In a niche in the middle of a 145-meter-long corridor called the Fairy Tale Corridor, you can hear whoops, giggles and laughter as a child and parents meet on the interactive floor, WizeFloor, which the children’s hospital has installed in the ceiling. Here, children can click their hands and feet on the large floor screen and play different games either alone or against each other.

The hospital was among the first in the healthcare sector to install the interactive floors back in 2013 in both the Adventure Corridor and the cancer ward. The idea then, as now, was to get children out of hospital beds and stimulate them physically and mentally, thus speeding up their recovery.

“It provides a distraction for the children and means that they have the opportunity to spend their time actively instead of just lying in their wards waiting to get well,” explains Mette Sorang Kjær, welfare coordinator and social educator at H.C. Andersen Children and Youth Hospital. Andersen Children and Youth Hospital.

The living floors make particular sense at a time when the hospital is challenged by the stricter cleaning framework imposed by the Corona pandemic. It works well now that toys have been removed and living spaces have been closed down.

In her work as a welfare coordinator, she has been tasked with creating the best environment for the children in the hospital. In her search for possible solutions, she came across the interactive floor.

The floor is freely accessible, so there are a lot of children and parents who naturally go and use it when they are there. There are no rules on how to use it.

It is used both by the fasting child waiting with his or her parents to be called for surgery. Or a girl spending her waiting time with the hero of the game. Or it could be family and siblings coming from far and wide to visit the new baby brother.

WizeFloor contains a wide variety of activities, ranging from quizzes and memory games to balloon games and categorization games. They are designed to stimulate interactivity, collaboration and inclusion for all users on the floor.

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Nintendo and Pokémon. For several decades, Japan has enriched us with comics and computer games. And now Japanese culture is spreading to WizeFloor, which has a good collaboration with Japanese Relax’Creation.

The Japanese family company already worked with so-called sensory rooms, where, for example, children with disabilities or children in special schools can find peace in a relaxed environment. They were looking for an interactive floor product that they could connect to their sensory rooms, and therefore got in touch with WizeFloor. The collaboration was formally established after a visit to the Alexandra Institute in 2018.

“Although interactive floors are efficient for children with special needs, such systems can rarely be localised or customised for each player,” says Atsuko Hashimoto, CEO of Relax’Creation and explains:

“We looked into creating an interactive floor for Japanese children, but we noticed there were many barriers to achieve the goal. So, we started looking for a company abroad that we could collaborate with and found WizeFloor to fulfil our needs.”

MUTUAL APP DEVELOPMENT

The collaboration has started a joint app development, says Kaspar Rosengreen Nielsen from the Alexandra Institute, who is responsible for the development of WizeFloor, and who has been to Japan in connection with the collaboration.

“Relax’Creation is teamed up with NHK, which is Japan’s answer to the BBC, and in addition to producing television, they also make educational material. Through them funds have been available to us to go over there and teach them and to start some app development projects. We have been received really well, and we have gotten to know each other well,” he explains.

COLLABORATION ACROSS TIME ZONES

The close relationship is especially an advantage when you have to collaborate virtually across two time zones with nine hours difference. Typically, when Kaspar Rosengreen Nielsen arrives at work in the morning, they have answered some questions that he asked the day before. It is a cycle that runs surprisingly well.

“They are really good at making graphics and at concept development. Typically, they have some ideas that they would like done and which we help them to realise. In that way, it is a pure win-win situation, because we have apps developed that will be available to all our customers – not only in Japan, but also in all the other countries where WizeFloor is available.”

WizeFloor has typically focused on school and education, and the collaboration with Relax’Creation has made it possible to tap into their domain knowledge.

They have just released the app “Sensory path”, which is aimed at children with special needs to help them relax and concentrate in the classroom. The children follow a sensory path that is projected onto the floor and they handle various obstacles, such as jumping over holes and caterpillars, rotating around themselves, walking sideways and much more. In this way, they both burn off some energy and can calm down before teaching begins.

“It is somewhat different to what we have done so far, and it is also an area Relax’Creation are very knowledgeable about and professionally competent in, so this way we can strengthen WizeFloor in some new areas.”

“It also requires making adjustments to the Japanese market. Because one thing is translating software, but another thing is to optimise the content for Japanese thinking. The way they think graphics and sound is different, and overall it gives a different touch and tone than we would be able to do here in Denmark, but at the same time it also helps to make it more interesting from our perspective.”

