WO2006040404A1 - Interactive playground, a playground appliance, a control station and a method for collecting and processing information on a playground - Google Patents

Interactive playground, a playground appliance, a control station and a method for collecting and processing information on a playground Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2006040404A1
WO2006040404A1 PCT/FI2005/000449 FI2005000449W WO2006040404A1 WO 2006040404 A1 WO2006040404 A1 WO 2006040404A1 FI 2005000449 W FI2005000449 W FI 2005000449W WO 2006040404 A1 WO2006040404 A1 WO 2006040404A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
playground
player
control station
appliance
activity
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/FI2005/000449
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Juha Laakkonen
Original Assignee
Lappset Group Oy
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Lappset Group Oy filed Critical Lappset Group Oy
Publication of WO2006040404A1 publication Critical patent/WO2006040404A1/en

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Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63GMERRY-GO-ROUNDS; SWINGS; ROCKING-HORSES; CHUTES; SWITCHBACKS; SIMILAR DEVICES FOR PUBLIC AMUSEMENT
    • A63G31/00Amusement arrangements

Definitions

  • Interactive playground a playground appliance, a control station and a method for collecting and processing information on a playground
  • the invention concerns generally the technology of playground equipment. Espe ⁇ cially the invention concerns equipping playground equipment with electronics that enable exchanging information between a player and the equipment.
  • a playground is understood to be a place equipped for activities that aim at cognitive, motoric and social development and education through an attractive and amusing way.
  • An amusement park is not a playground, because it only aims at producing experiences of amusement and excitement without said educational function.
  • An amusement park is always built for occasional visits, manned with personnel, and subject to charge.
  • a playground is nearly always unmanned and freely accessible for regular visits by players.
  • a playground may be defined to be a place equipped with playthings that obey the appropriate standards, which in Europe means a standard known as EN 1176 for equipment and another known as EN 1177 for materials.
  • playground equipment might contain sensors adapted to generate inputs to a sig- nal processing entity that collects and processes information about what the play ⁇ ers are doing. Since this approach implies a completely new way of thinking about playground equipment, a technical problem in this field of technology is the mere fact that not all possibilities of combining electronics with playgrounds have yet been exploited.
  • An objective of the invention is to present an interactive playground that enables easy and versatile exploitation of electronics combined with playground equip ⁇ ment.
  • Another objective of the invention is to provide a method of collecting and handling information on an interactive playground.
  • the objectives of the invention are achieved by equipping a player with an essen ⁇ tially unique identifier device, by collecting and storing information about what happenings have been observed on the playground in association with said unique identifier device, and by delivering at least part of such collected and stored infor ⁇ mation as feedback to the player.
  • a playground appliance according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the characterising part of the independent claim directed to a playground appliance.
  • a con ⁇ trol station according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the characterising part of the independent claim directed to a control station.
  • a playground according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the character ⁇ ising part of the independent claim directed to a playground.
  • a method according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the characterising part of the independent claim directed to such a method.
  • a playground changes from a passive, purely me ⁇ chanical installation to an interactive place that reacts and operates, as well as processes and distributes information, depending on who came there to play and what did the player do.
  • a unique identifier device carried by the player makes it possible to control the operation of the playground equipment.
  • the playing rules may define a "prison", the door or gate of which will only open if the identifier de ⁇ vice of a predefined player acting as the "liberator” is brought into its immediate vi ⁇ cinity.
  • Interactions between a player (or a group of players) and the electronics system integrated into a playground may take various forms. The electronics system may simply collect and distribute information, or it may take a more active role for ex- ample as an adversary or a referee.
  • An electronics system that is capable of iden ⁇ tifying a number of players simultaneously may react depending on the current lo ⁇ cation and/or predefined role of each player. Connecting the electronics system to a data transfer network enables arranging matches and competitions between players that are physically located even very far away from each other, like on dif- ferent continents.
  • Fig. 1a illustrates an interactive playground according to an embodiment of the invention
  • fig. 1b illustrates a communicating principle on a playground according to fig. 1a
  • fig. 2a illustrates an interactive playground according to another embodiment of the invention
  • fig. 2b illustrates a communicating principle on a playground according to fig. 2a
  • fig. 3 illustrates schematically some functional blocks in parts of an interactive playground
  • fig. 4 illustrates communication and a sequence of events on a playground according to fig. 3
  • fig. 5 illustrates schematically some functional blocks in parts of another in ⁇ teractive playground
  • fig. 6 illustrates communication and a sequence of events on a playground according to fig. 5
  • fig. 7 illustrates schematically some functional blocks in parts of yet another interactive playground
  • Figs. 1a and 2a illustrate two alternative approaches to implementing an interac ⁇ tive playground.
  • a playground comprises playthings 101 , 102 and 103, which could also be designated as playground equipment, as well as a con- trol station 104.
  • Each piece of playground equipment comprises an equipment- specific electronics unit 111 , 112 and 113 or 211 , 212, and 213 respectively.
  • each of these electronics units is equipped with suitable sensors and thus adapted to measure and monitor the use of the piece of playground equipment.
  • the associated electronics unit is adapted to monitor, how skilfully and/or accurately a certain player performed.
  • the approaches of both figs. 1a and 2a involve equipping a player with an essentially unique identifier device, illustrates as 121 in fig. 1a and 212 in fig. 2a.
  • the unique identifier device 121 is only a simple trans- mitter adapted to announce a code value, which is unique to each specific identi ⁇ fier device.
  • the respective electronics unit 111 , 112 or 113 receives the code value from the identifier device 121 and produces a record indicating how did the user of that identifier device perform.
  • the electronics unit 111 , 112 or 113 commu ⁇ nicates the produced record to the control station 104 through a connection 114, which here has been shown as a wired connection but which could as well be a wireless connection.
  • the communicating steps have been illustrated as a registration step 151 , recording step 152, reporting step 153 and feedback step 154.
  • the equipment-specific electronics units 211 , 212 and 213 are not adapted to associate monitored performance with any particular player, but to only announce a result or evaluation over a short-distance communi ⁇ cations link to a player-specific identifier device 221.
  • the last-mentioned acts both as a storage means and as a communications channel between the equipment- specific electronics units 211 , 212 and 213 and the control station 204.
  • the four occurrences of an identifier device 121 could be understood to all represent different users (i.e. there being a different player at each piece of play ⁇ ground equipment and the control station simultaneously), the graphical represen ⁇ tation of fig.
  • FIG. 2a should be understood so that a player goes around the playground, collects records into his identifier device 221 , and finally returns to download the accumulated contents of his identifier device to the control station 204.
  • Fig. 2b shows how the registration step 251 and recording step 252 resemble the corre ⁇ sponding steps in fig. 1a, while the reporting step 253 now takes place between the identifier device 221 and the control station 204 and could even be conceptu ⁇ ally combined with the feedback step 254.
  • the short-distance communications links between the equipment-specific electron ⁇ ics units 111 , 112 and 113 or 211 , 212 and 213 and the player-specific identifier device 121 or 212 have been illustrated in figs. 1a and 2a as wireless links, be ⁇ cause this would in practice be the most versatile alternative. However, it is per ⁇ fectly possible to realise these short-distance communications links through wired connections, e.g. so that before and/or after using a piece of playground equip ⁇ ment the player places his identifier device to a socket for exchanging information with the equipment-specific electronics unit.
  • a connection between equipment-specific electronics units 111 , 112 and 113 and a control station 104 could be used as a default, but the same infor ⁇ mation could also be stored to the appropriate identifier device 121 so that downloading from there to the control station 104 could be used as an alternative in case there is a communications failure in the "local area network" of the play ⁇ ground.
  • the corresponding data collection and storage functionalities could exist in appropriate ones of the equip ⁇ ment-specific electronics units 111, 112 and 113.
  • the identifier device 121 of a player does not need to be programmable and is not required to be capable of anything else than announcing its own code value, preferably as a response to an inquiry transmitted by another device.
  • the identifier device 121 does not even need to contain a power source, because it may pick the necessary operating power (e.g. inductively) from the transmission that also carries said inquiry.
  • Technical solutions needed to realise such a simple identifier device are widely known e.g. from the technology of electronic access control.
  • identifier de- vices aims at enabling the provision of personal feedback to a player about his own success and development, which is a remarkable difference to known elec ⁇ tronic access solutions, in which an identifier device only represents a person's acknowledged permission to do something.
  • Fig. 3 illustrates schematically certaion functional blocks of an exemplary play ⁇ ground electronics system following the approach of fig. 1.
  • a user or player carries an identifier device 121 , which comprises an identifier memory 301 and a trans ⁇ DCver 302 adapted to receive operating power and to transmit a code value read from the identifier memory 301.
  • the transceiver 302 is sche- matically shown to have a power reception antenna 303 and a code value trans ⁇ mission antenna 304, although these may well be physically implemented as a single antenna.
  • an "antenna” should be understood to cover all kinds of physical receiving and transmitting means; for example, the light-emitting diode and photosensitive transistor of an infrared transceiver constitute an "an ⁇ tenna", as does a galvanic connector designed to match a corresponding socket.
  • An equipment-specific electronics unit 112 comprises a microcontroller 311 adapted to receive measurement information from a sensor 312 integrated in playground equipment and to store received information in a memory 313.
  • the mi ⁇ crocontroller 311 is also coupled to a power transmitter / signal receiver module 314, which is schematically shown to communicates with identifier devices through a power transmission antenna 315 and a code value reception antenna 316, which again may physically be a single, common antenna.
  • the microcontroller 311 has a further coupling to a network transceiver 317, which acts as an interface towards the other fixed electronic installations of the playground.
  • the central component of a control station 104 is a microprocessor 321 equipped with a memory 322. It communicates with equipment specific electronics units through a network interface 323.
  • the control station 104 of fig. 3 also comprises a power transmitter / signal receiver module 324 with a power transmission antenna 325 and a code value reception antenna 326, in order to communicate with identi ⁇ bomb devices.
  • the control station 104 has a bi- directional user interface, comprising user interface drivers 327, input means (such as a keypad) 328 and output means (such as a display) 329.
  • the input means 328 could comprise a short-distance wireless transceiver adapted to communicate with port ⁇ able electronic devices, a long-distance wireless transceiver adapted to communi- cate through a cellular radio network, a bar code reader, a touch-sensitive screen or a voice recognition apparatus.
  • the short- and long-distance wireless transceiv ⁇ ers could also act as alternative output means 328, as could a speech synthesizer, a printer or some other apparatus adapted to produce human- and/or machine- readable output.
  • Fig. 4 illustrates an exemplary sequence of events in using the system of fig. 3.
  • the steps generally referred to as 400 constitute the registration phase, in which the identifier device 121 originally comes to the vicinity of the control station 104.
  • Steps 401 , 402 and 403 resemble closely the corresponding steps in a known electronic access control system: the identifier device 121 , which could also be designated as a key or tag, is brought close enough to the control station so that it can (inductively) pick enough operating power at step 401. It responds by waking up at step 402 and communicating a code value or identifier to the control station 104 at step 403.
  • the control station 104 opens a file where it intends to store informa- tion about the player in question.
  • the control station 104 also gives an indication about the player having been "logged in” or registered, e.g. by flashing a lamp, emitting a beep or by producing an indication on a display.
  • Step 405 is op ⁇ tional and corresponds to the control station 104 announcing to the equipment- specific electronics units that this particular player has logged in and is likely to come using the playground equipment in the near future.
  • the player is playing at a certain piece of playground equipment.
  • the identifier device 121 receives op ⁇ erating power from the equipment-specific electronics unit 112, at step 412 it wakes up and at step 413 it communicates its code value or identifier to the equipment-specific electronics unit 112.
  • the last-mentioned opens a player- specific record at step 414, stores information about the observed activities of the player to said record at step 415 and closes the record at step 416. What actually triggers closing the record is not important to the invention; it may be e.g.
  • the identifier device 121 has receded far enough from the equipment-specific electronics unit 112 so that communications therebetween cannot be established any more, or it may be the fact that according to sensors the playground equip ⁇ ment is not moving any more, it may be a timer, any combination of the aforemen ⁇ tioned, or some other triggering event.
  • the equipment-specific electronics unit 112 reports the recorded per ⁇ formance of the player to the control station 104, which stores this information to the player-specific file at step 418.
  • An arbitrary number of repetitions of steps 410 may occur, either at the same piece of playground equipment or at others coupled to the same playground network.
  • the steps generally referred to as 420 constitute the feedback or logout phase, in which the identifier device 121 again comes to the vicinity of the control station 104.
  • the power pick-up, wake-up and code value communication steps 421 , 422 and 423 are the same as steps 401 , 402 and 403 respectively.
