Virtual reality time in Louth County Museum

It’s virtual reality time in the local museum!

A new ‘virtual presenter’ created by Casio is now in situ at the Louth County Museum in Roden Place.

In what is being hailed as a European first, the virtual presenter, or avatar, will interact with visitors to the museum via a realistic-looking character that will speak via a screen.

The virtual presenter tool has been created by Casio Signage, a division of Casio – a company probably most famous for its calculators many of use used in secondary school.

It was installed in the museum yesterday and will relay information about four museum exhibits – Vere Foster, Napper Tandy, King William of Orange and Olympian Beatrice Hill-Lowe.

The project has been jointly initiated by the museum, Casio and Quick Response Ireland. According to the trio, the installation is the first of its kind in the country and the first such virtual presenter at a European museum.

It would appear that, internationally, only one other such virtual presenter is already in use – in Japan.

The screen in the Dundalk museum is shaped like the character, which visitors can select to match the characteristics needed to bring people into a given location. The character’s appearance and voice can be changed to keep repeat customers from losing interest, according to the museum.

The installation also offers multilingual support for visitors who speak various languages, and its light source lasts for circa 20,000 hours.

The full-size virtual presenter will be installed in the museum reception area in the coming weeks. It will introduce the visitor to the museum in general and will then guide them to the desktop virtual presenter.

James Maher of Quick Response Ireland explained how the company linked up with the County Museum.

He said Quick Response is focused on bringing history and heritage to life using web-based technology tools.

“We have been working with Brian Walsh [museum curator] over the past number of months integrating new technologies such as QR codes, augmented reality and mobile seamlessly into the County Museum environment in Dundalk.”

Brian Walsh said that both the desktop and full-sized virtual presenters can be updated as exhibitions in the museum change.

“We were trying to think of a name to suit our new member of the Museum team and have settled on Cassie-O, so now we just have to work on a name for her sister who arrives in the next few weeks,” he said.

Louth County Museum in Dundalk awarded interim accreditation by Heritage Council

The Louth County Museum in Dundalk is amongst five museums to have been awarded interim accreditation by the Heritage Council under the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland at a ceremony in Dublin Castle.

Speaking about the Programme, Michael Starrett, Heritage Council Chief Executive said, “This is an important initiative, which sets out to improve all aspects of Ireland’s museum practice and in particular raise the standards of care for collections across Irish museums and galleries.

“Accreditation under this Programme offers quality assurance to visitors that the museums they are visiting are adhering to a high set of standards in the management of the museum, care of collections and visitor services. In tough economic times, where visitor numbers are crucial to the viability of many attractions, the value to the museum and local area of this Programme cannot be underestimated”, added Mr. Starrett.

The Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI) aims to benchmark and raise professional minimum standards in the museum sector. Within the Programme, there are seven categories consisting of 34 standards, 25 of which are interim standards and nine are full. A voluntary programme, it has attracted involvement from across the cultural spectrum — from national institutions to small, volunteer-led organisations.

An application for interim accreditation takes three years to complete, while full accreditation takes five years. There are a total of 47 museums currently participating in the Programme, with seven museums fully accredited and seven museums now at interim accreditation.

Along with the local museum, the GAA Museum, the South Tipperary County Museum, the Limerick City Gallery of Art and the Cavan County Museum have also been awarded interim accreditation.

The train station museum

Following on from yesterday’s shot of Clarke Station, here’s another one of the waiting room at the platform, which doubles as a museum celebrating the history of Clarke Station and the railway in general in this area.

Definitely worth checking out next time you’re at the train station, particularly if you have any relatives who might have worked there down through the years.

Previously: Clarke Station

Mini museum at Dundalk Stadium

A glimpse of some of what will be on show at Dundalk Stadium this evening

Unlucky punters at Dundalk Stadium would have often accused the horses or greyhounds they backed there of running like old relics but for anyone attending the race track tonight, they will be seeing the real thing.

The stadium has been kitted out with old memorabilia from the local museum for this evening’s races, giving punters a chance to get a glimpse of what the Louth County Museum has to offer.

Doors for the mini museum (and the racing) open at 5pm.

Photo: Claire Moriarty (Twitter)