TECH ROOM · BUCHAREST AND BRAȘOV · PROJECT LAUNCHED IN 2017
Camera de terapie prin tehnologie (The technology therapy room)
A room with space for other worlds.
A piano you play with your feet. A wall where fantastical characters appear. A headset through which you discover faraway places. At HOSPICE Casa Speranței, technology brought new ways to play and explore into children’s care.
Through Colorbitor, Susțin’s founders contributed to developing and implementing the technology solutions for Tech Room. The two rooms were built at HOSPICE, in Bucharest and Brașov, with the support of the Vodafone Romania Foundation.
A project from the experience of Susțin’s founders, documented in the Colorbitor portfolio.
The Tech Room: the virtual reality station and the floor piano.
2Tech Rooms, in Bucharest and Brașov
411Virtual and augmented reality sessions
The summary published by the Vodafone Romania Foundation
2017The year the project launched
The foundation’s retrospective record notes over 100 children and over 100 family members who received services within the multidisciplinary project; the figure of 411 refers to the VR/AR sessions reported in that summary, with no period specified. For November 2017–February 2018, HOSPICE separately reported 60 children and over 300 VR/AR sessions. The figures are not cumulative.
HOW THE ROOM BEGAN
An idea that started with the care team
The story began with a very concrete wish. Simona Retea, psychotherapist and coordinator of the HOSPICE paediatric day centre in Bucharest, wanted a Wii console for the children’s activities. In conversation with Mihai Mănescu the idea grew: how could technology be used for experiences adapted to the children at the centre?
Funding from the Vodafone Romania Foundation made it possible to fit out the two rooms.
Technology within the care setting
Tech Room was the technology component of the project “Connection for care and compassion”. Within the wider programme, children and their families had access to medical services, psychosocial and educational support, as well as respite services that gave parents time to rest. The activities in the room were part of the work of the HOSPICE multidisciplinary team.
The virtual reality station, in use at the day centre.
WHAT THE CHILDREN COULD EXPLORE
Three ways into play
The virtual reality station
It opened access to immersive experiences and a professions simulator. Children could discover different activities and environments through play, using the VR headset and the installation’s controls.
The interactive wall
It brought characters into the room. In the report filmed in Bucharest, baby dragons responded to being stroked, and the interaction became an occasion to practise gestures and behaviours. At another station, the children’s drawings entered the world of the character Monster on the tablet.
The floor piano
It turned steps into sounds. The large keys made music an activity that invited movement and participation.
All three types of installation are documented by both HOSPICE and Colorbitor. The applications mentioned in the reports are not presented as original products of the team.
THE PEOPLE AND THE ORGANISATIONS
Who did what
Colorbitor
Development and implementation of the technology solutions. The production photographs show work on the stations, equipment testing and the configuration of the interactive experiences.
HOSPICE Casa Speranței
The care setting, the two centres and the multidisciplinary team whose work the experiences were integrated into. Mihai Mănescu is named in the official communications as project manager.
Vodafone Romania Foundation
It funded the project “Connection for care and compassion”, through the Connecting for Good programme.
An experience we carry forward
For Susțin, Tech Room is an example of how a collaboration can begin: from a need noticed by the people who work with beneficiaries every day. Creative and technical skills make sense when they are put at the service of that need.
GALLERY
From the production and from the room
Testing the headset and the controllers, beside the station in the room.Configuring the stations, before installation.One of the landscapes explored in the immersive experiences.The room, with the installations in place.
Photographs published in the Colorbitor portfolio for the Tech Room project. The production and testing images show the team at work; the people in them are not identified.Video from the Colorbitor portfolio ↗
WHAT’S NEXT
Do you have a need technology could answer?
Do you work in an organisation, a care centre or a company and have an interactive experience in mind that would serve the community? Write to us about the people it is for and the problem you want to solve. We can start the conversation from there.
