GoTour 67 of the Biosphre

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In October 2007, Ideclic started a partnership with Environment Canada to develop a new innovative project: a GPS tour for Environment Canada's Biosphre, the environmental museum located in Montral, Qubec. The goal was to conceive an interactive geo-localized application allowing the display of content on a portable computer (PDA).

With the GoTour 67, Environment Canada wanted to offer the visitors of Sainte-Hlne and Notre-Dame islands an opportunity to discover 26 hot-spots located on the sites of the former pavilions from Expo 67, the World's Fair of 1967. Furthermore, with this self-guided walking tour, visitors can "notice changes and evolution of the islands during the years" and take away an awareness of "our understanding regarding environment" at the time, compared to today.

The GoTour 67 of the Biosphre was a significant challenge because the PDA required a custom application due to the combination of GPS technology and multimedia content to be managed and displayed on the portable device

The application offers the following:
- a map of the islands and theirs 26 hot-spots;
- a click and drag map with the ability to zoom in/out;
- a display for both tours (short and long);
- the real-time position of the visitor, and guides to the next hot-spot;
- an automatic hot-spot activation (image, text and audio clips) when the visitor is nearby (about 15 meters away) for each of the 26 hot-spots ;
- the choice of language at the beginning of the tour and ability to switch languages at any time during the tour;
- the choice between two tours : one short, one long and allows visitors to switch tours at any time during the visit.

The result is a user-friendly and ergonomic application meeting all specific needs from this project. Locations on the map are clear and navigation items have been reduced to a minimum to simplify access to content.

The GoTour 67 of the Biosphre offers visitors an original tour that anyone can experience at their own pace. It is also a well developed application matching the goals of interpretation of historic places and their associated stories. Visitors will take away an awareness of environmental and social issues leading up to and following Expo 1967 as well as the consequences of decisions made during the planning and realization of the exhibition.

This application pioneers many opportunities linked to interpretation of historical places, cultural tours and urban heritage. With the GoTour 67, the Biosphre offers an innovative interpretative tool and a real Canadian benchmark.

This application is available only through a PDA device.

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