  • the control station 104 notes that this player is one that has been playing on the play ⁇ ground since his registration earlier, so the control station 104 gives feedback to the player based on the reports collected from the equipment-specific electronics units. After having closed the player-specific file the control station 104 may op ⁇ tionally transmit an announcement at step 425 that the player has left the play ⁇ ground.
  • the whole feedback or logout phase 420 can be omitted, if the feedback comes in real time or near real time through the output means 329 of the control station 104 based on the reports it receives from the equipment-specific electron ⁇ ics units.
  • the identifier device 212 is shown to comprise a microcontroller 501 , a signal transceiver 502 and a mem ⁇ ory 503.
  • the identifier device 212 comprises a rechargeable bat ⁇ tery or a similar self-contained power source (not shown in fig. 5), one conse ⁇ quence of which is that the transceiver 502 only needs to have a signal antenna 504.
  • An equipment-specific electronics unit 212 comprises a microcontroller 511 , a memory 513 and at least a signal transmitter 514, which may also comprise signal reception functionality, although this is not obligatory.
  • a signal transmission (and reception) antenna 516 is provided, and the microcontroller 511 is additionally adapted to receive signals from a sensor pr sensors 312 that monitor(s) the per- formance of the player at said piece of playground equipment.
  • the control station 204 resembles relatively closely that illustrated as 104 in fig. 3, the exceptions being the provision of only a signal antenna 526 and a signal trans ⁇ ceiver 524, and the absence of a network connection towards the equipment- specific electronics units. It should be noted that both in the embodiment of fig. 5 and in that of fig. 3 considerable additional versatility can be achieved by equip ⁇ ping the control station with a network connection towards some long range tele ⁇ communications network, although such connections are not shown in figs. 3 and 5.
  • the microprocessor 521 of the control station 204 has a different reference des- ignator than that used for the microprocessor 321 in fig. 3, in order to emphasize how the required functionalities are somewhat different in the embodiment of fig. 5.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary sequence of events in using the system of fig. 5.
  • a programmable, "intelligent" identifier device 221 enables a wide variation of different operational strategies, of which the sequence of fig. 6 is only one illus ⁇ trative example.
  • the steps generally referred to as 600 constitute again a registra- tion phase.
  • the identifier device 221 transmits a registration request 601 to the control station 204.
  • the last-mentioned opens a player-specific file and produces an indication about suc ⁇ cessful registration at step 602.
  • the control station 204 transmits cer ⁇ tain instructions to the identifier device 221 at step 603.
  • Said instructions may con- tain for example a list of the playground equipment in that playground that are equipped with electronics units, a definition of communications protocols used by said electronics units and instructions about how the identifier device 221 should convert performance indications received from said electronics units to completed report records.
  • Steps 610 represent the player's actions at a piece of playground equipment.
  • the electronics unit 212 only comprises a minimal amount of own in ⁇ telligence, so that it simply collects information given by sensors and transmits that information to the nearest identifier device 221. This leaves it to the responsibility of the last-mentioned to collect received information and compile it into a record.
  • Steps 611 , 612 and 613, as well as steps 614, 615 and 616 represent repeatedly delivering sensor-generated information from the playground equipment to the identifier device 221.
  • Steps 620 constitute a reporting and feedback phase, in which the identifier device 221 compiles a record at step 621 and transmits it as a report to the control station 204 at step 622.
  • the control station processes this record at step 623 and pro ⁇ Jerusalem feedback information.
  • the control station 204 may return some processed, final data to the identifier device 221.
  • the final data may comprise for example statistics about how did the player's most recent perform ⁇ ance qualify in comparison with other players' earlier performance, or how this par ⁇ ticular player has advanced and developed since his own earlier performances.
  • Fig. 7 illustrates a small modification to the embodiment of fig. 5.
  • the identifier device 721 begins to resemble a personal telecommu ⁇ nications apparatus, in which a long distance transceiver 701 , its antenna 702 and other communications functionalities 703 enable using the identifier device 721 also as a portable terminal of a cellular telecommunications system.
  • the short dis- tance transceiver 502 may be e.g. a Bluetooth transceiver or a wireless LAN transceiver, in a manner compatible with the other short distance transceivers 714 and 724 in the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 and the control station 704 respectively.
  • control station 704 is shown to have a long distance trans- ceiver 731 and a corresponding antenna 732. Additionally the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 has a network connection transceiver 717 that couples its mi ⁇ crocontroller 711 through the network connection transceiver 733 of the control station 704 to the control station's microprocessor 723.
  • Fig. 8 illustrates an exemplary sequence of events in a case where a player- specific identifier device 721 is used not only to associate observed actions on a playground with a certain player but also to actively control the operation of some controllable playground equipment.
  • reference designators 721 , 704 and 712 appear to bind fig. 8 most closely to the embodiment of fig. 7, it is easy to generalise the same controlling principle to the embodiments of figs. 3 and 5 if the appropriate communications connections exist.
  • a player-specific identifier device 721 registers itself as an acknowledged player.
  • the registration message appears as step 801.
  • the desired game is selected.
  • the control station 704 instructs the identifier device 721 , and at step 804 it announces e.g. the list of players to the playground equipment.
  • the phase 810 represents an event in the game.
  • an identifier device 721 commands an equipment-specific electronics unit 712 to do something, like to open a latch.
  • the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 inquires from the control station 704, whether the commanded action is in accordance with the rules of the game.
  • the control station 704 evaluates the game situation at step 813 and gives the appropriate instructions to the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 at step 814.
  • the last-mentioned generates a response at step 815, after which it may provide the identifier device 721 with an acknowledgement message at step 816.
  • An acknowledgement is useful e.g. if the identifier devices are used to temporarily store the accumulated merits of each player.
  • the response generated by the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 may take a wide variety of forms.
  • a latch may be opened or closed; another example is applying e.g. vibration or lighting effects to hopscotch squares used to play a memory game.
  • the phase 820 corresponds to a kind of debriefing and feedback giving after the game has come to an end. Multiple courses of action are possible.
  • the identifier device 721 may compile a record describing its own stored merits during the game and transmit it to the control station 704, as is shown in steps 821 and 822.
  • the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 may report its stored observations at step 823.
  • the control station 704 produces some kind of a summary about the events in the game and gives the corresponding indications. It may also provide the identifier device 721 with con ⁇ clusions, statistics, performance evaluation or the like at step 825.
