Miami Metrozoo leading the way with Tours That Talk

On his way into the verdant Cloud Forest, Preston Lao looked a bit startled when Ron Magill's wildly excited voice burst from the plastic gadget in his hand.

''Almost everything you see is super-sized! The anaconda, the world's largest snake! Giant river otters that grow to 6 feet!'' the voice exclaimed while 4-year-old Preston's eyes widened.

The Lao family, of Miami Gardens, was among the first to try out a new interactive feature, launched May 13, of Miami Metrozoo's recently opened Amazon and Beyond exhibit.

It's called Tours That Talk, consisting of an electronic tablet with rows of numbered buttons that correspond to numbers posted at key locations throughout the exhibit. Metrozoo is the first park to use the technology.

''It's really cool how they interact more because they're able to hear the sounds,'' said Karrisa Lao, as she, husband Pedro, and their children poked at the buttons on the new gizmos.

A Kendall-based company named Taylannas manufactures the tablets in Pittsburg, Kan.

''We do all the engineering and programming and scripting, too,'' said marketing and engineering vice president Richard Herbst. ``All done here in the U.S.''

With Tours That Talk, each button launches a description of a particular habitat, like the Flooded Forest Gallery and the Atlantic Forest, in the voice of zoo spokesman Magill or voice-over artist Trish Basanyi.

''The creatures of the cloud forest see you a thousand times before you ever see them,'' Basanyi's voice intoned as Preston and his brother Sean, 3, watched a sleek jaguar lounging by a lagoon stocked with fish and turtles.

Sean pointed excitedly at a turtle.

''Mommy, Mommy, look, there's Tuck,'' he blurted, referring to a character on the Nick Jr. show Wonder Pets. Next to him, Preston wondered aloud why Diego (of the show Go, Diego, Go!) wasn't hanging out with the jaguar, as he does on TV.

Narration on the device is punctuated by beating drums, ululating flutes, howling monkeys and squawking eagles.

Fanny Navarro, Metrozoo's public facilities manager, said visitors' response to the audio tours has been ``very positive. We did a little survey and people said it's a good idea. That it's easy to use and holds their attention.''

It certainly held Preston and Sean's attention as they followed the tablet's directions to see the freshwater stingrays, the waxy monkey frog and the tiny chirping primate known as Geoffroy's marmoset.

Unlike most talking guides in other parks and museums, which often depend on wireless connections between devices, each Tours tablet is a self-contained unit that works indoors or out, Herbst said.

''If one device goes out, it doesn't affect the others at all,'' he said.

According to Taylannas President and CEO Susan Perry, the company began in 2006 during lunch with her 23-year-old niece, Jessica, at an Olive Garden restaurant in Miami.

''She had macular degeneration so she couldn't read the menu,'' Perry said after tagging along on the Lao family's tryout tour. ``I'd forgotten my reading glasses and thought they should have talking menus.''

She and Herbst soon launched Menus That Talk at The Lion and Rose British pub in San Antonio. Now the pub has them throughout its Texas chain, and the Original Pancake House in Boca Raton is giving them a whirl.

Perry also said the police department in Atlantic City, N.J., is testing a Taylannas device that reads suspects their Miranda rights in 10 languages.

''It's funny because the French one sounds like the guy is inviting you to dinner but the German voice sounds very stern,'' Perry said.

Metrozoo plans to add a Spanish version of the Amazon tour by June and eventually expand its use of Tours That Talk to the entire park, Navarro said.

Karrisa Lao said that's something she would pay to use.

``I think it's awesome because the kids learn a lot of things about the animals.''