In a first, Kerala museum to offer multilingual digital guide

Natural history museum in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Offering a fresh and immersive experience to its visitors, the Natural History Museum in Thiruvananthapuram has unveiled the country’s first audio-visual digital guide, the New Indian Express reported. The audio-visual digital guide, which was inaugurated by Minister for Museums Kadannapalli Ramachandran on July 2, is expected to be open to the public in a few months.

As part of the digital tour of the museum, visitors will be given tablet phones and high-quality headphones. An app will be installed on tablets, containing videos with voiceovers regarding exhibits in the museum. The audio is available in four languages such as English, Malayalam, Hindi, and Tamil.

“Most of the wildlife-related videos installed in the tab were shot exclusively for the project. We have only used a minimal amount of stock footage,” museum superintendent Vijayalekshmi P V was quoted by TINE as saying.

The digital tour begins with a detailed explanation of a 2-crore-year-old fossil wood. As part of the tour, the visitor will be viewing the skeletons in person and their original species on screen. After that, visitor can proceed to the birds’ gallery to see the stuffed birds from various landscapes, while the 15-minute-long videos will tell you more about their history and relevance.

As per the report, the tour will continue with the explanation of extinct animals carved on the museum’s walls, with the help of AI-generated visuals and animations.

Blessy, a former student of Sacred Hearts College, Thevara, was pleasantly surprised at how a random visit with her friends turned into a highly informative digital museum tour. “If not for the videos, we would have just passed by the exhibits, skimming through the name boards. Now we know so much more,” she was quoted by TINE.

As per the report, Pranav D Ramesh, a class-5 student from Idukki, was lost in the world of molluscs, which the digital guide took him to. His eyes grew in wonder when he saw the fossilated shapes of colourful sea creatures in the video.

For now, the facility will be made available only for children due to a lack of number of devices. Proceedings have been initiated to avail of more devices.