Page 252 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015252to optimise waiting time. The challenges were: accurate counting of visitors entering and leaving the exhibition, real time counting of visitors in each room and providing staff with useful tools for extracting this data.The technology firm Alvarado90 met its needs by using 500 barrier-free counting lanes to countthe number of visitors to the exhibition in real time. Data are transmitted to software called GateWatch, so that it can be displayed numeri- cally on an LED screen. This software generates a series of reports with historic data, which help the museum assess visitor traffic flows with real data. GateWatch also allows this data to be combined with information gleaned from other systemsto carry out analyses by introducing different variables, depending on the particular objective.Other institutions such as the ICA in London, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, the Museum of Exeter and the National Gallery in the United Kingdom have enlisted the support of Axiomatic Technology91 to develop patron counting systems applied to their institutions in order to improve access to their premises.Lastly, in 2011 the Magritte Museum in Brus- sels commissioned IEE92 to install a real-time patron counting system for comprehensive monitoring and data analysis. The technology, based on 3D MLI sensors, achieves results that are 99% reliable and include an overall count as well as specific counts per room. It also provides additional information, such as average duration of the visit in each room.Movement sensors have been used for the past few years in exhibition layout design. In thiscase, the purpose is not to monitor or count visitors (though the sensors could be designed to provide such data) but rather to activate various display devices that interact with visitors when they enter the room.In 2012, the culture section of the Fundación Mapfre used this device in its exhibition Universo de la moda. De la calle a las estrellas (Fashion universe. From the street to the stars)93on the designs of the couturier Jean Paul Gaultier. This cleverly mounted show amazed visitors, with each room contextualised in a special and novel way.The visit began, as an introduction, with Gaulti- er himself welcoming visitors. A movement sen- sor activated a video that projected the fashion designer’s face onto a mannequin dressed in the designer’s most characteristic clothing. The same technology was used throughout the exhibition to create the effect of the mannequins singing, talking to viewers and even surprising them by whistling to draw their attention.Researchers at the Centro de Visión por Computador of the UAB, in collaboration with researchers at the Computer Vision Laboratory at Linköping University (Sweden) and the Norwe- gian Colour and Visual Computing Laboratory in Gjovik (Norway), recently developed a com- puter application that automatically recognises the maker and style of a pictorial work.This application classifies the maker with 50% success and the style with 60% success; although far from 100%, these are actually quite high rates. The system does so by first analysing the work overall based on distinctive characteristics and then analysing the small details into whichFocus 2015. Museums and New Technologies