I-Tours

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I-Tours (also spelled "iTours" or "Itours") are an emerging technology, typically using podcasting technology. A user, usually a tourist, visits a website on the Internet and downloads an audio tour of an area the tourist is interested in. This audio tour is loaded onto a portable electronic device, such as a digital audio player, a cell phone, or other portable electronic device. The user then listens to the audio tour while walking or driving through the area being described on the audio tour. The audio tour may also be accompanied by a downloadable map or other written explanation going with the audio tour.

The I-Tour format permits the user to skip ahead to other tracks if not interested in the present subject being described, or to listen to a supplementary track providing further information about the subject being described.

I-Tours may be accompanied by photographs, maps, or other written materials which can also be downloaded to aid the user. There are presently I-Tours available in Glasgow, Scotland, Savannah, Georgia, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, San Francisco, California, and other tourist destinations. It is believed that the I-Tour of Glasgow may have been the first such tour that was widely available, although audio tours on cassette tape players (and more recently CD-based tours) have been in existence since the advent of portable audio players in the 1970s. However, neither of these formats could be downloaded by the user at home before arriving at the site to be toured. "I-Tour" is not a known to be registered as a trademark.

I-Tours are also "location-knowledgeable", by using GPS and cell location technology, audio and video is delivered based on user location, where audio (and visual) content is triggered by a user's location, and GPS tours are transmitted to the user in "real time."