‘Magic ring’ gives media institute an insight into visitors’ behaviour

This post was last updated on September 16th, 2022 at 12:04 pm

An RFID system enables the Netherlands’ media institute to understand visitors’ behaviour. Members of the public receive a ring containing an RFID tag which unlocks exhibits and records which they had visited, enabling the institute to create a personalised experience and plan for future events.

Customised tags provide an interactive experience

The Institute for Sound & Vision (Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid) in Hilversum aims to preserve the media history of the Netherlands and has an extensive collection of television and radio recordings, music, professional and amateur films and photographs. It wanted to give visitors an interactive experience and asked CoreRFID to help it achieve that by providing customised RFID tags.

The Institute created 15 themed pavilions and encouraged visitors to wander through without any fixed route. They focused on subjects including The Lost Life showing the everyday activities of Dutch people in days gone by or The Enchantment, which was about reality and illusion. Visitors could also see children’s programmes from the past.

The Institute worked with CoreRFID which supplied the readers and tags and interactive media designers Kiss The Frog. Visitors were asked to register details such as their email address, age and name and in return were given an RFID tag embedded in a ring to use as a ‘key’ to access the exhibits.

Making exhibits more relevant to visitors

As visitors toured the exhibition, they showed their ring to reader points which triggered the presentation of relevant material including age-selected content appropriate for children. As the RFID ring could identify visitors at each point, the museum was able to record which exhibits they had visited and in what sequence.

The Institute then emailed photographs and videos to the visitor to remind them of what they had learned. The system also provided the museum with details about which exhibits appealed most to which age groups, whether they were viewed in the expected order and so on.

The use of RFID had a positive impact. Visitors enjoyed the opportunity to interact with exhibits and young people in particular found the system easy to use. Some older people needed assistance to get used to the idea but they too found the improved interactivity valuable.

Given the wide range of subjects covered by the exhibition, adopting an interactive approach made the Institute’s work more relevant and useful to visitors.