Personal experience with active cultural heritage (PEACH) is a four-year funded project led by researchers from the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research, in Trento, and the German Institute for Research in Artificial Intelligence, in Saarbrücken. This book describes its developments. A mobile guide was created that integrates artificial intelligence (AI), computer microsystems, and human interactions, with the purpose of enhancing museum visitors’ experience. This volume contains a collection of papers outlining the results from the PEACH project. There are six parts that deal with various themes of the research. The first five parts contain 12 chapters, and the last part presents future research in “Intelligent Interfaces for Groups in a Museum.” The papers are highlighted with 101 figures (32 of which are in color) and 16 tables.

Part 1, on the intelligent mobile guides, informs the reader about the evolution and development of an adaptive mobile guide. Since a typical museum visit draws on the cognitive, emotional, and social experiences of its visitors, designing an interactive mechanism with a graphical interface and effective adaptive mechanisms that accommodate the visitor would truly enhance this cultural tour. The proposed adaptive guide needs to be customized and personalized to each visitor, and be adjusted to suit his or her pace and interest. An initial step of elicitation is required in order for the iterative design step to be successful at each stage. Audio presentations in this work were coupled with video clips that add details to the exhibit without interfering with the visitor’s appreciation of the exhibit itself. A personal digital assistant (PDA), termed the Like-o-Meter, was chosen to be the prototype device on which the visitors can express their likes and dislikes and provide feedback to the adaptive mechanisms of the system.

To “order, structure, and animate” sequences of images in automated presentations, natural language descriptions have to correlate with sequences of images. Chapter 2 describes an adaptive hypermedia approach aimed at synthesizing audio and visual material with levels of flexibility and the personalization of the documentary script. The chapter does not assume prior knowledge of cinematographic techniques, and the terminology and principles of film production are explained clearly. “Detecting Focus of Attention” differentiates between individuals and groups of visitors. Group visits are usually run by a guide who interfaces with the entire group and describes the items at hand with arm gestures. Image processing techniques can interpret these gestures and supply more information based on the pointing of the guide to specific aspects of the exhibit. The solitary visitor suffices with a portable device that concentrates on the head and eye focus of the individual.

Part 2 provides motivation on delivering services in interactive museums by group communication. The proper infrastructure and the required implicit organization are developed. Adaptive hypermedia systems build an abstract model of preferences and background knowledge for each individual user. The systems then utilize this model throughout the entire interaction with the user. The user provides feedback to the system to enhance the model, which then further adapts to the individual needs of the user. Part 3 contains two papers on stationary devices. The first compares and contrasts mobile and stationary devices for inclusion in active museum presentations and virtual museum guides. The second paper describes a very interesting application involving devices for storytelling to children. Design and implementation issues are discussed, with a report on pilot and experimental studies conducted.

Part 4 considers simulated reconstruction of the environments for tracking visitors in a museum. This goal is inherently parallel (or distributed), and somewhat probabilistic. To accomplish this, a system architecture is outlined. Included in this part is an image-based modeling of building surfaces so that photorealistic cultural icons can be projected on the walls of a virtual environment. Part 5 evaluates mobile multimedia museum guide interfaces. An initial use study concluded that attitudinal differences from a post questionnaire were not sufficiently conclusive. After that, the innovative Like-o-Meter was employed and obtained similar results, leading the researchers to the conclusion that adaptive systems are not yet readily available. Thus, users in general have not had much experience in appreciating the differences between approaches. Part 6 concludes the book with a summary of future research trends on intelligent interfaces for groups of visitors to a museum.

The book is organized into a well-thought-out sequence of papers. They are very readable, give a lot of background information, and have concise conclusions. The intended audience for this book is AI computer scientists and human resources personnel in the area of cultural heritage support and marketing, but also any curious readers with an interest in twenty-first century state-of-the-art design and systems.