The new app Sensory Path can be seen here.

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This is the experience of a Danish kindergarten, which has been using WizeFloor Go for the past year. The children use their hands and feet on the interactive floor to interact with the different games, thus training their collaborative skills.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/cjneWlxFETA
Watch a video recorded in the kindergarten.

FULLY MOBILE

So far the interactive floor has only been available in a permanent ceiling-mounted version, but now you can get a mobile unit on wheels which includes camera, projector and pc. This allows you to set up WizeFloor with ease in any room. The flexibility is particularly important when dealing with children with special educational needs. This means that you can move the interactive floor into the exact room where the child has its safe base.


Gitte Voetmann Johansen, manager of the kindergarten “Margrethe Børnehaven” explains:


“It gives us a flexibility in being able to create a different ‘room inside the room’, and to our children with special educational needs it means that we can try out new sensory impressions in a well-known physical space“.

BRINGING CHILDREN TO THE FLOOR


The kindergarten has particularly used WizeFloor GO to create appropriate, alternative learning situations and give the children alternative sensory impressions. For the small children in the nursery, WizeFloor GO has programs with for example flowers or stars which must be stepped on in order to stimulate physical activity. For the kindergarten group, there are a lot of learning games and activities that work really well in collaboration with an educator who initiates the games.


“Many children are watching with interest from the sideline to see what is going on. But it also stimulates movement of children who are otherwise reluctant to physical activity. It seems as if the image on the floor gets so exciting and calls for movement that they cannot resist” says Gitte Voetmann Johansen“.

It is interesting to see how long time the children with special needs spend on the floor, as they are easily caught and filled with impressions.
“They are higly motivated and completely absorbed by the floor and they can concentrate for longer time than with other activities. It is definitely a positive step,” she says.

ABOUT WIZEFLOOR GO

WizeFloor GO is an interactive floor that combines movement, play and learning, which is designed for kindergartens, schools and institutions but can also be used for senior citizens.

WizeFloor GO includes a projector, a camera and a computer in a box on wheels making it easy to move between multiple locations.


The projection size can be customised to what is needed in the room. You can use the same apps as in the ceiling-mounted version. Up to four players can use the floor at the same time. The solution is cloud-based and your activities can be easily shared with other users.


The software package includes a wide range of activities including quizzes, memory games, balloon games and categorisation games. They are designed in such a way that they stimulate interactivity, collaboration and inclusion of all users on the floor.


WizeFloor is based on more than ten years of research and product development at Aarhus University and the Alexandra Institute. Throughout the process, Danish schools and daycare institutions have contributed significantly to the development of the product. It has received a Red Dot Design Award as “Best of the Best in Education” under the name of Wisdom Wells. It has also been nominated for a Bett Award in 2016 in the category “ICT Tools for Learning, Teaching and Assessment – non web-based”.

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The idea of using an interactive floor to create new forms of interaction in the library started in 2004, where the Main Library in Aarhus participated in a research project with Aarhus University. This was actually where the forerunner of WizeFloor was developed.

Sidsel Bech-Petersen and her colleague Jannik Mulvad, team leader for the family and children’s section at Dokk1, explain why Dokk1 has had a WizeFloor since the library opened in 2015.

“Whether you want to guess English words, conjugate German verbs, spell words or work out calculations with your body, it is possible. WizeFloor is intuitive and has many levels. The floor has elements of play as well as learning,” says Jannik Mulvad.

Watch Sidsel Bech-Petersen and Jannik Mulvad explain why they have a WizeFloor and what they think about the installation.

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One of the major challenges for people suffering from dementia is to remember things and recognize their daily routines in everyday life. Jigsaw puzzles on WizeFloor may help relieve this problem. Through the jigsaw puzzles, the dementia sufferers learn to select a reference point on the image. For example, the point may be a flower in the bottom left corner and, in this way, the person with dementia knows where to start.

Reference points can also be used in everyday life – for example if the person with dementia has to learn a new walking route in the city, he or she must start finding a reference point at the beginning of the route and another point on the way and at the end of the route.

