Museum of Natural History launches a Navigation App for IPhone

The Museum of Natural history has just launched it’s very own navigation App for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that might make getting lost in the Museum a thing of the past. The free Explorer App guides visitors through the Upper West Side Museum’s expansive halls using a kind of “indoor GPS” or WiFi signals that show users’ exactly where they are.

The Museum claims this is the first app ever to provide indoor users with real-time location awareness. So you know were you are when your lost. The Explorer App also allows users to read about exhibits, and post images to Twitter, Facebook and create customized tours of the Museum . Its a GPS system for the Museum .Those without their own Apple gadgets can borrow one from the Museum’s 350 iPod Touch units. And tech-challenged can also seek guidance from one of the 25 high-school-aged “app kids” volunteering at the museum this summer.

Officials would not say how much the App cost to produce, but it took three years to create. They do expect other museums to follow suit in developing navigation apps for there sites. The iPhone 4’s heavily criticized reception woes didn’t disrupt the App testing process because the tool uses WiFi and not the phone based network.Explorer comes on the heels of the popular Dinosaur App, which was launched in February and updated this past week. That App has been downloaded over 370,000 times.

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