I should start a blog dealing only with the use of mobile phone in museums.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization across the Ottawa Riverwill provide its 1.3 visitors a year an electronic escort called the Mobile Interactive Guide.

Developed by Flick Software Inc., an Ottawa-based company, the prototype is about twice the size of PDA and is currently tested by museum officials.

Using either their fingers or a stylus, visitors click on icons to learn about exhibitions, check the schedule for the museum’s IMAX theatre, and play trivia or treasure hunt games. The guide can play short video clips.

Visitors can also scan the museum’s collections and locate exhibits — or themselves — on a map, and call up information about nearby artefacts.

A user enters an e-mail address into the guide, which is used to identify the person and forward information to the device. They can create a buddy list of whomever they’ve gone to the museum with by adding other peoples’ e-mail addresses to the guide, too, making it easier for groups to keep in touch during a visit.

Users can bookmark information and have it forwarded to their own e-mail addresses. And since they can also include basic personal information and the resulting profile can help the museum customize a tour based on their interests

More in Globe and Mail.