The CityWall is a large mutli-touch display installed in a central location in Helsinki which acts as a collaborative and playful interface for the everchanging media landscape of the city.
The content displayed on the CityWall is periodically organized into themes or events that are currently taking place in the city such as festivals, carnivals or sports events.
The CityWall is designed to support the navigation of media, specifically annotated photos and videos which are continuously gathered in realtime from public sources such as Flickr and YouTube. To contribute content to the CityWall please send pictures and videos via MMS or email to . Alternatively, tag your media on YouTube or Flickr with 'Helsinki' and we will pick up your media and display it here on the CityWall.
MPEG4 Version (h.264 26MB), YouTube Link
Using a series of intuitive gestures users can navigate and arrange media as if they were manipulating physical pictures. The technology which enables this direct interaction has been specifically designed and developed by UIx so that several people can interact directly with display at the same time; the maximum number of people who can interact is limited only by physical space. The current CityWall installation measures 2.6 meters wide but the technology would allow displays that are theoretically 16 meters wide.
The installation has three objectives; First it aims at creating Awareness and Presence of City Events in an engaging installation where passers by playfully manipulate media and learn about anniversaries, events and festivals. Second it is aimed at supporting active visitors and social media motivating users to actively and collaboratively make sense and play with media. Third CityWall proposes a platform for Media Literacy which can deliver rich media experiences to the widest audience. Anyone with the most basic computer skills can learn and use the CityWall in a few moments.
The CityWall is located in downtown Helsinki, Finland. It can be found in Lasipalatsi opposite Forum.
The touchscreen technology and applications have been developed by the Ubiquitous Interaction group at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. For further information contact info@multitou.ch
The development and set up of CityWall has been co-funded by the 6th Framework Research Programme of the European Union (EU), through the IPCity project (FP-2004-IST-4-27571) which investigates Mixed Reality Interaction and Presence in Urban Environments. The installation in Lasipalatsi is supported by the Helsinki Cultural Office.
