ROM's smartphone app Scopify brings new life to exhibits

Visitors to the Royal Ontario Museum are being given a fun way of viewing exhibits and artifacts using their smartphone.

The phone app, known as ScopifyROM, allows museum enthusiasts to do everything from X-ray a mummified cat to see what the infamous fossil of the Tyrannosaurus rex might have looked like with skin.

"Basically use the mobile device as a scope that would allow you to see stuff that you wouldn't ordinarily be able to see," said Robert Lang, the creator of the app and president of Kensington Communications.

It was launched back in October and seems to be getting positive reviews.

ROM interpretive planner Courtney Murfin said the museum will continue to experiment with new ways of showcasing its displays.

"The audience that we're catering to now is growing up in a different age then the audience we catered to 20 years ago, ten years ago," she said.

Click on the video to see a report from the CBC's Marivel Taruc on how ScopifyROM is transforming the museum.