  • each player has a unique identifier, which is known to the playground equipment and which can even associated with more detailed current information like (at least approximate) location within the playground, makes it possible to ar ⁇ range role games, strategy games and the like.
  • Finding out the location of a player may be as simple as detecting, which of the equipment-specific electronics units receives a signal from the player's identifier device at the highest power level: this means that the player is physically closest to that piece of playground equipment.
  • More elaborate and accurate ways of locating the players (or in fact their identifier devices) include, without being limited to, combining power level measurements from three or more equipment-specific electronics units, taking bearings from equipment-specific electronics units with the help of directional antennas, and cor ⁇ relating signal propagation delays.
  • the invention places few limitations to the appearance of a player-specific identi- fier device.
  • wearable or pocket-sized identi ⁇ fier devices are considered to be most advantageous, because they are easy to carry around.
  • the identifier device may take the form of a ring, bracelet, necklace or key chain, it may be integrated into a piece of clothing or bound to shoestrings, or it may even be molded into a ball, built into a toy car or sewn into a doll, or oth- erwise integrated into a plaything which a user keeps as his own.
  • the identifier device may also take the form of a chip card or similar, more conven ⁇ tional portable memory means.
  • a biotechnical identi ⁇ may be used as an identifier "device", if the control station and all equipment-specific electronics units comprise suitable detection and verification means for reading and verifying such identifiers.
  • the invention places few limitations to what kinds of sensors are used to collect information about the use of playground equipment. Non-limiting examples are:
  • acceleration sensors for example piezoelectric or capacitive, like Analog Devices ADXL311 ,
  • the way in which a player plays in a swing is easily monitored by attaching an acceleration sensor to a moving part of the swing and monitoring the output of the acceleration sensor.
  • the whirling movement of a carousel can be ex ⁇ tensively monitored by attaching pieces of reflective tape at regular intervals to a moving surface of the carousel so that together the reflective tapes constitute a dashed-line ring, and attaching two optical reflection detectors to the fixed parts of the carousel so that the mutual distance of the detectors is not an integral multiple of the half distance between two consecutive tapes.
  • the invention does not limit the nature and composition of feedback that will be produced on the basis of observed activity on the playground.
  • the feedback is most advantageously of some kind that facilitates finding out, how much development has been achieved.
  • the interactive playground constitutes a game or chal ⁇ lenge having various levels of difficulty
  • the feedback should indicate, what levels a player has passed and/or how much "credits" or "points" the player collected.
  • a simple, yet highly advantageous embodiment of the invention is such where the amount of positive feedback is somehow related to the corresponding amount of fitness training that the player has unconsciously gone through while amusing him- or herself on the playground. Combined with the natural human instinct for compe ⁇ tition this would easily motivate children to sensible and healthy physical activity.
  • FIG. 9 illustrates how bringing electronics to playgrounds facilitates coupling multi ⁇ ple playgrounds into a data transfer network.
  • Playgrounds 901 and 902 each have their respective control stations 104, from which there exist data transfer connec ⁇ tions to a long distance data transfer network 903.
  • Applications of such intercon- nection of playgrounds include, without being limited to:

Abstract

A playground appliance (101, 102, 103) comprises an electronics unit (111, 112, 113, 211, 212, 213, 712), which recognizes a player through communication with a player-specific identifier device (121, 221, 721). It collects information describing the activity of a recognized player at the playground appliance. This information is used as basis for giving feedback (154, 254) to the player.

Description

Interactive playground, a playground appliance, a control station and a method for collecting and processing information on a playground
The invention concerns generally the technology of playground equipment. Espe¬ cially the invention concerns equipping playground equipment with electronics that enable exchanging information between a player and the equipment.
For the purposes of the following description a playground is understood to be a place equipped for activities that aim at cognitive, motoric and social development and education through an attractive and amusing way. An amusement park is not a playground, because it only aims at producing experiences of amusement and excitement without said educational function. In practice an amusement park is always built for occasional visits, manned with personnel, and subject to charge. A playground is nearly always unmanned and freely accessible for regular visits by players. Alternatively a playground may be defined to be a place equipped with playthings that obey the appropriate standards, which in Europe means a standard known as EN 1176 for equipment and another known as EN 1177 for materials.
Other standardisation domains have their own, comparable standards about play- ground equipment.
Traditionally a playground has been a purely mechanical installation. However, there is a trend towards bringing electronics to playgrounds, which means e.g. that playground equipment might contain sensors adapted to generate inputs to a sig- nal processing entity that collects and processes information about what the play¬ ers are doing. Since this approach implies a completely new way of thinking about playground equipment, a technical problem in this field of technology is the mere fact that not all possibilities of combining electronics with playgrounds have yet been exploited.
An objective of the invention is to present an interactive playground that enables easy and versatile exploitation of electronics combined with playground equip¬ ment. Another objective of the invention is to provide a method of collecting and handling information on an interactive playground.
The objectives of the invention are achieved by equipping a player with an essen¬ tially unique identifier device, by collecting and storing information about what happenings have been observed on the playground in association with said unique identifier device, and by delivering at least part of such collected and stored infor¬ mation as feedback to the player.
A playground appliance according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the characterising part of the independent claim directed to a playground appliance.
The invention applies also to a control station of an interactive playground. A con¬ trol station according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the characterising part of the independent claim directed to a control station.
The invention applies also to an interactive playground as a whole. A playground according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the character¬ ising part of the independent claim directed to a playground.
Additionally the invention applies to a method for collecting and processing infor¬ mation in association with a playground. A method according to the invention is characterised by the features recited in the characterising part of the independent claim directed to such a method.
Various advantageous embodiments of the invention are presented in the depend¬ ing claims.
Feedback is an important factor in cognitive, motoric and social development and education. Equipping a player with an identifier device and using the interactions between said identifier device and the fixed equipment of a playground to monitor the activities of the player makes it possible to give feedback to the player about how he or she is performing. A playground changes from a passive, purely me¬ chanical installation to an interactive place that reacts and operates, as well as processes and distributes information, depending on who came there to play and what did the player do.
In addition to just acting as an identifier for the purpose of personalizing and col¬ lecting data, a unique identifier device carried by the player makes it possible to control the operation of the playground equipment. For example, the playing rules may define a "prison", the door or gate of which will only open if the identifier de¬ vice of a predefined player acting as the "liberator" is brought into its immediate vi¬ cinity. Interactions between a player (or a group of players) and the electronics system integrated into a playground may take various forms. The electronics system may simply collect and distribute information, or it may take a more active role for ex- ample as an adversary or a referee. An electronics system that is capable of iden¬ tifying a number of players simultaneously may react depending on the current lo¬ cation and/or predefined role of each player. Connecting the electronics system to a data transfer network enables arranging matches and competitions between players that are physically located even very far away from each other, like on dif- ferent continents.
