup of a Living Lab environment, where research can be performed from a human, technical and legal perspective. Looking forward to those results, the setup and additional services might be implemented allover the city.
Crunch Analytics and Pozyx are committed to continue pooling knowledge on the future impact of the internet of things, each in its specific domain of expertise. The cooperation illustrates the strength of Ghent’s ecosystem for tech-entrepreneurs, especially in IoT, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence.