and in aid of Alzheimer's Research
aMazing trails are a new type of outdoor activity - a pirate themed virtual maze game - which you solve using the GPS and compass features on your mobile device. The virtual mazes are located in hundreds of public parks across the UK.
Sign up to participate and try an aMazing trail. The Web App is FREE, our only request is if you enjoy the maze, please make a donation to Alzheimer's Research.
The aMazing trail prize competition with a top prize of £1000 (rules apply), is active until May 31st 2023. The sooner you start trying a maze the better chance you have of getting a high score!
Watch the video to gain an understanding of what an aMazing trail is all about!
Discovery trails:Learn about the nature & history of an area whilst following a GPS guided trail.
Discover a location:Wander around a formal garden, historic ground or a school nature 'safari' (private access code required) by finding points of interest
Sign up to take one of our Nature Trails:
About Walkwyse
EduTechWyse Ltd is a not for profit company, set up by Lin & Peter Horne, which is responsible for the development and support of the Walkwyse outside activity Web App and its aim of raising funds for Alzheimer's Research.
The Walkwyse Web App is a great way to enjoy a self guided trail or maze using your mobile phone, with GPS guidance and multimedia stories making an interesting walk even more enjoyable. Walking is a natural way to get the exercise we all need as well as being extremely important for mental health & general wellbeing.
to Alzheimer's Research
via our Just Giving page.
In 2019 Lin was diagnosed with the devastating desease of Alzheimer’s, but we were determined to keep doing our favourite activities as long as possible. The one thing she enjoys the most is walking, as does Peter, and it is great for health and wellbeing So creating an outside activity Web App for families, which anyone with a smart phone can access, seemed an obvious thing to do as a means of raising money for Alzheimer's Research.
As a technologist Peter has always been interested in seeing how technology can be applied to every day life. Having also trained as a guide at the National Arboretum at Westonbirt in 2018, he was well versed in leading walkers around a trail and providing them with fascinating facts about nature and history. During Covid lockdowns (when guiding was not possible at Westonbirt) he set about the challenge of converting this knowledge into brief audio/visual stories which could be GPS triggered at relevant locations around a walk with a webapp. Thus Walkwyse was born!
More recently the product has been significantly enhanced to support complex trails such as the new aMazing trails, which are virtual mazes. A competitive element has been included where individuals can try to get the higheste score by completing the maze in the shortest time & distance whilst collecting virtual treasure. Great fun for all the family!
In addition to Alzheimer’s research EduTechWyse supports Alzheimer's Society, Parkinson’s, Devon Air Ambulance, Field Studies Council (FSC), Devon Wildlife Trust and Children In Need. Lin & Peter are keen to support both education in the outdoors for the younger generation as well as help fund research to find cures for the devastating diseases of the brain.
Contact us: support@walkwyse.com
"a fun outside virtual maze game requiring skill and a smart phone"
Take one of our aMazing trails in a public park near to you and get to the top of the leader board by collecting as much treasure as possible in a quick time. You can take the maze as many times as you like and keep improving your score to become top of the leader board.
If there is not a maze in a suitable public park near you, please let us know and we will try and create one in time for you to take part in the competition.
- The main purpose of this prize competition is to raise money for Alzheimer's Research through particpants making a donation via our page on Just Giving, click on the button below.
Donate to Alzheimer's Research
via JustGiving.com - The competition runs between April 1st and 6pm on May 31st. Prizes are awarded using the following rules:
- All prizes will be drawn at random from those individuals who have achieved the following scores.
- a score of 120 or more, the first drawn at random will win a £1,000 Amazon voucher.
- a score of 90 or more, the first 5 drawn at random will win a £200 Amazon voucher
- a score of 60 or more, the first 25 drawn at random will win a £50 Amazon voucher
- Posted/tweeted on your social media with the @WalkwyseUK (facebook), @walkwyse (Instagram and Twitter
- After you have completed a maze fill in a short questionnaire on your experience using this Web App. Click on the button below to complete the survey.
- A Walkwyse Web App user can only win one prize, once they have won a prize they are removed from subsequent draws in this competition.
- The Amazon vouchers will be emailed to the winners using the email address they used to login to this Web App.
- To participate in an aMazing trail you must have a smart phone with GPS location services and ideally with a digital compass service.
- You can at any time take an aMazing trail to try to improve your knowledge of the maze and obtain a higher score.
- Only those individuals who complete the aMazing trail (that is they reach the finish) between April 1st and May 31st 2023 will be entered into the prize competition.
