5. Guiding Principles page2

Map & compass

Without some means of direction the visitor would be faced with the somewhat surreal prospect of meandering through a forest in search of a (particular) speaking tree. The solution to this navigational conundrum is actually very simple - the Keyholder is simply told where to go.

The wireless technology which detects the presence of a Keyholder, can also be used to track their movement and position as they move through the garden. The constant pulses from the radio transmitters hidden in the garden can easily be automatically analysed by computer to triangulate the Keyholder's position at any instant.

Knowing the position of the visitor means that the garden can also relay the appropriate message (which has already been identified and retrieved through the Key), to the nearest available Echoing Tree (if the message is a sound recording). Since both the site of this selected Echoing Tree and the Keyholder's position can be determined, the garden's local computer can create a map of the relative positions of the visitor (the Keyholder) and of tree (site of the referred message). As the visitor moves through the garden their changing location is detected, so this map can be constantly updated and a suitable path between the Keyholder (the `start' point) and the Echoing Tree (the `finish' point) may be calculated and described.

Through this simple combination of active elements, the garden can act as a guide to its own changing environment. It `knows' who and what need to be married together where, but some mechanism is needed to convey this vital information to the Keyholder. There are various ways this can be achieved.

The dynamic `virtual' chart which exists as a series of plots and calculations in the computer's memory could simply be transmitted as a `live map' to a flat panel television screen (similar such guidance systems are already to be found within cars trundling around the M25 motorway). This lightweight (perhaps foldable) map would be picked up on entering the garden and returned on leaving. As the Keyholder moved through the garden their position would be shown, and directions given through this map - either as graphical or aural instructions - on when and where to turn left or right.