The novel features that come along with interactive playgrounds will expand the possibilities of inventing new ways to play. They attract new user groups, and pander to players of different age and level of skill. An interactive playground pro- vides players and player groups with novel possibilities of experiencing intellectual activity and cooperation as well as setting, reaching and improving individually de¬ fined objectives.
The exemplary embodiments of the invention presented in this patent application are not to be interpreted to pose limitations to the applicability of the appended claims. The verb "to comprise" is used in this patent application as an open limita¬ tion that does not exclude the existence of also unrecited features. The features recited in depending claims are mutually freely combinable unless otherwise ex¬ plicitly stated.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of spe- cific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1a illustrates an interactive playground according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 1b illustrates a communicating principle on a playground according to fig. 1a, fig. 2a illustrates an interactive playground according to another embodiment of the invention, fig. 2b illustrates a communicating principle on a playground according to fig. 2a, fig. 3 illustrates schematically some functional blocks in parts of an interactive playground, fig. 4 illustrates communication and a sequence of events on a playground according to fig. 3, fig. 5 illustrates schematically some functional blocks in parts of another in¬ teractive playground, fig. 6 illustrates communication and a sequence of events on a playground according to fig. 5, fig. 7 illustrates schematically some functional blocks in parts of yet another interactive playground, fig. 8 illustrates communication and a sequence of events on a playground according to fig. 7, and fig. 9 illustrates coupling multiple playgrounds to a network.
Figs. 1a and 2a illustrate two alternative approaches to implementing an interac¬ tive playground. In both cases a playground comprises playthings 101 , 102 and 103, which could also be designated as playground equipment, as well as a con- trol station 104. Each piece of playground equipment comprises an equipment- specific electronics unit 111 , 112 and 113 or 211 , 212, and 213 respectively. We will assume that each of these electronics units is equipped with suitable sensors and thus adapted to measure and monitor the use of the piece of playground equipment. For example, if successfully operating a piece of playground equip- ment requires some skill and accuracy, the associated electronics unit is adapted to monitor, how skilfully and/or accurately a certain player performed. As a further common feature, the approaches of both figs. 1a and 2a involve equipping a player with an essentially unique identifier device, illustrates as 121 in fig. 1a and 212 in fig. 2a.
The differences between the approaches of figs. 1a and 2a are related to how in¬ telligence (or programmability) has been distributed to the electronic devices in¬ volved, as well as to how communication between devices has been organised. In the embodiment of fig. 1a the unique identifier device 121 is only a simple trans- mitter adapted to announce a code value, which is unique to each specific identi¬ fier device. When a player is playing with a certain piece of playground equipment 101 , 102 or 103, the respective electronics unit 111 , 112 or 113 receives the code value from the identifier device 121 and produces a record indicating how did the user of that identifier device perform. The electronics unit 111 , 112 or 113 commu¬ nicates the produced record to the control station 104 through a connection 114, which here has been shown as a wired connection but which could as well be a wireless connection. In fig. 1b the communicating steps have been illustrated as a registration step 151 , recording step 152, reporting step 153 and feedback step 154.
In the approach of fig. 2a the equipment-specific electronics units 211 , 212 and 213 are not adapted to associate monitored performance with any particular player, but to only announce a result or evaluation over a short-distance communi¬ cations link to a player-specific identifier device 221. The last-mentioned acts both as a storage means and as a communications channel between the equipment- specific electronics units 211 , 212 and 213 and the control station 204. Thus, while in fig. 1a the four occurrences of an identifier device 121 could be understood to all represent different users (i.e. there being a different player at each piece of play¬ ground equipment and the control station simultaneously), the graphical represen¬ tation of fig. 2a should be understood so that a player goes around the playground, collects records into his identifier device 221 , and finally returns to download the accumulated contents of his identifier device to the control station 204. Fig. 2b shows how the registration step 251 and recording step 252 resemble the corre¬ sponding steps in fig. 1a, while the reporting step 253 now takes place between the identifier device 221 and the control station 204 and could even be conceptu¬ ally combined with the feedback step 254.
The short-distance communications links between the equipment-specific electron¬ ics units 111 , 112 and 113 or 211 , 212 and 213 and the player-specific identifier device 121 or 212 have been illustrated in figs. 1a and 2a as wireless links, be¬ cause this would in practice be the most versatile alternative. However, it is per¬ fectly possible to realise these short-distance communications links through wired connections, e.g. so that before and/or after using a piece of playground equip¬ ment the player places his identifier device to a socket for exchanging information with the equipment-specific electronics unit.
Various cross-breeds between the embodiments of figs. 1a and 2a are possible. For example, a connection between equipment-specific electronics units 111 , 112 and 113 and a control station 104 could be used as a default, but the same infor¬ mation could also be stored to the appropriate identifier device 121 so that downloading from there to the control station 104 could be used as an alternative in case there is a communications failure in the "local area network" of the play¬ ground. Instead of using a centralised control station 104 the corresponding data collection and storage functionalities could exist in appropriate ones of the equip¬ ment-specific electronics units 111, 112 and 113. On the other hand, providing equipment-specific electronics units is not necessary at all, if the corresponding functionalities are centralised in the control station, with appropriate connections from sensors in the playground equipment to the control station. The transmission of operating power from the equipment-specific electronics units and the control station to a player-specific identifier device can be used even if the last-mentioned would be carrier of information like in fig. 2a, if the memory in the player-specific identifier device is of the kind that keeps stored information even without continu¬ ously available operating power, or if the player-specific identifier device contains a separate small-scale power source for memory maintenance, which as a task is much less power intensive than transmission of data.
In the following we will first assume that the approach of fig. 1a has been selected, so that the identifier device 121 of a player does not need to be programmable and is not required to be capable of anything else than announcing its own code value, preferably as a response to an inquiry transmitted by another device. The identifier device 121 does not even need to contain a power source, because it may pick the necessary operating power (e.g. inductively) from the transmission that also carries said inquiry. Technical solutions needed to realise such a simple identifier device are widely known e.g. from the technology of electronic access control. It should be noted, however, that in the present invention the use of identifier de- vices aims at enabling the provision of personal feedback to a player about his own success and development, which is a remarkable difference to known elec¬ tronic access solutions, in which an identifier device only represents a person's acknowledged permission to do something.
