Interactive media interprets museum objects and ideas in a playful and emotional way, allowing museums to shift from imparting information to creating dialogue with visitors, who can now be active contributors.

The goal of museums is to make personal connections between visitor and content. Technology itself is not the objective, but it is a versatile vehicle to engage a wide demographic with knowledge, artifacts, ideas, and other people. Museums are beginning to center around innovative ideas that change visitor behavior and the way museumgoers explore. So, what are some of the top tech trends you can expect to see during your next museum visit?

  1. Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality
  2. Social Media
  3. Escape Rooms
  4. Artificial Intelligence

1. Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality

AR and VR are technologies that continue to grow in cultural organizations, standing out because they have the power to delight visitors as they are transported to other places and times. AR allows museums to virtually overlay educational and entertaining content without changing the integrity of the physical space, creating another way to connect with visitors. While AR overlays the real world with the digital world, VR replaces it. VR adds a new dimension to museum exhibits and will likely grow with the less costly headsets that are wireless and less bulky. Mixed Reality is using AR and VR along with other interactive programming to provide a rich visitor-directed experience.

2. Social Media

Museums have been successfully employing social media for marketing, letting visitors know what’s going on and recounting the excitement of it all. Social Media also provides the capacity to bring people together, contribute to local communities, and change people’s lives. Now is the time to proactively shape the role of museums as living institutions that amplify unheard stories, acknowledge differences, and bridge divides.

3. Escape Rooms

Escape Rooms are a playful and immersive trend where visitors use clues and elements to solve a series of challenges and “escape” within a certain amount of time. What a natural fit for museums with their incredible stories to share! Visitors know they are expected to explore, touch everything, use their skills, and become part of the story. It is these types of experiences that create a lasting memory.

4. Artificial Intelligence

Emerging Artificial Intelligence technology is where machines learn to perform tasks better than a human ever could. We already see chatbots simplifying interactions, providing information, and performing basic tasks. AI plays a noteworthy role in all phases of content development and sharing. Imagine AI as an evaluation tool, collecting visitor reaction of lips, eyebrows, pupils, nostrils and forehead and then calculating how they feel about an exhibit.

Museums are embracing these trends and visitors are coming to expect these new technologies as part of the experience.

Please check out Impact’s demo reel to see some of the creative immersive exhibits we have developed for our museum clients.

AR Augmented Reality Immersive Exhibits mixed reality Museum exhibits Virtual Reality VR