This is the reason why WizeFloor is being used to enhance learning at the social and health care college in Fredericia, Vejle and Horsens. Teachers and students use WizeFloor to support people with dementia and to prepare the students and thus future employees in the care sector for working with dementia sufferers. The students are particularly good at creating games and learning activities, says Per Nordby Jensen, ICT and Head of Learning Enhancement at the school.

The social and health care college has had a WizeFloor in each department for the last three years. The school aims to train staff in the care and educational area and uses WizeFloor for classes in physiology, anatomy and academic subjects such as dementia and nursing care.

The teachers and students create the games themselves to be used for teaching by means of the WizeFloor app.

– “When we create games for dementia, the games serve as educational material for the students. In these games the students must detect early signs of dementia. But the students can also be assigned to develop a game for demented citizens, the focus of which should be on training their memory, concentration, overview and attention,” Per Nordby Jensen explains.

The social and health care college is currently developing a new learning portal to accommodate all the study courses offered at the college and this includes the WizeFloor.

IT IS AN EDUCATIVE TOOL

The social and health care college is full of technology for learning. The technology provides students with new exciting ways of learning.

– “The technology supports differentiated learning and motivates many students. The college also uses WizeFloor in an effort to enhance kinaesthetic learning,” Per Nordby Jensen says.

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“I’ve had a girl who could only say three words, but when I introduced her to the WizeFloor, we found out that she contained much more than what she expressed. She was able to do exercises with letters and numbers, which we had no idea she could. But now she could express this because she could do it by using her feet,” Anna Rysbjerg Christensen says.

Many children at the school have physical disabilities of different kinds, but the children grow by using the WizeFloor. Anna Rysbjerg Christensen has had a boy who suffered from hand spasticity and therefore had difficulty in writing on the blackboard, but WizeFloor opened up for his academic development. The floor allows the children to show that they are able to do more.

The essence of WizeFloor is that it helps stimulate children’s language when they play on the floor. The language has particular focus from the teachers, because it is an important part of children’s development that they learn while talking about the things they do, says Anna Rysbjerg Christensen.

WIZEFLOOR ALSO TRAINS SOCIAL SKILLS

The purpose of WizeFloor for Vesterbakkeskolen is partly professional, however the social aspect is also important.

“The kids learn to wait for their turn, to cooperate and to help each other. They also learn when to step aside because it is another child’s turn. The floor invites play and movement, and the physical aspect requiring the children to use their feet and different body parts is very important,” says Anna Rysbjerg Christensen.

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In the heart of Aarhus you will find DemensCentrum, which is a centre for dementia sufferers and their relatives. At the centre there is a room only for WizeFloor, and the interactive floor is being used daily. WizeFloor is popular because the floor is used in a meaningful manner, which the users can relate to experiences from their everyday lives. According to the ergotherapist at the training and rehabilitation unit in DemensCentrum, Anne Maj Bonde Schmidt, and dementia consultant Anders Kristian Andersen, the WizeFloor room is very successful.

Since 2014, when it was established, DemensCentrum has had a WizeFloor. Here the citizens practice in teams that are formed according to level and diagnosis. WizeFloor is a tool for learning without the citizens necessarily need to be in the real world. In particular, WizeFloor is ideal for training strategies. For a dementia sufferer it is important to have strategies that he or she can use in their everyday lives. For example, it could be a new route that the person must learn to know. Here one of the learning techniques for the citizen is to create a point of reference.

“WizeFloor is suitable for training different cognitive functions and for learning some strategies through the various activities, which can relate to everyday life” Anne Maj Bonde Schmidt explains.

When a citizen solves a puzzle on the WizeFloor, Anne May Bonde Schmidt and Anders Kristian Andersen help the citizens form a point of orientation in the jigsaw puzzle. This could for example be an animal in the image where the citizen must notice where the animal is located in the picture. Is it to the left or to the right? Or is it at the top or bottom of the picture? The users do not need to have an overview of the whole puzzle. When the citizens get a point of orientation, they feel secure about something in the image.

The citizen can use such points of orientation in their everyday lives when using a new city route for example. Here the citizen can make some points of orientation along the new route. If the person has to walk from the central station in Aarhus to Magasin (large shopping centre), a point of orientation could be Salling (another shopping centre on the way between the central station and Magasin). DemensCentrum uses WizeFloor to provide the citizens with strategies that they can use in their everyday lives.

