OUT with the bulky old audio-guide, and in with slim new hi-fi technology, to give visitors to York a pocket-sized digital tour packed with information.

The new device, which actually tracks visitors' movements through museums to give them exact accounts of all they see, is the invention of Sam Voro, an Israeli living in York.

Sam's prototype has already been successfully tried at the Castle Museum's famous Kirkgate Victorian street, and it has left the public and museum bosses enthusing.

The Tourist Information System, or TIS, is on a personal digital assistant (PDA) or pocket computer, with its own keyboard and display screen.

Sam said: "When you visit say a museum, tiny sensors placed around the site locate your PDA to within a metre radius.

"It triggers a host of useful information downloaded from a central server which is sensitive to exactly who you are and what your needs are.

"For example, it acts on information that you are male/female, child/adult and which language you prefer, so that quite apart from being useful to the visitor, it provides an accurate marketing record for the organisation operating the tourist attraction."

The wireless device can be used outside in the streets of York with ready-made updateable web pages which alter according to where you are. At the same time York businesses nearby can shout their wares in a tickertape-style strip at the bottom of the PDA screen to tell users that just a few steps away they are having a happy hour/sale/special offers and how about the details of the nearby restaurant menu to whet your appetite?

Sam, who hails from Moshav, near Eilat in the desert, came to Britain to study mechanical engineering at Newcastle, and later worked at York's Omnicom Engineering while finishing a Master of Philosophy degree at the University of York.

Showing his friends and family from Israel around York's historic centre triggered the idea for a wireless tour guide. "It has always been a fantastic vision but now it is on the verge of becoming a reality," he said.

Now Sam is looking for a partner or investors and for corporate sponsors of the PDAs which will be hired out to tourists.

Michael Woodward, the director of finance and business development at the York Museums Trust said: "We are looking at a number of exciting new ways to animate and interpret the famous Kirkgate in advance of major refurbishment in 2005.

"Devices like this have the potential to greatly enhance the experience of some visitors and we are looking at a wide range of potential interpretative methods."

Updated: 09:37 Tuesday, November 30, 2004