DiscoveryPEN | A quick and easy way to make audio tours and audio commentary for your nature trails and museum exhibits.

A QUICK AND EASY WAY TO MAKE AUDIO TOURS

AND AUDIO COMMENTARY FOR YOUR NATURE TRAILS AND MUSEUM EXHIBITS.

Toch The Pen On The Photos to Hear Audio

DiscoveryPEN is a quick and easy way to make audio tours and add audio commentary for your nature trails and museum exhibits.

It is ideal for offering a different interpretation experience that leads to greater retention of information. Flexibility is its key attribute – change languages instantly for the multi-lingual visitor venues, a huge range of media from sound enabled leaflets, badges, panels, outdoor signs, and change tours or voice recordings at very low costs.

The DiscoveryPEN system is ideal for enhancing Accessibility at your venue. Recommended by the RNIB, the system has won many awards, including the enAble award in 2010. It is a well-tested system which has huge benefits for blind and partially sighted people, deaf people, and for school visits, where children can compile their own trail within minutes.

Here are a few venues that have adopted the DiscoveryPENs:

Current Projects in Development:
The Dr Edward Jenner museum
Conan Doyle Museum
Ashley Forest Trail, and
Butler Museum in Ireland.

Examples of other projects running:
Imperial War Museum
Bristol M Shed Museum
Cliveden National Trust
Rosliston Forestry Centre
Teignmouth Jubilee Heritage Trail
Westonbirt Arboretum, Tetbury
Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport

Examples of completed projects:
Oxford University Botanic Garden
Culloden Battlefield Museum, Inverness
St Andrews Golf Museum
Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
Heritage and Culture, Warwickshire
Springfield Academy, U.S.A
National Park Service, U.S.A

The RNIB use the same technology for their PENfriend which we supply
Over 20,000 pens have been sold to primary schools in the UK and Sweden

Salient features users like about the system are:
● The ability to create and manage ones own content while making changes quickly and easily
● The various media a single pen can access, e.g. badges, leaflets, wall panels, and outdoor platforms
● The ability to get started with little or no training, in content creation, and front office staff.
● The simplicity of design where users can listen at their own pace and sequence, with no keying in. Users can pause, stop and listen randomly, without following a linear sequence
● The opportunity to use Mantra Lingua (makers of DiscoveryPEN) as a one-stop shop for interpretation, design, translations and supply of pens and printing
● The low cost of the system, including maintenance and flexible pricing, compared to alternatives.

How It Works

The DiscoveryPEN is an example of our design philosophy using ‘Soft Technology’ – bringing digital tools to traditional print technologies. Using litho-printed paper or board, miniscule dot patterns are added to the artwork. The dots are so small that they are barely visible to the naked eye. The DiscoveryPEN has a scanner at its ‘nib’ which detects the pattern, prompting the pen to play a pre-recorded MP3 file. Each DiscoveryPEN runs on rechargeable batteries. Our in-house tests show that 1 hour of charging will last at for at least 3 hours’ continuous use (at the rate of 50 touches per minute, where one word is spoken aloud). No venue works at this pace!

Soft Technology

The principle of ‘Soft Technology’ applies across a growing range of users: Education – where the PENpal is used in infant and primary schools in the UK, Sweden, Norway and the USA; FotoPEN for secondary schools. RNIB – where the PENfriend is used for labelling by blind and partially sighted people. The Home Office – where soft technology is used for communication purposes. The UK’s Birding community use the BirdvoicePEN for call recognition, and recording birdsong in the field

Soft Technology is something unique to us: marrying digital devices to traditional print. On the digital front we have a range of pens, and we are currently developing the ‘touchPalette’. On the print side there are Talking litho printed books, Talking posters., Talking badges, Talking wall panels and Talking outdoor platforms. The latter is a case in point of the benefits of ‘soft technology’ – with current outdoor screens, all the electronics are exposed to the elements, so outdoor platforms need cables for power, air-conditioning for electronics, and complex maintenance. With DiscoveryPEN platforms, all the electronics are inside a portable pen. Changes to the audio, or even the visual print, can be quick and easy.

Testimonials

Accessibility Coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: Fern Trail

"This is probably the most accessible trail of people of all kinds of disabilities in the entire state. I really hope it spreads."

Paul Sullivan - Museum Access and Inclusion Officer, Bristol

The pilot project has been so successful that the pen will be extended to more galleries and collection.

British Golf Museum

The DiscoveryPEN has been very successful in our trial and has received excellent feedback. We have extended its run and will certainly look to use this on a wider scale in the Museum in the future – incorporating different languages too

John Fletcher, Manager of Oral Histories, Anderson House

"We are very excited to get started. There are so many possibilities. This will really benefit our site."

Katey Boal - Learning Manager, Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre

"We are very pleased with the Discovery PEN - It is an easy way to increase accessibility within the galleries."

Visitor Feedback - Oxford Botanical Garden

"The audio was great. Very easy to follow and find sites and I am directionally challenged. Excellent guide for all ages. It was very easy to use. I wear hearing aids and I could hear it very clearly. Thankyou for a very interesting tour"

Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden

"There is this 'Ah Ha' moment when visitors used the pen. It is magic."

Contact DiscoveryPEN

DiscoveryPEN™ is part of a UK based publishing company, Mantra Lingua Ltd, which is the world’s largest publisher of dual language books. It publishes books for the European, North American and Australian markets in English with over 52 languages.DiscoveryPEN™ is a technology where sound is triggered from Paper. This technology has been successfully used in children’s educational resources, labelling for the blind and partially sighted, the birding community and now, in enhancing the experience of visitors to small and medium-sized museums and heritage houses/tours

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DiscoveryPEN is a quick and easy way to make audio tours and add audio commentary for your nature trails and museum exhibits.

Here are a few venues that have adopted the DiscoveryPENs:

How It Works

Soft Technology

Testimonials

Accessibility Coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: Fern Trail

Paul Sullivan - Museum Access and Inclusion Officer, Bristol

British Golf Museum

John Fletcher, Manager of Oral Histories, Anderson House

Katey Boal - Learning Manager, Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre

Visitor Feedback - Oxford Botanical Garden

Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden

Contact DiscoveryPEN

info@discoverypen.co.uk

+44(0)845 600 1361

Mantra Lingua DiscoveryPEN™ Global House

Julie Hein-Frank

+1(920)743-6465

Julie@lakeledgenaturalist.com

www.lakeledgenaturalist.com

Contact Us Today!