So the fantastic new TV series, ”Britain’s Heritage Heroes’, couldn’t be more welcome. John Craven and Jules Hudsen will traverse the UK highlighting Britain’s disappearing heritage and shine a light on the ‘heroes’ fighting to save it.  We’ll be glued on weeknights from 6th – 15th February.

More here: Tern TV (series producers) / BBC 2

Like many new projects in China, it is on a huge scale. The site and buildings are being developed from scratch, including planting a vast area of trees and a creating a free botanical park.

Imagemakers will provide design consultancy for exhibition areas in the centre and design the external forest trail. The centre will consider topics like Regional Landscape History, Trees and Animals, Benefits of Forests, Climate Change, Forests Worldwide and Arts and Poetry associated with forests. It will include interactive displays and teaching areas.

The forest trail is in a hilly area and about 2kms in length. We will design an adventurous, experiential trail with stopping points where children learn about different topics relating to the forest environment. The exhibits will be designed to engage all the senses and help them to enjoy and appreciate the forest and to find out why forests are integral to the health of the planet.  There will be 14 of stage-managed viewpoints with explanations including:

• Interpretive panels and signs
• Protection of natural features so that they can be viewed (such as soil profiles or animal tracks/burrows)
• Invitation to stay silent to listen or smell
• Viewing hides where birds could be seen (with feeding stations)
• Limited labelling of trees and shrubs
• Some art works that reflect nature and add some amusement

The development of outdoor education for Chinese students is in its infancy as most teaching takes place in the classroom using books. This may be about to change and this centre and trail has an exciting role to play in experimenting with new forms of education in China.

The game, Johnny Test: Roller Johnny stretches across multiple iOS screens (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) using Bluetooth to create a larger digital play space. The space automatically expands when a Bluetooth-linked device with the game running is in range. By moving the devices players can also reveal hidden areas, which both players can explore.

The game can only be played with more than one screen in multiplayer mode; a single player mode is also available for a single device. Players can even hook up two iPhones to an iPad for an even larger playing space. See the video below for a demo of the game.

The game itself is pretty simple; Johnny and his friends race on skates to the finish line in a roller derby. You collect bling for extra points and can get extra time on the clock by grabbing power-ups. If you co-ordinate your moves in multiplayer mode, you can power up a sling to toss you and your friends ahead of the pack.

According to Mashable the app is created by Kolody, who say that this is the first time a game has been devised for iOS devices using co-operative screen play. They even said that Apple gave them special permission to access their mobile development team. Roller Johnny launched in late December but Kolody is already working on an update to bring the shared-screen experience to Wi-Fi as well.

I’m inspired to see an app using Bluetooth in an innovative way. The use of multiple devices helps to physically extend the gaming experience in a way we haven’t seen before. It feels more social and I think it has potential to develop further. It would be interesting to how this technology could be used within museums and cultural organisations to create a more participatory experience amongst school groups.

Google Street View, Historic Centre of Prague

The concept of exploring heritage sites from your computer or iPhone is not revolutionary; Google Maps has already developed Street View to explore places around the world including cultural sites from UNESCO’s World Heritage List. However Google Street View is limited by the images and data the vans can capture from the road. In comparison, the system developed by C3 Technologies uses aircrafts and declassified missile math to generate very accurate 3D models of the terrain and buildings, making Google Street View look like child’s play.

How does the technology work?

SAAB, partially a former owner of C3 Technologies has a video that explains how the technology actually works:

It’s hard to say how impressive these results are or how they will transform navigation on the iOS devices – you’ll have to watch the videos to see. Below is a demonstration of the photo-realistic maps running on an iPad. The user can pan infinitely around the model of London created in real-time with 10 centimetre accuracy. With all the cleverness done on C3’s servers the imagery can be streamed live to mobile devices – no special hardware is required.

Apple could potentially generate maps of everywhere in the world, including heritage sites, at a level of detail that has not been seen before. Current technologies available show that there’s plenty of scope for innovation to take digital navigation to the next level – particularly when it comes to relating reality to digital data, and in terms of cleverly visualising it all. Perhaps In the future heritage sites will use 3D maps on iPhones and iPads linked with social networks to transform the way we explore our heritage sites and engage with wider audiences.

With thanks to: Fast Company and 9to5mac.com

After speaking earlier this year at the Dehongli Cymru / Interpret Wales conference, ‘Knowing your apps from your elbows’, I am really pleased to have been asked to contribute to the latest Dehongli Cymru / Interpret Wales newsletter. At the conference I shared my thoughts on how the psychology of motivation can be used when thinking about interpretation in order to get visitors interested in learning and participating. Coming from a psychological background it’s something that I feel very strongly about but is so often overlooked or not thought of at all. So I took the opportunity of using the article in the magazine to outline some practical ways that motivational techniques can be, and have been, built into digital interpretation projects. I gave it the provocative title of “Is gamification the future of interpretation?”

If you don’t already receive a copy of the magazine you can contact Ruth Taylor Davies but I have attached a PDF below of my article.

Click here to download the full article as a PDF (3.7Mb)

Consulting the community that live around a heritage site is an important part of all our projects, helping to ensure that they understand and support the schemes we propose.  It is an inspiring experience – local communities are nearly always  passionate about their heritage landmarks and provide valuable feedback and insight.

In October, Lead Consultant David Masters went to Grange Court in the market town of Leominster to help run an open day to present the draft interpretation and design proposals for Grange Court.  These include a combination of graphic, audio visual, object based, sculptural and digital displays that tell the story of this remarkable building.

The open day was held in Leominster Town Square during Half Term and included a trailer with a temporary display, balloons and t-shirts.  Local people and some visitors were asked to consider the display and complete a questionnaire to gauge public reaction to the proposed scheme. The results of this open public feedback will help inform the final report.

This carved black and white timber building was formerly a Market House built in 1633 by the King’s carpenter, John Abel. It once stood at the junction of Broad Street in Leominster until an Act of Parliament around 1852 decreed it a traffic obstruction. It was sold to Mr Arkwright, of the Spinning Jenny family as a private residence and moved to its present location in 1855. When it came up for auction in 1939, the council bought it for Council Offices to prevent its sale and export to an American buyer.

Funded by the Somerset Coastal Pathfinder project, this is the second web based e-game we have developed for primary schoool children in Somerset.   Travelling with ALFA they’ll learn about coastal history and marine environments as well as important subjects such as the impact of sea level rises, coastal management and beach safety.

Take a look here.

Great news that OPAL and Natural History Museum has been recognised as one of the UK’s best environmental projects at the National Lottery Awards 2011 and that our Bugs Count app is featured!

Read all about it here.