HELPS PEOPLE OVERCOME CHALLENGES

WizeFloor is also used to teach people how to tackle the problems that may arise when you suffer from dementia. Sometimes Anne May asks the citizens to step away from the floor so they can get an overview of the game and take a deep breath.

When they experience difficulties in their daily lives and things become difficult or tricky, they just need to stop, take a deep breath and try again. It is an important strategy for people with cognitive difficulties. Because things will go wrong. They will stop and be unable to remember what they were about to do. However, if they have learned to step away from the floor, count to three and take a breath, they will be able to remember what they forgot or they will calm down. The aim is to teach them not to get upset, sad or angry when things fail, because things will fail and become more difficult when you have got dementia, Anne Maj Bonde Schmidt explains.

WizeFloor is ideal for teaching strategies and supporting citizens in how to solve the problems they encounter in their daily lives. In fact, WizeFloor can be used to deal with most of the difficulties that people with dementia meet, and to train strategies based on these, says Anders Kristian Andersen.

WIZEFLOOR CAN BE USED TO TRAIN MEMORY AND RECOGNISABILITY

Through the various games offered by WizeFloor, citizens can train planning, memory, concentration, responsiveness, orientation, their language and social skills. The staff can adjust the level of difficulty of the games to suit the different levels of the citizens. In addition, the employees can create games or use and customize the games on the WizeFloor app.

DemensCentrum also uses WizeFloor to bring the citizens’ surroundings into play. It can be a picture from a walk, a holiday or a Christmas meal which is made into a puzzle. Training is often based on the citizens’ interests.

“We make quizzes in all varieties. If a person is interested in rock music, we make a rock music quiz. Many of the citizens find quizzes about general knowledge exciting. Long-term memory has been preserved in the early stages of a dementia disease, and it is a success experience when they are good at general knowledge. “

With the WizeFloor, they can also train language and words by means of spelling games, where letters must be combined to form words. Here the letters are placed in alphabetical order on the floor.

The task is that the citizens have to work in groups and do it by turns. Another task is that one of them must step forward. The citizens must work together and ask each other when they need help but also be quiet when the others are solving a task on the floor,” Anne Maj Bonde Schmidt says.

It is useful practice for the citizens to cooperate in groups and afterwards evaluate how it was to cooperate.

MAINTENANCE AND COPING STRATEGIES

Every six months, DemensCentrum tests their citizens with a MoCA test, which shows how resourceful the citizen is and which limitations the citizen has. The task is to find out how the citizen’s resources can be maintained and used to develop some strategies.

Anne Maj Bonde Schmidt and Anders Kristian Andersen emphasize that WizeFloor cannot be used to bring the citizens back to where they used to be because this is not possible, but they use the WizeFloor to work with strategies and maintain the citizens’ abilities.

“We may improve on a few parameters, but we are satisfied if the MoCA test reveals the same results as it did half a year ago,” Anne Maj Bonde Schmidt concludes.

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The kids love the many different games. The floor is easy to operate and after a few minutes the kids are able to handle it themselves, and they can even create new games for the floor by a phone or iPad.

– Although this solution is a significant expense and requires space, it fully meets our requirements and expectations. We have had our WizeFloor for three years now, and we are still happy and we keep getting impressed. When I am in the media room, I can get an overview of the activities going on. Some days the children are allowed to choose activities. And one thing is for sure, WizeFloor is always in action. The children love the floor, says Kristina Juel Overgaard from Børnehuset Taarnborg. She is absolutely pleased with the investment they made in the interactive floor three years ago.

– We have good experience of making memory games and jigsaw puzzles with our own photos from excursions we have made. When a group in the house has been working on a topic, for example body parts, we bring out our skeleton, Lucy, and include her in both memory games, puzzles and balloon games, she explains.

AN INCLUSIVE TOOL

According to Kristina the floor is an excellent way of including the children. Many children may play on the floor at the same time, and when you ask in the right way if the child you want to be included in the community can join in, you always get a positive answer.

The games do not put high demands on the individual child, but if the teacher sets the framework for the group of children, the floor will be a excellent educational tool, which the children will love to play with. Another advantage is that it contains a lot of learning.

She also sees that children with challenges love the floor. They can relate to the games and to the well-defined framework.

THE CHILDREN CAN HANDLE THE GAMES

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