Bologna Museum has installed technology to monitor how appreciative guests are of artwork. The tech is developed by ENEA, a research and development company in Italy.

The ShareArt system uses AI and big data applications. It ‘measures’ how much guests appreciate the pieces of art they look at by monitoring things like facial expressions and the length of time they spend looking at the art. The information is obtained and recorded through a big data application.

According to the experts at ENEA, the system “automatically detects faces looking towards the artwork” though a camera which is located not far from the piece of art. The system picks up the behaviour of the viewers, including the “path taken to approach, the number of observers, the time and distance of observation, the gender, age, class and mood of observers.”

Several data acquisition devices are installed in the camera to collect the data and share it with a central storage and processing server.

The safety of museums can also be improved with the ShareArt system which verifies correct social distancing and mask wearing activities. If safety legislation is violated, a visual signal is set off reminding guests to comply with the rules.