Indian Museum to introduce QR code technology for details on artefacts

Kolkata: The Indian Museum is working on providing detailed information about its wide collection of artefacts to the visitors through the introduction of a QR code-based technology. A person visiting the museum will have to simply scan the QR code in front of the exhibits using their smartphones for details about the same.

“We provide basic information about a particular exhibit through a display board in front of the same. But, there is a section of visitors who want to have more knowledge. The QR code technology will provide not only textual information but audio guide voiceover. It will be of immense help to research scholars or for any other people wanting more information about any particular exhibit,” said Arijit Dutta Choudhury, Director of Indian Museum.

The museum offers guided tours but in most cases it is limited for the school groups. A common person hardly gets the opportunity to have such a guided tour. In this backdrop, layered information through QR code scanning will surely come handy. The Indian Museum has 1.08 lakh artefacts in its collection and only 5-6 per cent of them are on display. The museum rotates the different objects in its collection from time-to-time for public display.

There are 24 galleries in the Indian Museum. The QR code-based technology will be introduced in 15 odd galleries that deal with exhibits related with art, anthropology and archeology. There are also galleries of Botanical Survey of India, Zoological Survey of India and Geological Survey of India inside the Indian Museum. These galleries’ developments are carried out by the respective organisations and hence the QR code technology will not cover these galleries.

Sources in the Indian Museum said that a Delhi-based company has been roped in for developing the QR code system and the process is expected to take at least a year.