Using Deep Learning for Collecting Data about Museum Visitor Behavior

Nowadays, technology makes it possible to admire objects and artworks exhibited all over the world remotely. We have been able to appreciate this convenience even more in the last period, in which the pandemic has forced us into our homes for a long time. However, visiting art sites in person remains a truly unique experience. Even during on-site visits, technology can help make them much more satisfactory, by assisting visitors during the fruition of cultural and artistic resources. To this aim, it is necessary to monitor the active user for acquiring information about their behavior. We, therefore, need systems able to monitor and analyze visitor behavior. The literature proposes several techniques for the timing and tracking of museum visitors. In this article, we propose a novel approach to indoor tracking that can represent a promising and non-expensive solution for some of the critical issues that remain. In particular, the system we propose relies on low-cost equipment (i.e., simple badges and off-the-shelf RGB cameras) and harnesses one of the most recent deep neural networks (i.e., Faster R-CNN) for detecting specific objects in an image or a video sequence with high accuracy. An experimental evaluation performed in a real scenario, namely, the “Exhibition of Fake Art” at Roma Tre University, allowed us to test our system on site. The collected data has proven to be accurate and helpful for gathering insightful information on visitor behavior.

Monitoring Human-Wildlife Interactions in National Parks with Crowdsourced Data and Deep Learning

This short paper summarizes the first research stage for applying deep learning techniques to capture human-wildlife interactions in national parks from crowd-sourced data. The results from objection detection, image captioning, and distance calculation are reported. We were able to categorize animal types, summarize visitor behaviors in the pictures, and calculate distances between visitors and animals with different levels of accuracy. Future development will focus on getting more training data and field experiments to collect ground truth on animal types and distances to animals. More in-depth manual coding is needed to categorize visitor behavior into acceptable and unacceptable ones.

Signs and Docents in Zoo Visitor Education: Using Affinitive Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) Behaviors

The goals of zoos are providing an entertaining and educational experience for visitors, promoting environmental conservation, and promoting positive welfare for nonhuman residents. Education can unify these goals. In this study, data were collected on visitors to the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) exhibit at The Zoo Northwest Florida. Researchers implemented three conditions of education at the chimpanzee viewing platform: a graphic sign, a trained docent, and a control condition with no intervention. The sign and docent encouraged visitors to use affinitive chimpanzee behaviors. Visitors were significantly more active in the graphic sign condition and significantly less active in the docent condition, and their behavior did not vary from the expected value during the control condition. Visitors used the affinitive behaviors that were demonstrated in each experimental condition. These results suggest that both graphic signs and docent interaction affect visitor behavior and can be considered useful educational tools for fulfilling the goals of the zoos.

Does Exposure to Animal Cognition Research Influence the Zoo Visitor Experience?

Zoos average about 183 million visitors per year, which makes them a major source for educating the public due to the diverse and wide-ranging demographic that visit. Zoos are increasingly a source of scientific research in a variety of subfields, including animal cognition, although much of this research takes place behind the scenes. Bringing this research to the public perspective has the potential to increase engagement of zoo visitors. However, it is not always possible to show live research, but videos have been found to be an effective educational approach in other domains. Here, we presented a brief video illustrating cognitive research involving sun bears at Zoo Atlanta to determine the potential effect on visitors. We measured several aspects of visitor behavior (stay time and actual behaviors in the exhibit), attitudes (towards both animal research and educational technology), and knowledge gained at the exhibit. We also presented a control video that focused on sun bear enrichment to tease out whether potential effects on visitors were related to the research focus of the video, or merely an effect of a video playing in the exhibit space. Visitor behavior, attitudes, and knowledge were determined by observing a randomly selected visitor’s behavior throughout their time in the exhibit space, and then requesting completion of a survey when they exited the exhibit (N = 148). We compared various aspects of behavior, attitudes, and knowledge across the Scientific Video, Enrichment Video, and No Video conditions. There were no differences between the Scientific Video and the Enrichment Video conditions; however, some differences were found between visitors who experienced a video during their visit (scientific or enrichment video) versus those who did not. Attitudes towards technology in the exhibit space were generally positive. There was also a significant correlation between visitor stay time (overall time spent in the exhibit space) and knowledge gained. Visitors learning about research in zoos remains important, but it is unclear if a video is a sufficient means to share that information.

