Diversion Wheel

Headerwaters River Journey (Winter Park, Colorado)

Working closely with Blue Rhino Studios, ECOS designed this thematic structure into our exhibit flow to give visitors a sense of how water gets diverted from creeks into tunnels. A real irrigation hand wheel connects to a force dampener and rotary encoder which controls animations based on actual footage from a flowing stream, and the same stream 100% diverted (yes, this really still happens on some streams lacking environmental flow rights).

By turning the handwheel, visitors lower the stream’s water and flow level, and another screen then shows the water flowing into the actual exhibit tunnel. A camera in the tunnel shows people getting covered with water, which adds a lighthearted interactive element for many groups! Lighting and sound effects in the tunnel also enhance the Diversion Wheel and tunnel experience.

Trivium Interactive led the digital development, with BBI on hardware and also working closely with BRS and ECOS for integration and testing/evaluation.