Orasis Museum is an affordable approach and prototype system that can enhance the accessibility of museum exhibits to visually impaired users. The approach supports the navigation in exhibition halls and the tactual exploration of exhibit replicas using touch-sensitive audio descriptions and touch gestures on a mobile device. The required technology includes 3D printed exhibits, attached touch sensors, Arduino boards, and a respective mobile app.

People with visual impairments are discouraged to visit museums, because their experience is very limited. These people include the blind, people with visual diseases or injuries and those with low vision; notably very few have perfect vision throughout their lifetime. When these people visit a museum they are in need of a tour guide, they rarely have the chance to touch exhibits to realize their form, and there are usually only a few braille or audio descriptions available, presenting information that can be easily found on the Web. Visitors with visual impairments are one of the most difficult categories to address in museums.

Initially, we performed desktop research regarding people with visual impairments and their particular needs, emphasizing in mobile technologies and cultural heritage. Next, we made a visit the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, in which we interviewed two museum curators. One member of the design team was blindfolded to simulate the experience of a blind person, accompanied by a second member of the team who took the role of a tour guide. This method provided us with gains about the user feelings as well as the prospective content of audio descriptions. The latter should be based on simple language and simplified concepts and examples describing form, function and materials – rather than solely on cultural heritage information. Finally, we conducted a group interview with the members of the association of people with vision impairments in Cyclades. An important result was that most of them had not visited a museum for years due to accessibility issues. It was also mentioned that they have the need for free movement in the area and there is interest in understanding the form and texture of exhibits using tactile exploration. From the discussion, we concluded that mobile touch gesture control of audio descriptions was preferred to other alternatives (e.g. voice commands).

The main concept of the proposed system is that blind and visually impaired users can approach and explore exhibit replicas presented in an exhibition room using mobile gestures. Initially the mobile app informs the user about the museum room and available thematic areas and exhibits using audio. Despite that there is content on the smartphone screen, a blind user may use the phone as a multi-touch pad to manipulate the audio interface though a simple gesture set. This enables any user to make discrete use of the technology in a possibly crowded and noisy environment. After the user selects a thematic area and an exhibit, the system provides navigation instructions relative to the user position by taking advantage of preinstalled sensors in the room. As soon as the user navigates in front of the selected exhibit, she can tactually explore its form. The exhibit is enhanced with capacitive sensors in predefined segments. A respective audio description presenting details of the form and material as well as related cultural facts starts playing automatically when the user’s hands reach each segment. An example audio description (translated from Greek) is the following: “The left arm is folded above the stomach. It is a common phenomenon for the Cycladic idols, however we do not know much about the symbolism of that position. It is likely to symbolize a position of respect, which derives from religious standards.”