The Museum Burg Zug acquires two virtual-reality headsets

Anyone who now imagines a headset in the traditional sense would be wrong. With the virtual reality headset, you strap a small computer, about the size of diving goggles, onto your nose, which then gives you a view into the rooms and gardens of distant Swiss castle. The impression is as vivid as if you were right there.

The use is very simple once you have the courage to simply turn yourself in all directions and reach out into in the air. There is a main menu which currently has three castles to choose from, which can be viewed digitally and in a static, 360-degree all-round view: the Museum Burg Zug, the castle in Spiez and the Waldegg Castle in Solothurn. You select the desired castle using a cursor and manoeuvre to your heart's content. Spaces, flights of stairs, gardens and castle moats can be experienced, rather than just viewed.

"The two headsets are a marketing tool for us," explains Miriam Wismer-de Sepibus, responsible for marketing and communication at Museum Burg Zug. It's about making people curious about visiting the exhibition." One headset will be accessible to visitors in the museum, while we will be taking the other one to information events, trade fairs and other events in order to impressively present the Burg Zug museum to our guests.”

Miriam Wismer-de Sepibus from the Museum Burg Zug demonstrates a virtual reality headset. It allows a virtual walk through Swiss castles.

People who actually visit the castle can also experience the rooms in Natura, without digital aids. "But they can gain an impression of the two other castles here, and may feel like visiting them too," Wismer hopes. Additional digital sightseeing tours could be loaded onto the device later.
The project was created in collaboration with the Swiss Society for Art History (GSK) under the name "360° Swiss Heritage". The GSK developed it and has shared the costs with the participating Swiss museums.

The two virtual reality headsets of the Museum Burg Zug will be presented next Saturday (see note). "We'll pair them with a computer so that the rest of the visitors see what the wearer of the goggles sees." Inexperienced users can sometimes experience mild dizziness. "We advise people to sit down." She’s looking forward to the visitors' reaction, says Miriam Wismer-de Sepibus. They appeal to young people in particular, a target group that museums usually find it difficult to reach.

The virtual reality headsets will be presented in cooperation with the Verein Freunde der Altstadt Zug on Saturday, November 23rd, from noon to 5 pm in the Café of the Advent Market in the Altstadthalle, and may be tried out.