HARK



HARK receivers


A visitor at a museum with HARK


HARKTM


The visitors to a museum, or an exhibition always crave for more information than that is on display. Most of the times it is not even possible to put up all the information with the exhibit. The person-in-charge also finds it difficult to cater to the needs of all the visitors and answer their queries. In such situations, the visitors feel the need for something that can easily and automatically provide them with all the information about the exhibit.CRCS has devised a solution for such situations in the form of the Handy Audio Replay Kit, a device that enables guided tours without assistance from a human guide.

The Handy Audio Reach Kit or HARK is a device created at CRCS to facilitate tourism in India. The system can be used to provide information to visitors at museums, exhibitions, zoos, art galleries and similar places of public interest without the presence of a human guide.

The HARK system consists of a wireless audio transmitter and a hand-held receiver system. The transmitter stores voice, which can be heard through the receiver. It is placed near an exhibit with pre-recorded information about that exhibit. When a visitor holding the receiver approaches the exhibit, s/he hears the pre-recorded message on the receiver. This not only helps in providing more information to the visitors but also minimizes the need for a human guide. We have applied for a patent for the multi-channel/lingual, multi-mode wireless audio transmitter and receiver system.

The system is ideal for relaying information to the visually impaired and to those who have forgotten their reading glasses while visiting the museum.

The HARK device is inherently more reliable than some similar tape-based systems because it is entirely solid-state without any movable parts. Both the hardware and the software for this product have been developed indigenously.

HARK has two versions: the RF(Radio Frequency) version for outdoor locations like historical monuments and the IR (Infra-Red) version for indoor locations like the museums.

HARK was successfully deployed at Red Fort in March 2001. The system at Red Fort consists of 9 transmitters, each of which transmits the commentary in Hindi and English, simultaneously.


An infrared receiver kit
The RF Transmitter at Redfort


This project reflects the efforts of CRCS in the area of   Wireless.


For more details contact: Sanjay Gupta