Museums Monitoring Mobiles

Wifi tracking technology used to monitor visitor behaviour at three different museums.

16:13 13 April 2017

The National Gallery, Natural History Museums in London and the National Railway Museum in York are using Wifi tracking software to monitor visitor behaviour.

 

The software has been designed to analyse the strength of signal beacons around the museum and the information obtained is used to provide heat maps showing visitor distribution.

 

The software used at the National Gallery has the capability to distinguish between visitors passing through galleries and those stopping to look at a particular painting. The one at the Railway Museum, on the other hand, go even further and reveal the time spent by visitors in the museum and can distinguish between new and repeat visitors.

 

Free wifi has been launched to the National Gallery in 2014. At the time the Gallery’s Director of Public Engagement, Dr Susan Foister, said, “We are proud to introduce Wi-Fi to the Gallery, heralding new plans to enhance the experience of our visitors and to engage a broader audience. We know that when people feel inspired they often like to share the moment, so along with the free Wi-Fi service we are now welcoming visitor photography: from now on people will be able to share their experience of the Gallery and its paintings with friends and family through social media.”