On Monday, The Japanese National Museum of Western Art announced a trial of a new guide service using OneSeg-enabled mobile phones and Wi-Fi enabled Nintendo DS consoles.

The DS service is live in the Manet and Renoir gallery and the Monet gallery. When visitors enter the rooms, their DS connects to wireless access points which give them access to information on artists and their works and historical background information. The service also provides visitors with relevant video content from NHK art programmes.

To provide the OneSeg mobile TV service, the gallery had to obtain a broadcasting license from the Japanese government to use broadcasting frequencies with a limited output and so the service can only be picked up within the museum building. Visitors with OneSeg mobile phones pick up a welcome message from the head curator as they enter the gallery and a video tour as they progress to the first floor.

The trial will from the 3rd to the 19th November and the gallery is offering a free poster to visitors who take part in the trial and complete a survey of their impressions of the service.

Images (c) Impress Watch Corporation

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 11:08 am