The Oulu Museum of Art, Northern Ostrobothnia Museum and the Science Center Tietomaa will form one united organization as of 1st January 2013. The City of Oulu is looking for solutions to help visitors access this stimulating new environment and to broaden the appeal of culture and science. Positioning services, NFC-technology and 3D virtualization could be used to engage visitors with the exhibitions, enhancing their overall experience and improving the learning experience.

Using technology, vast amounts of pictures, stories of the region, as well as archives of the past exhibitions and elements of the existing exhibition could be brought to life in an interactive way. The information is currently widely stored in different formats and some are not yet in a digital format. Therefore the new back-end system should possibly include access to cloud storage and a local back-up server system as well.

New augmented-reality tools can seamlessly animate the world through smartphones, tablets or similar devices. New 3D technology and image recognition can do everything from making a painting talk or making live dinosaurs appear in front of the viewer. The software and system infrastructure design together with mobile technology and front access like apps, tablets and gaming are to be used in a new exhibition starting in May 2014.

The experiences gathered from the pilot could be used later on to develop similar information, interactivity and experience systems which could be tailored to other municipal services such as healthcare, library and service sectors.