Impact of machine learning on improvement of user experience in museums

Utilizing new technologies is the key to improve user experience in museums. Natural and unobtrusive methods like those offered by machine learning approaches are more desired by users. So far, the research on machine learning applications in museums is mostly limited to art authentication, guiding and virtual reality. Yet, machine learning has powerful methods to extract information from any type of data and therefore there are other interesting applications which can have a significant effect on museum experience. The current work is an attempt to find an abstract and yet elaborate view into the existing machine learning applications in museums in general and automatic guide methods in particular. To do so, applications are grouped into different categories and for each category the usefulness of applying machine learning along with the existing methods, if any, are presented. Furthermore, a precise explanation on new directions accompanied by examples is provided. We expect this paper to be of interest to the machine learning researchers since it provides a guideline to proper directions of research in this realm.