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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Siemens Wall-sized Airport Touch EduGames

Last week I was passing through the C terminal of Ronald Reagan Airport in DC. I was stopped in my tracks by a full sized wall display of a city map. Two children maybe 4 and 8 were routing electric cars into a parking lot to charge. They did this by dragging a route the car should travel to one of the open spaces. The cars then started to flash to show they were charging. The goal, best I could tell, was to get as many cars charged up and out of the lot before time ran out. The kids were having a blast and the adults enjoyed the graphics and challenges the kids had finding a safe route to an empty space.

A second game, involved a high rise office building. I actually got to read the directions for a brief moment while Mom explained them to the youngsters. The goal was to lower carbon emissions by lowering the temperature in rooms that were too warm, raising the temperature in rooms that were too cool and turning off lights when rooms had no occupants. Warm rooms got red, cold ones blue. And, you had to be careful not to turn the lights out while someone was still working in an office. If you did, they'd pipe up, "I'm still in here!" You made these changes by touching the rooms that needed adjustment. A thermometer-type display on the left kept track of the building's current emissions, rising and falling as changes were made. I got a kick out of the younger child needing a boost to touch rooms on the upper floors. She seemed to enjoy that part, too!

The game/advertisement was put together by Siemens. Its logo was up on top, but barely visible. Well done! Can we maybe build the game I want to see at the airport? The one where you spin and adjust the carry-on bags to fit the most into the overhead bin? It think that'd be a great "touch style" game for the kids and Mom and Dad!