Mobii system: Friends of Birstall Library launch ‘amazing’ specialist resource to help people with dementia and children with educational needs

The community group, with the assistance of grants from Batley and Birstall Community Fund and the Community Plus, in addition to a private donation, were able to raise £10,000 for the Mobii system, an interactive machine which provides motion-activated projections for care contexts, including those with special needs or dementia.

The projection system beams images, sounds and music from a wide variety of applications onto horizontal or vertical surfaces, with users being able to interact with many different

environments.

And members of Friends of Birstall Library, the generous sponsors and prospective users saw the resource close-up for the first time on Tuesday, October 17, for a special demonstration and training session, led by Kevin Riley of UK-based OMI, which manufactures the inclusive sensory products.

Mr Riley said: “The whole intention of this equipment is to provide those who may not get stimulation in other ways to have a medium that provides stimulation and promotes movement, social interaction and emotional well-being, as well as to test and check on cognition.

“It is also to have fun.”

The system stores around 800 interactive ‘scatter, wipe and splat’ applications, as well as physical challenge games, in addition to calming music and plenty of colourful visuals to aid its users.

Stephen Walker, Chair of Friends of Birstall Library, said:

“It’s amazing. We were looking for a machine that could cater for different needs - children with special needs, people with dementia - and having seen it now I think it will be amazing for all of those groups.

“It has been absolutely brilliant. We’ve looked at pictures but to see it in person and see how flexible and useful it will be for people, I just think it is going to be amazing.”

Thanking the people who donated towards to the resource, Mr Walker added:

“We wouldn’t have gotten here today without people helping us with the funding. For a small group like ours £10,000 is a lot of money and we are really grateful to the charities and individuals who gave us money towards it so we could achieve our aim.”

And while a selection of local schools and dementia groups were invited to the library for the training session, Mr Walker has asked for patience in integrating the system into the wider Birstall community - and beyond.

He said: “My message would be, please bear with us. We want to see how it works with the local schools and dementia groups first. We’re going to use it with them and get their feedback because that’s the most important thing as they are the users of it. Then we will look to publicise it more in a wider area.

“We need to do it slowly as we’re only a small group of friends. There are only eight or nine of us now and, initially, we will need to be there with them to show them how to use it, so it will be a slow process but it will be widely used and it is an exciting time.”

The machine is believed to be the first of its kind available to library users in North Kirklees.