The SmartUs product range is a technology enriched environment of play, physical activity and learning designed for children and families. It adapts itself through activity and ideas provided by the users, and at its best it is an exertaining environment built by the whole user community. See the video made in the SmartUs playground in the Netherlands.

SmartUs is a technologically enhanced play environment intended for all age groups. This playground is an application of the wide-reaching research project initiated in 2002 in collaboration of Lappset Group Ltd and its partners that, among other focuses of attention, researched the connection between motor skill development and learning, as well as learning through play and outdoor social activities. Research works continues just as intensively today, with for instance the multidisciplinary InnoSchool study.

Four great challenges in SmartUs research and development are:

1. Declining physical activity and childhood obesity.

2. Playtime is threatened.

3. Inequality in learning.

4. Cross generation interaction decline.

We want to come up with new opportunities for children and families to move, play and learn together. We believe that new technology used in play equipment and in public outdoor activity areas can promote health and healthy life style and pave the way for new more informal ways of learning. The computer technology enables connections between play areas and players which creates a new kind of perspective into outdoor play culture.

There are SmartUs playgrounds more than in ten European countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Romania, France, Portugal, Spain and Finland. The international network of the SmartUs playgrounds and users is already there. The first shared activity, the Smarathon tournament, was realised in September 2007 in seven countries. It showed how the SmartUs equipment can bring users together and really activate them physically.

SmartUs players have been active. Since October, when the first commercialised SmartUs playground was installed in Copenhagen, the players have played the SmartUs games round 250 000 times which means 10 million physical actions in the playground. The statistics and the game scores can be found in Internet.

The users have also made new SmartUs games, espeacially in primary schools. New games can be made with special game creating software tools, called PlayCreator and LinkIt. Today, there are 150 new games made by the users. Children have made and played them during the school lessions when the content for the games has been brought from the curriculum. But mostly, the games have been played in school breaks and after school hours. These new games open the learning process out from the school building. The experiences have shown how the children can construct knowledge playfully and creatively and share it together with fun.

In partnership with various content, software and technology providers, SmartUs offers specific hardware and software solutions relevant to pre-schools, schools, public parks and recreational areas, B2B sectors seeking the true value of new kind of learning environments and/or stimulating playing/gaming environments. Our technology and software environment employs proprietary processes to:

• Provide stimulating playing environments

• Widen usage of standard playgrounds

• Incorporate technology to create connections between users

• Convert data from usage of playgrounds to information that can be accessed by end-users, parents, teachers, playground owners and SmartUs communities

SmartUs - Games in Motion is a physical playground including computer based playground equipment which is connected to the Internet. Digital SmartUs games are running both at the playground and on the web. The product entirety incorporates new technological applications that are designed to make the play and game ideas available for all, and to create connections between actors, inspiring more play and activity and ensures the joy of learning and activity.