Meghann Hull demonstrates the Bluetooth facility outside the Grassington national park centre. Photo: Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Walkers in the Yorkshire Dales will be able to get information even when a national park centre is closed, thanks to new Bluetooth technology.
The park authority has installed a unit at the Grassington centre, in Wharfedale, that will enable walks and other details about the village to be downloaded on to mobile phones, laptop computers and other Bluetooth equipment. The move is part of the authority’s drive to get rid of intrusive interpretation boards across the national park.
The facility, accessible without charge, has a package called Discover Grassington which includes self-guided river walks and village strolls.
Meghann Hull, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s interpretation officer, said: “This is the latest form of digital interpretation that gives people information without the need for physical panels – and we hope it will be a real success.
“The great thing is that people can download it onto their mobile phone or PDA by just standing on the Bluetooth ‘hotspot’ outside the national park centre and following the step-by-step instructions posted in the window. You can access it when the centre is closed, it needs no phone signal to work and it’s completely free.
“We are hoping to reach out to different audiences and provide interpretation in new ways. This is a pilot and, if all goes well, we hope to install more at the other national park centres in the future.”
The centre is in Hebden Road, Grassington.
Richard Warren
28 April 2009Like the concept and have asked the LDSAMRA Secretary to explore the concept for getting the safety awareness/public awareness messages across on MRT - the idea might just catch on
Well done to Meghann Hull - we have a good relationship with the LDNPA so could secure their support to role it out across Cumbria if it is seen as a goer
Richard Warren
Chairman LDSAMRA
Jhimmy
28 April 2009This is the first time I've heard of using bluetooth for giving out information like this. It's such a simple concept I can't see how it can fail for many other uses as well such as local telephone numbers of B&B, campsites, hospitals, dentists, weather...so long as doesn't contain spam ;-)
I'd be interested to know how this gets on.
Dan Boys
30 April 2009I'm glad to see people like the concept. We (www.audiotrails.co.uk) developed the idea for the Yorkshire Dales NPA - apologies for the unashamed plug! - and really think it has a diverse range of applications. This particular project used a 'java application' to act as a mini-website and contains a wealth of information, but equally just text and/or images (moving or still) can be used to deliver an important message.
The bluetooth units do not store personal info (e.g. phone numbers), required by law, so this prevents unlawful use/spamming and if people don't opt in e.g. they decline the offer of the info, the bluetooth unit remembers the devices unique identifying serial number (not the phone number!) and avoids it from then on.
If you would like any more information about this then please don't hesitate to contact me.
Dan Boys
Audio Trails
Bill Bevan
16 September 2009Hi, the first use of this technology for this type of promotional work was in the Peak District National Park when the Peak Experience installed a bluetooth transmitter in Bakewell TIC.
Cheers,
Bill Bevan