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App to provide an immersive and interactive experience at Rufford Abbey Country Park

A new mobile phone app created by a professor at Nottingham Trent University and her team will provide an interactive treasure hunt around Nottinghamshire’s Rufford Abbey Country Park.

An example of one of the many 'SmartSpots' at Rufford Abbey Country Park

‘Tag in the Park’ plans to increase visitor numbers by enhancing the visitor experience and also promote wellbeing by encouraging friends and families to be physically active.

Through the use of physical wireless sensors located around the popular green space, Tag in the Park tasks users with identifying a set of key places and tagged objects around the park, creating both a physical and virtual game world in a real and open environment.

The app utilises tagging, wireless and camera features to interact with wireless sensors called ‘SmartSpots’ that send challenges, quizzes and prompts directly to the user’s mobile device.

Previous location-based games for mobile devices such as the hugely popular Pokémon Go (Niantic and Nintendo, 2016) have shown how location-based discovery games can bring people together through exploration, exercise and entertainment.

Rufford Abbey Country Park, operated by Parkwood Leisure on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council, will act as a trial site for the Tag in the Park platform. The team and its partners have future plans to implement the app and its technology in more parks, forests and other tourist attractions in the Nottinghamshire area.

Tag in the Park is a mobile experience that is part of Connected Forest, one of eight national 5G programmes and is funded by Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and led by Nottinghamshire County Council.

One of the key goals of the projects that are part of the Connected Forest is to explore emerging technologies empowered by 5G to enrich user experiences when they visit trial sites.

Professor Eiman Kanjo discusses Tag in the Park, its features and its benefits

Eiman Kanjo, Professor of Pervasive Computing in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology, and the creator of Tag in the Park, said: “The Tag in the Park app encourages people to visit attractions by providing engaging activities and challenges. The app also promotes exercise by helping users to be active in green open spaces like Rufford Abbey Country Park.

“In the future we plan to utilise the platform in more locations such as other country parks, museums, shopping malls, amusement parks, schools and gardens.”

Kieran Wood, a Research Fellow at the Smart Sensing lab within Nottingham Trent University, who has been developing the app ready for launch, said: “The app currently works on both Android and iOS phones and we are keen to receive users’ feedback to improve future versions of the game.”

Nottinghamshire County Council is coordinating the wider Connected Forest project. Councillor Keith Girling, chairman of the county council’s Economic Development and Asset Management Committee said,

“We are proud to lead 5G Connected Forest and Tag in the Park is one of many exciting innovations which aim to put Nottinghamshire at the forefront of the digital world.

“This is more important than ever as we look to boost our post-pandemic economy through tourism, digital skills and innovation, so it’s great to see this being trialled at one of our most popular county parks.

“This app will help make Rufford Abbey Country Park an even more attractive place to visit thanks to this new engaging and educational experience.”

To celebrate the launch of Tag in the Park, within the app there is the opportunity to win Amazon vouchers for users who find 10 key locations out of 16 at Rufford Abbey Country Park and complete a short questionnaire for user feedback.

For more details about the project and the latest news, please visit Tag in the Park website.

Links to download Tag in the park are below:
Apple Store (iOS)

Google Play (Android)

  • Notes for editors

    For more details about the wider Connected Forest project go to https://5gconnectedforest.org.uk/

    Latest news on the project is here

    Rufford Abbey Country Park is owned by Nottinghamshire County Council which also manages the park and grounds and looks after the 12th century abbey remains in co-operation with English Heritage.

    Parkwood Outdoors is responsible for the management of Rufford Abbey's car parks, shops, catering outlets, events and children's play facilities.

    About Nottingham Trent University

    Nottingham Trent University (NTU) was named University of the Year 2019 in the Guardian University Awards. The award was based on performance and improvement in the Guardian University Guide, retention of students from low-participation areas and attainment of BME students.

    NTU was also the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2017, and The Times and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2018. These awards recognise NTU for its high levels of student satisfaction, its quality of teaching, its engagement with employers, and its overall student experience.

    The university has been rated Gold in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework – the highest ranking available.

    It is one of the largest UK universities. With over 37,000 students and more than 4,000 staff located across four campuses, the University injects £1.6bn into the UK economy. It has been the largest recruiter of UK undergraduates in each of the last four years. With an international student population of more than 6,000 and an NTU community representing around 160 countries, the University prides itself on its global outlook.

    The university is passionate about creating opportunities and its extensive outreach programme is designed to enable NTU to be a vehicle for social mobility. NTU is among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was awarded University of the Year in the UK Social Mobility Awards 2019.

Published on 13 September 2021
  • Category: Press office