How Do You Behave at the Zoo? A Look at Visitor Perceptions of Other Visitors' Behavior at the Zoo

Previous research regarding behaviors of zoo visitors near exhibits has shown that they can influence animals’ well-being. What is unclear is whether people’s views concerning the purpose of zoos or their beliefs might influence their perception of what is acceptable behavior when visiting the zoo. In this study, we used naturalistic observation to examine zoo visitor behavior near specific exhibits. We also surveyed visitors regarding the purpose of zoos, their perception of animals and the zoo, and if they have seen inappropriate behavior in other zoo visitors. We observed visitors engaging in various inappropriate behaviors such as hitting the glass and trying to provoke the animals. These same inappropriate behaviors were also reported by visitors in our survey, indicating an awareness of what behaviors might be disruptive to animals. Visitors who reported similarities between humans and animals reported more inappropriate behaviors in others partially due to having more empathy for animals. When asked to consider the purpose of the zoo, education and conservation were ranked as being the most important, entertainment and research the least important priorities. However, of those who identified entertainment as most important, this group also reported humans to have less similarity with animals and reported less inappropriate behaviors in other visitors. Our findings suggest that zoo visitors’ views regarding the purpose of zoos and perceived human similarities to animals influence what they considered inappropriate behavior around captive zoo animals. This study provides the first exploration concerning the perception of visitors regarding other visitor behaviors directed towards zoo animals.

Correlations between Spatial Attributes and Visitor Stay in Chinese Gardens: A Case Study of the Ningbo Tianyige Museum Gardens

Despite the growing popularity of Chinese gardens, few studies have explored Chinese garden tourism and the relationship between garden space and visitor behavior. Addressing this gap, this study examines the correlations between spatial attributes and visitor stay distribution in the Ningbo Tianyige Museum gardens. This study divided the garden space into twenty units across four types—water, architecture, veranda, and rockery—and identified spatial attributes using measurements and configurational calculations. Visitor stay data was comprised of 1061 cases with a stay interval of more than 30 s in three investigation periods. Results produced three primary findings. First, architecture and water spaces had the highest visitor stay density, followed by veranda space and then rockery space. Second, there is a correlation between visitor stay density and six spatial attributes: integration, choice, width, length, enclosure ratio, and seating. Third, although each type has distinctive attributes, they can be divided into two groups: (1) spacious and highly accessible open spaces (water and architecture types); (2) long narrow spaces with low accessibility and abundant seating facilities (veranda and rockery types). By exploring the relationship between Chinese gardens and modern tourism, this study provides valuable insights and suggestions for the planning and management of Chinese garden tourism.

Open Gallery for Arts Research (OGAR): An Open-Source Tool for Studying the Psychology of Virtual Art Museum Visits

To expand the tools available to arts researchers in psychology, we present the Open Gallery for Arts Research (OGAR), a free, open-source tool for studying visitor behavior within an online gallery environment. OGAR is highly extensible, allowing researchers to modify the environment to test different hypotheses, and it affords assessing a wide range of outcome variables. After describing the tool and its development, we present a proof-of-concept study that evaluates OGAR’s usability and performance and illustrates some ways that it can be used to study the psychology of virtual visits. With a sample of 44 adults from an online participant panel who freely explored OGAR, we observed that OGAR had good usability based on high scores on the System Usability Scale and rare instances of self-reported nausea, among other usability markers. Furthermore, using position and viewing data provided by OGAR, we found that participants navigated the gallery and interacted with the artwork in predictable and coherent ways that resembled visitor behavior in real-world art museums. OGAR appears to be a useful tool for researchers and art professionals interested in how people navigate and experience virtual and real art spaces.

Understanding Diver Behavior on Underwater Cultural Heritage: Enriching the Observation Record Using Video Methods

Successful underwater heritage management requires a sound understanding of visitor behavior. Primary visitors to underwater heritage sites are divers whose behavior can pose risks to the integrity of site cultural heritage and tourism values. This study seeks to understand wreck diver in-water behavior. Conventional observation of diver behavior is limiting. Wearable cameras are becoming popular across many recreational activities and potentially expand the scope and quality of diver observation. Video observation is rarely used in such research. This article demonstrates the potential of video observation, describing the analysis of first-person video records to explore details of diver behavior on shipwrecks. The evidence demonstrates that while most divers behaved responsibly, a few contributed to most contact behaviors. The analysis details this behavior, identifying, for example, that deliberate holding and touching comprised most contacts. Such findings on diver behavior inform heritage and tourism management decisions and provide a baseline for future studies. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the power of this method of observing divers and other recreationists. This is particularly valuable for researching recreationalists in confined spaces, such as caves or shipwrecks. The quality of results allows for further evidence-based examination of motivations, values, intentions and meanings underlying observed diver behavior.