Chatbot Developed in Russia to Assist Museum Visitors
The digital assistant can help visitors find artworks and learn more about museum collections.
Researchers from the Laboratory of Language Convergence at Moscow HSE University, together with specialists from Yandex, have developed a chatbot designed for museum visitors, the university’s press service said. The digital assistant can help users locate a specific painting even when it is described in free form.
The technology is based on the vector search function of Managed Service for OpenSearch from Yandex Cloud. Using this system, the chatbot selects images from a database. Volunteers created annotations for artworks from the Hermitage Digital Collection to build the dataset. The authors of the dataset have also received an intellectual property certificate for their work.
A Cat Named Elsik Answers
According to project participant Elizaveta Sytikova, the database was compiled from official documents, historical background materials, reviews, and visitor inquiries.
The digital service also features its own character – a cat named Elsik. The virtual character not only searches for paintings but also answers questions about the museum’s operations.
Developers say the chatbot can be adapted for any museum. Exhibition spaces could thus become more digital and interactive.
