As part of the Hidden Treasures project at St Martin’s Church, Bilborough, we are developing a “tablet tour” to help visitor explore the history of the church and its role in the community.

As a church that is actively used for worship and for community activities, space for interpretative displays and activities is, by the nature of the building and its use, limited – which makes the use of tablet technology the ideal choice for presenting a lot of information in a handy, compact way.

An app that can be accessed on one of the project’s tablets can be navigated via a map of the church or a list of points of interest around the building. These points within the church will be tagged with small plaques – simply tap the tablet on the plaque and the app will present information about that feature, its purpose, history and relevance to the community.

The app will access a variety of material – text, graphics, video and audio – which can be kept up-to-date and added to by the client.

We were delighted to be asked by Cadw to help them with four touchscreens at Caerleon that been installed by another developer several years ago and were now not working properly.

Following the site survey a plan of action was agreed and the systems replaced with the latest technology. We were able to recover the software from the original touch screens and re-commission it on the new platforms which also means we have a safely archived set of the software.

Cadw now has a regular maintenance contract in place to reduce the risks of wear and tear eventually causing similar problems in future. We are now providing:

• Regular site visits to check the equipment.
• Telephone support.
• A complete spares package.
• Software backup and archiving.
• Emergency call outs and ongoing advice.

Caerleon can now be assured that their touchscreens will continue to work reliably and any unexpected problems that arise will be dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Our new photo system at The London Bridge Experience was installed in time for Halloween, unsurprisingly an important milestone in the year for a scare attraction.

We’re pleased to report that the system ran without a hitch throughout this busy period and just as happy that sales exceeded expectations by a factor of 25%.

Friday 21^st November saw us out and about with the local business community. We took some of our favourite interactive exhibits out to the University of Derby’s Enterprise Centre for their Open for Business trade show.

Rob shows how the RFID objects at Westonbirt Arboretum 

A jam-packed programme of talks complemented an interesting exhibition from local businesses and we were pleased that the delegates enjoyed getting hands on with our kit.

Pauline Latham MP enjoys the Gesture Wall experience from Heritage Quay

Our new photosystem at popular scare attraction, The London Bridge Experience, is now up and running, bringing an extra thrill to visitors in search of spine-tingling entertainment.

The technology works on the same principles as the photosystem at The World of Beatrix Potter, including the means to measure key performance indicators such as the number of pictures taken and the number of items sold, and yet the visitor’s experience of using it is a very different one.

Rather than being one element of a broader retail offering to choose, The London Bridge Experience uses the system as an integral part of the visitor experience. In fact, having your photograph taken by actors in character builds the tension before you enter the tombs, setting the scene for the rest of your visit. The more terrified your pose, the more impressive the finished photo will be.

After an experience full of sounds, smells, and spooky settings, with shocks and surprises courtesy of a grisly cast of characters from the more gruesome corners London Bridge’s history, why not take away a personalised photo souvenir?

On leaving the tour, the ticket that was provided at your photo shoot is scanned and your picture displayed, ready for purchase as a memento of a frighteningly fun visit.

It was great to be invited to the launch event at Heritage Quay on the 20^th October – a fabulous resource that makes the University of Huddersfield’s heritage collections more accessible to everyone, free of charge, thanks to a grant of £1,585,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The guests had a good time exploring the exhibits and playing with the multi-touch tables and, of course, the interactive Gesture Wall that provides a gateway to the archives.

Vice Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan CBE introduced Gary Verity, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund Yorkshire and Humberside who performed the opening honours with the theme of inspiration. We were delighted to hear him describe the Gesture Wall, “You will not get much more inspirational than a giant toy like that.”

It’s been fantastic to work with the team at Heritage Quay – congratulations on a brilliant launch event.

And many thanks for the kind words, Sarah.

“Thanks for coming, and for all the last minute tweaking & working!  We had a good time and got lots of really positive feedback – as you’ll have seen/heard, everyone LOVED the multi-touch and the BCS…”

Sarah Wickham, University Archivist & Records Manager at University of Huddersfield

Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Research carried out by Manchester Business School was integral to the development of the interactive wildfire risk tool that was part of a suit of interactive exhibits for Fire Aware, part of the Peak District’s Moors for the Future project. This educational tool is the first of its kind in the UK combining weather and geographical data to give a real-time picture of the relative fire risk across the moors.

The project has recently featured in the Manchester Business School’s newsletter. Click on the link to read the full article…

Fire Aware featured by Manchester Business School

The Fire Aware development, part of the Peak District’s Moors for the Future project has been featured in Fire Times, regularly read by fire service professionals.

The article discusses the role of educating the public, citing the fire service adage that the three main causes of wildfire are men, women and children. The interactive system, developed with the University of Manchester’s School of Environment, Education and Development, included games to help the youngsters learn more about the part they can play in preventing wildfire as well as real-time and historic interactive maps of fire risk that provide context for understanding the risk.

Click on the link to read the full article…

Fire Aware feature in Fire Times

Back in June, we introduced the concept of our Gesture Wall which will feature at Heritage Quay, the new home for the University of Huddersfield’s Archives and Special Collections.

Back then we could show you a prototype but we’re thrilled to be able to show the latest video shot during our integration testing.

The Gesture Wall is a 7 metre interactive curved wall, driven by human gesture, with surround sound and dynamic archive database integration.

The Heritage Quay archive centre will make the University’s heritage collections more accessible to everyone, free of charge, thanks to a grant of £1,585,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

We’re getting geared up for the AHI conference on 24-26 September in Manchester.

As well as looking forward to an agenda full of interesting speakers on a range of heritage and interpretation topics, we’re planning to showcase some of the ways we work with clients to put heritage interpretation into practice through technology.

We’ll certainly be bringing examples of our recent project with Fire Aware that uses on-site interactive exhibits combined with online versions of the material, as well as CD-based versions for use out and about by representatives in educational outreach activities.

Fire Aware interactive map

All being well – and current busy workload permitting – we should also be showcasing a multi-touch table to demonstrate how Caerphilly Castle is currently using this technology.

Digital table at Caerphilly Castle: Our digital exploration of the Bute family archive at Caerphilly Castle combines fun, education and as much multi touch interactivity as you can imagine to great effect!

And we hope to be giving everyone attending the chance to have a go with the yet-to-be-installed Gesture Wall for the University of Huddersfield’s Archives and Special Collections – we’re excited about it, they’re excited about it, we hope you’ll find it exciting too.

Huddersfield University Archives Gesture Wall concept

Here’s a prototype visual interface we’re working on for exploring this nationally important archive database with over 40,000 entries!

If you’re going to be at the AHI conference, please make sure you say hello. If you can’t be there but would like to know more about how this technology might help you, please just give us a call.