Blue Lion Guides

When we started the Blue Lion project we looked at what other companies had done so far to deploy tourism services and content on mobile phones. We were struck by how many features were built in some of the mobile guides. We will review some of these features in a series of articles. Today we look at audio reading. Providing audio to visitors is somehow essential: the smart phones or tablets are portable devices, just like audio guides in museums. You definitely do not want to read the text while looking at a painting (or monument). So, audio is a necessity, especially when you have a good quality content that is long enough to explain things thoroughly. If your text is just a paragraph or two you should not embark audio in your solution. Natural voices Now, how to provide audio? The best would be to offer natural voice, which implies having real people (hired or not) reading the text. While the results are definitely the best you can get, there are some drawbacks: unless you r...

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We have been working in the design of the Blue Lion app for (to begin with) iPhone and Android for over 6 months now. (Yes, it looks like a long time....) I would like to share a little bit of history of the project. Not too much, otherwise it becomes boring. The origins The idea started in May 2010 when I had a dinner with a friend of mine, Claudine, from Rio de Janeiro, who was visiting Paris (she comes here often). We had known each other in my previous job, when I was running a program to finance innovative technology projects for SME in Latin  America and the Caribbean. Together we organized a meeting and a Tech Expo on these same topics in Rio de Janeiro a few years back. We were talking and I was sharing with Claudine my thoughts about what to do in Paris (I mean for work). A couple sitting next to us had an iPhone on their table, which they were looking at constantly. When I told Claudine that I was ready for a new venture, I pointed to the neighbors and said: we ...

 Nous avons récemment finalisé notre premier guide sur le Palais Royal avec Ulrike Kasper, dont voici un avant-goût :  Palais Royal, © ACZ Le Palais Royal est à l’image même de Paris, car il unit l’histoire politique et culturelle avec la réalité contemporaine. Peu d’endroits à Paris affichent une telle concentration d’événements historiques. Sur les façades, les décorations et les sculptures du Palais Royal on découvre différentes couches de l’histoire de France, allant du 17 e au 20 e siècle. Le Cardinal Richelieu par   Philippe de Champaigne Le Palais est d’abord un centre de pouvoir: il se présente d’ailleurs comme la continuité naturelle du palais du Louvre, résidence des Rois de France du XIV au XVI siècle, qui se trouve juste en face du Palais Royal, côté rue de Rivoli. Sa proximité physique témoigne du désir du Cardinal Richelieu   d’être logé au plus proche du roi Louis XIII pour ainsi faire jouer son pouvoir. A sa mort, Ric...