The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has joined the Mobile Media Institute at Santa Barbara City College in a collaborative to develop a context aware mobile application.

Funded by the National Science Foundation's ATE Program (Project #0702598), the Mobile Media Institute (MMI) at Santa Barbara City is pioneering instructional programs and economic development partnerships to enable the State of California 

The Mobile Media Institute is a four year NSF project that has developed a concentration for students who are learning to author, integrate and distribute forms of digital content for mobile deployment.

The MMI serves incoming high school and community college students, four-year university transfer students, and incumbent workers in ICT. The project features hands-on internships, developing partnerships with industry, and providing faculty and staff training in the new format.

The collaborative application development project with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History will develop a context aware iPhone appication that will provide the museum visitor with context aware access to museum information and resources.  Using this application, museum visitors, based upon their location and activities underway and the context of information that they access, will utilize the application to:

• Plan their visit according to personal interest and requirements.
• Reach an area of interest as quickly as possible.
• Know exactly where other visitors, guides, etc. are located in the museum.
• View a catalogue of information related to exhibits.
• Receive detailed information about the exhibits.
• Receive information from external resources related to exhibits based upon ontology.
• Use guided rich media on the mobile device.
• Download and save information related to exhibits.
• Add comments/notes related to exhibits.
• Communicate with other visitors and share opinions.
  
   
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