Robson Square interactive wall is B.C.’s celebration site for the 2010 Games
Gillian Shaw
Sun
Amrinder Sandhar checks out a new 34-metre “gateway,” billed as one of the world’s longest interactive walls, that is located beside the skating rink at Robson Square and leads to the B.C. Showcase. Animated presentations on the wall are randomly created by passersby, who trigger sensors that detect how many people are nearby and how fast they are walking. Photograph by: Ian Smith, PNG, Vancouver Sun
It’s a digital show-and-tell for British Columbia technology.
Monday saw the opening of one of the world’s largest interactive walls, and marks the finishing touch for the province’s signature celebration site for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Thousands of international business visitors are expected to make their way down a digital corridor where infrared sensors trigger a changing kaleidoscope of images on everything from B.C.’s interactive technology sector to green tech and more.
It’s a technology that could have many applications, from displays like the one at Robson Square to more personal ones — an umbrella that you could use to share thoughts and images as you walk down the street.
“When it comes to innovation, it’s always easier to show people than to tell them,” Iain Black, B.C.’s minister of small business, technology and economic development, said at the official opening of the digital gateway for the B.C. Showcase in Robson Square.
The interactive wall has 45 sensors that pick up on people passing by, creating cascading animations that are delivered randomly depending on the number of people walking by and their speed, so no two strolls down the hall may be the same.
“I particularly like the rain clouds morphing into a hydrogen bus,” said Black, adding that the image is timely given last week’s announcement that B.C. now has the world’s largest hydrogen bus fleet.
The Digital Gateway is the handiwork of Vancouver’s Switch Interactive, a small, independent studio that won the $600,000 contract to create the digital wall, which was funded by Ottawa through Western Economic Diversification.
Beside the skating rink at Robson Square, the 33.5-metre gateway has transformed what was a bleak and concrete corridor at the B.C. Showcase into an interactive space with 17 animated stories constantly changing as people walk by.
Black and other government and industry players are hoping the installation will trigger discussions that could lead to business opportunities for companies here.
“I think the most important thing that this wall does it is gives a very interactive and eye-catching view of the different industries that comprise British Columbia,” Black said in an interview. “This is meant to elicit questions on the part of people who are moving through here.’
The showcase is a venue offering B.C. businesses an opportunity to meet with potential business partners and investors and hosts will accompany visitors, explaining the digital wall.
Black said it is hoped that the experience will prompt conversations “that will lead to additional investment and opportunities for British Columbians.”
For Switch Interactive, the digital wall offers the company a chance to share its technology with the world.
“We looked at it as a new way for architecture,” said Catherine Winckler, partner and creative director of Switch. “We looked at it as a new opportunity to do things with walls that will relate to people.
“We can tailor the wall, it can be easily programmed within 24 hours to have a completely different ambience. We can change the mood, we can change the stories, we can do quite a bit with this wall.”
And it’s a technology that isn’t limited to wall installations. Winckler said it could be used in restaurants, so customers could choose the mood for their dinner dates.
Or it could even be applied to an umbrella, so you could share whatever images you choose to project to the world as you walk down a rainy street.
Black said the 2010 Olympics offer B.C. businesses opportunities to showcase their talents to the world.
“It is the ultimate in a business development, or if you will, a trade show opportunity, but instead of us going to a trade show they are coming to us.
“And it is the biggest one in the world.”
The B.C. Showcase totals 2,500 square feet and is built to LEED environmental standards.
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