Bargello, the first museum that "dialogues" with visitors

New at the National Museum of the Bargello, that in three months makes 150 years.

For several days in the Hall of Donatello - where there are countless masterpieces - was installed "Mnemosyne", a highly innovative system that aims to offer the visitor an emotional experience, both for a greater understanding of the works, both to avoid an overload of news, proposing instead informative content in respect of works that, among many admired, have aroused most interest.

Through a network of cameras positioned in the Hall and managed by a vision software, the innovative system is able to identify the visitor inside the salon and detect the path, measure times of permanence in front of works, identify which of the works on display have attracted more his interest, and offer him the opportunity to expand their knowledge.

Indeed, thanks to the "Mnemosyne", on an interactive table at the exit of the hall the visitor will find, for the works that have most affected, depth information and links to other works in the museum or in the city of Florence.

The Bargello is the first museum in the world to experience "Mnemosyne", project that required the use of six researchers for four years, and was funded by the Tuscany Region and conducted by the University of Florence with the Centre for Communication and Media Integration, directed by Alberto Del Bimbo, Thales and Italy SpA; together with the Directorate of the National Museum of the Bargello, with the collaboration of the technical manager of the museum, Cristina Valenti and the then manager of the computer networks of the Museums of Florence, Armando Niccolai.

"Technological innovations in museums - said Alessandra Marini, Interim Superintendent for the Museums of Florence - are an interesting and useful support to the relationship between the visitor and works; are also particularly pleased that this new technological system is experienced in the Bargello Museum, right around the time that celebrates the 150 years after its foundation ".

"For the Bargello Museum - said the director of the museum, Ilaria Ciseri - this is an excellent opportunity: the application of modern technologies to the use of heritage is indeed one of the main guidelines of our next projects ".

"We believe that a cultural experience should take the form of an in-depth content and not in a trivialization or their reduction to a game - added Alberto Del Bimbo - Our goal was therefore to realize a technological solution sufficiently complex that trying to understand on , without forcing him to carry special devices or do any action in front of works of interest ".

To note that the installation is the first implementation of the Regional Centre of Competence NEMECH New Media for Cultural Heritage, consists of the Region of Tuscany and Florence University with the support of the City of Florence.

The system operates in a totally respectful of the privacy of the visitor. The cameras and the vision system, In fact, do not reveal information about the individual's facial features, but only data on the appearance of his figure such as color and texture of the clothes.

The appearance of the visitor is encoded into a string of numbers that captures most of the distinctive. The numerical descriptors are then compared with each other to make the re-identification of the visitor and then are deleted at the end of the trail.

Images taken by the cameras are not registered.

The system will be installed on a trial basis until June 2015.

Michael Lattanzi

By the number 52 - Year II 18/02/2015