Raspberry Pi

Arch was engaged by accessible technology proliferators, A11hacks to create a treasure hunt style game for St Vincent’s School in Liverpool, a school that specialises in the education of children with sensory impairments.

The initial concept was to use a beacon of some kind, emitting a signal back to a centralised device, that would be able to translate that signal into sound, a sort of rudimentary radar. To do this, we utilised a set of Raspberry Pi mini-computers which acted as the receiver for the beacon, as well as the translator of that signal to sound, paired with a set of headphones, the students we able to take advantage of a small scale, handheld and robust receiver.

The issue of finding a beacon called for a specific set of requirements. They had to be equally as robust as the receiver, cost-effective and have the ability to be repositioned easily to change the layout of the treasure hunt. The Estimote Bluetooth beacon hit all of the criteria, with the edition of having the form factor of an irregular prism, which was easily distinguishable to the students from any object they would typically come into contact with.

Through our work the students we able to easily engage with the possibilities of technology for sensory impaired individuals, wrapped in an activity that could be enjoyed by all.