Measuring and evaluating visitors' behaviors inside museums: the Co.ME. project

The use of ICT in the field of Cultural Heritage offers unprecedented opportunities to improve cultural sites management (e.g., archaeological areas or museum). Taking advantage of innovative methods of data acquisition through ambient intelligence and space sensing infrastructures, the Co.ME. project has developed a system to turn exhibitions into sensitive spaces, able to quantify and register visitors’ behavior. A solution that provides to museum professionals all the necessary data to understand their public, making possible to structure a cultural offer based on visitors’ needs. After a short theoretical introduction on the project framework, the paper presents the case study of the Civic Museums of Palazzo Buonaccorsi in Macerata (Italy), demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach in terms of both data collection and monitoring system; useful solutions to improve museum installations and communication, as well to optimally plan staff attendance.