Here are two more high resolution photos of us behind the scenes at Living coasts. One is of myself testing out our interactive floor with its state of the art infa-red sensors in a system I designed and tested myself. The other picture is of Luke Angell testing out the 3 touch screens mounted into the walls.

If you cant get to living coasts, you can always add Ping the penguin to your facebook friends! He’s so cute… but he smells of fish!

I have been working really hard on an amazing new interactive floor for Living Coasts. It should all be ready by next Tuesday, and we are all really looking forward to it. Its been a really interesting job and i have learnt a lot about penguins.

I have been working on an “Eco-floor” that has life sized interactive ecology games where kids can clean up a virtual oil slick or rescue trapped animals. Its going to be interesting to see how people react to it. Rather than just being a simple use of interactivity for entertainment this floor has a real educational message.

A Plymouth-based company has completed a series of interactive experiences for the visitor centre at Torquay’s Living Coasts.

The zoo’s new Discovery Zone will feature a dynamic series of displays, created by HMC Interactive.

It will be launched in May and consists of three major exhibits: a website, an interactive floor and a “penguin training facility”.

“Children will love this exhibit as there will be an instant interaction as things can happen under their feet even when they are standing still,” said an HMC spokesman. “Visitors will be able to pull their ecological weight and have fun at the same time.”

The penguin trainer involves touch screens which allow visitors to choose their own penguin to nurture, grow and teach a survival skill to. Four games will be available and they will work together to create a penguin lifecycle of feeding, breeding and evading predators.

Cyber Seaside is a floor which invites visitors to stand on virtual litter to clean a beach and stomp around fishing nets to uncover trapped animals. It is controlled by a series of motion sensors that track the user’s movements and create a graphic illusion based on where people are situated.