Fig. 3 illustrates schematically certaion functional blocks of an exemplary play¬ ground electronics system following the approach of fig. 1. A user or player carries an identifier device 121 , which comprises an identifier memory 301 and a trans¬ ceiver 302 adapted to receive operating power and to transmit a code value read from the identifier memory 301. For these purposes the transceiver 302 is sche- matically shown to have a power reception antenna 303 and a code value trans¬ mission antenna 304, although these may well be physically implemented as a single antenna. The concept of an "antenna" should be understood to cover all kinds of physical receiving and transmitting means; for example, the light-emitting diode and photosensitive transistor of an infrared transceiver constitute an "an¬ tenna", as does a galvanic connector designed to match a corresponding socket.
An equipment-specific electronics unit 112 comprises a microcontroller 311 adapted to receive measurement information from a sensor 312 integrated in playground equipment and to store received information in a memory 313. The mi¬ crocontroller 311 is also coupled to a power transmitter / signal receiver module 314, which is schematically shown to communicates with identifier devices through a power transmission antenna 315 and a code value reception antenna 316, which again may physically be a single, common antenna. The microcontroller 311 has a further coupling to a network transceiver 317, which acts as an interface towards the other fixed electronic installations of the playground.
The central component of a control station 104 is a microprocessor 321 equipped with a memory 322. It communicates with equipment specific electronics units through a network interface 323. The control station 104 of fig. 3 also comprises a power transmitter / signal receiver module 324 with a power transmission antenna 325 and a code value reception antenna 326, in order to communicate with identi¬ fier devices. In fig. 3 we further assume that the control station 104 has a bi- directional user interface, comprising user interface drivers 327, input means (such as a keypad) 328 and output means (such as a display) 329. Other forms of input and output could be used; as a non-limiting example, the input means 328 could comprise a short-distance wireless transceiver adapted to communicate with port¬ able electronic devices, a long-distance wireless transceiver adapted to communi- cate through a cellular radio network, a bar code reader, a touch-sensitive screen or a voice recognition apparatus. The short- and long-distance wireless transceiv¬ ers could also act as alternative output means 328, as could a speech synthesizer, a printer or some other apparatus adapted to produce human- and/or machine- readable output.
Fig. 4 illustrates an exemplary sequence of events in using the system of fig. 3. The steps generally referred to as 400 constitute the registration phase, in which the identifier device 121 originally comes to the vicinity of the control station 104. Steps 401 , 402 and 403 resemble closely the corresponding steps in a known electronic access control system: the identifier device 121 , which could also be designated as a key or tag, is brought close enough to the control station so that it can (inductively) pick enough operating power at step 401. It responds by waking up at step 402 and communicating a code value or identifier to the control station 104 at step 403.
At step 404 the control station 104 opens a file where it intends to store informa- tion about the player in question. Preferably the control station 104 also gives an indication about the player having been "logged in" or registered, e.g. by flashing a lamp, emitting a beep or by producing an indication on a display. Step 405 is op¬ tional and corresponds to the control station 104 announcing to the equipment- specific electronics units that this particular player has logged in and is likely to come using the playground equipment in the near future.
During the steps generally referred to as 410 the player is playing at a certain piece of playground equipment. At step 411 the identifier device 121 receives op¬ erating power from the equipment-specific electronics unit 112, at step 412 it wakes up and at step 413 it communicates its code value or identifier to the equipment-specific electronics unit 112. The last-mentioned opens a player- specific record at step 414, stores information about the observed activities of the player to said record at step 415 and closes the record at step 416. What actually triggers closing the record is not important to the invention; it may be e.g. the fact that the identifier device 121 has receded far enough from the equipment-specific electronics unit 112 so that communications therebetween cannot be established any more, or it may be the fact that according to sensors the playground equip¬ ment is not moving any more, it may be a timer, any combination of the aforemen¬ tioned, or some other triggering event.
At step 417 the equipment-specific electronics unit 112 reports the recorded per¬ formance of the player to the control station 104, which stores this information to the player-specific file at step 418. An arbitrary number of repetitions of steps 410 may occur, either at the same piece of playground equipment or at others coupled to the same playground network.
The steps generally referred to as 420 constitute the feedback or logout phase, in which the identifier device 121 again comes to the vicinity of the control station 104. The power pick-up, wake-up and code value communication steps 421 , 422 and 423 are the same as steps 401 , 402 and 403 respectively. At step 424 the control station 104 notes that this player is one that has been playing on the play¬ ground since his registration earlier, so the control station 104 gives feedback to the player based on the reports collected from the equipment-specific electronics units. After having closed the player-specific file the control station 104 may op¬ tionally transmit an announcement at step 425 that the player has left the play¬ ground. The whole feedback or logout phase 420 can be omitted, if the feedback comes in real time or near real time through the output means 329 of the control station 104 based on the reports it receives from the equipment-specific electron¬ ics units.
Multiple processes like the one described above may be running simultaneously, in various phases, as a number of players may come and go at arbitrary times. This applies also to other, later described variations of the principle of an interac¬ tive playground.
Next we will briefly consider an alternative embodiment, in which the approach of fig. 2b is selected, meaning that more intelligence or at least programmability is built into the player-specific identifier device 212. In fig. 5 the identifier device 212 is shown to comprise a microcontroller 501 , a signal transceiver 502 and a mem¬ ory 503. We assume that the identifier device 212 comprises a rechargeable bat¬ tery or a similar self-contained power source (not shown in fig. 5), one conse¬ quence of which is that the transceiver 502 only needs to have a signal antenna 504. An equipment-specific electronics unit 212 comprises a microcontroller 511 , a memory 513 and at least a signal transmitter 514, which may also comprise signal reception functionality, although this is not obligatory. A signal transmission (and reception) antenna 516 is provided, and the microcontroller 511 is additionally adapted to receive signals from a sensor pr sensors 312 that monitor(s) the per- formance of the player at said piece of playground equipment.