- The developer reserves the right to remove entries from the leader board which have scores which are due to bugs in the software, the user will be informed of the removal of the score from the leader board and given the chance to try again. <
Additionally to be entered into the draw you must also have done the following:
"aMazing trails: a fun outside virtual maze game requiring skill and a smart phone"
- The survey prize draw runs between March 10th and May 8th.
- All completed form submitted during the month will be entered into the draw.
- The first FIVE randomly drawn completed surveys on May 9th will be emailed a £50 Amazon voucher.
- The Amazon voucher will be emailed to the winner of the draw using the email address they entered on the form.
- Only one prize can be won by a user, a user is defined by the email address they entered on the form.
- Introduction
- Selecting an aMazing trail
- Downloading the aMazing trail, device check
- Downloading the aMazing trail on your device
- Loading the aMazing trail from MyAdmin
- The trail control panel
- Wi-Fi/Mobile signal at the park
- Walking to the start of the maze
- At the start of the maze
- At a split in the maze
- Found Treasurel
- Walking the plank!Walking off the trailReaching the End of the trail
To move between help pages you can:
- Touch one of the items on the list above to jump to that page
- Swipe left or right
- Touch an image to increase its size, touch it again to hide the scaled up image
aMazing trails are a fun outdoor activity game, for all the family, and are located in parks around the UK. They are also great for exercise varying in length between 1.5km and 5km.
The trails are virtual mazes with a variety of shapes which you follow using the GPS and a Google Sattelite map on your mobile device. The aim of the game is to achieve the highest score, with scoring based on a combination of time, distance and treasure collected. Points are deducted for 'walking-the-plank' and using hints.
This "How to" guide can be read from beginning to end. However, it will probably be used as a reference guide after you have tried an aMazing trail and struggled to understand how it works!
For this 'How To' guide we are using the aMazing trail at Coley Recreation Ground, Reading.
To select an aMazing trail in your local park:
- Sign-in
- Touch (click on) the "aMazing trail locations" image on the home page
- Scroll down the list to the trail in your local park, e.g. Coley Recreation Ground
- Touch this park name to display the aMazing trail summary
Touching an icon on the aMazing trail summary performs the following actions:
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Display a summary of the aMazing trail
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Donate to Alzheimer's Research
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Displays the leaderboard for this trail, only when you have completed the trail.
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Starts the process of checking your mobile device and loading the aMazing trail in your device.
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On touching the Pirate icon (download trail) the process of downloading and installing the aMazing trail on your device will start.
If this is the first trail you have loaded then the software will begin a device check. This is to verify your mobile device meets the requirements of the Web App.
The checks make sure the GPS service (Location service) is switched on, as this is required to follow the trail
The version of software (Browser and operating software) is a recent version.
Motion and compass facilities are available and switched on.
Please note that many android devices do not have a compass facility or they require setting up before use. All Apple devices have a compass facility, which does not require setting up.
On succesfull completion of these checks you will be able to download and install the trail.
On touching the Pirate icon (download trail) the process of downloading and installing the aMazing trail on your device will start.
The hi-resolution satellite map of the park will be installed first.
The overview of the aMazing trail will be displayed and if you wish you can scroll to the bottom of the text and touch the Preload button to download the maze content onto your device.
Touching the Cancel button will retun you to the home page, which may take a few seconds.
On touching the the Preload button the process of downloading and installing the audio, video and images commences, this can take up to 30 seconds to complete. The Preload should be done when you have a very good Internet connection.
Once loaded on your device, the content will remain there, and can be recalled by touching the Extra Menu at the top right of the screen and touching the "MyAdmin" link. For more information see the section called "MyAdmin".
When you are ready to take a maze, this is the page that you should open prior to going to the park. The reason for doing this is that the mobile data signal at the park may be poor and it could be slow to load this page.
To commence the trail you should now touch the "I understand" selection box (after reading the health and safety information!) and then touch the Start Walk button
NOTE:The Hi-resolution map only includes the maze and a reasonable area around it, 'outside' this map the display is green.
If you have previously downloaded and installed an aMazing trail on your device then you can re-load it from your MyAdmin area.
Touch the extra menu (3 horizontal green bars) at the top right of the screen and then the MyAdmin menu name.
You should now see the previously loaded trail in the list, as shown on the image to the right.
Touch the trail name and it will be loaded and the page shown to the left/below will be displayed.
