APTOS: Pilot systems for the visually impaired at the Epigraphic Museum
10-04-2023
The research team of APTOS project, which is being implemented at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of the "Athena" Research Center (Xanthi divisio) and focuses on the development of innovative methods for accessing civic inventory by visually impaired PWDs, recently installed three pilot systems at the Epigraphic Museum. On the 6th and 7th of April, open days were organised, where visually impaired individuals had the opportunity to try and evaluate the Aptos.Exhibit, Aptos.Map, and Aptos.MyExhibit systems that were developed as part of the project.
These three experimental systems, as well as their evaluation by 25 visually impaired individuals, are presented in detail in the paper titled "Design and evaluation of smart-exhibit systems that enrich cultural heritage experiences for the visually impaired," which was accepted for publication in the international scientific journal Journal of Cultural Heritage by Elsevier. The article extensively discusses the architecture of the systems, as well as the analysis and evaluation of the responses given by participants during the process. Part of the article's conclusions formed the basis for optimizing certain parameters and functional characteristics of the pilot systems that will be available at the Epigraphic Museum. Find the full text here.
It is worth noting that the previous scientific article by the "Athena" RC research team, titled "Composing smart museum exhibit specifications for the visually impaired”, Journal of Cultural Heritage, Vol.52, 2021, Pages 1-10 is featured as the Editor's Choice for issue 52 of this scientific journal. More information can be found here.