PRESS RELEASE
The progressive Ridgeway Community School in Farnham, Surrey, has added an interactive GestureTek GroundFX floor to its already rich portfolio of technology, designed to engage and stimulate the 110 students who attend.
For the school is one of the UK’s leading exponents of technology for special educational needs, and thanks to the pioneering stance taken by head teacher, Darryl Morgan, the school already had a range of state-of-the-art interactive learning aids in its sensory ICT suites — from soundbeams to Bubble Tubes and eye-controlled computers distributed through its multi-controllable, Multi Interactive Learning Environment (MILE).
But the search for new stimuli is ongoing and the GroundFX dynamic floor takes the Community School to a new level, enabling participants immersed in the GestureTek field to change the environment by hand and motion gestures. When Mr. Morgan was introduced to the effect at a head teacher’s conference, he and his network manager Rob Anderson were soon paying a visit to the nearby Farnham Heath End School — where a similar gesture-controlled solution has been installed — to investigate further.
GroundFX is a multimedia visual floor display system that vertically projects incredible interactive floor special effects, games or advertisements. It is a full-body interactive experience in which users control dynamic multimedia displays with simple gestures and body movement.
After eliciting three tenders the installation contract was awarded to Paul Mayhew’s Digital Vision AV Ltd — who coincidentally had carried out the earlier Farnham Heath End install, and thus came highly recommended.
His site survey revealed a particularly high ceiling with arched beams under a corrugated roof, with no void for fixing. GestureTek’s UK distributors Paradigm AV were brought in, and along with the school’s original theatre lighting suppliers, KAVE Lighting, repositioned some of the luminaires, put secure struts cross the beam and carefully calibrated the delicate ceiling-mounted mirror rig (housing four IR emitters and a USB camera) which enables the gesture control.
This allows the state-of-the-art body tracking and gesture recognition system to intelligently monitor and respond to the position of the body, allowing for real-time motion control and interaction with display graphics.
Paradigm also fitted a neat white shelf under the ceiling rig to offer further protection against stray sports balls, since the sports hall is also used as a gym. Cradled in the rig is a carefully-aligned Sanyo XM100 5000 lumen 3 LCD projector with LNS-S20 Standard Zoom Lens.
However, the 5-metre floor to ceiling height offers many advantages, as Paul Mayhew points out. Firstly the distance enables the projected image to measure a generous 3.5m x 2.63m. Secondly, since a vast moving wall backdrop overlooking the floor was already in place — created from an existing Epson LCD projector on the facing wall, the school can either mirror the floor image, using the library of GestureTek GroundFX software, or revert to its dedicated PC via a Kramer 2×2 matrix switcher where the VGA cables are terminated. In that instance they could, for example, project an interactive firework display on the floor complemented by a fireworks safety message on the wall.
At the same time, via their existing PA / control system the school can provide an aural stimulus, routing the GroundFX soundscapes associated with the different interactive templates (such as running water etc) via the sound mixer to the Wharfedale PA.
Rob Anderson also foresaw other problems — particularly for wheelchair users who would bubble and crease a standard roll-out screen if it was laid straight onto the floor; hence he has cut into the sports-grade wooden floor with a similar finish which is permanently bonded in. Equally, wheelchair users, unable to visually see the impact they are creating on the ground, can also interact by specially-fitted wheelchair trays which they can control by hand gestures, or by looking at the wall image.
Anderson says the new feature is already proving its worth — but will really come into its own at the start of the new academic year. “Where some students fail to respond to other stimuli they love coming here and it engages them for much longer.” They refer to the GestureTek floor as the ‘magic carpet’ and while there is plenty of ‘stock’ content stored in the library, Ridgeway’s Network Manager is itching to start creating their own bespoke software. “It’s really just a question of how far we can take It,” he says.
Summarised Paul Mayhew, “It was certainly a challenging installation but it’s been well worthwhile. Paradigm offered fantastic support, and [Paradigm AV operations manager] Steve Pratt did an excellent job with the custom design. The reaction so far has been fantastic.”
