Image-Based POI Identification for Mobile Museum Guides: Design, Implementation, and User Evaluation

Indoor positioning remains a significant challenge, particularly in environments such as museums, where the installation of specialized positioning infrastructure may be impractical. Recent advances in image processing offer effective and precise methods for object recognition, presenting a viable alternative. This study explores the feasibility of employing real-time image processing techniques for identifying points of interest (POIs) within museum settings. It outlines the ideation, design, development, and evaluation of an image-based POI identification system implemented in a real-world environment. To evaluate the system’s effectiveness, a user study was conducted with regular visitors at the Hecht Museum. The results showed that the algorithm successfully and quickly identified POIs in 97.6% of cases. Additionally, participants completed the System Usability Scale (SUS) and provided open-ended feedback, indicating high satisfaction with the system’s accuracy and speed while also offering suggestions for future improvements.