The displays now feature quick response codes that will allow visitors to use smartphones to learn more.
The Broomfield Veterans Memorial Museum has now added QR codes to its various displays and exhibits that include everything from the Civil War to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These quick response codes are designed to give visitors the chance to learn even more while they’re there.
By scanning the QR codes with a smartphone or tablet, visitors to the museum are directed to YouTube videos that are relevant to each display or exhibit. Those videos were selected by museum staff so that the displays can provide visitors with a visual experience that will provide more information.
The QR codes help to bring a multimedia component to what had previously been a static experience.
The QRcodes that were used for this purpose can be scanned using virtually any free reader app for smartphones and tablets. The museum is encouraging visitors of all ages to bring these gadgets with them, which isn’t much of a request, considering that most smartphone owners are never more than a few feet from their mobile devices at any given time.
In the case of visitors that do not have mobile devices with the right apps, the museum is now offering the free use of a tablet that is equipped with a reader. The museum is also offering free WiFi access for all of its visitors so that they do not need to use their own data plans in order to watch the videos following the scans.
While these barcodes are quite commonplace, there remains a large percentage of smartphone users who have never downloaded a reader app and who have never scanned a barcode, themselves. Fortunately, the process is quite straightforward and does not require any real level of technical skill. Once the app has been installed, it is simply a matter of aiming the device camera at the barcode, and the rest is done automatically.
Docents at the museum have been trained so that they will be able to easily assist individuals who are not familiar with the use of mobile devices or who have never scanned QR codes before.