Keep this page open until you are close to the start of the aMazing trail. The reason for this is that if the mobile data signal at the park is poor or non-existant it could be impossible to load this page. Once on the trail an Internet connection (via mobile signal or WiFi) is NOT necessary.
To commence the trail you should now touch the "I understand" selection box (after reading the health and safety information!) and then touch the Start Walk button
NOTE:The Hi-resolution map only includes the maze and a reasonable area around it, 'outside' this map the display is green.
It is worth familiarising yourself with the control panel which will be below the map at the bottom of the screen. The image below shows what the control panel will look like, however the number of icons on display will be dependant the size/resolution of your mobile device display.
The remaining icons can be viewed by sliding the icon bar to the left, see image below.
Icon actions:
Whilst on the maze: Touching the Home icon will terminate the maze and no score will be created, you will be returned to the main page.
This Web App runs without the need for WiFi or Mobile signal, once you have started the aMazing Trail.
However, up to the page where the "Start Walk" button is displayed, an Internet connection (provided by WiFI or Mobile data) is required.
Whilst on an aMazing trail intermediate and final scores are either saved to the Web Server (if you have an Internet connection) or to your device (when you have no Internet connection). In the case when there is no Internet connection at the park, the results on your mobile device will need to be synchronised with the Web Server using MyAdmin.
It is best to open MyAdmin when you are back home and have a good WiFi/Mobile signal connection. The synchonisation happens automatically on opening the MyAdmin page - see image to right.
There are normally two results from each aMazing trail you complete, 1)Your final score on completing the trail and 2)The last intermediate score saved whilst you are proceeding around the trail.
Once you touch the Start Walk button and have listened to the audio introduction you should walk towards the Start of the maze, the pirate ship, which will be shown on the map on your screen. See example screen shot to the left. A pirate will be displayed on the map at your current location.
If you are over 100m away from the start, the aMazing trail will be shown for about 10 seconds to help you find it. The map will also zoom out to make it easier to find the start of the Maze. As you walk towards it the map will automatically zoom in.
If you have the "compass/direction" feature on your mobile device then it will automatically be turned on, when you reach the start, and the map on your screen will be aligned with the direction in which you are walking. You can turn off (not recommended) this feature by touching the 'compass' icon in the control bar at the bottom of the screen.
The Timer and distance counter only start when you have found the start of the maze.
Note: to see all the hints in the control bar at the bottom of the screen please, slide it to the left
On arriving at the start, you will hear a pirate saying "Yo ho Yo ho...." and ten trail points will appear. You should walk along these points, keeping the pirate as close to them as possible, ideally on top of them!
As you progress, more points will appear in front of you and the ones behind will dissapear. If you move away from the trail points you will get a message to go back to the trail.
At a split in the maze you will hear a pirate say "at your orders Captain". You decide which way to continue walking.
You can travel along a trail segment in both directions, as long as there are points on the map to walk on!
When you reach a point where there is hidden treasure, a pirate speaks, and an image of a treasure chest appears on the screen. You will not see any treasure on the map unless you use one of the hints (which costs you points off your total).
There are two types of treasure 1) Coins and 2)Diamonds: these are worth 10 x the value of coins so make sure you collect them!
If you have used a hint to show the treasure on your map take note that just because you can walk over the treasure does not mean that it is on the segment of the trail you are walking on. One segment of the maze trail often crosses over another segment!
When you reach a 'Walk the plank' point, a pirate will speak and an image of walking the plank will be displayed.
You will loose points for reaching this location on the trail and you must now turn back. If you continue in the same direction you will leave the trail!
Keeping to the trail is important and is made easier if your mobile device's compass is accurate. Apple devices do not in general need setting up whereas Android devices mostly do. You will need to read your device manual to found out how to do this.
When you mistakenly walk off the trail you will see a prompt on the screen as well as hear a voice message sugesting that you head back to the trail points.
To get back to the trail, that is with the pirate walking as close as possible to the trail points, look at the map and make sure you walk in the direction such that the pirate is getting closer to the trail points.
Whilst you are walking off the trail the distance counter stops but the timer continues. This will effect your final score, so get back to the trail as fast as possible!
When you reach the end of the aMazing trail you will hear fireworks and an audio message, followed by a pirate ship video and music. Your score will be displayed on the Maze score panel as well as saved in your MyAdmin area. Your score can be seen on the leader board by touching the 'Leader board' icon on the control panel.
request
Before loading the trail we need to check that your mobile device has all the features required to run the Web App successfully. Click the button to run the tests.
services (GPS)
software
Sensors
Sensors