mCRUMBS location-based apps

mCRUMBS produces location-based apps for small cultural institutions and the public sector. This includes museums, tourist associations, city marketing, and art exhibitions. All of these projects use various technologies, such as GPS, beacons, and QR code scanners, to communicate to the user information relevant to his location. This information might be explanations of a sculpture in the form of an audio guide or a video, or extended content, such as an AR (augmented reality) scene within an exhibition.

In addition to maintaining and expanding existing apps, Smart As Apps played a special role in the development of two new apps: the app for the SP17 sculpture exhibition in Münster and Karlsruhe’s ZKM | Center for Art and Media. Due to the similar structure and the often limited budgets in the cultural sector, one task was to set up and expand an app framework for location-based apps.

The app for the SP17 exhibition is strongly influenced by the corporate design of the sculpture exhibition and uses its black-and-white imagery. The app is intended to make it easier for users to find the exhibits distributed throughout the city; it provides both navigation to them and detailed information about them. The client had special accessibility requirements: Information on accessibility is available for all sculptures, and all of the content is also available in . The audio guide is also available as a video in German sign language. The app is also translated into ten languages (German, English, Dutch, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi, and Chinese).

Exp_zkm allows the user to find exhibits throughout Karlsruhe and displays augmented reality content at these locations. An augmented reality compass visualized the path to the ZKM as a carpet of zeros and ones. Within the ZKM, there is an audio guide for the exhibition and an AR level that enhances the exhibits there. In addition to further information about the museum (admission prices, opening hours, etc.), the app contains a competition that awards a cup of coffee to users who have found the works of art in Karlsruhe.

Information
Category:

Android, Augmented Reality

Date:

May 3, 2018