audio guide app in livecode?

[Pete]

It does sound very simple on the face of it, which begs the question of why
nobody has implemented this much cheaper solution already?  Perhaps museums,
being very traditional institutions, lag behind technology developments?  As
I recall, I've always had to pay for this type of guide so perhaps the
museums make money on them, or perhaps they are just recouping the costs of
the equipment, who knows.

I'd think an Android phone (I have one) would be more than capable of doing
this, as would an iPhone.  Storage might be an issue since Android phones
tend not have a huge amount of SD storage available, maybe 16megs, but that
should be room for a lot of mp3 files.

The interesting thing is to ponder on how to charge for this.  I could see a
situation where some clever person develops a single app that can deal with
as many museums as want to subscribe to the service.  Maybe the app is free
but you pay to download guides to different museums with the payment being
split between the museum and the application developer?  No need for wifi,
the phone data service can take care of the download.  No doubt Apple would
throw up on including the ability to buy the guide from within the
application though.

I think you may be on to a very nice business opportunity here Peter!

Pete
Molly's Revenge <http://www.mollysrevenge.com>




On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Peter Alcibiades <
palcibiades-first at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> The way the audioguide business works is, you have a special museum type
> handset.  This costs hundreds of dollars to buy, but what it consists of is
> a keypad, tiny lcd screen and a phone type speaker.
>
> The user goes around the museum and sees large numbers attached to exhibits
> or freestanding.  He/she then hits the number, and the track plays.
>
> Yes, that is really it.  And yes, they cost hundreds each.  They come with
> a
> charging rack typically so you can plug them in to recharge overnight, and
> they have a 512Mb compact flash card.
>
> Then you get software with them.  The way this works is very nice.  The
> software is registered to the individual machine you first install it on.
> Want another machine?  Pay.  This software uploads the tracks you have
> recorded into the handsets.  What you do is load one handset, the master,
> and then this propogates to all the others.  The makers of this software do
> not seem to have thought of virtual machines, because if you install on one
> of these, you can put it all over the place in as many machines as you
> like.
> Well, there you go.
>
> My first inclination, when confronted with this, was to say what is wrong
> with cheap mp3 players?  Well, this is where it gets interesting.  You get
> grants for this stuff as a charity and museum.  The grants are based on the
> going rate, which is hugely expensive, because no-one does this stuff
> themselves, they get consultants in  to do it all for them.  A museum,
> which
> will be state run of course in Europe, can easily spend $100k or so to have
> 50+ handsets and the right tracks recorded by professional actors.
>
> Into this surreal world comes Android.  The thing about android phones is
> they can run apps.  It looks to your usual, what is the word, adventurous
> user?  asi if anyone with half a brain could make an app that as J says,
> only needs to play a track when a number is pressed.  Why, I am asking
> myself, should this cost more than about £200 including the mobile
> non-profit Livecode purchase?  Some cheap machine they have lying around,
> and there's a usb port to host it on.  What more do you need?
>
> So, I'm on the point of saying to the museum, buy me the livecode android
> version, and away we go.  Glad to hear everyone saying in tones very like
> my
> own, that this is not rocket science, more like an afternoon.  But given
> pause by the fact that I have never knowingly seen an android phone, so
> maybe developing an app for one from scratch is a little courageous?
>
> If any of you guys have a spare afternoon, I think the museum market is
> quite interesting.
>
> Sometime if there is a long rainy afternoon, I'll tell you about the even
> more surreal world of museum databases and catalogue software....  Now if
> you think audioguides are a turnup for the books, wait till you hear about
> catalogs....
>
> Peter
>
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