The control station 204 resembles relatively closely that illustrated as 104 in fig. 3, the exceptions being the provision of only a signal antenna 526 and a signal trans¬ ceiver 524, and the absence of a network connection towards the equipment- specific electronics units. It should be noted that both in the embodiment of fig. 5 and in that of fig. 3 considerable additional versatility can be achieved by equip¬ ping the control station with a network connection towards some long range tele¬ communications network, although such connections are not shown in figs. 3 and 5. The microprocessor 521 of the control station 204 has a different reference des- ignator than that used for the microprocessor 321 in fig. 3, in order to emphasize how the required functionalities are somewhat different in the embodiment of fig. 5. Fig. 6 illustrates an exemplary sequence of events in using the system of fig. 5. Using a programmable, "intelligent" identifier device 221 enables a wide variation of different operational strategies, of which the sequence of fig. 6 is only one illus¬ trative example. The steps generally referred to as 600 constitute again a registra- tion phase. We assume that operation begins when the identifier device 221 transmits a registration request 601 to the control station 204. As a response, the last-mentioned opens a player-specific file and produces an indication about suc¬ cessful registration at step 602. Additionally the control station 204 transmits cer¬ tain instructions to the identifier device 221 at step 603. Said instructions may con- tain for example a list of the playground equipment in that playground that are equipped with electronics units, a definition of communications protocols used by said electronics units and instructions about how the identifier device 221 should convert performance indications received from said electronics units to completed report records.
Steps 610 represent the player's actions at a piece of playground equipment. We assume that the electronics unit 212 only comprises a minimal amount of own in¬ telligence, so that it simply collects information given by sensors and transmits that information to the nearest identifier device 221. This leaves it to the responsibility of the last-mentioned to collect received information and compile it into a record. Steps 611 , 612 and 613, as well as steps 614, 615 and 616 represent repeatedly delivering sensor-generated information from the playground equipment to the identifier device 221.
Steps 620 constitute a reporting and feedback phase, in which the identifier device 221 compiles a record at step 621 and transmits it as a report to the control station 204 at step 622. The control station processes this record at step 623 and pro¬ duces feedback information. At an optional step 624 the control station 204 may return some processed, final data to the identifier device 221. The final data may comprise for example statistics about how did the player's most recent perform¬ ance qualify in comparison with other players' earlier performance, or how this par¬ ticular player has advanced and developed since his own earlier performances.
Fig. 7 illustrates a small modification to the embodiment of fig. 5. In the embodi- ment of fig. 7 the identifier device 721 begins to resemble a personal telecommu¬ nications apparatus, in which a long distance transceiver 701 , its antenna 702 and other communications functionalities 703 enable using the identifier device 721 also as a portable terminal of a cellular telecommunications system. The short dis- tance transceiver 502 may be e.g. a Bluetooth transceiver or a wireless LAN transceiver, in a manner compatible with the other short distance transceivers 714 and 724 in the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 and the control station 704 respectively. Also the control station 704 is shown to have a long distance trans- ceiver 731 and a corresponding antenna 732. Additionally the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 has a network connection transceiver 717 that couples its mi¬ crocontroller 711 through the network connection transceiver 733 of the control station 704 to the control station's microprocessor 723.
Fig. 8 illustrates an exemplary sequence of events in a case where a player- specific identifier device 721 is used not only to associate observed actions on a playground with a certain player but also to actively control the operation of some controllable playground equipment. Although reference designators 721 , 704 and 712 appear to bind fig. 8 most closely to the embodiment of fig. 7, it is easy to generalise the same controlling principle to the embodiments of figs. 3 and 5 if the appropriate communications connections exist.
In fig. 8 we assume that a number of players want to play on a playground accord¬ ing to a set of predefined rules. During the registration phase 800 a player-specific identifier device 721 registers itself as an acknowledged player. The registration message appears as step 801. At step 802 the desired game is selected. At step 803 the control station 704 instructs the identifier device 721 , and at step 804 it announces e.g. the list of players to the playground equipment.
The phase 810 represents an event in the game. At step 811 an identifier device 721 commands an equipment-specific electronics unit 712 to do something, like to open a latch. At step 812 the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 inquires from the control station 704, whether the commanded action is in accordance with the rules of the game. The control station 704 evaluates the game situation at step 813 and gives the appropriate instructions to the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 at step 814. The last-mentioned generates a response at step 815, after which it may provide the identifier device 721 with an acknowledgement message at step 816. An acknowledgement is useful e.g. if the identifier devices are used to temporarily store the accumulated merits of each player. The response generated by the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 may take a wide variety of forms. For example, a latch may be opened or closed; another example is applying e.g. vibration or lighting effects to hopscotch squares used to play a memory game. The phase 820 corresponds to a kind of debriefing and feedback giving after the game has come to an end. Multiple courses of action are possible. For example, the identifier device 721 may compile a record describing its own stored merits during the game and transmit it to the control station 704, as is shown in steps 821 and 822. Additionally or alternatively the equipment-specific electronics unit 712 may report its stored observations at step 823. At step 824 the control station 704 produces some kind of a summary about the events in the game and gives the corresponding indications. It may also provide the identifier device 721 with con¬ clusions, statistics, performance evaluation or the like at step 825.
The fact that each player has a unique identifier, which is known to the playground equipment and which can even associated with more detailed current information like (at least approximate) location within the playground, makes it possible to ar¬ range role games, strategy games and the like. Finding out the location of a player may be as simple as detecting, which of the equipment-specific electronics units receives a signal from the player's identifier device at the highest power level: this means that the player is physically closest to that piece of playground equipment. More elaborate and accurate ways of locating the players (or in fact their identifier devices) include, without being limited to, combining power level measurements from three or more equipment-specific electronics units, taking bearings from equipment-specific electronics units with the help of directional antennas, and cor¬ relating signal propagation delays.
The invention places few limitations to the appearance of a player-specific identi- fier device. At the time of writing this description, wearable or pocket-sized identi¬ fier devices are considered to be most advantageous, because they are easy to carry around. The identifier device may take the form of a ring, bracelet, necklace or key chain, it may be integrated into a piece of clothing or bound to shoestrings, or it may even be molded into a ball, built into a toy car or sewn into a doll, or oth- erwise integrated into a plaything which a user keeps as his own. Naturally the identifier device may also take the form of a chip card or similar, more conven¬ tional portable memory means. As an ultimate example even a biotechnical identi¬ fier like a fingerprint, iris pattern or the like may be used as an identifier "device", if the control station and all equipment-specific electronics units comprise suitable detection and verification means for reading and verifying such identifiers. Similarly the invention places few limitations to what kinds of sensors are used to collect information about the use of playground equipment. Non-limiting examples are:
- acceleration sensors, for example piezoelectric or capacitive, like Analog Devices ADXL311 ,
- angular position sensors, like Bourns EAW absolute contacting encoder,
- inductive proximity sensors, like the ones manufactured by Schneider Electric under the brand name Telemecanique,
- optical reflection detectors, like the ones manufactured by Optek Technologies, - optical ports, like the ones manufactured by SICK Inc., and
- Hall effect or magnetoresistive proximity sensors, like the ones manufactured by Optek Technologies.
