here’s a little flick through a sequence of how a multi touch floor could work in a train station to make the experience “well betta’ “

There have been plenty of examples of people using multi touch displays for useful and interesting things, but the idea behind this totally ignores the practical things like the cost element of having hundreds of beamers and a server farm to rival Google, and just goes for the hope that something cool might come from the thought experiment (such is the nature of architectural education)

so what’s going on?

  1. when you first arrive, the floor's inactive
  2. initially, 'things' (in this case little flowers) flock around your feet
  3. then once you stop moving some colour gradient announces your arrival as a platform dweller
  4. a menu of possible destinations pops up, and you can select one by stomping on it (this is actually quite intuitive)
  5. on selection, information related to that destination pops up, i.e. "move back, this next train is not yours"
  6. to kill time, news stories from a standard feed appear (these ones are from today's age)
  7. when your train is due, the distractions fade
  8. and you are prompted by a moving line move to where the doors will open
  9. disembarking passengers are allowed passage as there is an organised group ready to board
  10. you board.

it’s that simple!

There are plenty of other things that could be done with it, but that’s a story for another day children.

this might need captions, but we can’t decide on the font, so they are in my head at the moment…