Juniverse's problem is movement. Children aged 6 to 14 have to get into the entertainment area and out of it again, and into attractions that fill up, in a park that runs its own governing system — and logistically, the Digital Companion on a child's wrist and the RFID readers it is scanned on are crucial to all of it. A scan admits a child or lets them leave, gets them into an attraction, or books them entry for later if it is currently full. The same scan returns information about that attraction.
The readers are the fixed half of that pair. Brightly lit and eye-catching, wall-mounted or free-standing, every one of them shares the same hexagonal shape and the same bright blue light. Each has internal and external speakers, makes a chirping sound and changes colour when it is activated, and connects to the central computing system over wifi, Ethernet and USB. What it reads is NFC — the technology in the Companion that lets it communicate with the readers throughout the park.
The readers were designed and mounted to be ergonomic for children ranging from 6 to 14 years old, including those who use wheelchairs.
Tekt created the Companion with Adabisc: a modified Android phone with an 8MP camera, dual vibration motors, a waterproof speaker, a 280mAh battery, and a three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, with LEDs on the sides and top and pinhole Power and Update buttons on the rear so they cannot be triggered by accident. Tekt also designed and created the charging docks that go with it — 25 Companions to a dock.