As an example, the way in which a player plays in a swing is easily monitored by attaching an acceleration sensor to a moving part of the swing and monitoring the output of the acceleration sensor. The whirling movement of a carousel can be ex¬ tensively monitored by attaching pieces of reflective tape at regular intervals to a moving surface of the carousel so that together the reflective tapes constitute a dashed-line ring, and attaching two optical reflection detectors to the fixed parts of the carousel so that the mutual distance of the detectors is not an integral multiple of the half distance between two consecutive tapes.
The invention does not limit the nature and composition of feedback that will be produced on the basis of observed activity on the playground. In order to aim at cognitive, motoric and social development, the feedback is most advantageously of some kind that facilitates finding out, how much development has been achieved. For example, if the interactive playground constitutes a game or chal¬ lenge having various levels of difficulty, the feedback should indicate, what levels a player has passed and/or how much "credits" or "points" the player collected. A simple, yet highly advantageous embodiment of the invention is such where the amount of positive feedback is somehow related to the corresponding amount of fitness training that the player has unconsciously gone through while amusing him- or herself on the playground. Combined with the natural human instinct for compe¬ tition this would easily motivate children to sensible and healthy physical activity. Even parents might get involved in a healthy and advantageous way, because children would certainly ask them to help in scoring high marks in competitions be¬ tween families or even between different playgrounds. Fig. 9 illustrates how bringing electronics to playgrounds facilitates coupling multi¬ ple playgrounds into a data transfer network. Playgrounds 901 and 902 each have their respective control stations 104, from which there exist data transfer connec¬ tions to a long distance data transfer network 903. Applications of such intercon- nection of playgrounds include, without being limited to:
- real time competitions between players located even very far from each other on different playgrounds
- communication between playgrounds using a "cipher": one round on a carousel means "yes", while moving the swing means "no" etc. - challenges about which of the participating playgrounds will collect the largest amoung of accumulated activity over a given time period
- collection of popularity and maintenance information: the fact that a certain piece of playground equipment does not move or moves in an unexpected way may in¬ dicate the need of repairing, while a detected high level of activity means that some new piece of playground equipment is popular and viable for commercial success.

Claims

Claims
1. A playground appliance (101 , 102, 103), characterised in that it comprises an electronics unit (111, 112, 113, 211 , 212, 213, 712) adapted to recognize a player through communication with a player-specific identifier device (121 , 221 , 721 ) and to collect information describing the activity of a recognized player at the playground appliance.
2. A playground appliance (101, 102, 103) according to claim 1 , characterised in that:
- said electronics unit (111 , 112, 113) comprises a network connection (317) to a control station (104) and
- said electronics unit (111 , 112, 113) is adapted to transmit collected information describing the activity of a recognized player to said control station (104).
3. A playground appliance according to claim 2, characterised in that said elec¬ tronics unit (111, 112, 113) is additionally adapted to transmit operating power to said player-specific identifier device (121 ).
4. A playground appliance (101 , 102, 103) according to claim 1 , characterised in that said electronics unit (211 , 212, 213, 712) is adapted to transmit collected in¬ formation describing the activity of a recognized player to said player-specific iden¬ tifier device (221 , 721 ).
5. A control station (104, 204, 704) of an interactive playground, characterised in that it comprises:
- a transceiver (324, 524, 724) adapted to recognize a player through communica¬ tion with a player-specific identifier device (121 , 221 , 721 ),
- a microprocessor (321, 521) adapted to process received information describing the activity of a recognized player at a playground appliance of the interactive playground and
- an output (329) adapted to provide feedback indicative of processed information describing the activity of a recognized player at a playground appliance of the in¬ teractive playground.
6. A control station (104) according to claim 5, characterised in that:
- the control station (104) comprises a network connection (323) to an electronics unit (112) of a playground appliance on the interactive playground and - said microprocessor (321) is adapted to receive information describing the activ¬ ity of a recognized player at said playground appliance through said network con¬ nection (323).
7. A control station (204, 704) according to claim 5, characterised in that said microprocessor (521) is adapted to receive information describing the activity of a recognized player from a player-specific identifier device (221, 721) through said transceiver (524, 724).
8. A control station (704) according to claim 5, characterised in that it com¬ prises a long distance transceiver adapted to connect the control station to a long distance data transfer network (903).
9. An interactive playground, characterised in that it comprises a playground appliance (101 , 102, 103) according to claim 1.
10. An interactive playground according to claim 9, characterised in that it com¬ prises a control station (104, 204, 704) according to claim 5.
11. A method for collecting and processing information in association with a playground, characterised in that it comprises:
- recognizing a player at a playground appliance (101 , 102, 103) through commu¬ nication between a player-specific identifier device (121 , 221 , 721) and an elec¬ tronics unit (111 , 112, 113, 211 , 212, 213, 712) of said playground appliance, - collecting information (152, 252) describing the activity of a recognized player at said playground appliance (101 , 102, 103), and
- producing feedback (154, 254) to said recognized player on the basis of collected information describing the activity of a recognized player at said playground appli¬ ance.
12. A method according to claim 11 , characterised in that it comprises transfer¬ ring information (417, 812, 823) describing the activity of a recognized player from said playground appliance (112, 712) to a control station (104, 704) of the play¬ ground through a network connection (317, 323, 717, 733) between said play- ground appliance and said control station.
13. A method according to claim 12, characterised in that it comprises respond¬ ing (814) to said transferred information (812) with operating instructions transmit¬ ted from said control station (704) to said playground appliance (712).
14. A method according to claim 11, characterised in that it comprises transfer¬ ring information (612, 615) describing the activity of a recognized player from said playground appliance (212) to said player-specific identifier device (221) and fur¬ ther transferring information (622) describing the activity of said recognized player from said player-specific identifier device (221) a control station (204) of the play- ground.
PCT/FI2005/000449 2004-10-14 2005-10-14 Interactive playground, a playground appliance, a control station and a method for collecting and processing information on a playground WO2006040404A1 (en)

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