Not-for-profit education body Futurelab has launched a free resource for schools that enables pupils to make wireless tour guides of their towns.
Called Create-A-Scape, it has audio and image editing tools that allow audio-visual material to be prepared and stored on a SD Card. Areas can then be defined on electronic town maps, and relevant images and sound clips assigned to them.
All this information is loaded into a GPS-enabled Pocket PC PDA, which then automatically plays or displays the relevant material when its holder moves into one of the defined areas.
Create-A-Scape is actually a cut-down version of a package developed with DTI-funding by HP Labs in Bristol. “It enables media display to be triggered by any sensor: GPS, a heart-rate monitor, light or dark, moisture, anything,” Phil Stenton, technology-in-lifestyle manager told EW. “Create-A-Scape is a cut-down version that can only be triggered by GPS or clicking on a map.”